How to Find the Best Events in the Boston Startup Scene

Since diving into the tech and entrepreneurship community in Boston, I've attended many, many events. Lectures, workshops, mixers, conferences, classes, pitch parties -- you name it. Some of these have been incredibly informative, helpful, even inspiring.

There's always something exciting going on in this city, and you don't want to be struck with FOMO.

How do I find out about these great startup events? I thought I'd share my sources and recommend some of my favorite can't-miss meetups.

Where to Find Boston Startup Events

 

Eventbrite

The majority of events in the innovation community are listed in Eventbrite.  Many of them are free, and you can even filter your search results to show only free events (which is great when you're a starving founder). You can search by date, location, and of course, topic. I recommend you skim the search results from the following keywords:

• tech
• startup
• entrepreneur
• founder
• pitch
• business
• innovation
• coding
• developer
• hack

Of course, if you're looking for a more specific, niche event, go for narrower keywords and phrases, ex., "women tech," "UX design," "content marketing," etc., depending on your interests.

 

Meetup

Another source of discovering worthwhile events is Meetup.com. 

Again, I recommend searching the list of keywords above to find groups that might be of interest to you. Once you join a few groups, Meetup will suggest similar groups that you might like. Some groups are open to join with a click; some require you fill out some information about yourself first, and still others require admin permission. In your email settings, you can get alerts about new events added by your groups, so you never miss a thing.

Some Meetups I'm a part of:

• Greater Boston Startup Culture Meetup
• Startup Cafe Boston
• Boston New Technology Meetup Group
• Boston Startup Founder 101
• Boston TechBreakfast
• Boston Women-Led startups Meetup
• WeWork Boston Events
• Boston Entrepreneur ThinkTank

 

Coworking Spaces

WeWork, Workbar, and Cambridge Innovation Center are three of the top coworking space franchises in greater Boston. Part of what makes them great is that they often host community events that are free and open to the public.

WeWork - an international coworking space franchise. You can browse events on their event page by filtering for city:Boston. Of course, there's also the Meetup group listed above.

Workbar - currently has 2 locations, one in Central Square, Cambridge and one near South Station in Boston. Check out event listings on their website or sign up for their email newsletter.

Cambridge Innovation Center - currently has 2 locations, one in Kendall Square, Cambridge at one on Milk St, Boston. Check the CIC blog for a weekly blog post by Geoff Mamlet about upcoming public events hosted by the CIC.

 

Mass Innovation Nights Email List

Mass Innovation Nights is the brain-child of innovation guru and marketer extraordinaire Bobbie Carlton. The monthly MassInno events themselves are always a treat, great for discovering new products and ventures while networking with an excellent crowd. But beyond the MassInno events themselves, the MassInno email newsletters include an exhaustive list of upcoming events, free and paid, for the New England entrepreneurship community.

Recommended Boston Startup Events

 

Venture Cafe

Venture Cafe is a staple of the Boston startup scene. Every Thursday from 3-8pm, innovators of all stripes congregate in the cafe space on the 5th floor of the Kendal Square CIC. The beer and soda flow freely, often with accompanying snacks. The Thursday get-together are primarily for networking, but sometimes there are structured events like panels, speakers, or workshops. Check their calendar for special events.

 

StartupStir

I always look forward to Startup
Stir events. They're consistently well-organized and informative, often with free food and cocktails, and sometimes free or with a nominal ticketing charge. Usually there's 30 minutes of schmoozing and snacking, followed by an hour-long panel discussion with experts on a topic. Past topics include social media branding, creating apps, and women in innovation. The founder, Aaron Radez, moderates the panels with grace and humor. 

 

MIT Enterprise Forum

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge has an excellent reputation for hosting quality events. You can join their email list to hear about what's coming up. If you plan on attending multiple events there, it's worth it to buy a membership. This gives you discounted admission, plus a bunch of other benefits they list on their website. The events I attended there have been catered both before and after the event, and attracted people who are seriously invested in the innovation economy. Great spot to network and keep current with the industry.

 

Boston New Tech

I hear about the monthly Boston New Tech events via their Meetup group. The events are always free, often heavily catered, and well attended. After generous networking time, attendees take their seats and listen to a series of pitches by presenting founders. Startups use Boston New Tech as a forum to announce new products, gauge interest in their business idea, and connect with potential investors or clients.


--

Do you have Boston startup events you'd like to recommend? Please share your favorites in the comments.

12 Lessons from Free Marketing Events

I am hungry for knowledge. If that knowledge comes without a price, even better!

I attend as many free networking events, classes, or workshops as I can, if I think it will help me become a better marketer. I'd love to share some bits of wisdom I learned at recent events.

The first 6 lessons are from the 12 Essentials on the Future of Mobile Marketing event, organized by the team behind Sleek Marketing University and hosted by Impact Hub Boston on December 2, 2014. The speaker was Joseph Carrabis, neuroscientist-turned-marketer and founder of NextStage. His claim to fame is harnessing the brain's natural tendencies to guide customers along the marketing funnel.

1. Consumers connect to brands faster on mobile.

This has something to do with the fact that you're physically holding the device. Deep inside our lizard brains, we trust what we can touch. Therefore, by default we trust the messages we receive on our mobile devices.

2. We treat our mobile phones like weapons. 

A sociological study compared our relationship with our mobile devices to how we treated swords in the Middle Ages. Back then it was customary to carry a weapon on your person at all times, often with your hand resting on it idly. You'd feel naked without it. You'd pull it out when feeling defensive or threatened. There's a sentimental attachment to the item, it's a symbol of status, the comparisons go on and on.

3. To maximize conversion, order designs like so: maybe yes no. 

This is a fun little mind trick. Designers can capitalize on ternary logic to guide outcomes: offer 3 choices with the first option a 'maybe' commitment, the last one a 'no,' and the middle as the intended CTA. The brain defaults to the middle ground whenever possible. And since the brain can't conceive of a negative without first understanding the positive, you should order the options in 'maybe-yes-no.' 

4. Humans can only be happy or sad. There is no intermediate. 

At least in terms of your brand impression. Surveys reveal stark evidence that when someone interacts with your brand on their mobile device, it's either a positive or negative experience, but almost never neutral.

5. Mobile menu interfaces must be iconographic. 

A picture is worth 1000 words, so you'd best use images to get your point across on a small screen!

6. Branded apps with a social factor perform better than mobile sites. 

If your product is both digital and social, this stat should convince your CTO to invest in mobile app development.

Here are 6 more lessons from the 20 Million Visitors: Content Distribution Secrets from The Daily Beast event, hosted by Boston Content on December,  2014. The speaker here was Managing Director of The Daily Beast, Mike Dyer.

7. People read longer content on mobile devices (rather than on desktops).

Maybe people are catching up on their blogs and news stories while commuting?

8. Evergreen content is always more valuable than topical content. 

Makes sense: people search for evergreen topics for year-round, whereas seasonal topics get a bump once a year and then a long lull. Topical content thrives only if it goes viral.

9. It's better to produce fewer, better pieces of content than to pump stuff out constantly. 

This is such a relief to hear from an expert! Please, free us from the rat race of constant tweeting!

10. Headlines should be tailored for their medium. 

Think about it: it would be weird to see a headline on Facebook that abbreviates 'you' as 'u', but you'd be foolish NOT to do that on Twitter if you need to space.

11. One way to distinguish content from advertising: content solves the user's problem first, and the brand's problem second. 

This hammers home the fact that content is great at generating leads and inbound traffic because people are seeking a solution for themselves. Advertising is responsible for seeking out customers in an outbound fashion. Different tactics demand different priorities.

12. Don't chase social media engagement unless it drives web traffic. 

I've wondered if I should be counting and tracking metrics like number of Twitter follows, repins, or Facebook comments. At the end of the day none of that matters if it's not generating site traffic.

There you have it! If you've got any tips to add, please share in the comments.