Just found out 70% of Houston networking events have less than 10 people show up

3 comments

3 Comments

I remember going to a Tuesday morning one at a coffee shop near the Galleria last fall and it was just me, two other people, and the host who kept checking his phone. The thing is, a lot of these groups charge like 20 to 40 bucks just to get in the door, and that's before you buy coffee or parking. If you're a freelancer or small business owner trying to save money, that adds up fast when you're not sure you'll even meet anyone useful. Plus the ones that are free usually get promoted poorly, so nobody hears about them until the day after. I think the real issue is Houston is so spread out that nobody wants to drive 45 minutes across town for a meetup that might be a dud. Maybe if they focused on smaller, hyper-local areas like the Heights or Sugar Land people would actually show up.

taylor.brooke7d ago

I made that mistake once too, never again paying for a group that feels like a waste of time lol.

shane_wilson7d ago

Double down on the hyper-local thing because that's the only way this works in a city this size. A group in Katy might pull 30 people while the exact same group 20 miles south gets nobody, that's just how Houston is built. And yeah charging 30 bucks for a meetup you host from your phone is a great way to make sure nobody comes back, I don't get why these organizers think people will keep paying for that. Free groups should be posting on Nextdoor or even just printing a flyer for the local coffee shop bulletin board, that would reach people who actually live nearby instead of hoping someone finds the event page late at night.