- Webinar:Â Webinars (web seminars) are video presentations, workshops, or lectures hosted online, usually via software. These online events are usually interactive and allow you to share your knowledge with virtually anyone in the world. The goal of a webinar is to share information and get questions answered.
- Workshop: A workshop is a period of discussion or practical work on a particular subject in which a group of people shares their knowledge or experience. – Collins Dictionary. The goal of a workshop is to share practical knowledge with your attendees where specific technical concepts are discussed. There would be exercises for your members to practice within an allotted time.
- Meetups / Networking event: It’s an informal meeting or gathering, a chance for your community members to create connections. E.g Happy Hour Meetup, Breakfast or Luncheon meeting, Speed Networking, Roundtable discussion. It’s very important to create an ambiance to facilitate this kind of conversation amongst your attendees.
- Study Group / Peer-to-Peer Training: a group of people joining in the study of a particular topic and usually meeting at scheduled intervals to discuss individual observations, reading, and research. – Merriam Webster. Effective study groups can help your attendees students learn tech skills in a deeper, more concrete way. Groups that are effective generate positive energy, encourage active participation, instill discipline, and require commitments from members. This is a focused learning experience for a small group of participants. The aim is to provide quality tech training for your community members. A minimum of 5 participants can be in a training session
- Panel Discussion / Forum: A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience. Panels usually include a moderator who guides the discussion and sometimes elicits audience questions, with the goal of being informative and entertaining. – Wikipedia.
- Fireside Chat: A fireside chat is a personal and interactive discussion involving a moderator and guest, allowing an audience to gain insights into the guest’s personal stories and thoughts on various topics. – Vimeo. Fireside Chat is an informal form of a panel.
- Ask Me Anything session: An AMA session can be a great way to get your community members’ questions answered. Your audience gets the opportunity to ask your team questions about the community, or ask experts in the Tech field any questions they might have.
- Support Group / Hangout: A support group is a gathering of people facing common issues to share what’s troubling them. Through the sharing of experiences, they’re able to offer support, encouragement, and comfort to the other group members, and receive the same in return. Your community members may need a support group where they talk about their experiences and help each other. It’s like creating a favorite place for community members to spend time – A Hangout.
- Conference: At a conference, innovative ideas are thrown about and new information is exchanged among experts. Most conferences have one or more keynote speakers who will deliver the keynote speech. It can also be in the form of a Symposium, Seminar, Workshop, or Roundtable Conference. A different type of Conference called unconference differs from the traditional conference, it avoids the high costs, top-down organizational hierarchy, and sponsored presentations. All attendees are equally knowledgeable about the topic and the discussion follows an open mode; usually without a single speaker addressing the gathering.
- Hackathon / Gaming Competition: Hackathon is a design sprint–like event; often, in which techies collaborate intensively on software projects. The goal of a hackathon is to create functioning software or hardware by the end of the event. Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, or the subject and the demographic group of the programmers. In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created. – Wikipedia
These events can be done virtually, in person, or hybrid. Be creative!
Paid Events: Most times, your events are free to attend. You can choose to plan high-level teaching sessions where interested students pay a certain amount to be able to learn. This could also be a way to raise funds and run your community operations.