https://towardsdatascience.com/why-i-code-coffee-e2237ec709bc

Adam Ross NelsonBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingJan 13My history with tech meetup events started in Madison, WI while I was in my PhD program (finished that in May of 2017). At the time, Madison didn’t have a meetup where techies would go to work in individual projects. Instead, they were structured more like lunch-and-learn events. One (or two) presenters would speak for 20–40min on a topic. The topics and the presenters were advertised ahead of time. There was also time for question and answers. Generally, I learned quite a lot from these bite-sized educational sessions and I miss those sessions.

Then, I moved to Washington, DC (made that move in July 2018). In this area, there are at least three weekly code and coffee meetups. Northern Virginia (NOVA) has one, DC has one, and Alexandria has one. These communities aren’t uncommon across the globe.