When it comes to real connections, it takes a little online, and a little off.

Around Baltimore, meetup groups gather about monthly (sometimes more) to learn and share resources around specific technical interests and languages, and meet others who share those passions. They provide an IRL place to enter the community, and continue learning.

When it comes to getting the word out, a lot of the outreach happens digitally through Meetup.com, or other social platforms. So Thursday night’s Super Meetup was a chance to gather the folks that power these groups in one place.

When it came time for shoutouts, Bashirat Are took the mic to introduce Baltimore Black Techies.

“We want to expose our meetup to the minority community that’s in the area, and invite them to learn, share resources and help each other grow professionally,” she said after the speech was complete.

The group has programming for those who are interested in entering tech. Weekly meetings at Impact Hub Baltimore offer a chance to learn technical and career skills, hear from presenters and network.

“We want them to succeed and we want more of our people in the tech industry,” Are said. “Baltimore is already a growing hub and we need to be part of that success story.”

Are and the meetup’s members and organizers were among about 200 people who gathered at R. House on Thursday for Super Meetup’s 2019 edition. The event, which was produced by Technical.ly, featured more than 15 of the local groups mingling with technologists, companies and those interested in getting a firsthand intro to the Baltimore tech community. They also enjoyed drinks and, in true Baltimore meetup fashion, pizza from SmartLogic.

Excited to be hanging out, networking, and bringing the 🍕 at @TechnicallyBMR #supermeetup pic.twitter.com/Az0XcbvHO0

— SmartLogic (@smartlogic) August 8, 2019

Along the way, we got some updates about what’s happening in the meetup community: The Baltimore Postgres meetup is forming up to provide community around the open source relational database management system, while the Baltimore DevOps meetup relaunched since we got together last year. Just outside of Baltimore, LAUNCH! Annapolis is now running a Dev Talks night with deep dives on entrepreneurship.

Here’s a look at the rest of the groups:

• Baltimore AI, which hosts regular events focused around artificial intelligence and deep learning
• Baltimore Elixir and Erlang Meetup, holding regular talks focused around the programming languages
• HackBaltimore, the group that’s organizing a citywide hackathon in 2020
• Bmore Agile in MD, which meets to bring scrum masters and agilists together
• Baltimore Techies for Good, which brings technologists together to learn and work on tech solutions for nonprofits
• BaltoMSDN, the long-running meetup for Microsoft developers, hosting talks on technical topics, hiring and more
• BBB of Greater Maryland, the local Better Business Bureau
• IGDA Baltimore, the local chapter of the International Game Developers Association, which brings together the area’s established game studios in Hunt Valley and independent developers
• MD Cyber Community Meetup, bringing together Maryland’s cybersecurity industry
• Professions on Purpose, embracing all forms of entrepreneurship, and others who are making change through their work
• Baltimore Node Makerspace, the decade-running makerspace in Station North offering tools for hacking, building and crafting
• Baltimore SQL Server Users Group, hosting monthly meetups on SQL Server DBA, Development and Business Intelligence

The scene at Super Meetup 19. (Photo by Margaret Roth)

With technologists and founders from companies like IsItGood and Greatest Possible Good in the room, hiring stayed close to the conversation. Attendees chatted at tables and grabbed swag from companies like Protenus, VectorWorks, Rendia and Asymmetrik.

What’s next? This fall, Technical.ly Baltimore will be bringing back a local awards event (more on that soon), plus a brand new realLIST focusing exclusively on Baltimore engineers.

Thanks again to our sponsors:

• Asymmetrik
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County Maryland Technology Internship Program
• Protenus
• SmartLogic
• Rendia
• Maryland Institute College of Art
• Sumner Furniture
• Saul Ewing
• Vectorworks