What I’ve learned over the past 4 years of organizing Refresh Boston is this:

1. Start small, stay small, eventually it’ll grow

Refresh Boston had only 5-10 attendees per meeting in 2006. Only 10-20 on average in 2007. In 2008, we eventually got 35 people to show up. Last year, we averaged 45 attendees every meeting we had. What this allowed me to do was meet just a few people each of the early meetings, but really get to know those that kept coming back. And now those same people are my biggest supporters.

2. There’s nothing like word of mouth advertising

I don’t have ads promoting Refresh Boston, the website doesn’t get much traffic at all, and I stick with the usual Upcoming/Facebook/Twitter social networking options. But I also talk to people. And those people talk to other people. And then more people start attending. You don’t need a budget to get the word out about Refresh.

3. Ask for help

You probably know this already, Chris, but running Refresh isn’t easy. It may start off simple, but it gets to be a burden at times. So ask for help. Get people to talk about it, ask for help with the website, look for sponsors and speakers who are willing to give you a hand. The more fun it is to be a part of a Refresh event, the more you’ll want to keep it going.

4. Find a regular, solid, & spacious venue

This one is tough. For our first 3 years, Refresh Boston didn’t get a lot of attendees. Our last event in 2008, with 35 people showing up, filled the coworking space we were using, and I knew we’d have to find something bigger. I got lucky. Microsoft approached me directly, showed me their new multi-level space in Cambridge, and we’ve since held every event there with amazing attendance. The room holds up to 150 people (comfortably), has a gorgeous projection system, and there are free (non-alcoholic) drinks for everyone. I feel that this space alone has contributed immensely to our success over the last year.

Well, I hope that helps. I don’t think you need a fancy community-driven website or lots of giveaways to make Refresh Augusta a success, it just takes a little patience and some help along the way (and maybe a little luck too).

I think moving forward, making it a designer community collaboration portal would be fantastic. Maybe easing into the meetings with lunch meetups until we gain a larger crowd may benefit the group more. There are tons of designers, copy writers, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine, django, etc guru’s in the area that we all can prove to assist each others. Though I think that we also may need to approach the group with a “We are the World” aspect. Check the ego’s at the door. Not saying that happened in the past, but I think we have a better opportunity making the group a bit more fun than super serious. I referred to the group as the Justice League at one point, I’d love to be able to call on other designers in the area for assistance, as I would hope to be called upon as well. My 2 cents. Smoke em if ya got em!

Questions and socializing time would be good as well, just a few minutes. The design segment had some great parallels in it with house renovations. It would have been nice to see a little more advice on what makes a design good. Loved the previews of CS4. I want a zebra drawing and I want a death star mock up of that inside the sphere thing.

Oh and thank you for the program and all the hard work put into this!

It’s Deborah from Godbit. I’m planning on going to Webmaster Jam Session again this year. I had a blast last year! Hopefully this year we can meet each other at the conference. Hey, thanks for the link to our Refresh Detroit website.