Adam Berhiet › Comments

Offer something for everyone and emphasize social. Don't just invite the same circle of people. But if the people who attend only hang out with people who look like them, then there's not going to be much outreach. I was just talking to a friend who moved away. She said she misses my meetups because of the diversity. She said she hadn't even realized that my meetups were the only ones in LA she attended because she knew it wouldn't be an homogeneous group like it is where she lives now. - Anika

That's exactly what we are facing. I'd say that our group is very well connected but we honestly do probably hang out with people that mostly look like us. - Keith - @tsudo

Maybe if it was more community oriented. Like we did a meetup where I set up an appt. with the local neighborhood council and we just cleaned the community. Talked to local houses of worship and got a lot different kinds of people just for that. I spoke to one Latino guy who was talking to his Korean neighbor. Lived on the same street for 6 years, but never spoke to each other. - Anika

That's definitely where we are headed. We just participated in Twestival and we are getting ready to do more community and charity events. - Keith - @tsudo

Then you're on the right foot. I'd also suggest maybe some members doing workshops in churches of color or communities centers about tech or whatever and inviting people to a meet and greet on a later date. - Anika

Honestly this question brought up on someone's tweets today at #IMLR got me to thinking as well. I am going to brainstorm a while on this one, but we definitely need more racial diversity, good point... - Cotton Rohrscheib

Ceviche, now that is a perfect idea. - Keith - @tsudo

I've been making lots of new contacts, many of which are of more diverse backgrounds, who are each into technology and are very creative entrepreneurs like so many other LRtweeters. Been pushing to get them to come to the events, but so far schedules have not worked out. I think the diversity is something that will come with time. We are new and soon the word will get out... - Adam Berhiet

I recently moved back to the Little Rock area [from NYC] and my biggest challenge is finding out about networking events, etc. My suggestion to increase diversity is to be sure to promote the events to diverse groups/communities. I feel if people knew about the meetings, gatherings, conference, there would be more involvement. I am still sad I missed #IMLR. I didn't know about it until... more... - Ramona Collins

Keith, there's a great FFer named Bora, a science blogger who regularly puts conferences together and has talked explicitly about the issue of diversity and actively cultivating it. You should read some of his back log conversations: http://friendfeed.com/search... , http://friendfeed.com/search... - Micah