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One of the most common suggestions for people looking to learn to code and get more involved in the Node.js and JavaScript communities I’ve heard is "go network in person." When I was trying to get started, I heard this a ton but didn’t have an opportunity to do so since I live in a city of about 4000 people.

Since I joined the NodeSource team, I’ve been able to attend a lot of meetups and developer events, and that advice is 100% true. I’ve had so many good experiences and built so many relationships by going to meetups and in-person events.

That said, there was one thing I never really saw - an easy way to find meetups. There are thousands of Node.js and JavaScript meetups around the world, but discoverability can be hard sometimes!

Today I’d like to put together some of the resources and experience I’ve gained since joining the NodeSource team about in-person meetups, explicitly pointing to some of the most awesome meetups I’ve been to. Plus, I'll point you to several resources that can enable you to find meetups local to you if you’re not near the ones listed. I’m going to be focusing on meetups in North America, but will also be working on a similar collection for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) at some point soon.

Awesome Node.js and JavaScript Meetups in North America

There are quite a few Node.js and JavaScript meetups in all the major cities in North America. If you’re near a major metropolitan area chances are you’re not far from a meetup. Here’s a few that I’ve been to and that were suggested to me:

Northeast North America:

• NYCDev is a meetup focusing on both conventional and unconventional development that frequently includes JavaScript and Node.js discussions, meeting twice a month.
• BrookylnJS is one of the boro JavaScript meetups, and always has an exceedingly interesting lineup, meeting on the third Thursday of every month.
• NYCNode is a long-running meetup in Manhattan that focuses on Node.js and the surrounding ecosystem, meeting on the third Wednesday of every month.
• Boston Node is an active Node.js meetup in Boston with 2000 members, having monthly meetups covering various aspects of the Node.js ecosystem.
• Chicago JavaScript is a JavaScript-centric meetup in Chicago that seems to cover a wide variety of topics from the ecosystem, meeting up once a month.
• NodeSchool Toronto is a NodeSchool chapter operating in Toronto, that consistently meets to help enable those new to programming and the ecosystem get started.
• JS Montreal is a JavaScript User Group located in Montreal, focusing on bringing development community together and promote the use and understanding of the language, inside and outside the browser.
• MilwaukeeJS is a group for JavaScript enthusiasts and those looking to learn JavaScript in the Milwaukee area, meeting monthly.
• NodeDC is a Node.js-centric meetup in Washington D.C., consistently bringing developers together to share ideas and solutions once or twice a month.

Southeast North America:

• SuncoastJS is a meetup in Saint Petersburg, FL, discussing general JavaScript topics meeting once or twice a month to share knowledge.
• JAXNode is a Node.js User Group that meets monthly in the Jacksonville, Florida area focusing on helping anyone interested in learning more about Node.js and JavaScript.
• CharoletteJS is a meetup for JavaScript developers and enthusiasts in Charlotte, North Carolina meeting on the second Thursday each month.
• Atlanta JavaScript is a JS-centric meetup in Atlanta, focusing on networking and knowledge sharing that meets once or twice a month, every month.
• Modern Web is a mixed online and in-person meetup, gathering in Raleigh, North Carolina for the in-person portion and streaming on YouTube for the online portion.

Northwest North America:

• PDXNode is a Node.js-centric meetup in Portland, meeting twice a month for both monthly talk nights and hack nights.
• DonutJS is a monthly JavaScript meetup in Portland, getting together for a night of tech talks and donuts.
• VanJS is a JavaScript meetup in Vancouver, focusing on the entire JavaScript and front-end ecosystem.
• Serverless Seattle is a meetup in Seattle focusing on the Serverless (Functions as a Service) space across the various cloud providers - Node.js is a highly relevant subject, as it’s the most deployed serverless runtime.
• Seattle Node.js is a monthly Node.js meetup based in Seattle, dedicated to learning, spreading the knowledge of, and improving Node.js.

Southwest North America:

• AustinJS is a JavaScript meetup based in Austin, Texas that’s focusing on the JavaScript ecosystem in general meeting once a month.
• Hill Country JavaScript is a JavaScript meetup located in San Antonio, Texas whose mission is to educate, support, and inspire our community through JavaScript.
• UtahJS is a meetup conglomerate in Utah, with chapters in Salt Lake, Ogden, Lehi, and several meetups with more focused purposes.
• Node.js Denver is a meetup primarily covering Node.js in the Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins area, meeting on the third Thursday of every month.
• DogpatchJS is a weekly free and public hangout in San Francisco for JavaScript meetup with no agenda other than to meet other JS devs, talk, and hack away.
• WaffleJS is another, more traditional monthly meetup in San Francisco focused on JavaScript and the community - with waffles!
• sandiego.js is a general JavaScript meetup in San Diego with over 3000 members joining since it was created in 2011. The group meets multiple times a month for various types of events.

Don’t see a North American city near you? Here’s how you can find one yourself!

Represented above are JavaScript and Node.js meetups in over twenty major metropolitan cities across North America. That said, you may be like me and not see one in a city near you. Don’t let that get you down, though - there are plenty of web development, JavaScript, and Node.js meetups, and there’s a high likelihood that there’s one near you.

Here are a few resources that you can use to find meetups near you:

• NodeSchool is a pretty awesome way to discover people looking to teach and people looking to learn JavaScript and Node.js. I highly recommend searching through their Chapters page to see if there’s a chapter close to you!
• Google Developer Groups (also known as GDGs) are a pretty stellar resource for general knowledge sharing, and there are several hundred globally, including quite a few in North America. I’ve personally attended and spoken the New York Capital Region GDG and had a good experience.
• Meetup.com is an extraordinarily good resource to discover local JavaScript, Node.js, and web development meetups. Many of the meetups linked above actually use Meetup as their main platform to organize their events and connect with their members. I suggest searching for relevant meetups within 100 miles of you if you can travel that far to attend!
• DevOps Days is another interesting and tangential global group of meetups, but one I’ve heard many good things about. They cover quite a few topics, including Node.js and topics that are related to the deployment and upkeep of Node.js applications in a production environment.
• AWS Summits are AWS-focused events that happen every year around the world. If you’re interested in the server-side aspect of the Node.js ecosystem, be sure to check them out - you’ll probably end up finding NodeSource team members!
• Women Who Code is a stellar initiative that has many geography-based networks. While they don’t necessarily have a focus on Node.js, I’ve seen many cases where Node.js and JavaScript are topics being presented at WWCode events. Additionally, if you’re a student you may also be interested in Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code.

What’s next?

I hope that you’re able to find a meetup and connect with JavaScript and Node.js developers. If you find one and attend, don’t hesitate to ping @NodeSource on Twitter to share - we all love to see the community growing, and it’d be awesome to know that we helped you get into it even further!

At some point in the not-so-distant future, I’ll also be working on a very similar article for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region of the world, so if you live or will be visiting, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that.