For your hacknights, depending on the level of technical experience that you have as a group, you may need to build up your own skill level or bring in people who can handle that side. A good schedule to have through the year would be something like the following:
- Introductory to BCI tutorial (every 6-12 months)
- Create an open source group with 4-5 members of the community
- Have 1-2 more advanced topics which would interest masters or undergraducate students.
- Every 1-2 months, you can host an "internal" hackday, where you come together and just work on projects as a community.
Like the Meetups, it is suggested to have a topic for the Hacknight. We suggest doing the following:
- (5 weeks prior) Determine the topic
- (4 weeks prior) Create the Meetup with dates
- (1-4 weeks prior) Market to Meetup with date
- (1 weeks prior) Make sure you have all Hardware available
Set up a little sign showing people directions to the room from the street, to know they are in the right place. “Neurotech Group this way!” “You’re here at the Neurotech Group!” Cartoon drawings of brains are a nice touch
Newcomers: If there are many newcomers, they will often ask the SAME BASIC questions. Separate these from the regular attenders. Have a “new person introduction,” given by an established “new person greeter” so that other organizers aren’t distracted. Collect names and emails, or have them sign up to your FB group / slack channel / whatever your main communications channel is.
Send a little summary of what happened, what you did, what people built, or whatever to the FB group or slack channel.
Post fun / interesting resources and info, keep the conversation going.