Every couple of months or so (it was twice in the last few weeks), I am contacted by someone new to the twin cities startup / entrepreneur scene. Usually this is someone looking for mobile application development, that’s how I get involved, but sometimes (nearly always) they are also looking to network and interested in pointers to various other local startup community resources. I’ve compiled a few lists of this sort over the last few years, usually tailored to a specific individual’s needs/interests. Today’s list was generic enough that I figured I’d post it here, with some additional sections tacked on for iOS and GameDev.
It’s worth noting that these are mostly about face to face events. I think all of them have both a presentation you can sit down and watch as well as networking opportunities, before after or during.
General
Minne* – MinneBar is a great event, and you should make it to MinneDemo when you can!
Tech.mn – Great resource for local startup news. Their events list is usually pretty out of date, but still a good place to start.
Pollen Midwest – Their website is super hard to navigate, but there is a lot of really interesting content there, and they organize events that are often really relevant.
Beta.mn – I’ve actually never made it to this, but from what I understand, it’s similar to MinneDemo.
Startup Week / Weekend – Only once a year, but a whole week of events worth knowing about.
Meetups:
http://www.meetup.com/newstartupmeetup/
http://www.meetup.com/Lean-Startup-Twin-Cities/
http://www.meetup.com/Startup-Grind-Minneapolis/
http://www.meetup.com/Innovators-and-Entrepreneurs-of-MSP/
http://www.meetup.com/MnStartups/
(There are too many of these, IMO, and I don’t really go to any of them, so no idea which ones — if any — are worth checking out.)
Mobile Specific
Mobilize – Relatively new to the scene, this group is only about a year old, but high quality. Presentations have been mostly focused on the business / startup aspects. They have occasionally had game development related speakers.
Mobile Twin Cities – Again, mostly about the business aspects, there used to be more development content. I haven’t actually been to this in a while, but it’s been going on for many years. (Worth noting that the full-day (or sometimes two) conference, Mobile March, grew out of this group.)
iOS Development (code) Specific
Cocoaheads MN – Despite feeling rather thrown together, and a location that is mostly inconvenient (~45 minutes out of town), this is the longest running and highest quality apple developer meetup in the twin cities. Always developer focused, full of quality people.
Twin Cities iPhone Developers Meetup – Also code-focused, this meetup has skewed toward beginner topics in the past, but looking through the last year’s meeting titles, looks like they’ve advanced a bit since I’ve been in attendance. I should probably be going to this more often.
Game Development Related
IGDA Twin Cities – Disclaimer: I help run this. With 3 meetings a month (or thereabouts), there is plenty to engage with here. Feel free to contact me if you want more specifics here.
Glitch – This grew out of a student group at the UofMN. A year ago I would have said it was still focused on students, but they have a lot going on, including an annual conference, organizing the local Global Game Jam site, and quite regular events in their office space near campus.
United Geeks of Gaming; Game Designer Sessions – The only public board game design meetup that I know about in the twin cities, they meet (currently) on the second Friday of the month.