Meet designers in your local community

What’s a Dribbble Meetup?

A chance for Dribbblers to socialize and talk design. Beyond that, it’s up to the organizer. Dribbble Meetups range from the casual, five-person, coffee-shop roundtable to the chef-catered, bar-tended, 200-person extravaganza.

When we hosted Dribbble Meetups at the former Dribbble HQ in Salem, we'd order pizza from the pizza shop on the corner, buy beer and soda from the liquor store over by the post office, and hang out for a few hours talking design and engaging in an Analog Playoff (below). Sometimes the beer/soda procurement process requires us to borrow a shopping cart and wheel it four blocks back to the office. We’re fancy.

Will you send us swag?

If you’re having a Dribbble Meetup, yes! For free, even, but only if you give us enough warning. Our shipping is handled by an out-of-state expeditor. Orders can take up to two weeks to arrive in the continental U.S.; up to six weeks outside that area. Tell us about your Meetup and we’ll process. Be sure to include your phone number if you are outside the continental United States. Our meetup kit may also includes swag from our Global Meetup Sponsors.

What swag will you send us?

Dribbble stickers, buttons, pencils, and nametags; The kit may also include Dribbble Gameplan Notebooks and/or swag from our Global Meetup Sponsors.

Speaking of prizes, can you send us invitations/t-shirts/money?

No, sorry.

Not even to pay for our pizza?

Not at this time. We’re truly sorry, as we like both you and pizza.

My swag never showed up!

Sometimes there’s a glitch on our end or at our third-party shipper. Sometimes there’s a glitch with the post office. Sometimes customs won’t allow packages through, despite our expeditor noting that all packages are gifts, value $0. Keep us posted on the swag we’ve posted, and we’ll try to figure out what’s going wrong, to the best of our ability.

What’s an Analog Playoff?

A pencil-on-paper contest in which organizers provide a theme and attendees create analog shots (AKA sketches, drawings, artisanal hand-to-paper creations). You can download an Analog PDF here. Recent riffs on the Analog Shot include creating 3D avatars using construction paper and sketching email designs on graph paper.

Will Dan and Rich come to our Meetup?

Probably not. We love every last one of you but Dan and Rich are family guys with two children apiece. They try to get to 3 or 4 Meetups outside the Boston area a year, often in conjunction with business meetings or conferences. Because their travel is so limited, they especially appreciate your Meetup pictures. Keep reading.

We want your pictures!

We are like your proud grandma when it comes to your pictures. Not only do we share them with the rest of the Dribbble-verse in our Weekly Replay, but also we pass them around internally.

You won’t come to our Meetup. You won’t give us money or T-shirts. What will you do?

We would love to do all those things, to cover it all from Ale to ’Za. We just don’t have the resources.

What we can do is field your questions, order your swag, and promote your Meetup. We’ll run your Meetup announcement on our meetups page, as well as in our Replay. We’ll tweet your Meetup. We’ll tweet your Meetup Shot and include it on our meetups page and in Replay. If you live in a place that’s held previous Meetups, we’ll even email past Meetup organizers letting them know about the Meetup. (We will not directly contact anyone else, nor will we give you contact information to anyone.)

Do we have to create a Meetup shot?

No, but it brings more attention to your event, and also makes it stand out on our meetups page. If you email us a link to the shot (so we know it’s there), we’ll tweet it. For Meetup Shot examples, just search "meetup" in our search box.

Will you sponsor our conference? Our non-Dribbble Meetup?

Unfortunately, not at this time. If you’d like to host a Dribbble Meetup as part of your conference, give us a holler.

Can we use the Dribbble logo?

Yes, if you stick to our brand guidelines.

Can we use your name in our website name?

No—please refer to our brand guidelines. (Like your mom, we’re good at saying, "no." Also like your mom, we still love you and want you to succeed.)

Can Dribbble host our Meetup site?

Yes, we’d love to do that for you. If you have your own RSVP site, we can link to that instead from our meetups page. It’s up to you.

What should we do at our Meetup?

Whatever makes you happy makes us happy! Many Meetup organizers keep it simple—hang out, drink coffee/beer/soda, talk design. If you want more ideas, we hand you over to the organizers of the past. Here’s what they’ve done:

• Avatar Designing Contest
• Button Making
• Costumes
• Topic-centered Discussions
• Dribbble-inspired cocktail
• Ice Cream Stand
• Icon Drawing Contest
• Oculus Rift Booth
• Photo Booth
• Ping-Pong
• Arcade Hoops
• Pink Lemonade
• Product Demos
• Screenprinting
• Slideshow of local Dribbblers

Where should we have our Meetup?

Most Meetups happen at bars/restaurants, cowork spaces, educational centers (e.g. General Assembly), or companies. They’ve also happened at a karaoke bar, a bowling alley, a go-cart track, and a clothing store.

May We Suggest You (Politely) Crash Other People’s Events?

There’s no reason you people can’t mingle with outsiders. Find a fun event with a visual theme and encourage Dribbblers to gather there and find one another. Some venues will give you a table to set up a spot for Dribbblers to find one another. We recently teamed up with The National Poster Retrospecticus and Bartfest and encouraged Dribbblers to attend. Sacramento Dribbblers met up at "Art Mix" night at the Crocker Art Museum; in return, the museum offered Dribbblers free admission.

Do We Need to Have Speakers?

Nope. Talk among yourselves. If you do want a speaker, here are ideas from other organizers:

• Talk about Dribbble tools
• Host a Dribbble design conference
• Maker’s Moments (talks centered on one recent project)
• Shot Talk (5-minute talk about a single shot)
• Q&A

100 People Said They Were Coming, But Only 65 Showed Up!

That’s about right. We expect about 65 people to show up for every 100 who say yes. Often the discrepancy is even greater. If you must have an accurate number, set a cut-off on the RSVP list, then email attendees at one week out and again at one day out, asking those who can’t attend to remove their names from the YES list to allow waitlisters to join.