STHLM.js Meetup Overflows into a Conference


    The sthlm.js group has kind of grown out of hand.

    The meetup group had humble beginnings back in October of 2011 with a few developers coming together at a hosting office to talk Javascript, but the meetup has blown up to massive proportions. Today there are 1,300 people in the meetup group, a bit more than what the average office can handle.

    Rather than moving to an auditorium, they still prefer to host the meetups in startup and consulting firms’ offices, which typically fit anywhere between 50 up to 200 people. They’ve become popular to host because its a good way to reach out to Stockholm’s developers, and the STHLM-JS group has managed to bring together a good tech community around the concept. Still, it’s been tough to get the whole community together.

    “We don’t want to be like ‘you can only host it if you have 150 seats,’ so we’re doing it more often instead,” says Jonny Strömberg, one of the meetup organizers. He’s quick to point out that running events more often is not the perfect solution, however, as tickets to the event will run out in seconds, not days; people are hammering refresh in their browser to get access to these meetups. So now they’re throwing a conference.

    “That’s why we’re doing Nordic.js now partly to solve the problem,” Johannes Edelstam, founder of STHLM JS tells us. “If people want to come and talk tech, then let them in a bigger venue.”

    Nordic.js will run the 18th and 19th of September in Stockholm at Artipelag, a gorgeous art venue that should be great for a conference. Currently with the conference so far aweay they they’re looking for suggestions of who people would like to hear speak.

    The team will be releasing tickets soon, and they hope to find some way to get tickets to people without it being rushed. Additionally they hope that the event will also be used by the global javascript community to come to Sweden.

    “A big part of the purpose of this conference is to invite people to Sweden,” says Edelstam. “We’re filling up meet ups for 200 people but I don’t think many know there are so many javascript developers in the Nordics.”

    More info can be found on the event website, where you should sign up if you’re interested in getting tickets.