Researching our communities, part 3: Lunches, happy hours, & workshops
February 8, 2012
This is the third in a series of posts analyzing event attendance in the Austin design community. You can jump to any post using the links below.
- Introduction
- Overall community profile
- Lunches, happy hours, & workshops
- Presentations & panels
- Field trips & recommendations
Also, be sure to read the caveats for this analysis.
Yesterday’s post outlined the general profile of the Austin design community. Today, we begin exploring the draw of certain types of events. In most respects, event-favoring subgroups resemble others in the community, but some differences do emerge. These are outlined below.
Lunches (42 respondents)
Lunches seem to be especially popular among those who are not constrained to a 9-to-5 schedule. There are indications in the data that independent contractors, founders, and sole proprietors may be more likely than expected to favor lunch events. Lunch people may also be more likely than others to pursue professional development as part of a side business (perhaps making them less available for afternoon and evening events?). However, partners in large companies may be less likely to show up for lunches. Lunch people are more likely than others to yearn for public recognition for their work, and for better visual design to complement their UX work.
There is some suggestion in the data that lunch people are more interested than other respondents in lunches on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so this may be a good scheduling bet (although the statistics become unreliable here). Nevertheless, Fridays are more popular still both with lunch people and with everyone else.
Happy Hours (51 respondents)
Happy hours are always a go-to event for event organizers. They’re easy to plan, and anecdotally, they can have a high draw when used sparingly. However, as a group organizer I’ve found that it requires the right mix of elements to have anyone show up at all.
Happy hour people appear to be more interested than expected in workday evening events and less interested in workday lunch events. They may have a slightly greater-than-expected aversion to events held at offices and, unsurprisingly, have a pronouncedly higher affinity for events held at bars. They are most likely to miss events (and significantly more likely than other people) because they don’t keep track of them. This means if you want people to show up to your happy hour, high publicity and ample reminders are key.
People who work part-time may be less interested in happy hours than full-time workers (although again, the statistics are unreliable here). However, the data also suggest that more experienced professionals may have lower-than-expected interest in happy hours as well.
Workshops (73 respondents)
Vitorio ran 15 workshops back in 2010. They were a big hit with the community, and people still regularly ask him when he plans to start them up again. However, he found that the end result was not as he intended. Nevertheless, the high popularity of this type of event in the survey indicates that turnout for another workshop would likely be strong.
People who are interested in workshops appear to differ most notably from other Austin design professionals on motivational factors. For instance, workshop people show greater interest in learning about research and learning critiquing (although this could reflect the unique nature of Vitorio’s workshops, where critiquing was a focus). Workshop people are also more likely to report that their workplaces do not provide them with adequate user research, contact with end-users, and iterative development (this last effect was particularly strong). These results suggest that a workshop with a strong user research focus could be a major draw for UX professionals.
But, as noted in an earlier post, workshop people do not like their events held at bars. So if you are planning a workshop, consider holding it at an office or a coffee shop instead.
