[j2labs]

From someone who's organized multiple meetups in NYC, Hack And Tell being the most well-known, I would say just start the meetup. There's a high probability of lots of people in NYC thinking in the same direction you're thinking, but what you want to do is start letting them know there is a place they can find like-minded people.

Further, meetup will help get eyes on the event. They've been very helpful for my meetups. They're even willing to host them and buy beer / pizza for the attendees.

You'll know within a few months if it's not speaking to people, but more importantly, you'll know if the opposite is true.

[j_s]

Question: Is it worth asking for email address as a field on the join form? I was suprised to see this on one group and wondered if meetup.com kept email addresses from organizers. This would make life tough in cases like the following:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4754269 (Hacker News Meetup Cologne Hostile Takeover)

[thetylerhayes]

Meetup has a messaging system so they don't have to give out email addresses.

Anecdotal: I never enter my email address on meetup group registrations because it seems weird that they would ask for it since they can already message me. I think it's also because so many organizers have abused meetup.com groups and meetup.com itself, despite millions of users, looks shady.

I always enter my email address on an Eventbrite event though.

[j2labs]

I don't think so. Meetup will ask them and provide a mailing list so reaching them is possible while still maintaining their privacy.

You can, of course, ask them for anything and see if they offer.

[thetylerhayes]

+1. Just did that in SF with http://twitter.com/healthhackerssf and already seeing plenty of interest