# Meetups, user groups and barcamps: small stages as a first step with a speaker agency

Author: Marin Niehues, Stage Starter · Published: 2025-10-21
Topic: Speaker Agency (https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/topic/speaker-agency/)
Source: https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/meetup-talk-small-stages-speaker-agency/

Meetups, user groups and barcamps are a good first step, because you can give a first talk there without a selection process before you apply to industry conferences. A meetup is a regular gathering of a local professional community, usually held in an evening, and a user group is the same format built around one product or technology. At a barcamp the programme only takes shape on the day, because the attendees propose the sessions themselves. This article shows how you get onto these stages, what they do for winning clients, and where an agency such as Stage Starter comes in, which submits to industry conferences for you.

**Small stages work well as a practice ground and as a complement to industry conferences. You try out topic and delivery in front of a small audience, while the slots at industry conferences are awarded through public calls and the decision-makers from many companies sit in those rooms.**

## What are a meetup, a user group and a barcamp?

Meetups, user groups and barcamps are small formats, mostly organised by volunteers, at which professionals share what they know with colleagues. A meetup invites people from a city or region who care about the same topic to a regular date. The agenda holds one or two talks, followed by time to talk. A user group works in a similar way but gathers the users of one software product or technology, so everyone in the room knows the same tool.

A barcamp follows a different logic. In the session planning in the morning, the attendees decide which sessions take place: whoever has a topic presents it to the group in a few sentences and enters it into a timetable. There is no call for papers, the public announcement through which industry conferences collect talk proposals, and there is no programme committee that selects in advance. How barcamps differ from industry conferences and congresses is described in [Industry conference, congress, barcamp, trade fair](/en/blog/types-of-conference/).

## How do I get a speaking slot at a meetup?

You get onto a meetup by writing to the organisers directly and proposing your topic in two or three sentences. At meetups and user groups the selection runs without a formal call, and in your request you explain what the listeners will be able to do or know after your talk. The reply often comes quickly, because organisers have to fill their evenings, and the date is often just a few weeks away. At industry conferences, months usually pass between submission and talk.

You find groups on platforms such as Meetup.com, in the event calendars of chambers of commerce and on the websites of vendors that list their user groups. For SAP users in German-speaking countries, for example, that is the DSAG. Barcamps are announced in barcamp listings and in the networks of their industry, often with open registration for attendees.

Organisers accept topics with a clear link to what the members do every day, and the listeners expect to take something away. A talk that is recognisable as an advert for your own offer is quickly turned down in these groups, because the community lives on contributions that teach the listeners something. Where audiences draw this line is shown in [Expert talk or sales pitch](/en/blog/expert-talk-or-sales-pitch/).

## Speaking at a user group: who sits in the room

Anyone speaking at a user group addresses practitioners, that is users, developers and people from operations. For a consultant who wants to win B2B clients, this is a good test of whether the explanation holds up in front of people who know the subject every day.

For client acquisition, what counts is who in the room decides on a purchase. In B2B a single person rarely buys, a contract is usually decided by a circle of several people in different functions, and the attendee of a user group is one voice in it. Small stages are therefore valuable for expert conversations and for building a name within a scene. A contract comes out of them when someone in the room passes the contact on to the decision-makers or recognises your name later.

**What a small stage can deliver**
A small stage delivers honest feedback, an appearance for your bio and practice in timing and Q&A. Reach beyond the room is rare, because the audience is small and hardly anyone outside the group sees the programme.

## How small stages and industry conferences compare in numbers

An industry conference brings together an audience from many companies and awards its speaking slots through calls for papers, and its programme is public. Our conference database shows how dense this market is: it holds around 22,700 conferences, and on the reference date around 1,500 of them had a call for papers open. In our submissions for clients we reach up to 19 per cent acceptances per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions.

**Industry conferences in our numbers**
- around 1,500 | open calls for papers in our conference database on the reference date
- around 7 per cent | acceptance per abstract in our submissions for clients
- up to 19 per cent | acceptances per conference in our submissions for clients

For meetups and barcamps there is no comparable figure, because nobody keeps a rate: the request goes to the organisers, and at a barcamp the audience decides in the morning. That makes entry easy, and it explains why small stages are less predictable for a consultant's pipeline than a talk selected by a programme committee. A programme committee is the group that decides on submissions at a conference, and its yes is a visible quality signal for the professional audience.

## What does a talk in front of a small audience give you?

A talk in front of a small audience shows you above all how your topic lands. You see where listeners ask questions, which example they remember and where attention drops. The Q&A after the talk reveals which question sits behind your topic, and that question later belongs in the title and in the first sentence of an abstract. An abstract is the short description of a planned talk that a programme committee reads before it decides.

The craft of appearing comes on top. Anyone standing in front of a professional audience for the first time learns at a meetup how long twenty minutes really are, how the technology in the room behaves and how stage fright feels while the stakes are low. A meetup talk counts as an appearance in your bio, and for a programme committee it shows that you have spoken in front of an audience. How the first twelve months as a speaker realistically go is covered in [What is realistic in your first year as a speaker](/en/blog/first-year-as-a-speaker/), and the whole route from topic to first conference stage is described in the guide [Becoming a speaker](/en/blog/how-to-become-a-speaker-guide/).

## Where an agency comes in and what you handle yourself on small stages

Stage Starter works for the stages with the greatest effect on winning B2B clients, the industry conferences. Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: [we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it](/en/), then follow up and, after an acceptance, accompany you to the stage. You supply your expertise and approve talk and abstracts once before the start. You use meetups, user groups and barcamps in parallel as a practice ground, with the requests to the organisers and the dates on site in your hands. Collaboration starts from €990 net per month, and if you would like a written plan first, you begin with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency.

A sensible order follows from this. You take feedback from a meetup into the approval of talk and abstracts, because you then know which examples land with the audience and where listeners need explanations. How submitting through an agency works is described in [Having a call for papers submitted for you](/en/blog/call-for-papers-submission-agency/). Anyone who buys a speaking slot instead quickly pays €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot at some organisers, and the audience files the talk as a paid placement as soon as it sounds like selling.

**Four routes onto a stage compared**
Criterion | Meetup and user group | Barcamp | Industry conference with call for papers | Stage Starter
How you get on stage | request to the organisers | session proposal on the day | submission to the call, selection by the programme committee | submission in your name through calls for papers
Lead time to the talk | often a few weeks | a few hours | usually several months | ongoing support from research to the stage
Who does the work | you | you | you, with days of your working time | we do, from research to follow-up
What it costs | your time | your time | days of your working time per month | from €990 net per month for the whole operation

**Small stages put you in front of an audience quickly and give you the feedback that a talk for industry conferences needs. At Stage Starter the agency handles submission through calls for papers, and the small stages remain your complement.**

**Sources**
Stage Starter analysis: our own submissions for clients and open calls for papers in our conference database on the reference date. Pay-to-speak prices based on publicly advertised sponsorship packages from conference organisers.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I get a speaking slot at a meetup?

You write to the organisers of the group and give topic, benefit for the listeners and your experience in two to three sentences. The contact details are on the group's page, for example on Meetup.com. A talk with a clear link to the members' tasks is accepted more readily than a presentation of your own offer.

### How do I find meetups and user groups for my topic?

You find meetups on platforms such as Meetup.com and in the event calendars of chambers of commerce. User groups are listed by the vendors of the software concerned on their websites, in the SAP world for example the DSAG. Barcamps are announced in barcamp listings and in the networks of their industry.

### How long is a talk at a meetup?

A meetup talk usually lasts twenty to forty minutes, followed by questions and conversation. Many groups also have short talks of five to ten minutes on the programme, which suit a first appearance. A barcamp session is usually planned for 45 minutes, including discussion.

### How do I prepare a barcamp session?

You prepare a proposal for the session planning that you can present in one or two sentences, and an outline that leaves room for discussion. At barcamps attendees expect exchange, so a session with a clear guiding question and a short input lands better than a tightly timed talk. Slides are allowed but not necessary, and the interest in the room decides in the morning whether your session takes place.

### Does a meetup talk count as a reference for conference submissions?

Yes, a meetup talk counts as an appearance and belongs in your speaker bio, especially if there is a recording or slides to look at. Programme committees see from it that you have spoken in front of an audience. The bigger factor in selection is the topic in the abstract.

### Do I get paid for a talk at a meetup or barcamp?

Usually not, because these formats are mostly run by volunteers, and the gain lies in feedback, visibility in the scene and an appearance for your bio. They rarely charge a fee for the speaking slot either. Paid speaking slots at other organisers, where the speaker pays, quickly cost €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot.

### Are meetups and user groups enough to win B2B clients?

Meetups and user groups help build visibility in a professional scene and test the topic, but for predictable client acquisition their audience is too small and too uniform. Industry conferences bring together listeners and decision-makers from many companies and are therefore the broader base. A barcamp works much like a meetup, with the advantage that professionals from several groups meet there in one day.

### How does Stage Starter relate to meetups and barcamps?

Stage Starter develops talk and abstracts and submits in your name through calls for papers to industry conferences, the route with the greatest effect for winning B2B clients. You use small stages in parallel as a practice ground, and their feedback flows into your approval of talk and abstracts.

If you would like to know which industry conferences suit your topic after your first small stages, we can work that out in an [initial consultation](/en/erstgespraech/).