One of the coolest things about our annual awards ceremony, the Tongies, is that it allows our community members to meet each other face-to-face. For a couple days each year, our creatives step out from behind their Tongal avatars and get to know one another on a personal level. They dress up, enjoy a couple drinks, and have the chance to ham it up on the dance floor and in the photobooth. It’s a really powerful experience that has lead to lasting friendships and even creative partnerships both on and off the Tongal platform.
We are always thrilled to see this type of collaboration come out of our community, and we’d like to foster even more opportunities for them to take place. For this reason, we’ve created a space on Facebook to allow Tongalers to meet one another and organize their own meetups in the cities where they live:
Join the Tongal Community Meetups Group
Anyone can join the group, and while the primary goal is to get you to meet one another IRL, this is also a space for Tongalers to hang out and chat about whatever they like. Our only role is to help encourage these connections and, once you’re ready to officially host a meetup in your city, Tongal will build the meetup event pages within the group on your behalf.
How to Host a Tongal Community Meetup
- Gauge interest in your city by posting your intent to host a meetup within the group.
- Determine a location or activity for your meetup (tips below).
- Once at least 5 people have expressed interest, email us at meetups@tongal.com to let us know the date, time, and location of your meetup so we can create an official event page within the meetup group.
- RSVP to the event page to let people know you’re going and invite more creative friends to join too!
- Tongal will mail you a Tongal Meetup Host Welcome Package to help make the event even more awesome. Note: Please give us notice at least 2 weeks BEFORE the event date to ensure delivery on these items.
- HAVE A BLAST MEETING OTHER TONGALERS!
Tips for Hosting a Meetup
Hosting your own Tongal Meetup is an excellent way to grow your personal creative network. Being the point-person will also ensure everyone knows who YOU are. You’re free to conduct your meetup however you like, but following these guidelines will ensure everyone has a good time:
- Location/Activity: Host your meetup in a public space and consider choosing a location that has built-in activities or bring an activity for everyone to do (board games, crafts, etc). As you’re feeling out interest in a meetup in your city, ask people what they’d like to do! Depending on the size of your group, you may want to give your venue a heads up on when to expect you. Location thought starters: bowling alley, movie theater, picnic in a local park, volunteer at a local charity.
- Who's Who: Name tags make it easy to get to know one another. To make it even easier, we’ll provide Hosts with some nifty Tongal-branded nametags in their Host Welcome Package.
- Break the Ice: While having some kind of activity to focus on should give attendees something to talk about, you can also come prepared with ice breaker questions like “What do you do on Tongal?” or “How long have you been a Tongaler?” or “What creative projects are you currently working on?”. Want to go the extra mile? Write out icebreaker questions ahead of time and put them in a bowl near your nametag table in case anyone needs a conversational boost.
- Make Everyone Feel Welcome: As the host, make a point to greet every meetup attendee and thank them for coming. When it makes sense, you can also help connect like-minded creators (ie: Someone you spoke with earlier mentioned they are looking for help building sets and now you’re talking to someone else who loves to build things...introduce them!).
- Snap Some Pics: Show everyone at home what they missed and commemorate your new friendships by taking some pictures of your meetup. Post them using #TongalMeetup so we can share on the group page.
We can’t wait to help you get your local Tongal Meetup off the ground. If you have any questions, you can reach us on the Tongal Community Meetups page or at meetups@tongal.com.
