October was a huge month for Dribbble Meetups all over the world. A whopping total of 18 meetups in 8 different countries took place and we’re very excited to share all of the happenings. With over 850 attendees, our first-time hosts and veteran hosts had all kinds of activities planned. Between fun ice-breakers, creative challenges, delicious treats, plenty of games, and incredible guest speakers, October proved to be an incredible month for the community to gather.
Interested in attending a Dribbble Meetup? It’s not too late to join one near you in November in places like Prague, Tokyo, Uyo, Noida, and more! No meetups happening near you? We encourage you to host your own Dribbble Meetup and help grow the community in your area!
Lagos, Nigeria @ Workstation
“Saturday, October 13th was filled with all sorts of vibes as visual designers in the city of Lagos came out to play. The meetup was held at Workstation, Bar Beach and had about 250 designers in attendance. There were a ton of games and fun activities for everyone to indulge in, food, drinks, and intellectual chatter through pockets of discussion throughout the event. The meetup also had its renowned unconference session, where the topic “How to be taken seriously as a designer” was openly discussed by attendees. There was also a lot of support from the design community in Nigeria and many brands gave out goodies and freebies to the designers in attendance. Check out this short video re-capping some of the event.
Franconia, New Hampshire @ Iron Furnace Brewing
“We called all designers, creative thinkers, and entrepreneurs from New England to talk shop. We enjoyed some fine food and cold beer from the newly opened Iron Furnace Brewing Company. The surrounding area of vibrant downtown Franconia, New Hampshire offered the seclusion of a rural community packed with mountains, rivers, and lakes that allowed attendees to really dig in and communicate with one another. The event lasted well into the wee hours and even found itself back at my house for fire beer and design talk.
Hyderabad, India @ South Park
“This was our very first Hyderabad Dribbble Meetup in 2018. Twenty people from different work backgrounds showed up at the poolside event. Our plan was to make it a casual designer meetup, where everyone can talk about ‘everything design’. We started off with an ice-breaking session where a few gripping topics were given to random participants. It was interesting how everyone pitched in to share their points of view. By the end of this, everyone was comfortable enough to talk and collaborate with each other. This was followed by a “food for thought” task, where the participants were divided into teams and each team had to design a trashcan that could recycle anything that is put inside. We were amazed by the ideas, and how the teams considered the tiniest but common problems we face in our daily lives.
“Our favorite part was the “Dribbble Passport”. We gave a customized passport to everyone, with our stamp. This passport would give the participants access to all our future meetups! We look forward to organizing more of these because we left the event with filled hearts and smiles on faces!
Manipal, India @ Manipal Institute of Technology
“This was the second edition of the Manipal Dribbble Meetup and it went extremely well. Around 40 people turned up and we kicked off the session by having a 15-minute talk on what Dribbble is and what makes it different from any other design community. We went on to talk more about design and creativity in general and after that started with the main competition for the day. The agenda was to let everyone exercise their creativity and not restrict them from using some software.
“We divided the participants into different teams randomly and they were asked to create a ‘Hello Dribbble’ shot using the theme ‘Powerpuff Girls’. Everyone was given a large paper and general stationery but they had to fight for the other stuff (including crayons, glue, colored sheets, foam board etc.).
“After 30 minutes, we introduced a new theme, ‘Spongebob SquarePants’ and the teams had 30 more minutes to incorporate the new theme in their Dribbble shot and come up with something good. In the end, the teams presented their designs in front of everyone and each team voted for their favorite shot. Everyone had a wonderful experience and enjoyed themselves to the fullest. We look forward to having another meetup next year!”
Orlando, Florida @ Designzillas Orlando
“Thank you for participating in our October Dribbble Meetup as we celebrate our 3rd year! Michael shared his insights on thoughtful branding and identity design. From naming to creating the right mark, Michael uncovered his process of discovery, empathy, intentional mark making, type pairing, and other useful pro tips for working with clients.
“Stay in touch with our community by following us on Twitter, Instagram, participating in our yearly survey, and joining our #dribbble channel on Slack at orlandodesigners.info. Also, join our Facebook Group and check out event photos!
Sofia, Bulgaria @ betahaus Sofia
“Last month we hosted our 8th Dribbble Meetup in Sofia which most of the attendees named as the best so far. It was quite special because we had the chance to mingle with fellow Bulgarians working abroad: Galya Iliev—the community manager at Sketch, Yavor Punchev—designer and developer at Marvel app, Todor Iliev—owner of SketchAppSources, and last but not least, Anthony Christov—former Art Director at Pixar, known for his work on movies like Wall-E, The Incredibles, and Titan A.E.
“The meetup was in the form of open discussion. Our guests talked about their experiences over the years such as the daily office shenanigans, work process, company culture, working remotely, as well as their personal challenges in living and working far from home. We are happy to hear such positive feedback from our guests and we’re looking forward to organising more open discussions and skill-sharing sessions for our community!
Surat, India @ Iconscout HQ
“This was Surat’s first ever Dribbble Meetup held on October 8th at Iconscout HQ. The event was supported by Logicwind, JSBot and DesignBoat UI/UX school. This Dribbble meetup got an amazing response from the local community and was attended by more than one hundred and twenty designers. The meetup brought together designers, creative thinkers, and entrepreneurs to share ideas, have fun, and learn from their peers. We had talks from designers from some of the biggest organizations in India. We were joined by Neel Raj from Flipkart, Ramakrishna V from Zeta, Nikunj Ladani from Horum Ireland, Harsha Kakkeri from DesignBoat, Paresh Khatri from KP Designs, and Darshan Gajara. The entire day was filled with fun and creativity.
“For more details and photos, visit Surat Dribbble Meetup page. We took the first step towards creating the biggest designer community of Gujarat and we hope to organize more meetup events in near future.
Manchester, United Kingdom @ e3creative
“Digital agency e3creative hosted the Manchester Dribbble Meetup in our city center studio bringing together a range of creative-types to indulge in food and drink whilst discussing the evolving role of a designer. Founder of e3creative, Jake Welsh delivered a talk on the importance of creating experiences that people remember through embracing a storyteller mentality. It was an insightful evening, provoking new ways of thinking for creatives to apply when approaching projects and positioning themselves. Highlights from the meetup can be viewed here.
Almaty, Kazakhstan @ SmartPoint
“We created this meetup for two days: The first day was for lectures and the second day was dedicated to workshops with guest-speakers from Russia. We had about 180 participants in total in addition to 15 people from our company and a meetup team of over 10 volunteers. I think our event was the biggest designer event in Kazakhstan this year. Check out more photos on our Facebook and info about speakers and sponsors here.
Asheville, North Carolina @ Hatchworks
“This was our first Dribbble Meetup in Asheville, NC! For one evening, 11 people came out and met one another over a shared love of design and illustration. For the first hour of the three-hour long event, we formed a circle and learned about one another, like what type of work we do, want to do, and where we would like to see the community of Asheville’s creatives. We all want to grow the design community here and this was an amazing start.
“After the first hour, we were able to conduct an hour-long drawing session where everyone made a Halloween themed image while continuing to socialize around one large table. It was great to see people who haven’t used a pencil and paper in years pick them back up and be excited about the potential. While computers are great, I think we all agreed we often forget the simple joys of the physical space. Ultimately good design, illustration, and lettering are good because of the people behind the idea and not the software it was created on.
“At the end of the night we all got Thai food together and continued to hang out at an after-hours karaoke bar. What’s a better bonding experience than embarrassing yourself singing in front of a room full of strangers?
“Overall the event was a resounding success! We were able to introduce new creatives to the Dribbble platform and to one another. We arrived in the evening as individual creatives but left as a true creative community. We would love to host more events in Asheville and continue to push the design community to grow and learn from one another.”
Provo, Utah @ BYU AdLab
“We had about 40 people in attendance at this meetup. Rusty Clifton came to speak to us about his life and what design has done for him. He is the founder and owner of Re/Mark Branding Agency in Salt Lake City. People loved it and a few people who were there got offered internships by Rusty which was cool!
Meetups
The following Dribbble Meetups are happening soon. For the full list of upcoming meetups, visit our Meetups page.
Find more Meetups stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
