Meetup intro slides: a monthly template for hosts
The intro slides a community meetup host needs every month: welcome, house rules, tonight's talks, sponsors, news and how to speak next time. Reusable.
Every month, the same ten minutes. You stand up, welcome everyone, mention the Wi-Fi, thank the venue, introduce the first speaker. And every month, someone rebuilds the slides for it at 6 p.m. on the day.
Stop rebuilding. Meetup intro slides are the most reusable deck you’ll ever make. Build them once, change a few lines each month, and spend the time you save talking to people.
What the intro is for
The intro isn’t a talk. It’s a doorway.
It does four jobs:
- Welcomes people, especially first-timers.
- Sets the tone, through the code of conduct and house rules.
- Tells everyone what’s happening tonight.
- Keeps the community going between events: next date, how to speak, where to chat.
Keep it short. Five to ten minutes. People came for the talks and the pizza, not the admin.
The template: ten slides, most of them fixed
Here’s a running order that works for most meetups. Mark each slide as fixed (same every month) or monthly (changes each time).
| Slide | Fixed or monthly |
|---|---|
| Welcome | Monthly (date and number) |
| First time here? | Fixed |
| Wi-Fi and housekeeping | Fixed, unless the venue changes |
| Code of conduct | Fixed |
| Tonight’s agenda | Monthly |
| Thanks to the venue and sponsors | Mostly fixed |
| Community news | Monthly |
| Speak at the next one | Fixed |
| Next meetup | Monthly |
| Over to the first speaker | Monthly |
Only five slides change. That’s the point.
Slide by slide
1. Welcome
Meetup name, logo, edition number and date. “Welcome to edition 24.” The number quietly tells newcomers this is a real, regular thing.
2. First time here?
Ask for a show of hands. Then one slide that answers: what this group is, how often it meets, and where people chat between events. Make newcomers feel expected, not noticed.
3. Wi-Fi and housekeeping
- Network name and password, large
- Washrooms and exits
- Whether the talks are recorded or photographed
- When food arrives
4. Code of conduct
One sentence, in plain words. Where to read the full version. Who to talk to if something goes wrong, by name, and that they’re here tonight. This slide shows the group takes it seriously. Never skip it.
5. Tonight’s agenda
Times, talk titles and speaker names. Three or four rows. Big enough to read from the back. If it doesn’t fit, you’ve booked too much.
6. Thank you, venue and sponsors
The host company. Anyone paying for food or drinks. Logos sized fairly, and a single line each. If a sponsor gets a few minutes to speak, put it on the agenda slide too.
7. Community news
One to three items. A job board, a conference discount, a member’s new project, a call for volunteers. Short lines. Rotate it so it never becomes an advert.
8. Speak at the next one
The slide that keeps the meetup alive. How to submit a talk, what formats you accept (full talk, lightning talk, demo) and a reassuring line for first-time speakers. “No talk is too small. We’ll help you prepare.”
9. Next meetup
Date, venue if known, and where to sign up. Leave it on screen during the first break too.
10. Over to the first speaker
Speaker name, talk title, one line on who they are. Then hand over.
Design for a small room with bad lighting
Meetups happen in office kitchens, co-working spaces and borrowed lecture halls. Screens are small. Lights stay on.
- Big type. Bigger than you think. The back row is often a sofa.
- High contrast. Dark text on light, or light on dark. Nothing pale.
- Your community’s colours, used lightly.
- One message per slide. The Wi-Fi slide is the Wi-Fi slide.
Make it easy to hand over
Hosts change. Organisers move cities. Build the deck so anyone can run it.
- Mark the monthly slides with a coloured dot in the corner, visible only in the editor, or a note in the speaker notes: “Update every month.”
- Keep one master file. Duplicate it for each edition and save it with the date.
- Write the script in the notes. A few lines per slide. A new host can read from them.
Reuse it for your speakers
The intro deck and the speaker template should look like the same community. Use the same title style, colours and closing slide. How to build a speaker slide template for your event covers the kit you send speakers; for a meetup, a lighter version is plenty.
If your meetup grows into a full-day event, the intro deck becomes the seed of a run-of-show deck, with holding slides, break screens and “up next” cards. Run-of-show slides for event day shows how that grows.
The monthly routine
The afternoon before:
- Duplicate last month’s deck.
- Update the five monthly slides.
- Check the speaker names are spelled right.
- Load it on the venue laptop, or bring a backup on a USB drive.
Ten minutes, not an evening. EventDeck makes the reusable intro deck and speaker kit in one consistent look, so every edition starts from the same place.