New York, new meetup, newsletter!

photo credit: @ecalifornica.bsky.social

We just had a successful first @atproto.nyc meetup, and the next one's now scheduled! This is @schlage.town with a recap and some ideas for the future.

To rewind a minute — we had a couple great precursor events last year:

in August we had a community hack day , a one-off all day event mixing mini hackathon, talks, and socializing (before atproto.nyc came together)

in October we had a very casual v0 Brooklyn meetup, getting a smaller group together but with no real structure (or name)

So, is this technically our "first meetup"? Atmospheric Metaphysicians can debate. At any rate Atmosphere Conf , a little over a month ago, kicked us and a lot of local communities into gear, leading to our…

May meetup: manifested

We had a great evening of talks and socializing, with around 50 attendees. Really solid turnout, a bit higher than expected.

Thanks so much to @hiddendoor.co for the use of their awesome space, and @bsky.app for helping cover food and drinks.

Most of all thanks to our six awesome speakers! We had a pretty ad hoc setup but managed to stream and record the talks. While we await our promised @stream.place VOD future, for now, watch em on YouTube.

Check out the talk recordings here:

Let us know what you'd like to see new or different at future events! Already noted to get more seltzers next time :) Got some other things in mind we'd like to try too, more below…

Join us in June!

We're running it back, same time and place. Next @atproto.nyc meetup will be Monday, June 1, from 5:30 til 8pm or so.

Again at Hidden Door, 314 Dean St, in Brooklyn right by Atlantic Terminal.

RSVP at the event page here:

atproto.nyc - June 2026

Join us once again for pizza, a few short talks, and a whole lot of atmospheric conversation! ## When The evening of Monday, June 1, 2026. - Come at 5 to help set up - Doors at 5:30 - Pizza at 6 or so - Talks around 6:30 (likely for ~an hour) No hard end time but we'll probably wind down by 8:30ish. ## Where The Hidden Door office at 314 Dean St in Brooklyn. Just a couple blocks from Atlantic Terminal. Very spacious; very central. ## Talks TBD! Seeking 3 or 4 folks for ~10 minute slots. Reach out if you're interested; will update as we confirm. Both technical and non-technical talks welcome. We'd love to hear how you built your new project, see your plan for bringing local communities to the Atmosphere, or participate in a quick design jam. Send ideas, we'll try to curate a good balance! ## Contact Reach out to @schlage.town with questions, or if you'd like to join a Signal chat for local organizers. Follow @atproto.nyc and https://atprotonyc.leaflet.pub/ for updates :) Special thanks to Hilary, Matt, and the @hiddendoor.co team for generously sharing their space!

We're looking for folks to speak at this and future events.

~10 minute slots. Anything from tools you're building to community projects, definitely doesn't have to be technical. If you're interested, send us ideas!

Please also reach out if you have an idea you're not sure about and could use some help developing it — glad to talk through together. We may even find a day later this month for workshopping talks together.

Next steps & future projects

Some other things in progress, or at least on our minds:

website: a few folks starting to get a working group going, to include things like event listings, code of conduct, blog (right here!)

community outreach: both sourcing a diverse lineup of speakers for future events, and connecting with folks locally who we'd love to get involved — communities, organizers, creators, educators and more0

summer picnic: it'd be fun to do a casual thing in Prospect Park; maybe a good theme is "bring a friend to intro to the Atmosphere"…thinking a weekend morning :)

other side events: e.g. one idea that came up already is getting a group together to talk about how educators can use atproto, let's do it

logistical miscellany: figuring out division of labor, community funding for events and other infra (streaming gear?), etc

Reach out to join our Signal group if you'd like to help plan future events or otherwise get involved!

Shout out @katproto.girlonthemoon.xyz @sri.xyz @grishalr.protoimsg.app @awarm.space @cozylittle.house @julietshen.bsky.social @bnb.im for helping with set up and other logistical duties.

Also @librenews.bsky.social for securing the domain! And @bront.rodeo @smarmy.space for starting a convo about atproto for educators, excited to see where that goes!

One thing I mentioned at the last meetup and want to reiterate: this is not a tech meetup. I mean it partly is, but — it's about the people, not the technology. The protocol insofar as it helps us do meaningful things together.

So, let's keep in mind: we need more than just builders in the room, we need the people and communities we're building for.

Til next time…oh, and make sure you've followed @atproto.nyc and subscribed to this blog/newsletter for updates!