Tech Meetups are spurring innovation in Milwaukee
Technology isn’t a huge industry in Milwaukee.
Slightly more than 25,000 people work in computer occupations in the metro area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s around 30 per 1,000 jobs. Contrast that with the Twin Cities, where the rate is 40 per 1,000. In the San Francisco area, about 57 jobs per 1,000 are in computers.
The few thousand software developers and computer programmers in Milwaukee forge their own way to spur innovation in the city — through Meetups.
More than 100 Meetups on the website Meetup.com are formed around technology topics in the Milwaukee area.
Milwaukeeans are in no way unique in gathering together people of similar interests. More than 300,000 Meetup groups have been formed on the site. But the Milwaukee groups say the
monthly gatherings play a special role in a city where many computer nerds are alone in their place of work.
“Overall, the Milwaukee community, we’re always a couple years behind the main trends in software because there’s a lot of reasons,” said Tony Gemoll. “We’re less tech-savvy, place less importance on tech too (and) our companies typically tend to be more riskaverse.”
Gemoll organizes MilwaukeeJS, a Meetup group focused on the programming language JavaScript.
On Monday, 29 of the technology Meetup groups in the city will gather for Meet the Meetups to form further connections throughout the community. The event will start at 6 p.m. at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.
“If we want to make Milwaukee a tech hub, which several large employers said is a priority, then our theory is that really supporting and growing the Meetup community is one way to do that,” said Matt Cordio, an organizer of the event.
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Aurora Health Care announced last year each company would commit $5 million into venture funds to invest in Milwaukee’s technology-based startups.
“If we’re all in this together, we can all push employers to all be better,” said Gemoll who works at Northwestern Mutual as a senior enterprise architect.
The idea is for Meet the Meetups to be a convening force to bring the tech community together. Registration for the free event reached capacity Tuesday, and a waiting list was created. Organizers expect around 400 people to attend.
Given the interest, Cordio said the event Monday is likely just the first gathering of its kind.
Mitch Henke started the Milwaukee Machine Learning Meetup because he wanted more contact with people who were also interested in machine learning. He had started using the technology in his job as a software architect at RokkinCat.
Meeting people who also were interested in machine learning made him realize how much was happening in the space in Milwaukee.
“There’s actually a lot of very interesting machine learning going on in the area, and the interest is very high of people who are trying to get into it,” Henke said. “It’s hard for people to break in, and there aren’t really a huge amount of jobs. We need to see what other people are doing. Machine learning is a widely applicable technology.”
A couple dozen people come to the monthly meetings.
The sense of community was especially important for Maggie Fernandes, who leads the Milwaukee chapter of Girl Develop It. Fernandes joined Girl Develop It after finishing a Milwaukee Area Technical College program for web development as she made a career change.
“I wanted to have more exposure to the industry,” she said. “It can be very intimidating for women.”
Since she started attending Girl Develop It meetings like its monthly Code and Coffee, Fernandes said she feels more confident going to other Meetups.
“When I see more female faces, it’s exciting,” she said.
Fernandes works as a front-end developer for Communicor Inc. in Riverwest.
Many Meetup organizers become the group’s leader in a similar way — the previous organizer left Milwaukee for a job in a bigger city.
“The joke for the longest time was that if you ran a Meetup you were going to leave the city because a lot of our more community-minded developers were the ones running the Meetups and eventually a lot of them ended up getting frustrated and going other places,” Gemoll said. “That trend seems to have slowed a bit.”
The idea for Meet the Meetups and other technology-driven initiatives in the city is to make Milwaukee a place where skilled professionals want to stay.
Software development for applications is one of the fastest-growing occupations in the country, according to the BLS. Employment is projected to grow 31 percent through 2026.
“Tech talent is mobile and willing to move for jobs if they see them,” said Cordio, co-founder of Skills Pipeline and Startup Milwaukee. “We need to support them, attract them and retain them in southeast Wisconsin. These people are very passionate and they love to nerd out on the technology.”