Beyond the Meetups: A Conference Retrospective

The sun hadn’t risen as my alarm sounded, but I wasn’t jolted awake—I’d already been up for hours, excitement and nerves keeping me alert. Winter in London means short days, which are further shortened in the days leading up to a conference. Those sharp, sunny moments take a backseat to long nights, early drives, and endless screen time. Organising the React Native London Conference was the most gruelling, emotional, and rewarding challenge of my career.

For us It wasn’t just another tech event, it was about building a community. Five people, driven by passion, turned what had been a Meetup into something larger. We worked with a love for both React Native and London itself, choosing venues steeped in the industrial history of the city. We brought in core contributors, highlighted open source projects, and gave space for the stories behind popular tools to be shared through fireside chats. It was raw, imperfect, and very real. And that’s why I’d like to share a few lessons I learned.

1. Nothing brings people together like organising something at scale

Around a year ago, our Meetup reached a crossroads. After running monthly for seven years, it had become wildly successful, drawing excited crowds and influential speakers—yet we were feeling burnt-out. The grind of organising speakers, promoting the same events, and ordering the same pizza and beer was taking its toll.

And then, over chicken burgers on November 22nd, 2023, we had an idea: a conference. That idea turned monthly catch-ups into weekly ones, then into daily standups, and eventually into entire evenings dedicated to planning. The growth was so organic that few even noticed it. It was on a beach in sunny Portugal where I timidly broke the news to Callum that we were starting RNL dailies from next week, worried that my mistake of looking at work notifications whilst on holiday would ruin his. His reaction was his trademark “brilliant”, with less sarcasm than usual.

The energy it injected into our team not only made the conference possible but also made our Meetups better. We launched new initiatives, tweeted more in those months than the previous seven years combined, and finally hosted workshops.

2. Organising a conference takes a long, long time

Those of you who have done it before perhaps already know this. If you haven’t been involved in anything like a conference, triple the amount of time you think is needed. We were warned multiple times - and thought we understood. We were wrong.

Plain and simple, there are so many tasks hidden away in the details that you rarely think about but really make the difference. The type of tasks that will have your messaging Josh at 1am because in one of your dreams—now completely clouded by RNL—you remembered that we forgot to brief the venue on how many tables would be needed in the speakers room (he had it all under control of course). Only for Mo to return the favour the next day because we hadn’t yet put together the Theodo ad displayed during the breaks (I didn’t).

We sometimes have the privilege of sending a couple of the organisers to other conferences across Europe, which thankfully opened our eyes to a lot of small details. Like Michael raving about the merch Expo put together for App.js (he still uses the cable organiser 2 years later), or me recognising how React Summit organised the attendee badges alphabetically to streamline the registration process.

You might be thinking “lol, of course you need merch at a conference you amateur”, and yes, we were and largely still are amateurs. But it’s also more understandable to forget these things between signing venue contracts, insurance documents, ordering displays, choosing room layouts, posting on Twitter, Bluesky and Reddit almost daily, finding sponsors and speakers that make the whole thing possible, or even just picking the food menu and drinks at the afterparty.

3. Having great sponsors changes everything

It wouldn’t be a conference retrospective without giving a huge shoutout to our sponsors. The faith they had in us as a first year event was really the only reason I am able to write this, instead of the whole thing just being a distant idea. Every single one was incredibly supportive throughout the whole process and made our lives easy. If anyone reading this has the opportunity to go work with them on any capacity, you should jump at it!

But perhaps more importantly, we wanted to have a room full of sponsors booths that people genuinely want to speak to. For many, the conference experience isn’t one where you spend the day chatting away and meeting new people, and so having friendly faces around who’s job it is to be easy to speak to and take an interest in your day makes all the difference. Be it people building cutting-edge IDEs, representing libraries pushing the limits of RN, or market leaders in error tracking and video streaming, someone walking into the Queen Charlotte room always had something interesting to talk about.

4. You can spend a lot on small things—or not

I’ll spare the detailed financials, but organising a conference is expensive, and budgeting is all about finding a balance. Our goal was simple: survive. We wanted to make it through the first year with enough momentum to do it again, which meant walking a fine line between spending where it mattered and cutting costs where we could.

Tools like Slido—fantastic for engagement but surprisingly pricey—forced us to weigh the value of every pound we spent against our broader goals. Between the eye-watering costs to hire venues in London and marketing on social platforms, you can quickly see why looking for alternatives is crucial. That’s when Callum came across Clapper—an OSS alternative that was a bit rough around the edges, but delivered the same value as it’s counterpart. Honestly, it wasn’t without its quirks (Mo had to frantically scroll through Qs before finding the top one, or Callum having to individually delete dozens of Meme submissions after each round), but those quirks became part of the charm. We saved some much-needed cash, which meant we could afford a few extra rounds at the after party…

We had a chart in the office where we tracked ticket sales—a simple line graph that started off with hopeful optimism (as our early backers showed their faith) and then flattened for weeks. It was a constant reminder of how slow the process was and how much we had riding on those final weeks. True to form, it only really ramped up at the end, a steep incline that coincided with the marketing pushes and the panic-induced ‘last chance’ posts. In hindsight, it was predictable, we’d been warned as much, but watching it unfold in real time felt like a rollercoaster. When the line finally shot up, the relief in the office was palpable. It made the budgeting game even trickier, but also more rewarding when it all worked out.

5. The after party was worth it, the after after party even more so

Word in the town is the after party at RNL Conf was one of those rare “not-cringe” tech parties. And while I take that as the ultimate compliment, I’d love to add a little more for those that couldn’t make it.

It was brought to us by Lissen, a music streaming platform that is disrupting the industry by changing how artists are compensated, and ultimately, how they interact with their audience. On Friday, they took that disruptor tag personally and brought us an incredible acoustic rock performance by Kevin Davy White. As the lights in the room dimmed, his powerful vocals drew the crowds close, into the vaults of the brewery. The next two hours saw a lot of fun and little self respect as we threw ourselves around to the beat of Kevin’s guitar.

But, if you thought kicking out a room of React Native Developers into the streets was a bad idea, we did too. So we did the most London thing imaginable: huddled them all into a shivering outdoor area of a pub in Shoreditch. Who let us hold a conference in November? Despite the cold, I had some of my favourite conversations of the day in this place. I met Kevin from the Netherlands, who’m I’d been exchanging emails about tickets and others logistics with, Thorben from Pinterest who made the journey all the way from New Orleans for our little conference.

Final Thoughts

The React Native London Conference wasn’t perfect, but it was ours—the whole community’s—and the lessons learned were invaluable. The sense of community we built, the passion rekindled, and the connections made were all worth it. I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished, and despite the challenges, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat with the same team. Working alongside such an incredible group of people was the highlight of the entire experience, and I can genuinely say we’ve grown closer through every late night, every frantic Slack message, and every shared victory. Here’s to the next one—a bit wiser, even more connected, and just as excited.

If you’re genuinely interested in getting into the nitty gritty details of conference planning, just drop me a line and I’d be happy to chat!