Bringing new people into pool.

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
A few months ago, I started an experiment to help bring new people into pool.

It started with a perchance happening when I was interested in learning more about photography. I googled photography lessons and up popped this link to something called MeetUp.

MeetUp is an internet system whereby people of like minds and interests can get together and share experiences, knowledge and interests in a wide variety of hobbies. I had no idea how vast the interests would be.

If you are new in town, the first thing you should do is to join Meetup and select whatever interests you have. There is no fee to join. the only fees are for people who want to start a group.

So after joining the photographer's group (those people were so nice to this newbie, it's just admirable), I thought that maybe I could do the same thing for pool.

I talked to a couple of the pool room owners and they agreed to fund the cost of getting a "billiard/pool/pool league" for several months.

Without any effort on my part or anyone else's part, our LOCAL pool group has grown from 3 people to over 80 in a few short months. ALMOST ALL OF THE NEW MEMBERS SEEM TO BE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOVICES OR WHO HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM POOL FOR MANY YEARS.
MeetUp does the "marketing" of your group for you.

Anyway, if you truly want to see pool grow as a hobby, consider starting your own MeetUp group on a local basis. It's not that expensive and local pool room owners "should" quickly recognize the benefits for them.

So this thread is about MeetUp.com which you can visit for free and check out this most interesting social media that is transforming how we "meetup".

If you have any questions, you can have them answered on their website or if you have specific questions about how our MeetUp pool group is doing, feel free to ask.

You can also search any particular city for a "pool/billiard" group to see how many members they have and such things.

JoeyA

P.S. Start your own local MeetUp Pool Group! There's a lot of good people out there who would love to be a part of a larger group dedicated to ENJOYING playing pool and SOCIALIZING. Yeah, it is a great way to meet new people.
 
Within 50 miles of me, which includes Boston, there is nothing relating to pool or billiards, but over 500 members of groups that sword fight LOL
 
EXACTLY! Other groups of people are gathering new warriors for their hobby every day and what are we doing? Wringing our hands, gnashing our teeth and wailing like banshees.
:D
JoeyA

hang-the-9 said:
Within 50 miles of me, which includes Boston, there is nothing relating to pool or billiards, but over 500 members of groups that sword fight LOL
Click to expand...
 
I remember being part of one in Tokyo when I lived there. Same concept, happened to come across meetup.com and found a pool meetup group. made some good friends that way. We would always go for good food, drink, and sometimes karaoke after. and every meetup had at least 3 to 4 new faces.
 
bdorman said:
Goplaypool is good for what it is, but the idea of MeetUp is to expose your hobby to a wide population with casual-to-no interest in pool. Where people will browse the list of groups and say "that sounds interesting..."
Click to expand...

YES!

And the success of your local Meetup Pool Group will depend partially on how you build it. People will join without trying to influence them but if they stay with the group will depend upon whether or not the experience was an enjoyable one.

I also don't recommend having just one pool room to put up the cost for starting a group. In large metropolitan areas where there are multiple pool rooms, it would behoove all of the interested pool rooms from participating.


JoeyA
 
Youre Welcome

JoeyA said:
Thanks for the prompt, Robin! :)
JoeyA
Click to expand...

Youre welcome! Its a great thing youre doing. As you know I am trying to get support to start one out of the rooms I play in.

I would like to add some numbers here.

I live in 27055 area code. When I type in my area code and I live in a small town 17 miles from a medium size urban area.

Within 20 miles of 27055 there are 17,438 people in the various meetup groups. So this thing is smoking hot.

I see that there is potential as Joey mentioned the great success he has had to pick up a new demographic for potential pool players. These people are out there doing something with their lives and are members of other groups.

Once you register a meetup group, you become one group of many and at least in my case 17, 438 people automatically know about it if they look.

Even if they don't look at the new group. What would be wrong with contacting say the Beer Drinkers group or the Chess Players group or the Provocateurs, or Novel Readers, writers, hikers, etc and inviting them in for some free pool and let the have some semi organized fun and let them develop a love for pool.

This thing is everything I ever wanted for Pool. Its great local exposure that will allow the people who care to do something about it their own personal way, making it what they want it to be and very low cost.

How Awesome is that? .
 
Regarding The GoPlayPool App

Just for people to know:
The new platform is being made as we speak! All database based and Fully responsive on over 8,000 devices! With a tentative release date of August-ish! :grin:

We are also in process of adding chat options onto the platform which is on our own server with no outside influence! It is a work in progress which will make the app more interactive, of course!

It will also have way more info than it has now: From Table count to thumbs up rating systems, League or tourney availability and much more per listing!

Member rooms, of course, get much more and will be able to showcase their events, flyers, food menu and much more on their own page(s) and send out "push notifications" too! :)

We will have a press release eventually and will let everyone know!
 
Awesome App

GoPlayPool said:
Just for people to know:
The new platform is being made as we speak! All database based and Fully responsive on over 8,000 devices! With a tentative release date of August-ish! :grin:

We are also in process of adding chat options onto the platform which is on our own server with no outside influence! It is a work in progress which will make the app more interactive, of course!

It will also have way more info than it has now: From Table count to thumbs up rating systems, League or tourney availability and much more per listing!

Member rooms, of course, get much more and will be able to showcase their events, flyers, food menu and much more on their own page(s) and send out "push notifications" too! :)

We will have a press release eventually and will let everyone know!
Click to expand...

That sounds like an awesome app. Im sort of techno dummy but Im using my phone for more and more these days. Sounds great more is just more....like more new people into pool!
 
Keith Jawahir said:
I remember being part of one in Tokyo when I lived there. Same concept, happened to come across meetup.com and found a pool meetup group. made some good friends that way. We would always go for good food, drink, and sometimes karaoke after. and every meetup had at least 3 to 4 new faces.
Click to expand...

Yes, MeetUp is world wide. I didn't know about it until I googled "Photography Lessons" Lol.

I notice that the new Meetup members aren't trying to become the next world champions and are interested in socializing while playing a little pool AND SPENDING MONEY! Isn't that what pool room owners need instead of players whining about the cost of a bottle of water?

JoeyA
 
I haven't contacted even one other group and in a few short months, the membership has grown from 3, to over 80 members. There appears to be no end in sight. But that sounds like a reasonable way to promote your group.

JoeyA

336Robin said:
Youre welcome! Its a great thing youre doing. As you know I am trying to get support to start one out of the rooms I play in.

I would like to add some numbers here.

I live in 27055 area code. When I type in my area code and I live in a small town 17 miles from a medium size urban area.

Within 20 miles of 27055 there are 17,438 people in the various meetup groups. So this thing is smoking hot.

I see that there is potential as Joey mentioned the great success he has had to pick up a new demographic for potential pool players. These people are out there doing something with their lives and are members of other groups.

Once you register a meetup group, you become one group of many and at least in my case 17, 438 people automatically know about it if they look.

Even if they don't look at the new group. What would be wrong with contacting say the Beer Drinkers group or the Chess Players group or the Provocateurs, or Novel Readers, writers, hikers, etc and inviting them in for some free pool and let the have some semi organized fun and let them develop a love for pool.

This thing is everything I ever wanted for Pool. Its great local exposure that will allow the people who care to do something about it their own personal way, making it what they want it to be and very low cost.

How Awesome is that? .
Click to expand...
 
JoeyA said:
A few months ago, I started an experiment to help bring new people into pool.

It started with a perchance happening when I was interested in learning more about photography. I googled photography lessons and up popped this link to something called MeetUp.

MeetUp is an internet system whereby people of like minds and interests can get together and share experiences, knowledge and interests in a wide variety of hobbies. I had no idea how vast the interests would be.

If you are new in town, the first thing you should do is to join Meetup and select whatever interests you have. There is no fee to join. the only fees are for people who want to start a group.

So after joining the photographer's group (those people were so nice to this newbie, it's just admirable), I thought that maybe I could do the same thing for pool.

I talked to a couple of the pool room owners and they agreed to fund the cost of getting a "billiard/pool/pool league" for several months.

Without any effort on my part or anyone else's part, our LOCAL pool group has grown from 3 people to over 80 in a few short months. ALMOST ALL OF THE NEW MEMBERS SEEM TO BE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOVICES OR WHO HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM POOL FOR MANY YEARS.
MeetUp does the "marketing" of your group for you.

Anyway, if you truly want to see pool grow as a hobby, consider starting your own MeetUp group on a local basis. It's not that expensive and local pool room owners "should" quickly recognize the benefits for them.

So this thread is about MeetUp.com which you can visit for free and check out this most interesting social media that is transforming how we "meetup".

If you have any questions, you can have them answered on their website or if you have specific questions about how our MeetUp pool group is doing, feel free to ask.

You can also search any particular city for a "pool/billiard" group to see how many members they have and such things.

JoeyA

P.S. Start your own local MeetUp Pool Group! There's a lot of good people out there who would love to be a part of a larger group dedicated to ENJOYING playing pool and SOCIALIZING. Yeah, it is a great way to meet new people.
Click to expand...


Joey , isn't this basically what AZB is , minus the marketing.
 
david(tx) said:
Joey , isn't this basically what AZB is , minus the marketing.
Click to expand...

I don't think so David(tx).

AZB is a place where you go to talk about pool but wind up having to defend yourself against the stalkers and haters. Lol

AZB is a place where you go virtually, BUT DON'T spend any money, unless you buy something from one of the people trying to make a profit or living selling pool related stuff. But today, it seem that selling something in the Main Forum is tantamount to sacrilege. I hear even the For Sale Forum have gone to hell in a hand basket.

MeetUp goes after people, looking for something pleasant to do with their free time. I wouldn't be surprised if Meetup turns into a very wealthy company. AZB doesn't look for new people to bring in, to the best of my knowledge. I just know MeetUp is kind of on auto-pilot when it comes to recruiting new members to anything.

Although for the most part, I have enjoyed writing about my pool experiences for the Main Forum and have met a lot of GREAT NEW FRIENDS, who I get a chance to say hello to when I play in a tournament when I am in their area, or we meet at a pool tournament, the idea of having to get down in the mud and wrestle with the rest of the pigs, isn't my idea of having fun, as it seems to be with others who get their jollies, seeing someone "get their panties in a bunch".

I'm sure like anything else, any Meetup Group will be what you make of it.

It isn't surprising to me that so few people have bothered to reply to this thread. The truth is becoming painfully clear and that is that most people want to ***** about this and that, those and them, he and she et cetera but if it means taking a few minutes of their time and trying to make the pool world a better place, they just aren't interested in doing it. A lot of people just come to AZB to start a virtual slug fest or to watch a virtual slug fest and take sides. It is what it is.

Doing something positive for pool is for the most part, the farthest thing from most people's mind, especially on this forum. I suppose trying to do something positive takes work and effort.

Needling other posters doesn't take much effort and if they can get away with it, there is no price to be paid. :shrug::shrug::shrug:

JoeyA
 
GoPlayPool said:
Just for people to know:
The new platform is being made as we speak! All database based and Fully responsive on over 8,000 devices! With a tentative release date of August-ish! :grin:

We are also in process of adding chat options onto the platform which is on our own server with no outside influence! It is a work in progress which will make the app more interactive, of course!

It will also have way more info than it has now: From Table count to thumbs up rating systems, League or tourney availability and much more per listing!

Member rooms, of course, get much more and will be able to showcase their events, flyers, food menu and much more on their own page(s) and send out "push notifications" too! :)

We will have a press release eventually and will let everyone know!
Click to expand...

Can't wait for the update, trying to get details about the rooms is a big issue, it's clear most places are just bars with a few tables, likely in bad shape. Ability to drill into the details about the place with info about tournaments, table count, size and condition, reviews, etc... would make the app a lot more usable.
 
Can you detail what is the difference between a "Member Room" and a Non-Member Room? Is there a difference in cost? IF so, how much?

Thanks,
JoeyA


GoPlayPool said:
Just for people to know:
The new platform is being made as we speak! All database based and Fully responsive on over 8,000 devices! With a tentative release date of August-ish! :grin:

We are also in process of adding chat options onto the platform which is on our own server with no outside influence! It is a work in progress which will make the app more interactive, of course!

It will also have way more info than it has now: From Table count to thumbs up rating systems, League or tourney availability and much more per listing!

Member rooms, of course, get much more and will be able to showcase their events, flyers, food menu and much more on their own page(s) and send out "push notifications" too! :)

We will have a press release eventually and will let everyone know!
Click to expand...
 
A lot of work

hang-the-9 said:
Can't wait for the update, trying to get details about the rooms is a big issue, it's clear most places are just bars with a few tables, likely in bad shape. Ability to drill into the details about the place with info about tournaments, table count, size and condition, reviews, etc... would make the app a lot more usable.
Click to expand...

That's going to be a lot of work and there will likely be a lot that app can be designed to do. Imagine this Im not sure how this Fargo system is going to work that CSI is doing but its suppose to make it possible understand handicaps across a wide range league systems the way I understood the comments. This would help tournament directors nail down if they had sleepers coming in from across the country but that's not the big thing. A standard of play could be established and adhered to from a smart phone. To me that raises the number of high ranking players nationwide and allows them to be separated into events just for them and the viewing public. People might have events they come out to watch provided the venue has a place for them to watch from. For us guys in the South that would mean a lot. The only thing we have here now remotely close by is the US Open and that's once a year and seating is not friendly for the amount of people that could be made to understand there is a tournament/trade show being held. That app could do a lot more I would imagine and Im not super technical and I can see that.
 
Great Idea..........

I hope poolrooms everywhere try this for sure.

It looks like it's a no brainer.

Great way to pump up the volume for sure.

See ya Soon............
 
Here's the latest on Meetup here in NOLA.

Greater New Orleans Area "Pool - Billiards" Meetup
2 new members joined your Meetup Group!
You now have 97 members! Nice work!
________________________________________
Dewain Baldwin
Message now

You're both members of
New Orleans Photography EXPERIENCE

________________________________________
Mohammed Junaid
Message now

JoeyA
 
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