New York, new meetup, newsletter!

Hello from @atproto.nyc! Our first dispatch on starting a local meetup, getting some awesome talks on the books, and planning a lot more to explore together.

@atproto.nyc

May 10, 2026 · 4 min read

hoto 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:

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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:

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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 more*
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!

May 2026 Talks

Great mix of talks — prototypes in local-first software, ecosystem building, open source trust & safety, apps for small-scale social and personal collections, and new approaches to community platforms!