Maiden Kansas City Keyboard Meetup Was A Clacking Good Time

Wow! I can’t believe it already came and went — but the first annual (semi-annual?) Kansas City Keyboard Meetup was, in my opinion, a rousing success. And I think organizer and Discord-nominated god among men [Ricardo] agrees with me. (He does; I checked before we left the venue.)

First of all, the attendance was off the charts, perhaps thanks in part to our announcement last week. We aim to get you the news sooner next time, in case you want to come in from surrounding states and municipalities. RSVPs sat around 20-something, and then shot up to 60 or so in the days leading up. Fortunately, there were enough tiny sandwiches, granola bars, and s t i c k e r s to go around. I already put mine on my keebin’ toolbox.

The Hive Was Buzzing

The event took place at Hive Co-Working thanks to [Nick], and overall, the space turned out to be a good layout. We were set up right inside the windows looking out to the street, and I like to think that we drew in a few passers-by, though I am probably more than a little bit biased. I wondered aloud on the way home how a sandwich board out on the sidewalk would have affected the influx of randos.

My husband pointed out that even though we were all the way downtown, this is Kansas City and not New York City, and most of the keyboard enthusiasts about town were already accounted for. Hmpf. I still say we should try a sandwich board next time. We could go meta and mention the tiny sandwiches inside. Don’t worry — there was plenty of sanitizer and napkins to go around, plus a box of gloves.

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The First-Ever Kansas City Keyboard Meetup Is This Weekend

Sometimes, if you wait long enough for something you want, it will come to you. Whether it’s the law of attraction or just plain laziness, it has finally happened — there’s a keyboard meetup happening within a 500-mile radius of me. As far as I know, it’s the first one ever in Kansas City. I’m going, I’m bringing weird keyboards, and I might even have some Hackaday stickers to sprinkle around.

Although the event was originally planned to take place in the side room of a coffeehouse in the historic northeast, it was quickly moved to a much larger, co-working space downtown to accommodate all the maniacs like yours truly who want to bring a whole bunch of keebs. I’m even bringing some tables, y’all.

This’ll be more than just a show and tell, because what kind of object-focused nerd gathering would be complete without a swap meet element? You’re probably going to find that all kinds of keyboards and keyboard accessories are for sale, but you also might get lucky and win a cute bag of switches from Kinetic Labs, or a 3×4 macro pad from Boardsource (who will also have stickers on hand).

Come for the cool keyboards, and stay for the conversations you’ll strike up with the awesome folks who brought them. Who knows, maybe we’ll all infiltrate the slammin’ ice cream shop down the street.

Questions? Comments? Just want to share your excitement? Come join the Discord! If you’re planning to show up on Saturday, please take a second to fill out the head count document. If you do, it’ll probably net you a deli sandwich when you get there.

If you can’t make it, that’s okay — stay tuned for coverage of the event, and start planning for the next one, because hopefully, there will be many more to come.

Main and thumbnail images by Mingwei Lim on Unsplash