How do you build community? Especially around a web framework on the cusp of a public v1 release right as society is reopening after a global pandemic? It's not too dissimilar from building a website: trial and error, continuous delivery, teamwork, and a lot of optimism and emojis 😅 In this talk I will share the history and lessons learned from building the Remix Austin meetup. How we went from a single meeting of 2 people in a loud bar, to a community of engineers of varying experience who regularly meet to share demos, talks, and even build a website together. My hope is that our trial and error will be inspiration for anyone trying to build their own tech community. Additionally I hope to encourage the larger Remix community to continue building better websites by cultivating a culture of sharing and connectedness. Speaker Bio: Brooks Lybrand is a Senior Web Engineer for H-E-B, [what he believes is] the best grocery store in the world [okay, at least in Texas]. Brooks specializes in building proof-of-concepts, evaluating tools, and creating highly interactive, data-rich applications. He enjoys exploring new ideas and technologies to help create better experiences for both developers and end-users. When not writing code, he loves spending time with his wife and dogs, camping, playing board games, and pretending he knows what he's talking about when it comes to coffee and mixed drinks. https://remix.run/conf/2023/speakers/brooks-lybrand