InstaCity: Adelaide, South Australia

InstaCity is a blog series that introduces you to local Instagram groups around the world.

With the Worldwide InstaMeet approaching on 11 March, Adelaide InstaMeet organizer Kalista (@k_thx) offered to share some details about her city’s meetups that we hope help you organize your own!

City: Adelaide, South Australia.

First InstaMeet: February 3rd, 2012.

Next InstaMeet: 11 March 2012.

What we do: Our first meet was a casual coffee catch up, at E for Ethel. The owner, Amanda, is an Instagrammer herself and has been super supportive. We’ll definitely have more social events in the future as well as photowalks, scavenger hunts and themed meets (e.g. petstagram). It’s early days for us, but the support and enthusiasm we’ve received has been overwhelming!

Attendance: We had 16 people at our first meet and have 60+ members on our Facebook group, which is growing daily!

How we organize: Our Facebook group is our main mode of communication. It seems to have the most reach. We’re also starting to utilize Twitter (@instadelaide) as well as posts within Instagram itself obviously! We’ve been tagging our photos with #instagramadelaide and #instameetadelaide.

What makes Adelaide unique: Adelaide is a small city and quite cliquey, but I think we’re using this to our advantage. Adelaide is the type of place where everyone knows everyone so it’s been quite easy to spread the word and build interest. During the summer the city steps it up a notch with festival after festival, including the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Womadelaide, among others. The population of the city swells with all manner of comedians, dancers and carnies, and the city comes alive. We way be small but we have a vibrant and ever-growing arts community and have received lots of support from people like Adelaide Tweet who have helped promote us. I foresee great things for Adelaide’s Instagram community!

Photos from in and around Adelaide, South Australia

Photos by dodge76, katejm, retroajw, thisisepic, dicotyledon, gamtch, kirstenleeee, k_thx, & othersuchthings.

Want your city’s meetup group featured here? Write us at instameet [at] instagram.com.

InstaMeet Tips: Icebreakers

With over 250 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeet, we wanted to give you some tips for connecting with the folks you meet at your city’s photowalk!

InstaMeets are a great way to get to know the people in your hometown using Instagram. To help you branch out and get the conversation flowing with your fellow Instagrammers, we’ve put together a few tips to keep in mind before, during, and after your photowalk.

Before

  • Bring nametags: Hand out nametags and ask everyone to write down their name & username. It helps connect faces to photos!
  • Use a hashtag: Ask everyone to tag their photos with the same hashtag so everyone can easily find each other’s photos on Instagram. We recommend making your tag unique by using the name of your city in your tag, such as #instawalksydney or #instawalktoronto.

During

Chances are you’ll have a lot in common with the people around you. Be sure to use the opportunity to get to know them! Here are some questions you might want to ask to get things started:

After

  • Follow your new friends! Be sure to check out the tag page for your city and follow the people you met on your photowalk.
  • Don’t wait for the next Worldwide InstaMeet! Instagrammers in cities around the world get together all the time to go on photowalks or just meet up in a bar. You can organize a big meetup in your city or just go out shooting with a few of the new friends you made any time of the year.

InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

    Photo Tips: Stick with A Theme

    With almost 200 communities participating in the upcoming Worldwide InstaMeet, we wanted to provide some photography tips to help you make your city’s photowalk unique!

    Subjects

    Select a subject that is easily discoverable on your photowalk’s route. Can you plan the walk so you pass only tall buildings? Are you able to find multiple windows with hand-painted letters? Perhaps there’s a lot of street art in your city! Pre-planning your walk, picking up on common subjects, then providing that subject as a theme will challenge photowalk participants to see subjects that may otherwise go unnoticed!

    Filters

    Utilize only one filter on every shared photograph. While this can be a huge challenge, having a visually cohesive theme will result in a beautiful hashtag pool for your city’s photowalk, as well as your personal photo feed. Try asking participants to utilize only the new Sierra filter with a border, then share any obstacles you come across as a result while you walk along!

    Props

    Photograph the same prop interacting with multiple scenes. Ask participants to bring similarly themed props to the photowalk, like vinyl toys or fake moustaches, and provide them with unique situations that they should photograph their props in. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a photowalk hashtag filled with mini toy dinosaurs taking over a city?! The only way to answer that question is with an all caps “YES!”.

    These ideas aren’t just great for creating a fun and interesting photowalk - they can also be applied to your own photography! Challenge yourself to stick to one (or several) of these themes for an entire month. Not only will your Instagram profile look beautiful, but you’ll likely learn a thing or two about photography in the process!

    InstaMeet banner image provided by @lauralawson.

    Worldwide InstaMeet: 11 March 2012

    Are you ready for the 4th Worldwide InstaMeet?! We’re very excited to announce that on Sunday, March 11th, you’ll have the chance to get together with other Instagrammers in your town by organizing your very own meetup!

    This time around, we’re asking everyone to go on a photowalk together. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing tips for your upcoming photowalk, as well as featuring recent InstaMeets in order to spark some creativity & encourage you to join in by organizing or participating in an InstaMeet in your hometown.

    How to Participate

    1. Go to meetup.com/instagram and find a meetup going on in your city, then click “Count me in.” If you don’t see an upcoming event in your hometown, start one!
    2. Help spread the word on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and wherever else you can! See our InstaMeets page for more tips!
    3. Join up with other Instagrammers on your city’s meetup day, get inspired and make new friends!

    The photos above were taken at recent InstaMeet photowalks! The photo on the left was taken by @instagramnyc on the #warbywalk, and the photo on the right was taken by @cinemaone during #instahuntsf.

    Recap: October’s Worldwide InstaMeet

    Thanks to everyone around the world who participated in our third Worldwide InstaMeet! Instagrammers from Los Angeles to London and from Toronto to Melbourne organized meetups and got a chance to meet fellow Instagrammers in their area. We had a blast meeting members of the Instagram community at the San Francisco meetup and are already looking forward to the next Worldwide InstaMeet. In the meantime, we encourage you to organize your own get-togethers, photowalks, and talks — take a look at the InstaMeets page for tips on getting started!

    San Francisco InstaMeet

    Portland InstaMeet

    Los Angeles InstaMeet

    Austin InstaMeet

    Houston InstaMeet

    Dallas InstaMeet

    InstaCake in Toronto

    Burlington InstaMeet

    Melbourne InstaMeet

    New York City InstaMeet

    Brasilia InstaMeet

    Mexico City InstaMeet

    Singapore InstaMeet

    Paris InstaMeet

    Photos by pozer, grether, ehren, whiskeyred, takeorey, kylesteed, aratisharma, nravlin, stevenpam, aliveinnyc, rafaelohana, loiicg, pinoysg, missstefny_ih.

    It’s Worldwide InstaMeet Day!

    Today is Worldwide InstaMeet Day! Get together with other Instagrammers in your area by joining your city’s meetup. Don’t forget to tag your photos #instameet — we may feature your photo in our October InstaMeet recap later this week! Take a look at photos already shared from InstaMeets around the world.

    Manila InstaMeet

    Sydney InstaMeet

    Melbourne InstaMeet

    Offenburg, Germany InstaMeet

    London InstaMeet

    Hong Kong InstaMeet

    Singapore InstaMeet

    Photos by igersmanila, hannahdemilta, haikugirloz, dotdean, igerslondon, hkharbourcity & melomarcelo

    Reminder: The Next Worldwide InstaMeet Is This Wednesday!

    The next Worldwide InstaMeet is this Wednesday, October 26th! If you haven’t already, go to meetup.com/instagram to find an InstaMeet in your area, then check out the InstaMeets page for tips on getting involved.

    Here’s a roundup of blog posts we’ve written to help you get involved and spread the word about your city’s meetup:

    Don’t forget to tag your meetup photos #instameet, or even send an email to instameet@instagram.com with links to photos from your city’s meetup and a brief description. We’d love to know how everything went, and we’re excited to feature more InstaMeet photos on our blog!

    InstaMeet: On Your Meetup Day

    The next Worldwide InstaMeet is just a week away! As you prepare for your city’s meetup, we’d like to remind you about a few simple things that may be helpful on meetup day.

    • Keep it simple: The goal is to get other Instagrammers together and talking, so meeting in a bar or park is a great option for your first meetup. There’s always time to organize more elaborate meetups!
    • Don’t be afraid to start small: It’s okay if only a few folks have signed up for your city’s meetup. 2 or 3 people is still a meetup! You’ll get larger turnouts in the future as more people in your area learn about getting involved.
    • Tag your meetup photos #instameet and #instameetyourcity (e.g. #instameetlondon): This will make it easy for others to find photos from your meetup. This is also a good way to reach out to other Instagrammers in your area that may not have known about the meetup — read our post on creating an InstaMeet invitation for more details.
    • Let us know how your meetup went: Send us a brief note and the share URL to your group meetup photos — we may even feature the photos here on our blog! You can write us at instameet@instagram.com

    For more tips on planning your meetup, take a look at our InstaMeets page.

    Do you have any other advice for Instagrammers planning InstaMeets? Reblog this and let us know in the comments!

    [Photo from the Houston InstaMeet by lil_miss]

    How to Spread The Word about Your City’s InstaMeet

    The next Worldwide InstaMeet is coming up on Wednesday, October 26. Check out our InstaMeets page to find out how to get involved.

    Help spread the word about your city’s meetup by sharing an InstaMeet invitation! Here are some tips to make sure as many Instagrammers in your area know when and where to go on meetup day.

    Step 1: Design Your Invitation
    There are plenty of apps that make it easy to give your invitations a unique look. A great Instagram photo of your city or meetup location combined with one of the following apps will help you create a beautiful InstaMeet invitation in minutes.

    Step 2: Share Your Invitation 
    After you’ve created your InstaMeet invitation, follow these tips to reach the Instagrammers in your area:

    • Share the photo on Instagram using the #instameet tag as well as your city’s tag (for example, #instameetlondon).
    • In a comment on your photo, @ mention users you follow in your city and give them permission to reshare your invitation — the more people who see it, the better!
    • Share the invitation on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks to reach as many of your friends as you can.
    • Use the “…” button below your photo to copy the photo’s share URL, then share the URL on your city’s Meetup page.

    Photos by jayzombie, drewbeck, william_alvarez, igersmontreal, angrylittlestella , junhazuki, lilithgrrl, igerschicago, grether, igersroma, instasg, atomicplayboy & msiagirl.

    Have any other tips for spreading the word about your city’s InstaMeet? Reblog this and let us know!

    Worldwide InstaMeet: Meetup Ideas

    The next Worldwide InstaMeet is Wednesday, October 26. Want to get involved? Learn how by visiting our InstaMeets page. 

    Wondering what to do when you meet up in-person with other Instagrammers in your area? Here are some ideas! 

    Meet at a bar or park: Start casually and discuss your favorite filters and photo techniques with other Instagrammers in a bar, park or other public setting. 

    Photowalk: Pick a route in your city and spend an hour or two snapping photos with other Instagrammers. Check out these great photos from the San Francisco photowalks. 

    Scavenger Hunt: The NYC Instagram crew organized a photo scavenger hunt — over 50 people participated, snapping photos of everything from “someone eating a hot dog” to “5 or more strangers in a conga line.”

    Have any other ideas? Reblog this post and let us know!

    Photos by mishobaranovic, neil, manawatu_nz, jajouka, ravinasniper and lfstewart