Meetup.com - a great way to make new friends

Wondered what to do in dubai when you are new. Well, look no further. Meetup is here. Yes, your one stop place to finding new friends outside the internet. Yes, real people and real conversations up close and personal. Whether you are looking for socialising, find a job, investor or doing some yoga. Meetup.com will help you find the meetup of your interest and voila. You will get whatever you are looking for in a couple of meetups.

The number of people joining Meetups is spiking right now, you just enter your area code and it suggests you the meetups happening close by. You can find one that interest you from
dining out, yoga,kick boxing,camping,entrepreneurship among others.

I attended one such meetup - Coffee ,fun,friends meetup by organiser Bambi from Pakistan. It was a big group that turned up at the Tim Hortons at Sheikh Zayed Road and it was an interesting experience for me. I like to observe people and in this meetup I met people from different walks of life.

There was an Air force pilot who had been on war duty in his home country and was sharing his experiences. There was a school teacher from Dubai who taught chemistry to students. A nurse who worked in hospital in Dubai, an arabic national who was the organiser of another meetup group for backpackers and road trips. It was a great mix of people from different walks of life.

With a vast amount of experience and with different ideas. The organiser started the event informing us about the meetup and requesting all to introduce ourselves one by one. All of the people who introduced themselves also mentioned an interesting fact about themselves. This made the introduction all the more interesting. Then the table was open for people to speak to each other, change their places and try and speak to more people.


I had a conversation with mostly all of the 20 odd people who came to the event, most of them were interested to know about my experience as a writer and how I am able to pursue my hobbies given the limited amount of time we have from our demanding work hours. One of them was a pakistani origin but born and brought up in Europe but wanted to visit India, and somehow wasnt able to get the visa. Another one was a nurse, and had no time for herself with the hectic schedule and demanding job. A meetup was the perfect stress buster for her. Some of the people were there for networking, some for promoting their products/company. Some were plain fun people looking to make more friends. It was a great two hour exchange without the usual mobile and whatsapp chats that most people get into while having their coffee. I must say that I made new friends and look forward to attending more such meetups in the future. Three cheers to Bambi!