Hey folks,
This is part two of the EuroMeetup 2026 recap. You can find @KristofVaneeck 's main recap post here. As Kristof was in Dublin and leading the group there, his recap post covers the Friday-Monday activities and revelries!
For this post, I’ll be sharing some behind-the-scenes info about the meet-up. Perhaps a bit boring but maybe it can help others who haven’t organised a meet-up before.
Anyway, the event was put together at quite the last minute. We used a group chat from last year’s meet-up and created a poll to gather insight for this year’s event. That poll essentially showed that attendees preferred holding the EuroMeetup event alongside the ConnectLIVE Dublin event (as an extension, really) to minimise costs and days off.
So, I helped kick things off and started planning for the event, whilst openly recruiting for a host/event leader since I couldn’t physically attend. Thankfully, Kristof kindly came to the rescue!! Phew!! 
Huge thanks to Kristof for taking on the harder work of herding the attendees across Dublin and keeping everyone happy! And also, thanks to @OmerAli for helping with some of the planning and for his experience exploring Dublin! Even @DavidTerronPla 's partner shared their experience with Dublin and offered assistance!! That’s the community (and partners) coming together!! 
Thanks again everyone!
For planning, we ran another poll to create a list of places to visit based on interests and availability. We then tried our best to schedule them across different days to maximise attendance. Another round of feedback from the attendees helped us refine the schedule so that it was not too rushed.
We eventually settled on the following schedule:
Friday, 8 May
20:00 EuroMeetup Welcome Reception
Saturday, 9 May
10:00 Guinness Storehouse
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Trinity College & Book of Kells
19:00 Dinner
20:30 Evening social
Sunday, 10 May
10:30 Howth Cliff Walk
15:00 Lunch
18:30 Celtic Nights (Dinner & Entertainment)
Monday, 11 May
10:00 Teeling Whiskey Distillery
Note: ConnectLIVE Dublin took place from 7-8 May
This was the original general plan but I believe there were some further add-ons and changes throughout the day, with the exception of tours that were booked in advance. 
In case anybody wants to organise an event but don’t know where to start, I hope the following will be helpful. Here are the tools we used for this event:
- Telegram: Group chat
- Gmail: Announcements/updates
- Google Forms: Registration form
- Google Sheets: Event planning, sign-ups etc
- Google Gemini: Research (we created a table of 26 POIs listing the cost, pros/cons, distance etc that helped us narrow down on a smaller selection)
- Google MyMaps: Custom maps listing all POIs
- Google Photos: Group album
- Affinity & Canva: Graphic design
For the most part, planning an event isn’t too difficult. There’s always a balance to be found between having everything organised to the second vs having free time and flexibility to allow the day to unfold organically. Or, balancing too many options against too few options. Or, finding food places that can cater to different dietary needs.
Eventually we got there and to be fair, the attendees were supportive and flexible! And luckily, we had Kristof to keep everyone tipsy enough to enjoy Dublin! 
You can find some event photos and video below:
Lastly, I just wanted to share the design concepts for the t-shirt and hand-fan. As always, I created multiple variants for folks to choose from:
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for printing on light or dark t-shirt colours
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different sub-headers and dates; choose between ConnectLIVE only, EuroMeetup only or both
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different figure heads; choose from 5 different options
The figure heads are, clockwise from top left:- Kellie Harrington - She is a back-to-back Olympic gold medalist, having secured gold in both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. She is one of the most beloved figures in modern Irish sports. Her victories literally brought the city streets to a standstill with massive local celebrations.
- Mary Robinson - She is the first female President of Ireland (elected in 1990) where she is considered to have shifted the country into a modern, progressive era.
- Oscar Wilde - He is the ultimate symbol of Dublin’s literary brilliance and flamboyant spirit. He redefined modern wit and remains one of the most quoted people in the English language.
- U2 (the band) - U2 was formed in a Dublin secondary school (Mount Temple) in 1976, and this quartet grew from earnest post-punk teenagers into one of the biggest and most enduring rock bands on the planet, all while maintaining a fiercely strong connection to their Dublin roots.
- Phil Lynott - He is the frontman of Thin Lizzy, and is Dublin’s favourite son. He grew up in Crumlin and became Ireland’s first genuine rock star. He broke barriers as a Black Irishman in the 1970s and gave Dublin a cool, rebellious edge that persists today.
The hand-fan and hex-sticker designs were pretty straightforward. It’s not my best work but hopefully they double as nice souvenirs!
Overall, I think the event went well! I was quite bummed out that I wasn’t there but because I am going to ConnectLIVE CDMX, I didn’t feel that it was appropriate for me to be there even if EuroMeetup only happened after ConnectLIVE Dublin. For context, originally, I was meant to be travelling with my parents in the UK/Europe in May but I had to cancel my trips because of the situation in Iran and my parents did not want to risk flying over. 
Anyway, c’est la vie!
I do want to end on a happy note 
so I want to also share this lovely photo of the souvenirs/gifts that I received from the EuroMeetup participants! Even though I wasn’t there, they had thought of me and got me some thank-you gifts! Thank you too to @PeteMHW for carrying the items over!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post! Thanks for your time and attention and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below!
