Connected by design: Stories from Readymag Community meetups

Any public speaking event starts with mulling over endless ideas, crafting the perfect slides, and rehearsing your talk for the fifth time on the way to the venue. But what follows is worth every second: new knowledge, fresh perspectives, meaningful connections, and the post-talk high.

In this article, speakers from the community and Readymag team members share their memories from five past Community meetups, reflecting on the topics they’ve chosen for their speeches, insights they gleaned during the meetups, and networking that happened afterwards. Read till the end to learn where to join the next event and how to become a host or speaker at one of our future meetups.

Fostering offline human connection

“We started hosting community meetups last year with the idea of offering creatives a platform to connect in person,” says Esenia Hortus, SMM and Community Lead at Readymag. “Readymag has always had a warm, engaged, and loyal community. Many of our users have been with us since the very beginning, and over time, we’ve received lots of messages asking for a way to meet offline.”

Since 2024, Readymag has hosted meetups in Berlin, Barcelona, Porto, and Milan, and there are more cities in the works. “In every location, we had to close registrations early because more people signed up than the spaces could hold.”

“There’s nothing quite like seeing our users in person, sharing ideas, stories, and real human connection. It’s the real-life effect of what we do.”—Esenia Hortus

Except for the networking opportunities, the Community meetups are curated by Readymag to bring value and new opportunities for both visitors and speakers. This way, everyone can get fresh knowledge in the field from their peers, pump up their design skills, learn to promote themselves, and look at things from another designer’s perspective.

Each offline Readymag meetup happens in a location chosen especially for the occasion. People often come earlier to chat and grab a spot and leave long after the last talk to network, ask the Readymag team questions, grab a drink, and pick up some merch.

Berlin

The first-ever Readymag meetup happened in Berlin on September 4, 2024. About 50 people gathered for a demo by Danika Baker-Sohn, Freelance Art Director, Designer, and Illustrator, followed by talks from Irvandy Syafruddin, Lead Digital Designer, Joyce Muller, Freelance Graphic Designer, and Taikonauten, an award-winning Agency.

“Our first meetup in Berlin was the first time I’d ever done a design-demo live, let alone spoken in front of a live audience, and as probably many designers can imagine, speaking and designing live is pretty scary,” recalls Danika Baker-Sohn. “It was a huge challenge for me, but one I was really excited about trying out. I think it all came down to good prep and then allowing myself to be open and actually have fun with the audience. After all, we were all there for the same reason—we all love fun design.”

“My talk and demo were about how to use intentional interactivity to highlight creativity and play in design. I used my own portfolio as an example and walked the audience through how to spice up different pages and elements with animation, effects, and interactivity.”

The demo led to some great chats and questions, and it felt so good to connect with others about our interests and struggles in such an organic way. I collected some very well-designed business cards, and met super-cool people engaged with the design world in different ways. Two people had just started a design studio; some were freelancers, some were agency owners, some were contemplating a move to freelance, etc. It was really sweet to meet so many different people from my city I wouldn’t have met any other way.”

“I think we’re building an exciting space where designers can express themselves—their dreams, worries, and frustrations—safely, and we can demystify the world of design a bit.”—Danika Baker-Sohn

Barcelona

The second gathering happened in Barcelona in November 2024. The speaker lineup featured Matías Dumont, Founder and CEO at Antiestático; Catalina Risso, Brand and Interactive Designer, Educator at Elisava; Jun Ioneda, Graphic Artist, Head at Barca studio, Educator at LABASAD; and Mikhail Nikolaev, Head of Product at Readymag. 

“In my personal opinion, we had one of the most spacious and memorable venues in Barcelona—recommended by our ambassador and speaker, Catalina Risso,” Esenia recalls. “The place was amazing, but November in Barcelona can be cold—honestly, I live here—so if you see people in coats in the photos, that’s why.”

“I see such meetups as a way to build and expand our creative community,” says Catalina Risso, “to realize we’re not alone in our journeys and to share tools, stories, and inspiration.”

“I gave a speech about how working on your portfolio can become a powerful moment of introspection and a way to define who you are professionally and where you want to go. I structured my talk around three keywords: connect, inspire, and give. I shared my own challenges and what has inspired my students and clients, and ended with 10 practical tips.

After the meetup, I felt incredibly excited and grateful. The energy from the attendees was so generous and open, and it was amazing to connect with the other speakers and the Readymag team”.

“Many people reached out afterwards to share their stories or explore collaborations. It became a meaningful space for connection, visibility, and growth, and a great opportunity to strengthen my public speaking practice.”—Catalina Risso

Mikhail Nikolaev, Readymag's Head of Product, took a product-focused approach, explaining the handcrafted interface, composition basics, and interactive features like Lottie, Video, Slideshow, and Shots. “I showed how to do multistep and trigger-based animation, for instance, when designing popups and menus, and explained approaches to working with the mobile version. At the end, I gave an overview of the Figma plugin, Version history, and shared the ways we use Readymag inside our own team.”

“I wanted the presentation to be informative, but also fun,” he says. “I built it around the meetup’s identity and used stamps from my personal collection to illustrate different effects. It took way more time than I expected, but diving into the creative process—especially inside the product you work on every day—is priceless.”

Porto

The next meetup was in Porto in April 2025, with speeches from Rafael Oliveira, Creative Director at Tracksmith, and two Readymaggers, Alya Datii, Head of Marketing, and Francisco Pires, Designer.

“Team participation means a lot. At every event, we make sure to have at least a few Readymag people. This time, we had two among the speakers, plus Alya visited the venue in advance and ran some preparations,” Esenia Hortus explains.

“Since the Porto meetup was on my home turf, I got much more involved beyond just my talk,” Alya recalls. “I suggested the venue, visited the site, discussed logistics, and even shot a few videos of the space for Esenia and our community team. I picked up posters and stickers, cut out name tags, packed up merch I’d stashed at home—and ended up hauling two heavy bags to the venue.”

“As someone who’s worked remotely for years, these meetups have been some of the most fulfilling experiences of the year,” she says. “As the Head of Brand Marketing, I religiously read feedback on review platforms, in support tickets, survey results, and social media comments. Many of my friends and acquaintances work in design, so I often meet Readymag users by chance, too. But meeting people who care enough about Readymag to carve time out of their day and show up in person hits differently. Of course, there’s the practical value: understanding our audience better so I can do my job better. But for me, the emotional side outweighs everything. These are the people whose attention I work for and who inspire me.”

“After the event, I went on two coffee dates, a concert, a dance performance, and a bar night—all with new friends I met there. And I’m sure it doesn’t end there.”—Alya Datii

Francisco Pires, a Designer at Readymag, also left the event feeling energized. “It’s always rewarding to share something you care about and feel it resonate,” he says. “I had great conversations at the venue. A few people came over just to say hi, and we connected over the themes of the presentation and working on similar things. For me, the purpose of these meetups is community as the way to share knowledge, inspire each other, and build a solid network.”

Milan

The lovely Pop-Eye Studio hosted the Milan meetup in June 2025. Pop-Eye Studio is a Milan-based creative studio owned and run by Lino di Maio and Laura Sauchelli. They turn different ideas into bold visuals, mixing graphic design, illustration, digital products, and a pinch of weirdness. Lino di Maio and Laura Sauchelli were among the speakers, along with Giovanna Crise, multidisciplinary designer and brand strategist at illo.tv, and Helena Sciavarrello, designer, content creator, and design educator.

“Lino and Laura were incredibly welcoming, and their space was just perfect. Knowing they’ve used Readymag for 10 years made it even more meaningful.”—Esenia Hortus.

“I gave a talk titled ‘Take off the labels. Become a story,” says Giovanna Crise. “It was all about shaking off fixed definitions—designer, strategist, whatever—and embracing your journey as something more fluid and interesting.”

She reveals she “spent way too much time obsessing over the words,” rewriting the talk multiple times. “I even did some light stalking of the other speakers out of professional curiosity, of course, and it was actually really nice to have a pre-event digital meetup with them. Also, I went all-in on the visuals: animated slides and custom transitions. Basically, I’ve created a mini motion design workout just for this presentation.

“So many people came to talk to me after the presentation, sharing thoughts and stories. It really felt like we were all on the same page. I also had the chance to connect deeply with the hosts, the lovely people at Pop-Eye Studio.”

“And the best feedback? Quite a few people said I was “vulnerable”, which, in this context, I’m taking as a massive compliment.”—Giovanna Crise

Helena’s talk, “Real, Fun, and Flawed: Why personality matters in design”, encouraged designers to bring more of themselves into their work. “I talked about my journey, and how I’ve built a practice that’s playful, expressive, and intentionally imperfect, and why I believe good design doesn’t have to be perfect.”

Her preparation started in an unusual place: “I opened my WhatsApp chat with myself. That’s where I write down all my random thoughts, so I just went through that messy archive and started to organize them into something cohesive. While doing that, I realized that since becoming a freelancer almost two years ago, I’d never really stopped to reflect on my path. It made me realize how many things I’ve done, how many people I’ve met, and how far I’ve come, which gave me a lot of new energy.” 

Online meetup in Spanish

Our first online community meetup was cooked for Spanish-speaking creatives. It was held in June 2025 and hosted by our Ambassador Catalina Risso, featuring Readymag’s Support agent Katherine Rodriguez Hernandez and the designer Martina Wunderlin, whose website was shortlisted for the Readymag Websites of 2024.

“I ran a live demo of Readymag, showing medium-level animations with basic widgets like text, images, and icons to make a basic landscape look interactive,” says Katherine. “I also highlighted new features like the Figma plugin and Version History.”

“First, I prepared two demo projects, one with a neutral topic and another focused on a design portfolio. Both were really fun to make, but I ended up going with the design portfolio demo. I rebuilt each project quite a few times until I had the flow and configurations fully memorized.”

“Even though the meetup was virtual, it had a really intimate vibe. Some attendees even dropped their contact info in the chat. It’s nice knowing we now have this shared experience to refer back to,” she adds.

Join our next online meetup on August 26. It’ll be focused on portfolios with Danika Baker-Sohn running a demo session and talks on portfolio building by three more speakers.

If you’d like to host a meetup in your city or speak at one, apply to our Ambassador Program.