Founder and host
South Austin Games was a free Friday board-game night, open to anyone in Austin and hosted at my family's home.
I founded it, ran it and hosted it every week for about a year.
It grew past 1,000 members, and every Friday the waitlist ran into the hundreds.
Friday board games started as a family tradition: my mom, my little brother and me around our table after a hard few years. I wanted more people at it. So I created a Meetup group called South Austin Games, listed a free Friday game night open to anyone in Austin, and hosted it at our home. Most of the people who walked through the door were strangers, at least the first time.
I capped each night at what the house could seat, about 20 people. Every Friday it filled, from 6 to 10 p.m., and everyone else went on the waitlist, which ran into the hundreds. Before the games started, my mom and I cooked dinner for the whole table. Over the year the group passed 1,000 members, all from a free listing and word of mouth.
My job on Fridays was everyone else's night. I greeted newcomers at the door, matched people to tables and games they'd like, taught the rules, and ran the seating and the waitlist. My other rule came from the same Fridays: in any group, meet everyone.
I think the best events are the ones where the host is having the least fun.
A typical table mixed regulars who came almost every week with people who had found us on Meetup that day.
A big strategy game, mid-turn.
When my family moved across town in 2025, I made the call to close the group and deleted the Meetup account. The regulars started a private group chat and kept playing together.
A year of Fridays taught me how to get a room of strangers talking. I used the same skill at my first job, selling to filmmakers at SXSW.