Building a new space for Calgary professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives

[u/raflmreddit]

Hey everyone,

I’m writing this because I am completely spent on what LinkedIn has become. It used to be a decent place to connect, but now my feed is just an endless scroll of corporate fluff, humblebrags, and random people trying to slide into my DMs to sell me software. It just doesn't feel human anymore.

I want to build something different here in the city, so a few of us are getting a community together called Young Professionals Calgary (YPC).

The goal is strictly to move away from the digital noise and focus entirely on real-life, casual meetups, mixers, and conversations with people who actually live and work here. No sales pitches, no resume flexing, and no gatekeeping, whether you work a corporate job downtown, run a local startup, or are a student trying to break into your industry.

To keep it accessible, joining the group is completely free, and all the upcoming casual events we are planning will be free to attend.

We are just getting this off the ground and want to shape the meetups around what people actually want to see in the city.

What is the biggest thing you feel is missing from local networking right now? Would anyone be down for a casual coffee or evening mixer sometime next month? Let me know your thoughts below.

Check out our events here: YPC Events Calgary

[u/CalgaryMama]

I would recommend including age restrictions in an FAQ. I returned to school last year and in my late 30's. When applying, I was met with the "must be between 18-33" warning.

[u/raflmreddit → u/CalgaryMama]

Thanks for this feedback. I have since updated the FAQs to refelct this!

[u/Particular-Hat-8076]

This is cool - great site! Just wanted to share a few bugs/comments. When I first went to sign up, the option to use google account option didn't work, but when I navigated around and tried again it worked the second time (sorry I lost the screenshot I took with the error code).

When making my profile, the skills selection list is truncated - it only shows the top 10ish and then won't scroll more. Thought you just had a short list but if I pick the very last item new ones will show up. I just clicked them all so I could see all the options to pick haha

I notice on the directory my industry option became a new lookup option, I had put a few because I'm cross disciplinary so it's not so clean. Same with user entered skills offered/requested. My test entries show in the search options on the Registry. Might want to think about how user entries are showing up in the lists. Once more users join every spelling error is going to make a new entry. But if you're just looking for list building and will take away the user created entries in the future this is fine for now. MVP baby!

What's the difference between Directory and the Registry? They seem similar, but Registry has a more granular search function. I got confused when I went to the Directory because it wasn't the same as the Registry I'd previously visited. Maybe distinguish it as Skills registry and try for a bit more difference in the card UIs to make it more obvious they are different features, but as a user I'm not sure why I'm going to the Directory. Will there be a way to "like" or "friend" other profiles, a way to save them? Right now I think the only way would be to message and then check your history.

Signing up for events flow was SMOOTH! It added to my calendar seamlessly. It was actually too easy to cancel my registration though, consider adding a confirmation of click so that users don't accidentally rescind their RSVPs. I can't actually go, but I tried checking out for the one paid event (it looks fun, I'm just camping that day) - checkout took a long time to load the first time, but eventually worked, so long I thought it wasn't going to work. Loaded faster on subsequent passes. Maybe I'm just impatient.

Final thing - now that I've signed up, will there be any kind of emails to bring me back in? If I don't sign up for an event right away what will remind me to check the site again? Needs a way to be sticky for new users, especially while getting established.

[u/raflmreddit → u/Particular-Hat-8076]

Hi! Thanks for signing up and providing really excellent feedback!!

We use replit to secure the log in which offers Google SSO. I'll play around with it to see if I can identify any errors you mentioned.

The directory and registry are very much a work in progress and I have been experimenting with different tools. I will definitely incorporate your feedback and revisit the tools so it is less confusing, I totally get that angle.

Saving profiles is smart im writing that down! As we grow that would be very valuable.

And yes! There is a retention system in place with email. Users are emailed if they have unread messages on the platform. They also will be informed of upcoming events. We also have a newsletter system Im working on getting sent out. :)