To the contrary, when all the good New York meetups (Papers We Love, Linux User Group) didn't come back, and inspired by the continuously running Munich Database Meetup and TUMuchData, I started the NYC Systems Coffee Club and co-started NYC Systems (talk series) after which came Berlin Systems Group, Bengaluru Systems Meetup, San Francisco Systems Club, Systems from HEL, DC Systems, Vancouver Systems, South Bay Systems, and Seattle Systems.

So I think people are really eager for high quality talks and chances to gather with smart people.

What's more I think there are not enough meetups in almost any major city to satisfy the demand of speakers or attendees. For example, NYC Systems gets hundreds of people asking to speak (we have 12 speakers a year) and gets 2-3x as many attendees wanting to come as we have space for.