Just an hour northeast of Atlanta lives our medium-sized suburban city, Lawrenceville; affectionately shortened to L'ville. Despite our southern hospitality, Lawrenceville doesn't seem to have many open community events besides ones hosted by the city every quarter. In my experience, most of the populace are exclusively friends with their schoolmates, co-workers and extracurricular acquaintances.

As Lawrenceville grows, it becomes more and more populated and it becomes increasingly necessary to find ways to network with the people in your community. But, what if you're new here? Maybe you didn't grow up here. Perhaps you're no longer a student and won't be going to school. Even more likely, you work in an environment where socializing isn't necessary. Then how might you make some connections, acquaintances or even friends? It might be a lot easier than you think!

Lawrenceville doesn't encourage advertising as much as larger cities do, but you can still find small groups on a website and companion app called Meetup! Meetup is the underground of local functional groups. They are put together for people by the people whom they might want to meet up with. You can find Meetup groups for topics like sewing and crafts, outdoor adventures, gaming, as well as professional groups like makers spaces, industry professional groups, student organizations and more.

Not only does Meetup allow you to join and plan meet ups for these groups, it also includes chat features, rsvp, organization and even dues or fees for the more ambitious projects. If you haven't had the opportunity to get into a Meetup group or other social community, I recommend you download the app. The Meetup app gives you access to notification features such as calendar integration, reminders for events and it is updated frequently to resolve bugs and optimize the interface for users. Best of all, its 100 percent free to download for Apple and Android devices.

Once you have the app, you are rearing and ready to join up with some groups. Meetup will give you a questionnaire and then match you up with groups based on topics you've chosen. However, if you don't find one you particularly like, or couldn't find what you were looking for, you have the ability to make a meet up group of your own! If you do find a group, don't forget to contact the owner or orchestrator of the event to let them know to expect a new person, that way you won't feel awkward.

Finally, if you do try Meetup and you find a community you like, comment which one, and share this article to your friends or the new kid in town!