For many of us in these crazy times, Zwift is our only cycling option and video chatting is our only social connection to the outside world. So our local weekend warrior cycling group decided to combine the two using the Zwift Meetup function and Zoom meetings! While not perfect, these “Zoom Meetups” are easy to set up and a fun new Zwift experience that has tremendous potential.
Creating a Zwift Meetup
Creating a Zwift Meetup is easy. Using the Zwift Companion app, click the EVENTS tab on the bottom, then the “People” icon near the top and then the CREATE MEETUP button near the top. Enter the time you want to meet, the course and route you want to go, the distance or duration of the ride, whether you want to “keep everyone together” and an optional message. Finally, invite people who follow you on Zwift to join the Meetup.
Shane Miller has a great video that goes into a lot more depth:
Despite its simplicity, there are a few things to know about creating a Zwift Meetup. First, you can only invite people who follow you so you’ll likely have to notify some people to follow you and then wait for them to do so. Second, while you can select the distance of the Meetup, you can’t select the number of laps so your ride may not end at the precise finish of a route.
Creating a Zoom Meeting
Creating a Zoom meeting is also straight forward. Download the Zoom app to your computer/phone/tablet, sign up, click the Schedule button then enter your meeting details. Once scheduled, click the Copy Invitation button and send the invitation to whoever you want to attend the Meeting. It’s that easy.
Keep in mind, for meetings of more than two people, Zoom is only free for up to 40 minutes. If your Zwift Meetup is longer than that and has more than two participants you may need to upgrade to the $15/month Zoom Pro plan.
Organizer Responsibilities
As the Zwift Meetup and Zoom Meeting Organizer, make sure you are familiar with both platforms, that all of your hardware is working correctly and you have time to field myriad questions from your invitees. For your first Zoom Meetup, I suggest doing a dry run the day before. For all rides, be ready at least 20 minutes before the start time. Remember, people are counting on you to make this happen so be prepared.
It’s important for Organizers to email/text invitees a couple of times before the Meetup.
The first group email/text should:
- Let people know that they’ve been invited to a Zwift Meetup
- Ask them to respond to the Zwift Meetup invitation
- Provide them with a summary of the ride details
- Instruct them to download the Zoom app onto their device of choice
- Include the Zoom invitation
The second email/text should contain more details such as:
- Get on Zoom and Zwift at least 15 minutes before event time
- If possible, wear an open-ear headphone with a mic for better audio quality
- Ride close to the yellow beacon
- Click the JOIN MEETUP button while riding in Zwift. It will appear 5-15 minutes before the Meetup starts.
- Grab <fill in the blank> jersey from your Garage before the ride starts
Your First Zoom Meetup
Despite your best efforts, your first Zoom Meetup may not go according to plan.
About 15 minutes before the Meetup start time, things may get a bit frenzied. Once people join the Zoom Meeting there may be cross conversations, cut off heads, inaudible audio, annoying noises, technical issues and lots of questions. Be ready.
Once the ride begins, you may get a little disoriented and lose track of some group members… especially if there are a lot of other Zwifters on the road and your group is wearing different jerseys. Although riders in your group appear in green on the nearby riders list, it still may be hard to keep track of everyone since some may be too far ahead or behind to appear on the list. While this is going on, your Zoom chat may devolve into a cacophony of “Where are you?” But don’t worry… things will calm down, the group will eventually find each other, everyone will have a good time and your next Zoom Meetup will be even better.
Now you can avoid this chaos altogether by creating a Zwift Meetup using the “keep everyone together” option. This feature keeps the group together regardless of the different power outputs of the riders. Although this feature works great for group workouts where everyone is doing the same workout but at their own power levels, it has its drawbacks for group rides. Keeping people together eliminates group sprints, KOMs and mini-races and may demotivate some since you don’t need to work hard to keep up. That said, if your group is looking for a more social ride and chat, the “keep everyone together” option works well.
Final Thoughts
Ideally, I’d like Zwift Meetups to have similar functionality to Zwift group rides such as options to select any map/route, hide other riders, and wear group jerseys as well as the ability to message the group, late join a ride and even enable the fence. In the future, maybe Zwift can even incorporate group video chats right into the game like Trainer Road just did with their group workouts.
But that said, there is a lot that can be done with Zoom Meetups such as indoor rides with friends, trainer-hosted live workouts, birthday rides and much more. Perhaps some of this functionality will eventually be replaced by the new Clubs feature but for now, Meetups are the only game in town.
In summary, Zoom Meetups give us a new Zwifting experience… and that’s a good thing. They are fun, interactive and about as social as any of us will get these days.
If you’d like to see what a Zoom Meetup looks like, check out our ride at:
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