Subscribe to Meetup (or any iCal) Calendar using Google/Microsoft Live/Yahoo

One of the most popular social sites online is a site called meetup.com.

As both an organzier of a meetup, and member of several meetup groups, I am often asked how I can keep track of such a social calendar and be sure that I don't double book myself.

Part of the trick is to subscribe to the feeds that Meetup offers through my calendars.

No matter which Meetup you belong to, on the right side of the screen, there is a link to the group's monthly "Calendar":

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Calendar until you see this:

As highlighted above, we are going to be working with the link for "iCal".

Right-click on the link and select "Copy link". If you paste the URL in WordPad or Notepad, it would look something like this:

webcal://www.meetup.com/<<uniqueURL>>/calendar/ical/<<meetupgroupname>>/

Now, comes the tricky part and will depend on what you use for your calendar.

Google:

Under "Other Calendars" >> "Add" >> Select "Add by URL"

Now, all you have to do is paste the URL of the calendar and add/subscribe to it:

And Bingo, you've subscribed to see all of the upcoming events for that particular Meetup. The more Meetups you belong to, the more will show up. You can then hide or show them whenever you want just by clicking on them.

Microsoft Live/Hotmail

Look for the Calendar link in the far left column:

Once in Calendar view, click on the "Subscribe" link:

Then all that needs to be done is enter the iCal address:

Yahoo Calendar

Unfortunately, adding the iCal to Yahoo is not going to be as easy as the other 2, but it is possible using the instructions found here:

How do I import another calendar’s events into Yahoo! Calendar?