Pattaya · JomtienJuly 2023 – today
The history of IT Party from a Friday on the beach to an AI meetup
Three years, date by date: from the first Friday with a guitar and beach mats to meetups, brunches and karaoke indoors.
What it adds up to
Three years straight, no breaks. We only count what can be counted.
- since 2023living here and meeting upfirst party on 28 July 2023
- ~120Friday parties on the beach2023–2025, every Friday
- 300+events of every formatparties, clubs, meetups, brunches
- ~1,500people have posted in the main chatper the chat archive, July 2026
Timeline
The beach era of 2023–2025 and a new era since December 2025
2023
22–28 July 2023
The beginning
Anton starts the “IT Meetups Pattaya” chat and six days later gets the first party together on Yinyom Beach: mats, a guitar, 42 cans of beer between everyone. By the second Friday there are already 50+ people.
20 August 2023
The first game of mafia
The first game of city mafia in the community's history. The regular club was still a year and a half away, but this is where the seed was planted.
27 August 2023
Rebrand and Instagram
The “IT Meetups Pattaya” chat becomes “IT Parties Pattaya”, and the @it_party_pattaya Instagram appears. The name the town knows us by now.
autumn 2023
Explosive growth
The rebrand to “IT Parties Pattaya”, Instagram, volleyball, running, a film club, networking nights, design brunches, Halloween and the milestone tenth BBQ. In a couple of months one Friday grows into a weekly schedule.
22 September 2023
The ninth Friday in a row
The ninth party in a row: “every Friday” is now a given.
7 October 2023
The first IT Brunch
Fifteen people at a Saturday table: the start of a format that, just over two years later, would go weekly and pick up expert talks.
8 October 2023
The first board game night
Host Leyla runs the first board game night. Board games become a fixture of the community: over the years that follow there will be more than ten such evenings.
14 October 2023
Volleyball begins
Georgy Khoroshilov takes the community onto the sand on Saturdays. Volleyball at Pratamnak and Dongtan keeps going right through 2024.
28 October 2023
Halloween “A Nightmare on Nagawari Street”
The first big party in a private house: DJ 3RROR303, a costume contest and a pumpkin contest — from six in the evening till five in the morning.
5 November 2023
The first digital networking night
Andrey “Mr.Bear” Biryukov hosts the first meetup of marketers, product managers and digital specialists. Two weeks later, the second.
9 November 2023
The film club starts
First on Thursdays, later on Tuesdays — films followed by discussion at Vodnik International. The club lasted a year: more than 25 screenings through to November 2024.
11 November 2023
BBQ number ten
The BBQ Party series started in September and reached a round number in two months. Smoke, meat, your kind of people — alongside the Fridays on the beach.
12 November 2023
The first design brunch
Ivan Kuznetsov, design lead at Severstal, brings the community's designers to one table. Brunches for a single profession become another strand of the format.
27 November 2023
The photo club launches
Kristina Syromyatnikova opens a photo club — the community's creative branch for photographers and anyone who wants to be in the frame.
29 December 2023
The last party of the year
We close the first beach season with a New Year prize draw from our partners. Behind us: five months and more than twenty Fridays in a row.
2024
2024–2025
The beach era
Every Friday, two years running. An ecosystem grows around the chat: IT OBMEN, a jobs chat, a flea market. In March 2025 city mafia launches, and in the autumn a tabletop role-playing club follows.
spring 2024
Running sessions two or three times a week
The IT Sports running club settles into a regular schedule in Jomtien. The community's sporting branch — running since July 2023, volleyball since October — has a life of its own.
2025
23 March 2025
Regular city mafia launches
Host Alyona opens mafia at the Pratamnak Night Market. From 25 March it runs twice a week: the community's first club with a schedule of its own.
October 2025
A tabletop role-playing club starts
Game master Mikhail launches the D&D campaign “Secrets of the Lake Lands”, with Kill Team and Warcry alongside. On 25 October the team heads to a Kill Team tournament in Bangkok.
7 November 2025
“The last party on the beach! But definitely not the last IT Party”
We closed the format ourselves, at the height of its popularity, to make room for something new. After two years the Fridays had grown stale — and we said so honestly instead of dragging them on out of inertia.
20 December 2025
An AI meetup with five speakers
Ilya Pluzhnikov on MCP, Yegor Urvanov on LLM patterns, Fyodor on why an AI product won't take off, Pyotr Davydenkov on getting from business requirements to architecture, Yevgeny Lyubimov on AI video for business. The first big event of the new era.
December 2025 – 2026
Smart formats
An AI meetup with five speakers at GrandDaddy.House (recordings on YouTube), the EXPERT & DJ Party, weekly IT Brunches with experts, karaoke Fridays, mafia twice a week, D&D and Warhammer campaigns, ecstatic dance.
2026
11 January 2026
Mafia moves to GrandDaddy.House
Mafia's second era: host Sasha, a new venue, and from 24 February, Tuesdays and Sundays. By July 2026 more than forty games had been played.
21 February 2026
IT Brunches relaunch
The first brunch of the new series: Pyotr Davydenkov, “How to read a business through its numbers”. From then on, every Saturday at Terrace Cafe: an expert talk plus networking.
21 February 2026
Ecstatic Dance at Balance Yoga Studio
Facilitator Artemida opens a series of dance practices. Next come 28 February, 21 March, 25 April and more Saturdays after that.
24 February 2026
A miniature painting workshop
The tabletop role-playing club goes beyond the gaming table: the first painting workshop, followed by three more in March and May.
11 April 2026
The sixth brunch in a row
Ilya Pluzhnikov on context engineering. In a month and a half the brunches went from “how IT systems make money” to a product approach — with 15–20 people at the table each time.
summer 2026
New tabletop RPG campaigns
The D&D campaign “Mercenaries of Marisvel” starts, while Warhammer Dark Heresy, The Lord of the Rings and Aliens run in parallel. Mafia is still twice a week.
The story goes on
Upcoming meetups are in the channel and the chat
Announcements go out in advance; regular formats keep their schedules in the club chats. All in Russian.