I don''t know if many people know about these, but I came across one the other day - turned out to be very useful - this one was in London, but I checked and they have them in the US too:

http://www.meetup.com/find/? (just stick in 'screenwriter' and location).

When I got there, there was 30-40 people - all screenwriters, all in one place. They had guest speakers there:

Susan Nickson - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0630099/?ref_=tt_ov_wr
Rohan Acharya - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1113295/
Tony McHale - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0570370/

- and the speakers just chatted about all things scripts - Acharya was a producer, so his input was really useful - they basically sat among us with a mic and just got drunk and chatted about anything people wanted too - got surrounded at the end so I didn't speak to them  personally,  but a bunch of guys did.

Especially good is the fact that you don't have to remember anyone's name or number, as they are all on the 'meet-up' members bit, so you can just sling them an email the next day. Some other groups seem to focus more on the writing, so I plan to go meet there in a week or two.

Wish I'd know about this sooner.

Have to cheek and see if there's anything going on in Belfast.  I attended an event as part of the Belfast Film Festival which ran here in July and it had screenwriters and producers and it was very insightful!

I'm always on the look out for things like this, because I think experience is great to have and it's really nice to mingle with people who're passionate about what you are passionate about.  

Thanks Si!!! :)

-- Curt

There's the option of starting up your own group if you want. What I loved about this was that it was really easy to meet people - I'm not so good at the networking thing, but knowing that everyone in the place was a screenwriter just gave that immediate common ground. It was quite a buzz actually. The speakers all talked about festivals they had been to as well, so I think that's something I need to get on board and to start checking out.

Good post Simon.

Like Curt there aren't many going on in Jersey but I will keep working on it. Writing can be a lonely business so nice to share it with others who understand the challenges

Thanks for sharing will gi there :-)

I also ran across the same site while trying to find a screenwriting group for feedback and table reads. That’s before I realized that this site did just that. Anyhow, I found a group but haven’t been able to go as of yet, work conflicts. At the site you can do a search by area, then writing – screenplays. The site isn’t organized very well in my opinion, but you can find what you are looking for.

I have a screenwriting meetup site in Vancouver (link in my sig). It's been around since 2009, over 500 members (about 100 active). Great bunch of people, buckets of talent, and I'm doing whatever I can to help them succeed.

Not enough people know about meetup.com, there's so many great groups on there but a lot of deadbeat ones too. Look for ones that have active or recent meetups and good attendance.