Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
58° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Friends

Meet the Man Behind DFW Explorers, the Group Making Adult Friendships Easier

In 2009, Omar Acosta and his friend Brian Piatt formed the group on Meetup.com to help folks explore the city and make new friends. Now, DFW Explorers has thousands of members and several marriages under its belt.
By Grayson Mask |
Image
DFW Explorers is a Meetup.com group that helps locals explore the city and make new friends. Many of the group’s events push its members outside of their comfort zone with activities like rock climbing and paddle boarding, but it also offers more laid-back opportunities, like book clubs and happy hours. Courtesy of Omar Acosta

Omar Acosta was your typical college student. A bit of a homebody, he didn’t consider himself the life of the party. But he had a close circle of friends and a much larger group of acquaintances. He competed on speech and debate teams throughout high school and college, so he could speak in front of others naturally. However, he never saw himself as a group leader, rallying friends and organizing events—he simply lacked the self-confidence to put himself into many social situations. 

Then in 2009, after graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso, Acosta moved to Dallas. He already had a couple of friends in the city, but his twin brother, Hector, told him to try Meetup.com. Founded in 2002, the online social platform helps individuals find new communities and meet new people with shared interests through in-person events. “He was showing me a cool way to check out the city, because he didn’t want to solely entertain me,” says Acosta, who thought Meetup could be a useful tool to exploring the Dallas area. 

He joined a couple of events but admits it didn’t go well at first. He attended social events in noisy clubs and massive venues, which weren’t the best sources for lifelong friendships. “My first few groups weren’t successful,” he says. “I went to some events that I just didn’t feel super welcomed, not because the organizer did anything but because the event wasn’t catered to people new to the area.” 

But Acosta kept putting himself out there and eventually stumbled upon DFW Young and Social Travelers, a group on the Meetup.com platform that is no longer active. The organizers hosted travel sessions where young travelers could go on road trips and explore spots throughout Texas and beyond. Acosta and his friend Brian Piatt saw a lot of exploration potential in Dallas and surrounding areas. In 2009, they formed a new meetup group, DFW Explorers, to offer a way for Dallas natives and new transplants to explore North Texas and to bring light to underappreciated spots in their local backyard.

Today, DFW Explorers is an active Meetup group for those wanting to “embrace new cultures, ideas, and adventures.” Many of the group’s events push its members outside of their comfort zone with activities like rock climbing and paddle boarding, but it also offers more laid-back opportunities, like book clubs and happy hours.

“Brian got it off the ground and I owe a lot of what I do as a meetup organizer due to watching how he set up the events,” Acosta says.  

Image
Courtesy of Omar Acosta

About a year after DFW Explorers formed, Piatt moved to Austin and asked Acosta to take over “since I was virtually showing up to every event.” Fearing that this group would fall apart if no one stood up, Acosta took control and started organizing events. 

A believer in consistency outside of his office job, Acosta created itineraries with at least one weekday and one weekend event—to accommodate all working schedules and his own active lifestyle. He wanted to be an effective organizer and host, so he also began to tweak the type of events offered. He focused on events that had low admission costs or were simply free after learning members had a $45 spending maximum for activities. Remembering his own early experiences with Meetup, Acosta made sure to offer welcoming experiences with as little pressure as possible. 

“I enjoyed stepping back and observing a successful event in process,” he says. “Like we’ll be barhopping, and people are naturally congregating like they knew these people their entire lives.”

Over the years, Acosta had grown the group from 50 members to over 5,500. Many members have made lifelong connections through the group, including many relationships and five marriages. In 2019, Acosta attended two DFW explorers’ wedding in Peru with other members of the group.  

“It’s one of my fondest memories, going to a country most of the members haven’t been to and seeing close friends get married,” he says.

Image
Courtesy of Omar Acosta

Despite the success stories, the group saw ebbs and flows in event attendance over the years. The largest hurdle for social connection, though, was the COVID-19 pandemic. Acosta wanted to take the pandemic seriously and offered different online events, but people slowly burned out of Zoom happy hours, Zoom book clubs, and Zoom game nights. He knew the group had to adapt to other safe options and began offering entertaining, socially distanced events.

“We were having a regular park hangout in the downtown Garland Square area, across from this brewery,” he says. “That was the tiny benefit of COVID-19—it helped you discover all types of local parks and outdoor options within your local area.”

After the vaccine rollout in 2021, Acosta noticed an uptick in event attendance and new members. In-person events are now back in full force, and Acosta is confident in what lies next for the group. With over 1,000 events under the DFW Explorers belt, he believes there’s still opportunities to show people little gems across DFW. 

He also hopes to offer more events that get the group involved with local issues and provide platforms for members to have political conversations. At a recent happy hour, members raised money for the National Abortion Fund. Acosta wants to collaborate “with local organizations that have a positive impact on the community, like The Stewpot,” while also including people who might not have the same political beliefs. 

No matter which way folks politically align, though, Acosta is excited that after all these years, this group can still help people navigate through the period of shyness and insecurity that comes with moving to a new city. He can see his own previous experiences in the faces of DFW Explorers’ new members, Acosta says. And the once-shy homebody will continue to help people wanting to check out new spots and make new friends, if they take the most important step: “Putting themselves out there.” 

Author

Grayson Mask

Grayson Mask

Related Articles

Image
Drinking and Shopping

Where to Celebrate Galentine’s Day in Dallas

Channel your inner Leslie Knope and grab your girls.
By Jenna Severson
Image
Friends

A Dispatch From the D Magazine Sweat Lodge

When we got to work this morning at D Magazine world headquarters, in beautiful downtown Dallas, we learned the AC is out in our building, St. Paul Place.
By Tim Rogers
Advertisement