Product aficionados have an abundance of choice these days in Montreal when it comes to monthly events. That’s because two meetup groups - ProductTank and ProductHunt - are growing stronger and more popular by the month.

For ProductTank, its 500th member this past week signaled a strong trend of popularity among Montreal techies.

Founders Loris Dzagoyan ­ (Busbud), Isaac Souweine (Flatbook), Sébastien Provencher ­(Acquisio), Francois Le Nguyen ­(Lightspeed), Philip Ifrah (Kronos) and Pedram Daraeizadeh all saw a need in Montreal for the popular international meetup brand.

“I realized that it was time for me to build more relationships within the local product community and learn how I could become a better PM after arriving in Montréal from Paris, a year and a half ago. Since I wasn’t able to find an existing meetup focused on product, I decided to create one,” said Dzagoyan. “I was quickly introduced to Isaac and Sébastien, and we launched our first event in September.”

ProductTank was founded in 2010 in London and today spans over 40 cities with over 10,000 members. It is an informal meetup that brings together the local product community in each of those cities – whether they’re Product Managers, Designers, or Developers. ProductTanks are always free to attend, and are organized by volunteers.

The Montreal group holds monthly meetups that feature a panel of three speakers presenting on a product-­related topic for 20 minutes, followed by Q&A. Sessions typically start at 7:00 pm and finish around 9:00 pm. The venue rotates between different bars and restaurants across town.

Attendance at Montreal’s events are around 80-100 members, and these local businesses have all been represented:​ Frank & Oak, Flatbook, Lightspeed, Walking Thumbs, PixMob, mnubo, mySeat, Ubios, YellowPages, SweetIQ and Thirdshelf.

Not to be outdone is ProductHunt, another international brand of meetups brought to Montreal. Alex Shee, an anaylist at Real Ventures, is among several co-organizers. Shee told MTLinTech that the monthly meetups focus on individual communities each time- like managing, marketplaces, social entrepeneurship, fitness and more.

“I was a big fan of ProductHunt, I got into contact with the team in San Francisco and I started up the community here in Montreal at the end of last summer,” said Shee, a former corporate lawyer who transitioned into startup technology. “It’s a very different approach. You have no pitches, but rather three to four people explain who they are and then we kick off small group sessions with about 20 people per speaker. We limit it to about 60 people overall.”

Past startups represented at Montreal’s ProductHunt have been Flatbook, Smooch, Fuzzy.io, Crew, Flysto, E-panneur, Wavo, Scrute it, Shoeclack Radio, LANDR, Ampme, E-180, Éau and Learning Bird.

Thus far, there have been five events. “Isaac [Souweine] was actually one of our first speakers,” said Shee. “We always have music, we’re into the community and we’re always figuring out how products impact lives and what it takes to start a startup and build a product.”

“It gets a lot deeper than having just a pitch and talking about a product - its the people behind the product and how Montreal tech can grow and develop into its own. We can do two events every month and it still caters to a big crowd,” said Shee.

Moreover, said the organizer, each meetup is about going deep into something and understanding the people who are making change in communities.