r)I'll be totally honest with you, this whole forum, all of our meetups and everything here, originated with a kijiji post looking for scrap metal to learn with.
All in all, I would do it that way again in a heartbeat, the folks I've met, or chatted with online here, are good. The vast majority (well over 99% I would argue) have been fantastic people. I feel that you'll likely find the same if you follow the same road. It's not Kijiji that brings out the worst in people, it's money, and trying to get something second hand for as little of it as possible.
For organizing a meet, it was great.
Generally, I find the policy of searing honesty seems to work best, both just generally, but also when trying to get a meet together. Transparency about it being a first thing on your end, and transparency about your goals, why you're meeting in the chosen location, etc.
That's all I ever did, and it worked out great. I would start with a meetup.com post, (or eventbrite if you want, but I recently decided meetup.com was probably better)
From there, you can simply copy your event description into a kijiji post, and a thread here, being sure to cross link them to each other (the forum and meetup.com) and I suspect you'll find it will take on a life of it's own. Might not be a huge meetup at first, but in my experience, it will snowball from there.
Just my two cents, but let me know how I can support you and your meet.
Feel free to use our logo (attached) if you think it would be beneficial.
(There is obviously a "please don't be a dink if you're going to use our logo" rule, but I know that if you're going out of your way to organizing a meetup for like-minded folk, it won't be an issue, but I have to mention it, haha)
Let me know if/how I can assist with anything mentioned above or otherwise. I'm here to support. I love the idea of having an even more colourful group of people from an even wider set of backgrounds across a larger portion of the country, so don't hesitate to let me know if I can help further, or if you want to pick my brain.
I'll PM you my cell.
JW