Nerds of a feather flock together with North Shore meetup group

Nerds just wanna have fun, or so a version of saying could go.

That’s why self-professed nerd and Highland Park resident Jonathan Shertok created Nerds Like Me, a North Shore-based meetup group committed to educating on AI, building community and curating a space where curious minds can explore topics that matter to them.

The meetups, which are held at 7:15 p.m. on weeknights monthly, now draw anywhere from 35 to 65 participants from across the North Shore.

Each event begins with some casual networking before moving into a facilitated discussion led by a practitioner, engineer, academic or other expert on artificial intelligence. And while these sessions formally end at 9:30 p.m., Shertok said the group frequently ends up hanging out until the bar or venue closes.

“From my understanding, and from the group’s understanding, there really is nothing out here [in the North Shore] that is technical oriented,” Shertok told The Record of the local value of Nerds Like Me. “All of the [other similar] meetups are in the city. They’re great ones … that I go to myself, but you have to schlep to the city. How can we make it so a casual Tuesday or Thursday night, put the kids to bed and run off to the local bar or restaurant to hang out? That’s what I wanted to solve.”

And solve it he has.

Shertok said only about five people have unsubscribed from the Nerds Like Me mailing list since he founded the group in spring of 2025 — an indication that what he has built is working, he said.

“I make it playful,” he said of the meetups. “I don’t make it feel like a work event. This is like, come hang out. Come just be with other nerds where you can be your full self and talk in the way that you want to talk and be the way that you want to be and lean into the conversation of the moment.”

Those interested in attending a meetup can view the schedule and RSVP via the Nerds Like Me website. Coming up next are Getting Nerdy for Comedy with Jack Williams on June 4 — part of Shertok’s latest efforts to expand the meetups beyond AI — and AI in Education with Lisa Berghoff on June 16.

“AI is reshaping society, and it’s going to be incredible times but also tumultuous times,” Shertok said of the significance of learning about and engaging with AI through events like the ladder. “The earlier we all lean in and pay attention to the conversation, the stronger, as a society, we will be. We have such a tight-knit community in the North Shore, and we should try to rally together to own the conversation and not let the conversation own us.”

As Shertok continues to iterate on the Nerds Like Me concept, continuously incorporating feedback from surveys, he’s added hackathons that are half-training and half-coding events, build nights in which the group codes together and, recently, a wine tasting with a sommelier.

“I prepped the sommelier in saying, ‘This is a group of nerds,’” Shertok said. “‘We’ve all heard the shtick about what’s the difference between red and white wine? We want to go real deep.’”

There is no cost to join Nerds Like Me. The only instances fees are collected are, for example, to pay for one’s drinks at a bar or pay a merchant directly.

As for the venues where the meetups are held, Shertok pinpoints and explores unique spots across the North Shore.

“It’s challenging because I don’t collect fees. I don’t have a budget,” he shared. “And so these locations have to trust that I will bring 30 to 60 people and we will spend money, because most places have rental fees, and I just say, ‘I can’t do that.’ … It would be me putting my own money down, and I always do it the first time. And then, inevitably, the second or third time I return, they say, ‘No worries. You’re showing up. We get you. We see you.’ And that’s been really, really awesome. The community of bars and restaurants have responded in tremendous force to support this community.”

The Nerds Like Me community began after Shertok, originally from Milwaukee, moved to Highland Park when his son was born. While on paternity leave, he met and started to hang out with new people.

Around the same time, Shertok, a global data and AI portfolio leader, began to listen to a lot of podcasts as he would go on long walks with his son. That’s when he heard an episode of Derek Thompson’s “Plain English” called “Why Americans Stopped Hanging Out and Why It Matters.”

“It really struck a nerve with me, and I was like, I need to be more intentional in forming communities and finding my people … making sure I’m developing not just acquaintances, but really deep connections with them,” Shertok said. “And so, those people who I initially met while on paternity leave are still some of my closest friends, and I remember sitting around the table at my friend Mark’s house, and I said, ‘Listen guys, I really enjoy hanging out. But, are you guys interested in making this a little different? Happy to hang out and just chill, but also, could we talk about academic white papers?’

“They, like a normal, sane person, said, ‘No, Jonathan, we don’t want to debate academic white papers. We shouldn’t need homework to hang out with you.’”

Shertok laughed as he recalled the conversation.

“I said, ‘What about a podcast? Would you want to listen to this podcast on why Americans stopped hanging out?’,” he recalled. “And they were like, ‘No, we don’t want to do that either. We want to just hang out after work and have a couple of brews and relax.’ Perfect. I get that. Mark turned to me and said, ‘Jonathan, you know what you need to do? You really just have to find nerds like you.’ And I said, ‘nerds like me?’”

And so, the name and idea for Nerds Like Me were born. Shertok posted in the Deerfield Dads (+ Surrounding North Shore Dads) Facebook group with approximately 2,500 members, saying that he was seeking a couple of people who would be interested in having coffee or grabbing a beer while talking about AI and technology.

The responses flooded in as Shertok received an estimated 200 emails in 24 hours, saying, “thank you for doing this” and “we want a place to be nerdy, feel nerdy, and also explore what’s happening to society.”

“And at that moment, I realized I started something that I didn’t intend to start but felt the need to pursue,” Shertok said.

He added that Nerds Like Me has been personally motivating, inspiring him to reach out to local governments across the North Shore and inquire about whether they have a data and AI subcommittee to help with their local politics and, if not, whether he can help set it up with “access to all of your AI and data nerds.”

He has also reached out to libraries across the North Shore, offering to host training nights on AI and “mobilize the nerds to help teach more of the community” how to use AI chatbots.

“I love that I have this avenue to give back in a way that is authentic to me in something that I feel very uniquely capable of delivering,” he said of the inspiration Nerds Like Me has given him and the community of people it has fostered. “And then maybe secondarily and very selfishly, I really like the people. These are becoming my closest friends. I keep adding events monthly, just to have an excuse to say, ‘Sorry, I have an event tonight that I have to host, and I get to hang out with my people.’

“There’s nothing better than that.”

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