I can only speak for the city of Sacramento and maybe 25 miles of surrounding area including west sac, davis, roseville, elk grove, etc. If you're thinking of moving here from the bay, you're not going to find a local tech job unless you want to make much less money doing gov't related work in ancient versions of C#. There's no meetups, almost no startup support, no good schools to hire from (UC davis is the exception, but I doubt UCD CS students are looking to stay in sac area for jobs).
I am speaking in hyperbole, of course, but in general if you're a techie and think Sacramento is just a cheaper Bay Area, you're in for a rude awakening.
Amusing because it's kinda true; although there are a # of startups in the area where the pay is decent (not big tech salary or crazy RSUs by any means). IIRC Sysdig was founded in Davis before they moved to SF.
Tech meetups in general have lacked but non-tech related meetups have always been good - board games, etc.
I think people are more well rounded and realistic about work / life balance than Bay Area tech and that's what makes Sac seem a little sleepy.
The area has had ebbs and flows. There are massive Intel and HP campuses so I wouldn’t say you are not going to find tech jobs but you are right in that tech is a blip on the radar. It’s honestly awesome not having everyone you know being involved in tech. It’s actually a really diverse place, both in what people do for work, economically, and race. Also a lot of long time residents that make it feel much more real than the revolving door of the bay area
Definitely build strong relationships before you move away. Sacramento (and more broadly the rest of california) is nice b/c it isn't too far from the 'action' and you can go back to SF for conferences/accelerator pitches/etc, but you need to network for quality over quantity. And, honestly, I'm getting older so I care less and less about the latest trends or optimizing for total compensation.
I am speaking in hyperbole, of course, but in general if you're a techie and think Sacramento is just a cheaper Bay Area, you're in for a rude awakening.