Yup, agreed…
I’m really looking forward to hearing more about the SAFE Academy. I feel like this could be a great gateway for beginners and therefore could be a great starting point for the Meetups.
As @19eddyjohn75 stated somewhere else:
Silly fantasy or not, I do believe that you’re hitting the nail on the head. Let’s not wait for devs to come on board, let’s create the devs ourselves. 
And let’s start with the Meetups.
A meetup with presentations and to discuss the network with people that already know the network is great and all, but if you label a meetup ‘Academy’ and make part (most) of it a hands-on workshop to create content on the Alpha-network for newcomers and students, that would be a big step forward IMO.