Hi! I have used meetup quite a few times here in Manila.
I would want to build this project in raw PHP/MySQL, all hand-coded and I'd enlist external help for the graphical interface on the site. I can either develop this on my own test server, on your server or I can help to set up your own server, but there may be an ongoing cost for you to maintain that with the hosts. Do you have your own server?
For language, would I also be responsible for having site code translated or would you be willing to send that to a localisation company? (I have a contact who might help.)
How would you be accepting payments? Is it paypal or other gateways too?
Thanks!
My experience is I worked for 11 years as the sole full-time in-house developer for a yacht charter company based in Cannes, working with PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS/Javascript both front-end and back-end. I created their customer site complete with search, bookings, content/CMS, accounts/financial tools, sales rep tools with automated proposals, the list is endless. Since 10 years I have been running my own games website for a dice game, which I designed and built, it includes a community, profiles, forum, AJAX chat and AJAX game, with automated daily tournaments.
Please send me a message with any relevant details, if you like my proposal, even if I am offline, and let me know when is a good time to catch you. I will reply to any messages ASAP.