One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2011 was to go to more tweetups and my last two weeks have been packed with them!
Last Friday I went to Twitter Talks – which was a tweetup for people to learn more about using Twitter and how to use it for their business and for networking. I was actually invited as a guest “VIP Influential Tweeter” which was completely flattering!
After the four main speakers (@britl, @outinc, @bingofuel, @mastermaq) made their presentations, it went to a group of about 6 or 7 “VIPs” to each answer one question about Twitter. My question was “Should people be linking their Facebook updates to their Twitter and vice versa?” Short answer is, no they shouldn’t!
If you want the longer answer, read the blog post I wrote up about it:
Should people be linking their Facebook updates to their Twitter and vice versa?
Anyway, that event was fun and it was the first time I’ve ever officially “spoken” at anything that wasn’t say for school or something! I was definitely nervous. It was also the first big Twitter event that both Mike and I have ever attended together! There was an after-event at Sherlock Holmes Pub as well that we went to because I was staaaarving. Sherlock Holmes Pub wings = good. Nachos = not that good.
Then this past Friday I went to a much smaller tweetup at NAIT! It was called “#yegNAIT” and it was a tweetup for NAIT students. Technically I am still a NAIT student even though I haven’t stepped foot on that campus (at least before the tweetup happened) since last December. But I went with my friend Taylor (@tjpollmann) because it was during the daytime (I have Fridays off and Taylor is doing his practicum at Breakfast Television so his workdays usually end by 1 p.m!)
That tweetup was significantly smaller than Twitter Talks but still fun. It was also very casual. The 6 of us just sat on the couches in the HP Centre and chatted!
Then later that Friday was a big tweetup called “Meet the Media!”
That one was at Brewsters in Oliver Square (my dad’s favourite pub ever, lol) and it was an opportunity for the Twitter community to mix and mingle with Edmonton’s media! The food was sponsored (woo hoo @focuscom & @dheuman!) and the upstairs of the pub was reserved for the tweeple. Mike and I had a solid/long/continuous conversation with photographer Bruce Clarke (@bruceclarke) and his wife. We also met/re-met/chatted with a bunch of other people that I don’t think I should try and list because I know I’ll miss someone by accident!
As I said, fun time! :) But I feel so bad whenever I can’t recognize someone in real life from Twitter! It’s actually kind of funny how most people’s faces will only light up when they hear what the person’s Twitter handle is as opposed to their actual name. Ha ha!
I feel tweetup exhausted now however! I think the next one Mike and I might go to will be “Twestival” but nothing finalized yet :)
Overall, it’s been a busy February for meeting the great people on Twitter!
Linda
