TweetUp: Silicon Valley Twitter meetup notes
Updated with photo from Eric
I had a chance to meet some folks I have only talked to on Twitter. Last night thanks to Ryan and Jennifer, who organized a TweetUp, I met a great group of folks at Nola's in Palo Alto.
We were joined by Eric Gonzalez, Lingling (Eric's wife), Ryan Kuder, Jennifer Leggio, Joel Postman, Rachel Luxemburg, Chris Asad, Leora Zellman, Martin Mckeay and Randy Ksar.
The thought that struck me when I was driving back late last night is "How much we seems to be meeting more face to face given that there are more options available to meet via the Internet". Even though I have met and connected with these folks on twitter, facebook etc. it was still a great thrill to meet for drinks and talk for a while. The number of events I have been attending thanks to being more connected on social networks has increased not decreased.
At Nola's between 6pm and 830 pm you would have seen 10 of us laughing, talking, tweeting (well more of that than anything else).
Here's what I learned:
1. When you meet someone face to face you tend to listen more intently. Ryan is apparently a mini celebrity (of Yahoo layoff fame). I have been talking to him for a few days, but had NO idea he was "the guy".
2. There's always opportunity to talk shop but it does not feel that way. If you are looking to go to these events purely to justify "doing business" - forget it. If you go with the intent of meeting people, networking and having fun and then business happens - awesome.
3. Much as we tend to be "hyper connected" we still rely on the "old" means of connecting. Everyone (save me) had a business card. Ryan actually made on by hand (so he's getting there). I personally hate business cards. In fact I usually make it a point to clearly pronounce my name and let people Google me. My website has my phone, email, etc. So why bother with business cards?
The other thing that was great was its was a good group of people and we were open (meaning we bashed a lot of people that were not there
and did not have any expectations coming into the meeting.
Eric's probably got some photos from the event. Please post a link in the comments, Eric?
I had a chance to meet some folks I have only talked to on Twitter. Last night thanks to Ryan and Jennifer, who organized a TweetUp, I met a great group of folks at Nola's in Palo Alto.
We were joined by Eric Gonzalez, Lingling (Eric's wife), Ryan Kuder, Jennifer Leggio, Joel Postman, Rachel Luxemburg, Chris Asad, Leora Zellman, Martin Mckeay and Randy Ksar.
The thought that struck me when I was driving back late last night is "How much we seems to be meeting more face to face given that there are more options available to meet via the Internet". Even though I have met and connected with these folks on twitter, facebook etc. it was still a great thrill to meet for drinks and talk for a while. The number of events I have been attending thanks to being more connected on social networks has increased not decreased.
At Nola's between 6pm and 830 pm you would have seen 10 of us laughing, talking, tweeting (well more of that than anything else).
Here's what I learned:
1. When you meet someone face to face you tend to listen more intently. Ryan is apparently a mini celebrity (of Yahoo layoff fame). I have been talking to him for a few days, but had NO idea he was "the guy".
2. There's always opportunity to talk shop but it does not feel that way. If you are looking to go to these events purely to justify "doing business" - forget it. If you go with the intent of meeting people, networking and having fun and then business happens - awesome.
3. Much as we tend to be "hyper connected" we still rely on the "old" means of connecting. Everyone (save me) had a business card. Ryan actually made on by hand (so he's getting there). I personally hate business cards. In fact I usually make it a point to clearly pronounce my name and let people Google me. My website has my phone, email, etc. So why bother with business cards?
The other thing that was great was its was a good group of people and we were open (meaning we bashed a lot of people that were not there
and did not have any expectations coming into the meeting.Eric's probably got some photos from the event. Please post a link in the comments, Eric?
Great roundup Mukund! I'll be posting a few thoughts shortly as well. It was certainly fun seeing you and meeting the crew.
Here's the pics we took from the Tweetup, along with a few random shots Ling ling took of Palo Alto (she's still in semi-tourist mode!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericgonzalez/sets/72157604251206898/
Cheers!
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Great roundup Mukund. I'll be posting a few thoughts shortly as well. It was fun as always seeing you and meeting the crew.
Here's the pics we took from the Tweetup, along with a few random shots Ling ling took of Palo Alto (she's still in semi-tourist mode!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericgonzalez/sets/72157604251206898/
Cheers!
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You forgot me! I'm the big guy to the left in the picture. I go by the exotic handle of 'mckeay' on twitter.
Martin
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Martin
Sorry, I just added you. I did not get a chance to talk to you so I forgot. I am really sorry. I just updated the post.
Lets meet again soon.
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Yay! That was such a fun time! I need to sync with Ryan to see when to do the next one!
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Heya Mukund! Thanks for posting this.
Just a comment on business cards -- I like them because memory is fallible, and doesn't scale well. If I meet a bunch of new people it's easier to sort them all out with a pile of business cards and a few scribbled notes on each.
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Aw that's cool. How I wish that me and my twitter buddies will meet up someday.
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These are the great tools that really makes happy people, meet with the buddies again. I love it.
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