All I can really say is “Wow.” When the idea to host a tweetup had been thrown around months ago between @loritodd, @Heraldsports and I after I attended the @Sun Sentinel‘s first #SoFlaTweetup, we were slow getting started but once the ball started rolling it only took two weeks to see the RSVP list on our twtvite explode.
We were slightly nervous about the attendance, hoping the casual nature of tweetups didn’t result in too many last-minute “I’m-so-swamped, can’t-make-it” replies. But Miami, boy did you deliver. The Miami Herald staff was thrilled to have been able to socialize and meet you all face-to-face, the people behind the voices in our paper and online and the readers who’ve stuck with us through challenging times.
You blew us away by making #HeraldTweetup such a fantastic success.
Most of the other tweetups (RefreshMiami, BarCampMiami) and meetups I’ve attended in Miami have been tech-based, chock-full of geeks and developers, iPhone geniuses and Web designers. The community is flourishing and it’s exciting that the barriers to hang and mingle with these sharp minds are few. After a while though for us media folks it feels a little over our heads. I’m a tech-groupie, but I can’t talk serious shop with the talented geeks in Miami.
We hope to continue to host tweetups in the future as a vehicle for community interaction, uniting readers from all professions and backgrounds, and hopefully with changes in venue more readers from the tri-county area.
From our estimates about 150 of you fine folk were kind enough to spend your Tuesday night with us at Tobacco Road. You braved the heat, mosquitoes and a standing-room-only setup and for that we cannot thank you enough.
Please, please, please let us know if you have suggestions for future venues or ideas on what we can do to make these continually fun for all of you. Check out The Miami Herald’s South Florida Twitter Directory for more fun peeps to follow and keep checking it regularly, as the list will always be getting new names.
If you have photos from the event, we’d love it if you added them to our Flickr pool (thanks @loritodd!) and keep your eyes peeled for an event video on its way. We’ll tweet it at you.
There you have it. It’s OFFICIAL. #HeraldTweetup is a GO.
I’ve been to some stellar tweetups in South Florida. We really want to make this something meaningful to the community. Come meet Herald twitterers, feel free to ask questions and mingle. Come early. Stay late. Sure beats going straight home after a long day at the office!
Seriously. We’d love to see you all come out and host more of these in the coming months!
I’ve been slacktastic in keeping up with my tweeted playlists of the day. My fresh music supply has been low, but that’s mostly my fault for not being a better music hound.
Here’s my playlist from yesterday, songs that improve a bad mood. Stay tuned for more. Especially now that Grooveshark is working on this sweet new widget and easy-playlist-posting capabilities. Hat-tip to them! (@Grooveshark)
Finding out that wifi would be offered on board my flight today from LaGuardia to Atlanta will probably be the highlight of my day. I was still under the impression, however, that because wifi on flights is still in a bit of a testing phase that it would be free 0r discounted. $10 for two hours of wifi seemed like a little much but I felt I would be doing myself a disservice by not trying it out. So here I am.
The service is provided by Gogo Inflight Internet and the sign-up process was quick and painless.
So far all pages have loaded at very decent speed. Instant Message chats are working just fine with no glitches. The real test comes in streaming music and sound. Grooveshark loaded in about 15 seconds and the song played flawlessly without having to stop and buffer. Video streaming only started to hiccup toward the end of “I’m on a Boat” on Hulu but righted itself quickly. Multiple tabs and TweetDeck run just fine too. I wanted to try and Skype with someone to really stretch its legs but didn’t get the chance.
Overall, at least if they are charging $10, you aren’t getting half-ass slow connections. If you really have trouble going a few hours being disconnected and have some disposable income, check it out next time you fly Delta. (This is not an advertisement.)
So you’re a Twitter rock star with an impressive list of followers. You’ve got a killer score of 99.6 on Twitter Grader, you carry on interesting conversations with @reply after @reply and get retweeted a decent amount, too. All is well in your Twitterverse, except…
…none of it is doing you any good in real life. Close your laptop and turn off your iPhone. What happens to your Twitterverse now? Exactly.
GIVE TWEEPS A CHANCE
If for any reason you’ve been weary of making your way to a tweetup in your area, I beg you to get off your rump, take a shot of social courage and meet these virtual tweeps in reality. Sure, there may be a brief moment of awkward introductions. “Hey, so… you’re @johndoe…you look nothing like your avatar…nice to meet you.” And even after that it may seem like there isn’t much to talk about besides the last four tweets you’ve read from each other or the hottest tweeted link of the day. This is not the case.
Your tweeps are more than handles and avatars and links and hashtags. Because you share interests (Why else would you follow them?) and converse with them throughout the day, there’s a pretty strong chance you’d have a great time at the pub/bar/pizza joint shooting the breeze for an hour or two. It solidifies the connections you are using Twitter to establish anyway and like any good relationship, it needs work.
It’s usually not hard to find tweetups since they are, of course, arranged via twitter and we spend a good bulk of our day there anyway. If you are a casual twitter user and not an obsessed fiend, check sites like Meetup.com or Tweetups.org for local gatherings. Also search for local twitter accounts that announce tweetups in your area (i.e. @soflatweetup, @ftlaudtweetup, etc.).
RECESSION FRIENDLY
Believe it or not, it IS possible to have a social life without breaking the bank. Down here in South Florida we are lucky enough to have quite a few tech events/tweetups that have generous sponsors who will chip in for the booze and food.
This is in no way meant to promote twitter mooching. No one likes the guy/girl who hovers around gatherings just for the free stuff.
Last night at Boca’s First Pizza Tweetup, Tucci’s Pizza (@tuccispizza) in Boca threw in all the pizza (which, by the way, was stellar) if you paid for a drink. There was no shortage of food, the owners were grateful and by the looks of it everyone had a great time. Thanks to @lapp for coordinating and @oweno for the awesome video:
So go forth my noble tweetup scaredy-cats. Drop the anti-social front and meet the people who pleasantly distract you from work on Twitter.
