It was a bit of a challenge to organise Adelaide blogger meet-ups to start with. I remember wanting to do this four years ago. Then, I finally managed to do my first call-out to fellow Adelaide bloggers about 8 months ago. Although there was interest, it wasn’t enough to push things along.
Then, I finally decided just to give it a go in Jan 08. It ended up as a quiet party that made me wonder if there were really enough folks who’d be interested in web-to-F2F meet-ups.
Well, in the last couple of months, my local contacts online seem to have grown a lot due to various social networks that I’m a part of. And, with the encouragement of fellow web enthusiasts here in Adelaide, we’ve finally managed to pull off a full get-together - with a real a mixture of folks from Twitter (via SATUB), Adelaide Social Web Facebook Group, Bloggers’ Meetup Group, and some Flickr friends.
All you need to do is to read some of the comments by meetup attendees in various parts of the web during the last 24 hours to know how the get-together turned out. But hey - I’m not going to let you hunt for folks’ comments. I collected some of them for sharing in this post (see below).
Anyway, here are the 20+ folks who made it to the meeting at Bocelli’s Caffe Ristorante on the 18th of April 2008 (links lead to people’s online profiles and sites):
- Lee Hopkins - Blog | Twitter | Facebook
- Janette Toral - Blog | Twitter | Facebook
- Janin Toral- Facebook
- Kay Morales - Blog | Facebook
- Nick Morales
- Steve Thomas - Blog | Flickr | Facebook
- Kay Walker - Blog | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook
- Chaz Vidal - Blog | Facebook
- Steve Davis- Blog | Twitter | Facebook
- Keith Zerna- Blog
- Andrew Nicholson - Blog | Twitter
- Simon Loffler - Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr
- Dena Vassallo - Blog | Facebook
- Dave Smith - Facebook
- Bernadette Relos - Blog | Flickr | Facebook
- Charlie Robinson - Blog | Twitter | Facebook
- Miles Crawley - Facebook
- Melissa Williams - Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr
- Jim Manning - Blog | Facebook
- Bridie Gallagher - Meetup
- Marcia Burgmann - Flickr | Facebook
Thanks again to all who attended the meet-up. I really had a fantastic time meeting all of you. It’s always wonderful to see faces and smiles… to hear voices and laughter. It makes such a huge difference!
Anyway, if you’re keen to see my profiles too, you can find me on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, among other places.
And, to see photos of the meet-up, I’ve posted them on the Meetup group and on Facebook. Janette Toral and Kay Walker also posted some photos on Facebook.
Here are some of the comments about the meet-up:
“An inspiring Meetup! A welcoming gang of enthusiasts! I had fun! Laughed and chatted and shared and learned heaps! Thanks everyone. Congratulation Shai for a fantastically successful meetup.” - Bridie Gallagher (via Meetup page)
“is happy to have met a lovely group of friends face to face tonight. online is great. faces are better.” - Charlie Robinson (via Twitter)
“met an amazing array of peeps at a webloggers meet.” - Kay Walker (via Facebook)
“It’s friendly and accepts a really wide range of people. Nice big group- a real hotchpotch of people-types! I’m sure most people really enjoyed it- we all got to meet new people and learned new things. Some of us might even meet up again online by visiting each others’ various sites-” - Kay Walker (via Meetup page)
“Lovely to meet a new bunch of people and hear about what they do. Its’ a great place to get networking.” - Simon Loffler (via Meetup page)
“Thanks to Shai, I got to join my first blogger’s meetup today. The April edition of the Adelaide Blogger’s Meetup was great. It was interesting to meet so many people. My blogging has always been for a very specific audience ( I’m looking at you, family! ) but it was actually nice to share some of our blogging as well as the motivations for blogging with a few more people.” - Chaz Vidal (via Parenting Tips for Programmers)
“went to the Adelaide Bloggers Meet Up tonight. Really nice people they are too.” - Jim Manning (via Facebook)
“As it was I had a great time, I only checked my mobile 40 times in two hours and I’ll definitely go to another one. ” - Melissa Williams (via Crafting Order Out of Chaos)
“Few too many people to say hello to every one but I had a great time nonetheless. Looking forward to the next meet-up.” - Melissa Williams (via Meetup page)
“It was great meeting everyone - well, most people. Oops, by that I mean, I didn’t get to meet everybody” - Steve Davis (via Meetup page)
“Hey Shai. Thank you for organizing the Adelaide Bloggers meet-up last night. Look forward in getting to know more folks here. Cheers!” - Janet Toral
“YAY to a great night…well done Shai!” - Marcia Burgmann (via Meetup page)
So, hopefully, this means that this is just the beginning of more wonderful meet-ups and friendships.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Lee Hopkins 04.20.08 at 1:52 am
Shai, you created an absolute belter of a night! (translation = “bloody brilliant!)
I am also REALLY impressed with your camera work; apart from a few obvious exceptions (yourself, Dena, Kay Morales; all three of you are works of art that cannot possibly be improved upon) you made us ALL look good! And no soft focus filters anywhere!!
Thank you for persevering with the Adelaide community when all others (myself included) had given up hope.
God bless you.
[Reply]
Shai Coggins reply on April 22nd, 2008:
Lee: Wow. What do you say to that kind of comment?
Thank YOU! I’m really happy that the Adelaide web community seems to be growing, thriving, and seem ready to grow together. Looking forward to see where this goes. And, hope to see you as part of it all!
[Reply]
Ric 04.20.08 at 10:54 pm
Great work Shai, that is a great result for the effort. Hope I helped a little even if I missed a great meet-up :’(
[Reply]
Shai Coggins reply on April 22nd, 2008:
Ric: Helping to spread the news always helps! I really think a lot of folks helped to make this happen (SATUB guys, Twitter & Facebook friends, Meetup folks…). Definitely a group/community effort! Anyway, hope to meet you another time.
[Reply]
Jim Manning 04.22.08 at 7:55 am
It was a great night and I thoroughly enjoyed the banter. Whilst I did not get to meet everyone on the night I have been busy reading everyones blog and making friends on Facebook. Look forward to meeting again soon.
[Reply]
Shai Coggins reply on April 28th, 2008:
Hi, Jim. Good to know that you enjoyed the meet-up too. And, it IS great that we can all now connect online. It will be wonderful to catch up again soon. You think you’ll be game for the June meet-up?
[Reply]
Janette Toral 04.22.08 at 11:34 am
Hello Shai. Congratulations again for a great meet-up. I’m gradually adding contacts based in Adelaide via Twitter. Hopefully it can help in sounding off future meet-ups. Cheers!
[Reply]
Shai Coggins reply on April 28th, 2008:
Thanks, Janette. Looking forward to seeing you next time too. Hope you made some good connections.
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