The local Adelaide bloggers/micro-bloggers group that I help to organise had our fifth and final meet-up of the year at Jim Manning‘s beautiful home. There were a few “firsts” during this get-together, including:
- Holding a BBQ in one of the member’s residence. We’ve always held our meet-ups in restaurants/pubs, so it was interesting to see the difference in dynamics with a change in venue.
- Having our first event sponsor – Kirrihill Wines – who contributed a great selection of wines for our wine-loving members.
- Getting family of group members involved/invited to our event. That’s why I brought my hubby and kids for the first time to meet the group. So, it’s also a first to have kids running around while we tried to talk and to eat.
- Janette Toral (another group member) has sort of held an Adelaide soft-launch of her book, Blogging from Home, during the get-together. And, she even gave some copies to attendees. Yay! In fact, you can see me in the collage holding a copy of her book.
- Receiving a live on-the-air shout-out for our group and meet-up during a 5aa radio show with Steve Davis, one of our members. w00t!
Of course, it was also great to meet a few folks for the first time like Jen (w/JJ), Geoffrey, James, Bruce, and Matt from Kirrihill, as well as the family members of long-time attendees – Melissa and Charlie. Also good to see Bridie again, and to finally get Simon to show up in a meet-up.
Too bad I missed our good friend Steve D, who went to the party after I had to go home. But, at least I was there when he mentioned our group during his radio show. Thanks for that, Steve! 
And, if I were to give out meet-up awards, I’d love to give a special mention to Kay Walker, Steve Thomas, Melissa Williams, Steve Davis, Jim Manning, and Charlie Robinson for having attended 4 out of the 5 meet-ups of the year. You guys rock! Thanks sooo much for helping to make this happen.
So yeah, it was a great way to end the year’s meet-ups. Again, thank you to all who took part in our 2008 meet-ups. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do more in 2009. And perhaps, even better! In fact, I’ve been talking to a few folks already about the different ways we can make next year’s meet-ups even bigger and better. So, let’s see how we can make it all happen.
Photo credit: All photos are mine, except for the last 2 at the bottom where you can see me. Those were taken by Janette Toral and re-posted with permission. Thanks, Janette!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
jen 12.01.08 at 8:49 pm
Yay, now I can go check out some more blogs. I’ve also done a bit of a wrap-up tonight, albeit without photos.
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Kay 12.01.08 at 9:43 pm
Great summary of a great little meet-up! I loved Jim’s house as a setting- quite unique! Thanks again to him for his generosity and hospitality. He ended up with the the little Christmas gifts we brought with us because there weren’t any others- you silly duffers, the rest of you!! anyway, hopefully if he doesn’t need them, they can be brought along to another Christmas do. I really appreciated the wines brought by Matt and had a thorougly good taste of three: The 2006 Shiraz, 2006 Shiraz, Grenache, Mouverdre and the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon- all great for their types. I’m still mystified by the three young geeks who tended to stay in a clump! Can someone enlighten me please?
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Melissa W 12.02.08 at 6:11 am
Kay I think Simon and Geoffrey were two of the three geeks that stood in a huddle? We’ll be seeing Geoff on Plurk soon hopefully as I talked to him abut it at great length earlier on and he seemed quite keen.
I had a great time even though we had to leave a bit early (Felix was on the edge of having a giant freak out so it was best we left when we did.) I also enjoyed the addition of family to the meet-up, not just for myself but for the kids too as they seemed to have a great time playing with each other (although mine would have enjoyed a dip in the pool too.)
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Matt McCulloch 12.05.08 at 11:50 am
Thanks again for the invite – it was great to meet you all and I look forward to catching up with you again soon!
Cheers
Matt
PS Off to investigate Plurk now…
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Simon T Small 12.09.08 at 7:49 pm
Great summary Shai, and yes I FINALLY made it
@melissaw / @flamehair
Yea, that was me, only their briefly, but was good to meet a few of the locals.
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