Legal Tweet up – 7 June 2011
Tweet ups are when we take our online relationships offline and meet the faces behind the avatars.
There is an appetite for more regular tweet ups so, later in this blog, I’ll mention some ideas for a trial run of regular London tweet ups.
@Legalaware who was very quick off the mark reporting the recent #Twegalstweetup provided photos here and here are some I took.
When I arrived at the venue, the Yorkshire Grey, @mikejulietbravo was already sat talking to @IkenCEO who I had the pleasure of meeting at the previous tweet up. It was a lovely sunny evening, and so the pub was fuller than I would have wanted.
A few others were either already there or arrived soon afterwards, including @andrewneligan and @ljanstis.
It was great to renew contact with @LBCWiseCounsel @NewLeafLaw @ClareRodway @DavidAllenGreen @Colmmu @jonathanlea @legaltwo @michaelscutt @Filemot and @GavWard.
Thanks to @conscioussol’s generosity, much needed food was brought out for the party as it had been at the previous tweet up. It’s surprising how quickly you can feel you know certain people, and @conscioussol is one of those people for me.
Inevitably some tweeps who had said they would be there didn’t show up while others who were not expected did turn up.
Just as I was thinking @Brianinkster might be one of the no shows, he appeared. His presence was very welcome. Both he and @GavWard manage to be more present at London events than many Londoners. Does it say something about the Scots sociability I wonder? Certainly they are both very central figures in the Twitter legal community.
Others I met for the first time were: @Copyrightgirl @danhlawreporter @taxingwork @AjeetMinhasGTB @anyapalmer @BLPLaw @Bureauista @cyberpixie @Ed_Smith_83 @iptax@JaneClemetson @JaneTHoye @jeanyvesgilg @jezhop @kevinpoulter @susansperber @keithhardie @lawbore @LilWizz @netlawmedia @oohsonia @penny05Jones @polinkin @taffydavies @janpotentio
More than 55 Twegals were expected, though I’m not sure if that many came. There were quite a few there who I did not get to meet. Next time perhaps.
Towards the end of the evening, when there were just a few of us left, a new surge of energy was provided by some late arrivals – @_millymoo, @craigwebster and @ChristianUncut.
If I have overlooked anyone let me know to add your name, and if you’ve written any blog posts about the tweet up I’d like to mention it in this post if you let me know about it.
The results of the feedback from the event are displayed below and may be of interest to the organisers of the North Tweet up @vicmoffatt and @motoringlawyer:
Did you attend the event?
How would you rate the venue?
How would you rate the organizers?
How was your overall experience? Any comments / suggestions?
Would have been better if we’d a separate space so it wasn’t so noisy but I understand the venue double booked so wasn’t possible. Otherwise totally worthwhile/fun evening – wish I’d been able to get there earlier.
Great night. Good to meet those I met last time and new people. It would be great if this became a regular event.
Due to the rise in attendees, would suggest larger venue or to have venue with ability to have flexibility in upsizing.
Great networking and look forward to next one.
Needs a quieter environment to be noisy in 🙂
Might be worth suggesting people bring stickers/badges with their name/twitter name on next time!
Great – thanks for organising.
need a pub where the staff aren’t in such a hurry to get you out at closing time
Very good event. Good central location. A bit crowded and noisy but not a major problem. Thanks to Shireen for organising it.
Well-organised and thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you and well done !
– I think we were supposed to have a room, but it was double booked, so a bit noisy again.
– defo should have Twitter handle name badges for next time (with real names in very small letters). I’d be happy to take this job on.
Regs….David.
Enjoyed it and appreciate people taking the time to organise. My main feedback was that it would have really helped if people had badges with their twitter names on. Particularly for those with no photo as their avatar, it was quite difficult to work out who was who.
Thank you. A dedicated function room would be great another time
Excellent.
Have blogged about it full on my blog http://legal-aware.org
Really inspiring use of Twitter by education, reporters and the professional legal services. Reassuringly nice bunch of people!
The host, Shireen, was a real joy to talk with, totally unassuming and uninterfering!
It’s clear that people really do like to know who they’re talking to online, and participating in these networking events facilitates this, and provides a way to increase your transparency, and deepen your relationships.
Clearly people would welcome a dedicated room or space. One problem I foresee with venues where the separate room is tucked away at the top of the building, while the bar is downstairs is this: people go to buy drinks, get engrossed in conversation, and stay downstairs so that eventually half the group end up downstairs, and a tiny number are left in a sparsely filled room upstairs. So, the separate space needs to be of a type that avoids splitting the group.
The next major tweet up is to be organised by @Colmmu and @BLPLaw and is likely to be a super event given the involvement of organisations like the College of Law and Berwin Leighton. It’s likely to be in the Autumn, possibly in October. In the meantime, in view of the demand for a regular tweet up I’m going to trial monthly tweet ups for the London area.
However, we won’t host the monthly tweet up in any month when someone else is organising a major legal tweet up, such as the proposed one in October.
This time as we know there is to be a Northern Tweet up in July, we’re also going to avoid July, by hosting the first monthly tweet up in August.
We’ve identified a few venues which could provide a separate room without charge if we unexpectedly get large numbers, while also being suitable if only a small number attend. I’m going to take a look at them before finalising the venue for August. If anyone has a venue to propose then please let me know on here
Also as people so welcome food at these tweet ups but find it difficult when they’re busy networking to go buy food and start tucking in, it may make sense to have a charge to cover the purchase of some food. To keep things simple, and give people the flexibility they like to have, I suggest everyone throw in a fiver for food when they turn up on the night.
Here is a link for the monthly Tweet up. The hashtag used for these regular monthly events will be #TweetingLegals
