Twegals Tweet Up – June 7th 2011

Twitter is a great medium for stimulating debate, and an excellent forum for meeting new and like minded people.

In terms of relationships, Twitter is essentially a forum for meeting others. You have to take that virtual meeting off line if you want to begin to create a real relationship. As they say on Twitter you need to meet IRL (in real life).

Tweet Up

A Tweet up is a great opportunity to meet other tweeps IRL so is well worth making the effort to attend if it doesn’t clash with your other engagements.

The Lex 2011 Tweetup, organised by Brian Inkster (@BrianInkster) and Linda Cheung (@LindaCheungUK), was popular – perhaps the only complaint I have about it would be that there wasn’t enough time to meet all the Twegals that attended!

That is why I volunteered to host the next one, along with Steve Williams (@motoringlawyer).

Steve organised a poll to find out where the next meet should be held. We found there was popular demand for a June event in London, closely followed by a June event in the North.

So that’s how it’s come about that I am hosting the Tweet up on June 7th in London. If you haven’t yet given your RSPV on Twtvite here is a link to the Twegals Tweetup

And, look out for more news from Steve on the North Tweet up.

What to Expect

If you want a flavour of what to expect, Brian Inkster’s piece points towards write ups of the Lex 2011 Tweetup by a number of attendees, and includes a host of comments as to what people did and didn’t like.

Reading the comments, I decided it would be impossible to please everyone. So I’ve gone with what was practicable to achieve, given the constraints of a busy life and limited time in which to organise and chase people.

I had hosted an event at the Yorkshire Grey a few years ago, so decided it would be a good venue. Unfortunately, things have changed because the management wanted a £500 deposit to hold the function room. This would be repayable once the pub achieved £500 in food and drink sales.

I provisionally booked the room and set up a donation facility so those attending could donate. I quickly decided against this when only 2 people donated and it was clear we would not have anywhere near the required deposit by the deadline the pub had given. So, I let the room go, hoping no-one would book it for a Tuesday night. Also I remembered the bar area downstairs was a good size.

In the meantime, I emailed a few businesses I happen to know are interested in the legal market to see if they were interested in sponsoring the Tweet up. I didn’t follow up on these because someone else booked the function room in the meantime.

So when you turn up on the night, expect to buy your own food and drink. The pub is generally very quiet on a Tuesday evening, and hopefully we should have most of the room to ourselves.

I will be writing a post script afterwards, and if you have comments or suggestions before or after the Tweet up do please leave them here.

Benefits of attending

A Tweet up is a great time saver because you can meet lots of tweeps in one go.

If the people you meet are tweeps you’ve already come across on Twitter all the better, but if not a Tweet up presents opportunities for discovering new tweeps you may want to follow in future.

When you’re not restricted to 140 character conversations, and get to meet face to face you are more likely to identify who you want to spend more time with, perhaps over coffee or lunch. For any of us who are time starved this is a real boon.