NEW MEDIA CINCINNATI

A British Pub, a funky neon-green Margarita, a room full of “virtual” strangers and an ice- breaker exercise to demonstrate physically the subject matter to which we had all been drawn to. Strange combination of confluences you might ask, but in reality they all came together to make one of the most enlightening and enjoyable evenings I’ve had in a long while.

I attended the New Media Cincinnati Meet Up at The Pub at Rookwood Mews. The group was created by Daniel Johnson, Jr. for folks who have an interest in new media (podcasting, video podcasting, blogging, micro-blogging, social networking, etc.). I am an extroverted super connector by personality trait, a free-lance writer, a Learner according to the Clifton Strength Finder Leadership Tool (put out by the Gallup Poll folks), a huge user of social networking (LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo) and a person very much interested in the future of new media.

Daniel began the Meet Up by asking folks to write one word that best described themselves on their name tag with the additional instruction to place the tag high on the shoulder to save room for later. I was immediately intrigued. Competitive person that I am, I went through a couple of name tags until I thought I had best captured my essence. Little did I know that the actual exercise would involve the strangers around me further distilling that essence. They were instructed to come up with their own one-word description of me after a brief conversation together. It was great fun and a very creative way to force people to get out of their comfort zone, move around and meet new people. By the end of the night I had accomplished the following:

• Met quite a few highly fascinating people
• Learned why I should jump on the Twitter bandwagon and Tweet along with the rest of the enlightened world
• Asked to contribute some writing for the Girlfriendology.com website (“the online community for women based on female friendship”)
• Recorded for a promo for the podcast “How I Got My Job”
• Took several photos which I later posted to my Facebook and to the New Media Cincy Flcikr site (as well as here)
• Had a complete and total K-A blast!

Then I extended the night by having dinner at the pub with Jeanne Bernish, Mike Finn and Steve Platt. Unbeknownst to the group, we discovered that all four of us live within shouting distance (ok, yodeling distance) of each other. We all have a background or interest in writing as well as a blog on the side. It was great, spirited conversation and a wonderful end to a fabulous evening.

Looking forward to the next Meet Up in February and by then I should be an old hand at Tweeting my way through the universe. (Btw, the neon-green margarita was fab!)

Additional info on New Media Cincinnati:

The main URL for the group is http://newmediacincinnati.com

Wiki: http://newmediacincinnati.wetpaint.com
Google Calendar: http://tinyurl.com/2caxxp
Twitter: http://twitter.com/newmediacincy
Jaiku: http://jaiku.com/channel/newmediacincy
Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/newmediacincy/