New Media Cincinnati August Meet-Up

Attended the August 2nd Saturday New Media Cincinnati Meet-Up at the Pub in Rookwood Commons. The theme this time around was "Questions from a Hat" and the 50 or so attendees wrote in burning questions that they had regarding social media. Daniel Johnson Jr., founder of NMC, pulled the questions one at a time from his signature baseball cap. The questions were answered by volunteers from the audience and ran the gamut from highly technical questions on web development like the one by
@editvdo that was waaay over my head to the interestingly humorous question asking who had been working with social media the longest and who had the oldest Twitter account.


If memory serves me right, I believe our Mad Scientist in-residence, Catherine, aka @foxydot and Daniel Johnson Jr., are the group's early Twitter adopters. The question about longevity with social media became debatable around the definition of what social media truly means. Some folks go back many decades to ham radio days and even I submitted to the group that my foray with media and being social started on my driveway in my dad's parked car at age 13 on the CB radio.

Interestingly enough, I just discovered one of those early virtual friends on Facebook. We talked many times over the course of a Jr. High year, and although we were the same age, never met (just too far to ride a bike to). I remembered his real name all these years and found him on a friend's high school reunion FB page. Now we are connected on FB and "talk" often and are "friends" on Twitter (there is a difference between a follower and a friend). In fact, I had been searching my old journals for mention of our CB radio friendship and/or conversations and found the journal with him in it. Will absolutely have to scan some of the pages and post it to FB. I stated he was a "really nice guy" way back at 13 and today, an un-named number of years later, I can truthfully say he is one hell of a nice guy! Some things never change....

I digress, back to NMC.......Daniel did a great job of preparing a message for folks to become acquainted with prior to the meeting. It involved things we could do as a group to keep the noise down while people were speaking, since we have been operating without a microphone. This mic free state works for smaller groups, but we have consistently been getting around 50 folks in attendance. He also asked for the "regulars" (you know who you are!) to break out of their group comfort zone and welcome people who were coming for the first time.








There is always a great mix of people at these events. People of all backgrounds, experience levels and ages: all focused on sharing and learning. Many of the people that I have become good friends with were met in a completely virtual way first on Twitter. It's always so exciting to meet live after establishing an on-line relationship. The profile pics are a big help with identifying folks and that's why it's so important to make sure that you have a high quality professional close-up
for your smaller-than-a-postage stamp size Twitter pic. Back in the day, all we had to recognize our CB radio virtual friends when we met live, was the sound of their voice. Imagine that! And yes, I did participate in a couple CB meet-ups in my town (hoping my mom doesn't read this blog!)-I guess these were pre-cursors to today's Tweet-ups!



So, if you have been seeing a lot of posts about Second Saturdays in Cincinnati, you really must come out and join us. We have a total blast (just check us out in the phone booth above!) learning. sharing, connecting and creating friendships and business relationships. I know where I'll be on Saturday, September 12th
. Won't you join us?











New Media Cincy Phone booth photo taken by Christiaan Todd Photography. They do fantastic work!


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Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009