I stumbled across a group of bloggers who are at the very cusp of developing their community as I was travelling around the Internet on Saturday, and it got me thinking about how blogging communities start, grow and where do they end?

I was intrigued by Joe Litobarski’s post, a response to the proposal that a Euroblogosphere and community isn’t emerging.

In it, Joe argues that there is no Euroblogosphere as such, but sets himself the challenge of building one (wow, tough cookie!) from the embryonic communities that already exist.

He says that:

This might mean pulling even further back from hardcore European politics – and focusing more on European life. It might mean translating bits and pieces from national blogospheres for the English-speaking Euroblogosphere. What I definitely think it means is sharing skills learned and best-practices between bloggers. I’m going to try to work harder with other European bloggers to improve their own blogging, and ask for their help in improving mine.

To do this, Joe has organised a Euroblogger meetup taking place over Twitter using #euroblog, Google Wave and Skype on December 3rd from 20:00 GMT.

I think this is a great idea and i’ll be watching with interest to see how the Eurobloggers unite and start to build the foundations of a community as strong as those like the Mummy or Tech Bloggers.

There are many individuals writing about their views on European policies and culture, but these tend to be very localised as far as I can see – there are very few writing about Europe as a whole and I’ll be interested to see how the work of a few individuals will affect this.

This sprt of meetup is of course a regular occurrence in London, and Andy Bargery has provided the focal point for this – I wonder if Joe will fill the same role, only on a European scale?

As my stay in London comes to a close I’ve naturally been reflective about my UK adventure.

I’ve been thinking about all the excellent live music I’ve seen; that’ll be an upcoming topic for my other blog, The Plummet Onions. But I’ve also been thinking a lot about the associations I’ve made here: all the people and groups that I’m now connected to, and better for, simply because I moved here in February 2001.

The most important of all is obviously my amazing wife, whom I met in November 2001. There are also the really good friends I’ve made via that relationship, flatmates and friends of hers, people that I now count amongst my best friends: PC, the She-Aussie, the Colombians, and others. We also have some good friends in the Neighbours. I’ll leave it at that, since – despite appearances – I don’t actually live my entire life on the internet.

I’ve made some good friends at work here: the Scotsman, the Other Scotsman, and the Other Other Scotsman (see the trend?) especially. There are definitely some folks I’ll keep in touch with, and Facebook and LinkedIn make that easy to do.

It’s important to say that I’ve kept in touch with my closest friends back in Canada since moving here, and that’s not going to change. We never talk as much as I’d like, but I get to see them now and again and we email all the time and I know they read my blog. I’m not letting them go.

There are also some groups I’ve connected with that have resulted in some really good times and friendships here in London. One of those was Echoing the Sound, a Nine Inch Nails fan discussion forum. I was quite busy on there for a few years during the productive recording and touring period for NIN. I’m not on there much anymore, but the common thread of the band meant I got to know some new, cool people all around the world. And the London shows meant I got to meet a lot of them here for lots of Good Times™.

A couple of years ago I also started attending the London Blogger Meetups because I felt a little isolated in my blog writing. It was a small group when I started, but under the guiding hand of Andy Bargery it’s grown into a waiting-list, sponsor-pursued social networking event. I’ve gotten to know lots of good people via that gathering. Andy’s even been kind enough to ask me to say a few words at my last LBM tomorrow night.

The LBM has been a gateway for some other fun, friendly, and beneficial associations, particularly with Qype UK. If you read this blog you know that I was getting invited to a lot of food, fun and drink events with them. They’re a very good gang of folks as well. And that in turn has spawned occasional invitations to food and drink blogger events with Relish PR.

And all of those channels have spawned Twitter connections, some of which have turned into real-life connections of various types.

Some of the things I’ve been involved with in London have been temporary, of course: not everything produces life-long friends. I really enjoyed the many evenings I spent at Birkbeck College getting my Certificate in Philosophy, and the few weeks I spent at the London College of Contemporary Music learning to play the bass guitar.

People often complain that it’s hard to get to know people or make new friends in London. And maybe that’s true, relative to other places where people are less guarded. But it’s certainly not impossible to extend your network of acquaintances, and maybe even make some real pals.

You’re ace, London.

Here’s some blog posts you might have missed this month:

Media Guardian Innovation Awards 2010
iZoca
Twitter Trending Topics are no longer relevant
Spotify: Daniel Ek’s Glasshouse Chat
Real Time Google Search
The benefits of PR work experience
What’s the point in great PR if the product stinks?
London Bloggers Meet Up September
The Joy of Crowd Sourcing
Practising full tweet disclosure

September’s London Bloggers Meet Up was sponsored by the wonderful Ebay.co.uk, recent sellers of Skype and bargain hunter’s online refuge.

Heat re-appeared and beer (kindly paid for by Ebay all night) was shared with conversation, as always, in full flow (hi Cate, Mike, Cristiano, Mel, Alex and Ant et al…)

I like Ebay, I use it a fair amount, and it’s great to see a huge company embracing engagment with the blogosphere in a positive way and what with the likes of Lastminute.com, Guinness, and of course Starbucks (yup, full disclosure, I am indeed a Starbucks guy) having sponsored the event, it shows how important the movement is proving to be for these brands.

I’ve mentioned before how odd it can be doing the PR and blogging thing, and how the balance can be tough to find, but it struck me last night how many of those in attendance juggle both, without detriment to either.

What would be great now, would be to see the brands who sponsor the meetups contribute with a next step by blogging themselves. It’s great that they want to take part, get involved in the community and add value to it – the next stage in the progresion is to become blogging entities themselves, whether it’s through a network, a shared blog or from comments of the CEO.

PRs are becoming bloggers and bloggers are becoming PRs, so why not have brands become bloggers too, if they’re increasingly being represented by people who are themselves blogging and understanding of the nuances of the community?

Lots do this already of course, in particular the more technology-oriented companies. What’s stopping those that aren’t?

Fear of the community and the way that the language will sit within it (don’t be scared, we don’t bite)

Time is of the essence, and who has time to put together 400 words once a week? (A lot of us with full time jobs, not to mention those who are parents, manage this just about)

Hesitance to be totally transparent (surely we should all be aiming for this anyway?)

Personalities within the company who are reluctant to use a new or untried channel of communication (there’s a few of us who blog y’know, it’s not a fad)

The first step towards ‘getting there’ is to get in and amongst bloggers, find out what makes them tick and then apply your business’ characteristics to give the writing a voice – readers and credibility will follow.

A blogger’s mecca

This blogger’s mecca, for the new and experienced, held monthly is run by Andy Bargery at different bars around central London. Also a great way to network and get to know different pubs if you’re new to London like me, I seem to notice a trend of getting top floor exclusivity too!

Guest speakers are always featured ranging from representatives from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Lastminute.com to Ralph Lauren who discussed their online charity activity for breast cancer – I missed that one! These guest speakers are usually on hand to share their wisdom, online initiatives and best case practices with the group, sometimes also the sponsor (thanks Starbucks for the drinks and the Starbucks VIA instant coffee samples), providing an open bar and sometimes even a competition or two…

A bit educational too

Guest speakers: Chris Tradget from Buy.at (left) and Matt Brown from Londonist.com (right)

This month’s guest speakers featured Matt Brown from Londonist.com and Chris Tradget from Buy.at. Matt talked about the experiences of creating his brain child, the fantastic Londonist.com, featuring all the latest on restaurants, news, arts, events and even fires (you had to be there) and how this was made possible through a network of bloggers and just happening to be there with video camera in hand at the right time should a fire start (yes, you really had to be there). Chris spoke about how we can actually make money from our blogs, which on a quick head count of the room not many of us seem to be doing. That night we were given a brief overview of how affiliate links can be used to make money from blogs. I like the widget where you can create your own fashion statement, share it with the world and that if purchased you earn $$$! Always a bit educational, if only the key points were uploaded somewhere! I think that would also be a great way to drive traffic back to the Meetup page or to Andy’s blog by the way…

My verdict

Andy, thanks for organising this Meetup, this has been a great way to expand my knowledge of blogging, build my network and meet expert bloggers working in the industry. Enjoy my new blog!

In a conversation at last week’s London Blogger’s Meetup with a fellow social media PR type, we were discussing one of his campaigns and the sort of tactics that his agency had employed. This set me thinking.

I don’t know of any other sector of the PR industry, where discussions of ideas, plans and executed campaigns are shared so freely. I can’t imagine the guys who run the Coca-Cola corporate strategy, sharing their plans with the Pepsi corporate team for example.

Is it because social media PRs are happier to talk and share in order to help fellow professionals and develop this growing and vibrant industry sector? Or is it because they/we want to show off how well we’re doing with the new tools afforded to us by technology, and to covertly rub our industry-mates’ noses in the dirt?

I am not entirely sure to be completely honest with you.

The PR with whom I was talking was quite happily telling me what their execution strategy for one of their clients was – I am being cynical if I were to suggest that this was purely being done in order to shellshock me, a younger and less experienced PR (nearly two years, oh yes), into trying to put them on a pedestal as a leading light?

Was the PR trying to genuinely encourage and provide me with something to aspire to, by telling me a tale of success?

Nope, still can’t decide.

What did strike me was the number of PRs who are happy to talk to other PRs about this, no longer the ‘Oh, there’s such and such from whoever’s agency, let’s stay clear of them’ of yesteryear. Maybe it’s because an increasing amount of PRs doing digital are younger and not struck by the prejudices of the ‘old way’, and are happy to converse with each other.

Incidentally, we both agreed that the way we prove ROI to clients has to change – a common thread that is emerging in actual conversations not just hypothetical blog posts.

What are your thoughts? Was I inadvertently taking part in a ‘my strategy is bigger and better than your strategy’ conversation, or a ‘this was cool, see if you can run with it’ copnversation – help me to work it out!

After the last London Bloggers meetup organiser Andy Bargery brought members’ attention to a contest being held by British Telecom’s new service, BT MyPlace. That service provides tips on places to eat, drink and be entertained in west end London to those with a wi-fi device. The contest was to submit your picks for some of Westminster’s best-kept secrets; if they picked yours for BT MyPlace you’d win an Acer Aspire One netbook.

I submitted several places. I found out this week that they picked two of my suggestions: The Ship and Outsider Tart! So I’m writing this blog entry from a nifty, tiny little computer. Fun!

Following the most recent London Blogger’s Meet Up, Andy Bargery noted how:

…it got me to thinking how few of your blogs I’ve actually read. I don’t know whether this is a time issue, or whether I just keep reading the same blogs all the time, or if it’s because there are just so many of us in the community that I haven’t got around to it yet. In reality it’s probably a mixture of all of the above.

And so set out a round of blog tag, in which I was tagged by the rather splendid Mr. Tim Dickinson (thanks very much!).

So here’s three bloggers who you should check out, regulars to the LBM:

1) Londonelicious – Krista writes restaurant reviews and tales of food fun as an American living in London. Recent pieces include a review of Mestizo which is just down the road from me, a walk around Blackheath Farmer’s Market and a tour of Dalston’s Ridley Road Market. Krista’s great at what she does and makes me think I should give up this PR malarkey and go and eat some food instead! You’re it Krista!

2) Mauricio Samayoa – Mauricio blogs about tech and music, with a good amount of social media musings thrown in for good measure. His posts are often thought provoking and although not as frequent as they could be (!!) he’s always good value for an opinion or two. Mauricio hails from El Salvador and has travelled a fair bit, living in Washington and Madrid amongst others, so he’s well positioned to offer a unique perspective on a range of different issues.

3) Fresh Plastic – Anthony is an individual – his tweets are like none other that I follow, and his passion for all things tech and gadgets make his blog a must read if you like a professional yet quirky look at new shiny objects. Anthony’s business card claims he is not a horse, something I can testify as truth, and there is certainly nothing equine about his writing as this post proves.

I’m a member of the London Bloggers Meetup. They’re playing a round og blog tag in an effort to raise group awareness of all the blogs in a rapidly-growing group.

I was just tagged – both here and in my personal blog – but decided to tag the next blogs there. Go check it out if you’re interested in who tagged me, or who I tagged.

Last Tuesday was time for the London Blogger’s Meet Up again.  It is a monthly get together, for bloggers,  orgainised by Andy Bargery.  I normally do a quick post to thank the sponsor for the free drinks and shout out to everyone I met.  There was no sponsor this month so it will be a very quick post.

There was a very interesting talk from Floyd Smith about turning your blog into a book.  Not really applicable to us, but I know a few blogs that could do it…  You can see his slides here.

The new people I met were Tom who writes Metro’s Ridiculant, Godwyns who writes Fictional Writings and My Person, Mark who writes Ill and Ancient, Tim who writes The Plummet Onions, Betania who writes Sensual Transition and London Bill, who has a blog that brings together the internets best pictures and has kindly agreed to write some Film Reviews for us.

Written by Tracey, OwnAFilmCompany.com

At The recent London Bloggers Meetup, we were lucky enough to be given a talk by Floyd Smith, who gave us advice on getting our blogs published as books.

You can see the full deck below.

The talk got me thinking and during the presentation, Floyd said two things that got me thinking. The first was that books are essentially a forever-lasting memorial of an idea or a snapshot in time – does this mean then, that the physicality of a book is now ethereal whereas blogs are now physical things that used to be ethereal?

Ethereality is defined as: Characterised by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible.

Yes a book is tangible, but only to those people who’s hands it is in – otherwise it is just another process/product/space that is, until the point where you actually hold the book, imagined. This is of course the same for a blog. However, a book, particularly a topic driven one, is insubstantial in so much so that as soon as it is published, it is already old news, it is a record of a snapshot of the past. A blog is an ever evolving form that is re-freshed as soon as a new post is published, which makes it, unlike a book, timely and therefore substantial.

Secondly, Floyd mentioned that not only do you have to have great compelling content, sometimes the timing just needs to coincide with an event which puts your blog or blog topic in the spotlight – so does getting that book deal mean that you have to network and meet as many people as possible who may be involved with publishing to make sure you are at the forefront of their minds?

Possibly. I think that like any industry, you need a stroke of luck and to know the right people, but this may mean that content is substituted for a chance meeting. If you are the person is being met, does this then diminish the credibility of your content? And if you are not getting that face to face interaction, does that mean that your content is of a lesser quality?

Not at all. The quality of your content is decided by your readers, not by the publishing agent you happen to have luckily met. So, in that case, why not publish an e-book, a collection of your better articles along the theme of one topic, make it free, and let others spread the word about your work, rather than introducing a barrier that is the primary concern of a book, the price.

How much can you make from your first book? A few thousand pounds if you’re lucky, Floyd said. You may make nothing from releasing an e-book, but there will be an opportunity for more people to read it.

There was another London Blogger Meetup last night. As always, organiser Andy Bargery did a bang-up job with venue and presentations.

It was held at Shish on Old Street. Upstairs it looks like a close-to-fast-food Moroccan/Middle East restaurant. Downstairs, though, there’s a fairly funky bar, which we had reserved. It was just right for lounging and mingling, I thought.

We had two presentations, too. The first was from group member and author Floyd Smith (if you’re a fan of the Dummies Guides you might know him as Bud E. Smith). He gave an interesting talk on how to turn your blog into a book, using the fact of pre-existing content and built-in test audiences as major helping points. I wonder if there’s a book waiting to be self-published in my music blog?

The second, shorter presentation was from member Jaz Cummins, who outlined a really nifty and very participatory campaign for Refugee Week called Simple Acts. Check it out and do something.

Of course, there were also a few drinks imbibed and much chit-chat made with folks new and familiar.

It was a strange but wonderful experience being at the London Bloggers Meet Up on Tuesday. It was wonderful, because as a blogger, it gave me the opportunity to speak with like minded people about ’stuff’. Blogging, Twitter, other social media related topics – it was the perfect opportunity to meet tweeps that i’ve been following and to get to know them, as well as meeting people who are now tweeps I follow.

It is the ‘weird’ side of this that I want to explore further. A conversation with Andy Bargery (LBM planner and all round nice chap) got me thinking. I’d asked Andy about his perception of the ratio of PRs to bloggers at the meet up and their behaviour – he said that it was lower than i’d imagine, and on the whole those PRs who did attend were more interested in talking with people than pushing products. Big thumbs up.

It is all too easy to slip into the mode of PR – you’re at a bloggers meet up, you talk to the bloggers, you wax lyrical about clients and you try and get coverage. Very simple. There’s your target, that’s the goal, this is what you want the outcome to be.

What do you do though, if you’re part of the blogging community, or consider yourself to be, but are a PR from 9-5:30?

I think, and please correct me if i’m wrong, it’s actually very simple to not get “confused” in these situations.

Firstly, the clue is in the title: BLOGGER MEET UP. If you are going in as a PR to sell your clients, you are going to get flamed pretty quickly.

Secondly, do you really want to carry on your day job when the final whistle blows?

I would position myself as a blogger who does PR. You may of course think ‘well you would say that’, and that’s fair enough, but I would argue that my reason for attending the meet up was to meet other bloggers and get different opinions on platforms, styles and to share stories of frankly awful pitches (sex blogs?).

I made anyone who wanted know, aware that I did PR, and I hope that it was not an issue that stuck in their minds for too long: “He’s only here to pitch to me”.

It’s bad etiquette to pitch a client at these events – it’s a professional matter, so keep the pitch to an e-mail, if you must pitch.

These events are not about which clients you work for and getting what you want written, to get written. They are about building long lasting relationships, sharing ideas, knowledge and making each other aware of stuff that is tucked away on the farthest corners of the cultural sphere in to which we have stumbled.

On Tuesday night there was another of our Bloggers’ Meetups, this time at the Silk Route-inspired Shish bar and restaurant in trendy Hoxton. This meant quite a trek from one side of London to the other following a hard day’s work, but it helped that the sun was shining and the tubes were all working. For once. Hallelujah to The God of Small Things.

Before long Epic Brother and I were downstairs at Shish, being greeted by Fashion Targets Breast Cancer reps who gave us smart little target badges, a couple of little target drinks vouchers and credit card-sized USB cards. PR Krista, who later made a presentation about the launch of the charity’s first online campaign, encouraged us to enter the evening’s raffle for target tee shirts. In case you’re wondering why it’s target this and target that, the target is the FTBC charity emblem so we saw quite a few of them in the course of the evening.

It was great to catch up with Splendid Chris and Formerly-of-Splendid Rax, who’s now enjoying a solo venture in PR, in between bites of gherkins and marmite on toast. Lolly and I ranted about the high cost of utilities mid-Credit Crunch and we chatted with Florentine Barbara about wine tastings and Italy, Photographer Peter who was quintuply booked up so had to leave early to attend his other four engagements of the evening, but not before enjoying the fruits of his drink vouchers. We even discussed creativity with newer meetup member, Creativity Consultant, Gregg Fraley. You can buy his book on creativity here.

Perched on a poof in the dim bar with North African-style lanterns swaying from the ceiling, I nagged Post It Note Politico Chris into writing a new book; so much so that the next time he sees me he’ll probably hide under a bus, moving or otherwise. Chris’s girlfriend, Nina, is working on a website promoting tourism in Mozambique, adding yet more diverse flavour to the evening’s conversation. Checking out one of the many charity fliers dotted about the place, Nina and I decided we liked the target tee shirts. They don’t look like the sort of tops you’d buy in the knowledge that 30% of the sale revenue is headed directly for a charity. Made by fashion retailers such as Top Shop, Warehouse, Marks & Sparks and River Island, the styles are current and perfectly wearable. Little did I realise how important that was to be later.

PR Krista took to the floor with great aplomb, explaining the story behind Fashion Targets Breast Cancer. It was established in 1994 by Ralph Lauren, who had lost his friend, Washington Post columnist, Nina Hyde to the dreaded disease. Hyde’s dying wish had been that Lauren should use his influence in the world of fashion to raise money for breast cancer research, campaigning and education. He kept his promise and the charity reached the UK’s shores in 1996. We heard about the importance of online outreach for charities such as FTBC, and interactive attention-grabbers, such as FTBC’s Million Model Catwalk, a site where you can put yourself on a catwalk with your favourite model/s and check out the latest in FTBC’s fashionable merchandise.

Following further discussion on how the blogging community can raise charity awareness, PR Krista presented a prize to a blogger called Derry who’d stated in 100 words or less the answer to:

Why should charities use online communications to support their cause?

His winning reply employed a quote by cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Krista and the FTBC team, who’d deliberated over which entrant should win, says that this statement “can be applied to both charities and to online groups such as bloggers.”

Derry took home the prize of a £100.00 shopping voucher kindly donated by FTBC partner, Marks & Spencer. Hopefully he’ll spend it on target merchandise for all his friends!

Next, the raffle was drawn (cue drum roll) and much to Andy Bargery’s dismay, my name was the tenth and final one out of the hat so I subsequently went home with a snazzy FTBC target tee from Top Shop. Later, when Andy told me he couldn’t believe my luck with meetup competitions, I said “I don’t know what’s going on. I never used to win anything before I joined this meetup group. Now it seems like I’m on a winning streak!” Long may that last.

A press release from Fashion Targets Breast Cancer states the following:

• Nearly 46,000 women and around 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK.
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and 1 in 9 women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.
• More women than ever in the UK are surviving breast cancer thanks to better awareness, better screening and better treatments.

The last statement is particularly pertinent to me as I know two breast cancer survivors, one of whom has lovelier hair now than before she lost it through chemo, and for whom a subsequent breast reconstruction has been so successful that she is known to grab a hand and say “feel”, because she’s so proud of how natural she feels and looks following such a long and painful ordeal. I take my hat off to her, and to all such brave fighters of cancer, be it breast or otherwise. Their inner steel is awesome in the truest sense of the word.

For further information on how to support the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer cause, check out the relevant links below.

Useful links

London Bloggers Meetup Group

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer

FTBC Merchandise

Ralph Lauren – this is one seriously gorgeous site. Even if you’re not a clothes horse, take a peek!

Shish

Million Model Catwalk - this is where you can buy FTBC merchandise and put yourself on the catwalk with your favourite models.

For everyone at Tuesday’s London Blogger Meetup, we had the pleasure of meeting the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer UK (FTBC) team who spoke with us about Million Model Catwalk. You can foolow the team on Twitter @FashionTargets, and there’s even a dedicated hashtag #1mmc.

Ten celebrities, including Jade Jagger, Sara Cox, Mark Foster and Bryan Ferry, are supporting FTBC as they try to raise £1m to help fight breast cancer. Did you know that nearly 46,000 women and 300 men (yep even we get affected chaps) are diagnosed with breast cancer annually in the UK, and that 1 in 9 women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime? Neither did I. Mark Foster sums it all up rather well, “The photo shoot for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer was a lot of fun – but ultimately for a serious cause. I am happy to give an hour or so to help save or change lives – that’s what this campaign and this charity is all about.”

In the UK, so far the FTBC campaign has raised over £9m for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, which goes towards supporting education, research and work raising awareness of the issue and cause.

The idea behind Million Model Catwalk is that you upload a photo of yourself and strut your stuff down a virtual catwalk alongside the celebs – neat. The FTBC clothes range includes designs from River Island, Coat, Topshop and sustainable design company, Goodone. You can check out the trendy t-shirts from the MMC blog which has links through to the relevant retailers.

Million Model Catwalk is also offering some top fashion tips from Gerry DeVeaux, who has given his predictions for the next spring and summer trends.

Finally, there’s a a series of weekly competitions you can enter to win a a whole bunch of cool prizes (swish).

There’s a lot of effort being put in to raise the level of public acknowledgement of Breast Cancer, and this is just one strand of that activity. It’s a great cause with some really clever ideas to get you involved, so please check out the Million Model Catwalkwebsite and blog and get involved!

Peter always takes plenty of photos at the blogger meetups, and last night was no different. He went a little snap-happy when I was being taught the Guinness pour; I like this series of three.

That’s right, tonight’s London Bloggers Meetup – the first of two March events – saw us (okay, me) enjoying drinks mixed with two of Ireland’s finest beverages: Bushmills whiskey and Guinness beer. This all went down at Diageo’s private bar on Henrietta Place in London (a very cool location to have a few glasses of anything, really).

Some of the drinks they had on were a bit poor: the mint julip, and the Guinness and champagne cocktail weren’t really to my taste. But some were delicious: the extra-strength Guinness export, and the Evening Irish Coffee (YUM!), for instance. There was some tasty finger food, a draw for rugby tickets, and a chance to learn to pour a pint of Guinness (my shamrock was shaky, but identifiable).

More important than that was meeting up with pals like Annie Mole, tikichris, Mel, epicurienne, and lots more. There were some folks I’d met only very briefly before, like Chris from Cheese and Biscuits and Matt from Londonist, and it was good to chat to them a bit more. I met tons of new folks, too.

It was an awesome evening, all in all. Organiser Andy pulls off another top-notch networking event.

As the title suggests, this post has nothing to do with film.  It is about blogging though, so that’s why it’s here.

Last night, I went to the London Bloggers Meetup.  Free drinks were supplied by the sponsors, Bacardi Breezer, so I thought I should do a quick post to thank them for their generosity.  They have just launched 100 calorie Bacardi Breezers so if you want to drink while watching your wasteline, you should check them out.

It was good to catch up with some familiar faces, including, Andy, Peter, Epicurienne, Julius and Mehrdad.  Good to meet some new people, including Lewis and Simone too.

Thanks very much to Andy who let us hijack his blog for a shout out to bloggers this week.

For those who aren’t in the know, LondonBloggers.net is for bloggers in London who want to meet/hang out/network with other bloggers. They’re fun little social occasions and often attract some great brands as sponsors.

The events were conceived by and run by Andy Bargery AKA Marketing Blagger. You can find out all about him here.

Cheers Andy!

Yesterday was my first London Bloggers meetup (or any kind of Meetup actually). I must say it was good fun.

I thought it would make sense to arrive like t least 15mins late, rather than exactly on time (not sure if people in London follow Maltese time-keeping or Danish time-keeping as yet, so I try to arrive a bit late but not tooo much!). Alas, I was going to arrive early! Have no idea how I do it, but I never manage to arrive late, even if I plan that I have to arrive later (of course, except when I really need to arrive on time, and make every effort to do so)! It is either me, or the times given on the tfl website. Anyways, I get off the bus, and walk to where the pub we were to meet in shoudl have been according to googlemaps and the tfl website…hmmm…there is notheing where it should be…keep on going round and round the area, till I decide to ask.

Ahhh!…said the girl I asked…The Doggett? That’s on the OTHER side of the bridge.

Hmm, I though, the map DEFINITELY said this side (I am quite good at reading maps normally, but oh well). I cross to the other side, and there it is, just where the lady told me! As I am going in I meet another blogger arriving at the same time. And guess what he asks? He asked if I had thought the pub was on the other side! A-HAAAA! It is not MY awful map-reading skills, but that crummy googlemaps which marked it in the wrong place. Oh well, as long as I got there (and it DID allow me to arrive just those few minutes late ).

In I go…I don’t know anyone though. Hmm…I know the guy I entered with now (sort of :|). He eneters and sees a guy he knew. I’m introduced, then another lady, Kaitlin, came over. Great! I’m meeting people. The guy I entered with offered me a drink, and being a total non-beer drinker (I just hate the taste!) I opt for a half pint of shandy (THAT I can drink ). Drink in hand, I can start talking an mingling.

This was my first time at this sort of thing, and I was quite excited and apprehensive about going there. The people all looked normal from their photos (at least by my standards people there laughed at me when I said that the photos looked normal, but I guess they don’t know MY standards ) [I had joined another group through another website, but never went to their meetings, just cos i was so sure I would be out of place…I could just hear the conversations from the photos…How’s the new car doing? Oh, the BMW? I just changed it now – 5 months, it was getting old…Uhhh – I went to the Bahamas on my daddy’s yacht…so relaxing….look at my Gucci bag…and other stuff in the same vein…NO idea how I could conjure these conversations from the photos, but believe me, I did!)

Well, were was I? Ahh – talking about normal-looking people. And they were actually decent guys (decent/normal i.e. people I can have a good time with, and no indication of average or anything ). There were people of all ages and most backgrounds, with everyone blogging for different reasons. Some people blogged as part of their work, or live off their blog. However, others, like me, just do it cos they enjoy it, or want to share some knowledge. I haven’t had the time to check out the blogs of the people I met, today having been a very busy day, but I will! S0me of them sounded really great ideas, especially one from a girl who writes puns, and another from a guy who writes about London transport…I really want to check those out!

My verdict? Very much glad I made it to the meetup. Great fun to meet new people (I always enjoy that for some reason), and it gave me something to look forward to…more Bloggers meetups, and maybe other meetups? Will keep you posted!

One thing which I have realised about my life in London is that I am not involved in anything…I go from uni, to home, back to uni, home, maybe the shops, a visit to the library, and that’s it! I am used to having so much to do besides home and school, that I was starting to find London a bit unappealing, and unenthusiastic. My fault, I know – I need to get to know more people.

So I decided over the weekend to actually do something about it! I have been saying this for ages, but never got round to it. But now I have employed an honorary ass-kicker to make me go to the places I want to go (thanks Michael ), so that I don’t end up bailing out at the last minute, for some stupid excuse, or cos I am just plain lazy!

What activities will I do? Well, tonight there is the weekly meeting for young adults at the parish church. I was always invovled in some way in some youth group, so I thought that would be a good place to meet people, in a setting I have been involved before. Also, tomorrow there is a London bloggers meetup which Michael told me about rhis morning…this morning there wasn’t space for me, but people dropped out, so I am onto the yes list, and off the waiting list. Then, on Saturday, I have tickets for the Eurovision – your country needs you screening (unfortunately I only have one ticket for this, but I still want to make myself go!) (I also have tickets for Britain’s Got Talent for Friday, but I have lectures at that time, so oh well, cannot go!)

Really hope I get to go to these places, and to meet new people, to make my life here more enjoyable and happy. It has been nice so far, but I am sure it can be so much better if I actually know people form the area, and have people to meet up with.

Hope you help Michael out in his job as ass-kicker to get me to these things!

Ass-Kicking

There’s now a date, time, and location for the Fifth Sector Blogging & Networking event in February. We’ve been lucky enough to book the Coach and Horses in Soho.

If you’re a blogger who regularly attends Social Media events in London, then the Coach should be a familiar haunt. If you’re a PR new to all this then you may be interested to know that a whole host of groups have met at some stage at this lovely little pub; London Bloggers Meetup and Tuttle to name a few favourites.

Time: 6.30-10.00pm
Venue: The Coach & Horses, 29 Greek St, Soho, London, W1V 5LL

Sign up here

Mainly because its topic was (ready for it?) wine!

I love wine but it’s been really hard for me here, not being familiar with the grocery store staples or Best Value Bottles that I am in the States.  Back home I know exactly what to look for and where, whereas here…. here they charge £8 for Gallo.  Ick.  In restaurants it’s much easier, but it’s also much much more expensive.  There seems to be very little middle ground.

Rob from Wine Conversations and Melinda from Miss Geeky.

Apparently, I’m not alone in my wine troubles.  Thank goodness Rob Macintosh from Wine Conversation was there to do a tasting of his favourites as well answer some questions about the wine business and the business of wine blogging.

There are 50,000+ wine labels out there and only four major retailers of wine in the UK. Something like 98% of wine is sold through these retailers, so it’s very hard for the labels to actually connect with the consumer.  And if you’re like me on a budget here, price is a huge factor in the decision making process.

So what’s a wine maker to do? Social media, of course.  But there is a problem: Unless you are in the wine business or have friends who are, you’re probably not very likely to read a wine blog.

What to do? Quite simply: find other ways to connect.  I was very impressed by Rob’s Twitter competition (Tweet using #ttl and win a bottle) and incentive to win a case of wine by writing about the event (which I think most of us would do anyway!).  And of course, there’s the foolproof way: give people a taste of nine delicious wines for free!

1.    Vivanco Viura/Malvasia 2007, Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco from Thirst For Rioja
2.    Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Weingut Clauer – courtesy of Winzerblog
3.    Higueruela 2007, from Sta. Quiteria – courtesy of Tintoralba
4.    Dinastia Vivanco Crianza 2004, Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco – courtesy of Thirst For Rioja
5.    Bellamarsilia 2007, Poggio Argentiera – courtesy of Poggio Argentiera
6.    CVP 2007, La Casa de las Vides – courtesy of Casa Vides
7.    Syrah 2004, Cortes de Cima – courtesy of Cortes De Cima
8.    Antique Oloroso Sherry from Fernando de Castilla – courtesy of Vinos de Jerez (who also writes about sherry here)
9.    Special Reserve Tawny Port, Quevedo Port – courtesy of Quevedo Port Wine

I only got to try a couple of them – it was a Tuesday after all, but if a bottle of the Higueruela showed up in my stocking, I wouldn’t be too upset.

It was a fantastic wrap-up to a fantastic Meetup Year.  Looking forward to 2009!

*Photo from Melinda and Cristiano’s Flickr.

Because, it’s just, you know, so interesting reading people blogging about their social life…

Sarcasm aside, this week saw the November Bloggers’ Meetup in Aldgate. This event is growing every month (it was full up the afternoon it was announced), and is one of the friendliest meetups you could wish to meet.

As more than one first-timer commented to me on the night: “I was expecting it to be very formal, but people just walk up to and start chatting.” It’s definitely one of the most social of the social media meets, and you get to meet a very interesting and wide-ranging group.

This event didn’t quite have the lure of a personalised cocktail, but had an interesting talk from Fake Plastic Noodles’ Melanie Seasons on the difference between blogging in the UK and the USA. What’s fascinating is how much more of a community there is between bloggers in this country than there is in the States.

Despite being a bit nervous (and even though it’s a friendly crowd, I’d defy anybody not to feel a bit nervy about going up in front of a group of 80 strangers), she gave some food for thought for everybody there – and hopefully got many drinks brought for her as she deserved it.

And while I’m on the subject of drinking with interweb people, we’ve announced a date for the Dirty South Twit – Monday 8th December in an as-yet-to-be-announced venue is Clapham Junction. Go on, sign up and raise a glass. It’d be rude not to.