Met as in real life.
Assumptions are made, that people who like to kibitz via computer connections rarely venture beyond their laundry ridden, messy bedrooms or dank basements.
Not true.
A world of fascinating, friendly, people with fresh viewpoints on a variety of topics have crossed paths with mine. There's my @whiffies friends, the #CouveCoolKids friends, and the random stranger who meets me and exclaims, "So, YOU'RE The Classic Carol.
Then they look at my legs.
Then we both laugh.
Not because of my legs, but because it's so much fun to connect, to see the smile behind the avatar, to have a face-to-face conversation. To be real.
It is not unusual for us to hug.
Thursday, I will be facilitating a fast-paced, 20 minute panel on Twitterdipity. This phrase was coined by Michelle Anderson. She blogged about it on ReadWriteWeb. I met Michelle at an event she posted on Twitter. I just showed up. She made me feel welcome.
Michelle, aka @mediachick, is part of our panel. Her Twitterdipity 'net' gathered Mary Rarick, @Mary_Rarick, who I met at a #CouveCoolKids coffee meetup. I tease Mary and say she stalked me, because after that meeting I had a LinkedIn connect request, a Facebook friends request, she liked my FB Fanpage, and she followed me on Twitter.
I felt very befriended.
The fourth person on our panel I met during the planning session for Thursday's event, Michael Perozzo. I met Micheal first on Twitter as himself @michaelperozzo.
Tomorrow, we're going to ask how many people in the audience met us, first in social media and second in real life. We think we'll see a plethora of hands extend toward the Vancouver Convention Center ceiling.
I hope to see you there. And I won't mind if you laugh and give me a hug and share your best Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIN, story.
Let's get real.
They call it social media for a reason.
Michael Perozzo's post on Twitterdipity.
Michelle Anderson's post on Twitterdipity
If you are on Twitter, the hashtag for this conference is #140ConfNW.
You can get tickets here: THEY'RE FREE.
If you don't know what that means read this conference information:
PRESS RELEASE: The focus of this conference is a large-scale community conversation about how social media is affecting our communities, our governments and our engagement.
This conference will feature over 65 speakers over the course of 40 presentations, including @TheClassicCarol, Carol Doane. It is the first time that a 140 Character Conference has come to the Pacific Northwest and the first time that one will have so many public-sector presentations. Already, the traffic on twitter is fun to watch with the #140ConfNW hashtag.
This conference will be Thursday, May 19th from 8 am-5 pm. Registration will begin at 7:00 am.
People can still obtain tickets to attend in person at Eventbrite
But more importantly, this event will be live-streamed over the internet for people can watch it in their homes, offices, and on their mobile phones. Today, we updated our conference website for specific information about how to “Watch It Live” at http://nw2011.140conf.com/watch-it-live
