MNteractive – my first meetup

April 2, 2008

Kristi already beat me to the punch with her write-up on the evening but I’ll write mine up anyway, as a n00b’s perspective to this group.

I arrived early to get some work done next door at Caribou Coffee (we met at Brit’s Pub in downtown Minneapolis).  While working I had Twitterific up and saw Stephanie tweet that she had arrived early and was hanging out outside.  I have to tell you, there is something really fun about walking somewhere and seeing people whom you recognize via their twitter profiles (one more lesson on using a real picture).

We headed in to Brit’s and soon we had seven people upstairs.  Over the course of the evening we probably had 15 people there, as Kristi said, some old, some new.   I think I was the oldest by age (out of Tom, Stephanie and I, I was the only one who didn’t get carded), but as new as anyone in terms of attendance.

Garrick twittered that we strayed off topic completely but I prefer to think that we had micro-discussions about the user experience and usability, rather than a round-robin big group.  Both have their merits but it was a little loud to have 15 people in a large circle.  I had some great discussions with Kristi, Karen, Garrick, Stephanie, Laurie, Tom, and others over the course of the night, telling stories of our experiences on projects, Laurie’s love of MS Access, or how we all perceive where our niches fit in UEX design.  But mainly, I met a lot of really nice people who had interesting stuff to say.

I have to say,  it’s only been the last couple months that I’ve made a real strong effort to get involved in the Twin Cities developer/user experience community, and it has been terrific.  As someone who works from home, I enjoy the camaraderie of meeting up with others in my profession.  And everyone is very giving in terms of openness and willingness to discuss ideas or opportunities.

I’m looking forward to the next get-together with this crew.  If you are on the fence about these meet-ups, give them a try.  Worst case, you have an evening where you have some drinks, meet some people, and get harassed into trying Twitter.

See some of you at the Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast part deux next Friday.

Posted in MN meetups