Thames Valley Social Media Cafe is a Tuttle success
Sometime mid-morning on Friday 13 March, a number of social media enthusiasts talked Twitter tactics over coffee as bemused Workhouse Coffee punters looked on. It was the inaugural Thames Valley Social Media Cafe, held in Reading.
I’m not a great counter, preferring words, but I estimated there to be a dozen or so of us, including heavyweights (not literally) Neville Hobson and Drew Benvie, who both co-founded the event, skateboarding Steven Lamb from Microsoft, copywriter and friend John McGarvey, podcaster Andy Piper from IBM, and local PR business owners Nicky Davis and Catherine Warrilow. It was quite a crowd.
Even Workhouse Coffee’s Greg Costello (who literally is a heavyweight) joined in the fun, showing interest in my BlackBerry and asking for my thoughts on the iPhone/iPod Touch. According to Drew, Greg also had a Twitter account set up for him on the spot that morning. Marvellous and marvellously simple. You can follow Greg’s tweets here: www.twitter.com/itsridiculous
I chatted at length with Nicky Davis, who is at the helm of online news release distributor NeonDrum and consultancy EvokedSet. Topics covered included Reading, refuse collections and Readipop CDs, as well as online PR. As I finished my Brazilian (coffee) and downgraded to a cortado, I began another enjoyable conversation, with Catherine Warrilow, who runs Oxford-based company Warrilow PR.
I’d also spoken briefly with Steven Lamb (who led my kayaking lessons when I was at Microsoft), Andy Piper (who can teach me a thing or two about podcasting) and Adrian Moss (ditto).
For other (better) perspectives on the event, read the following posts:
- The first Social Media Cafe in the Thames Valley (Neville Hobson)
- Social Media Cafe comes to Thames Valley (Drew Benvie)
- Reading launches with first Tuttle (Catherine Warrilow)
- Thames Valley Twitterers hit Reading for coffee (John McGarvey)
- Thoughts on Thames Valley Social Media Cafe (Andy Piper)
Greg’s perspective, like his fantastic cortado, was short and sweet:
it was a wonderful morning in coffee house today. Thanks to the group of twitterers who held a gathering there. more news soon
Matt, I’m really glad it went so well and I will really try to come way out west one day to see for myself
Cheers!
[...] (and better) write-ups here, here, here and here. « What does usability actually [...]
[...] write-ups from Catherine, Drew, Matt and Neville. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Attacking social networkingI love to [...]
Hi Matt,
Gutted I missed this! Reading all the posts seems to have been a roaring success. Will make sure I get along to the next one.
Cheers.
Jaime
Count me in.
Kerry
Many thanks, Lloyd
It would be great to see you in Reading! I really ought to check out the London Tuttle to see what the original (and best?) is like.