When the virtual meets the real!(A tale of the Reading Tweet-Up)
When 10 bloggers (& a sister) meet for the first time what is the subject of conversation? The first question is ‘Who are you?’ and the responses come in the form of blog names. You may get a Christian name as well or a twitter ID but we need those blog names to settle people into our preconceived ideas of them.
In many cases, the pictures & photos we had seen helped to link person to name. We quickly realized that we already knew something about each other but there were bound to be missing details as the fluctuating nature of tweeting & blogging dictates.
So, what did we talk about? Well once we had established where everyone had come from & welcomed Heather (notefromlapland) back to England for a visit conversations then got serious. By that I mean we didn’t sit & chat about ‘Mum’ things. Comparisons were made about our routes into blogging. How it fits (or is crammed!) into our lives. That led nicely into the old chestnut of guilt between running a home & trying to have a little something for oneself.
Some were juggling a business as well whilst others were trying to break back into that world which when they had left they were a key player in. We talked about the virtual friendship that blogging brings & the freedom that anonymity can give you. We also touched on concerns about safety as well as the behaviour of some tweeters. It seems our values & manners are as important to us in the twitter sphere as they are in our real lives.
There was lots of laughter & ‘No – reallys’ but although some moved seats for a while, the length of the table played a part in which conversations we were able to be involved in. Once the meal was over the party moved to another venue but I suspect that will be the subject of another post from someone else!
It was a lovely evening, which proved to me that my virtual friends are even nicer in the real world so many thanks to: Heather Laura Paula Jen Victoria Heather Victoria Charlotte Vickie Clare
They are all great people so do visit their blogs!
I echo Crystal Jigsaw and Hayley’s comments – it sounds like you all had a wonderful tweet-up, Julia :o) x x
Aww sounds great! Wish I could have made it! This weekend has been mental 🙁
Sounds fantastic, so wish I could have joined you.
CJ xx
Maybe next time!