The Community Roundtable and our programming is primarily virtual – our Roundtables use conferencing calling and chat tools and our community is online. But we all know there is nothing like the energy of F2F get togethers. We are not really interested in getting into the conference business but we do want to encourage in-person interaction – it binds us together in ways we just can’t get online. That and we are pretty social (go figure) so we like any excuse for good company and food.
Today we kicked off our TheCR Live! series – Friday lunches that bring together anyone interested in community management – at a big round table at John Harvard’s pub in Cambridge. We couldn’t have asked for a better group – it was a little bit of the Boston social media scene, mixed with some people Jim & I knew, mixed with some new faces who were boldly going in new directions – either within existing organizations or in new community-based ventures. That mix made the event lively, interesting, and a little different.
Among the participants were @mizmaggieb @crbrowning @carissao @johncass @JoselinMane @leanneclc @adamcohen @jeffcutler @BLG @mzkagan @ekarofsky @Alexa @kerisays @miketrap @wendytroupe @brindey @justinmwhitaker @tangyslice and a few others. And, because they ‘volunteered’ by coming, we conscripted them into a little fun:
Live from Harvard Square! from Rachel Happe on Vimeo.
The lighting wasn’t great but the energy was. A particular thank you goes out to Bob Collins & Jeff Cutler for providing a wireless LAN and capturing so much of the event on film and video (we will update this post later) and many people were tweeting using the hashtag #TheCRLive.
We’re going to have lunches every other week this summer – see the schedule here if you are in Boston and interested in joining us. We love to meet new people so don’t be shy!
If you are not in Boston? We would like to encourage you to host your own TheCR Live! events. Interested? We’ll help with the event management and publicity if you can follow these guidelines:
- Use the same schedule as the Boston events (this is so we can all ‘chat’ together on Twitter at the same time using the #TheCRLive hashtag and so we are not overwhelming and confusing people with events in different cities at different times)
- Find a restaurant that can accommodate a crowd of up to 30 people – roundtables are always great!
- Are OK with dutch treat and a open agenda
- Use the hashtag #TheCRLive
- Be willing to summarize the event and send to us on Friday afternoon – pictures, videos, & podcasts also welcome.
If you are interested in hosting (we also encourage you to find a partner in crime) – let us know – rachel@community-roundtable.com or jim@community-roundtable.com.
Cheers!
