• by Kelly Samardak , August 19, 2008

Social Media Spur Of The Moment Tweetup, Thom Bar, New York
August 15, 2008

Twitter is pretty neat, huh? One minute, you can let the world know it's toenail-cutting time, and in the next you can point your followers to the launch of your glossy reflective-button-decorated drop-shadowed wonder of a Web site. Business tangos with pleasure quite nicely and with tweetups (that's a social gathering or "meetup" birthed from twitter) pop up like a bad run of Hep C. One such rash was orchestrated from the tweeting mind of Joe Marchese, President of SocialVibe. The destination was Thom Bar, the goal was to party with social media nerds, and the drink was... whatever Joe was buying.

If Twitter actually retained an archive of tweet action, I could give you some direct quotes as to how it all went down, but now I must paraphrase. Joe Marchese, since we're now friends, you're not allowed to sue me. Agreed? Agreed. So, here's how it sorta went down:

Joe Marchese: looking for a midtown location for a social media happy hour
Me: Ag!! No midtown! Ag! Blech! [insert other "booo Midtown" honks]
Joe Marchese: [if I could have heard him, it would have been a good "ball's in your court then" tone] any suggestions?

Of course I didn't have any suggestions! I like to judge others' location ideas and then offer no alternatives, der. I was armed with a decent excuse for being less than helpful -- I was in Boston and Baltimore hanging out with bankers and rockstars respectively.

Thom Bar was the final decision, a velvety 2nd floor bar in a chichi SoHo boutique hotel. I followed the glow cascading from a circle of baldies perched on silly seats around square tables that really are too low for comfort. You have to sort of squat over on your elbows so your well-cultivated beer belly gently bloops over your (OK, fine, my) waist. That's why I wear dresses.

Anyway, I approached the media nerd circle and even though I've never met Joe Marchese in person, I got that instant friend feeling. He's a special character, jetting back and forth and around the country via LA and New York, managing to keep his life and business in order and still make it to the gym (especially after a night of overimbibing). To the right of the circle was the always-ready-with-a-quote-from-the-last-time-I-presented Adam Broitman, who I keep running into on rooftops.

As if social media hasn't made my social and professional circle even smaller than I ever intended (though I haven't decided if I haven't wanted this to happen), I also have the IBM history closing my circle, which I discovered with the vivacious and huggable Jane Quigley, "The brains of the operation" -- Greg Verdino, at crayon. Speaking of Greg Verdino, he was chilling out to Joan's right and I heard him chuckle out "lifecasting." I sat there, contemplating whether or not to pretend I knew this horrid word, or be honest, as usual and say "Yeah, I don't know what the heck you're talking about."

Broitman and crew repeated this phrase and I cringed every time. He launched into a story about how his woman used to lifecast to promote her craft (singer) - leaving a web cam on constantly. I'm all "open book" and all, but I won't be letting people into my life quite that much. To which Quigley quickly corrected "if you're Twittering, you're lifecasting." Noooo!! Note to the reader: If you catch me uttering this scrambling to be an iconic phrase phrase, hit me in the face with a pink SocialVibe squeezy ball.

Moving on! Katie Bessiere, Director, Client Services and Strategy, Ripple6, arrived on the heels of Matthew Caldecutt, Vice President, Group Manager / Account Director at Trylon SMR (sounds more boring than he is) and Nichelle, cupcake enthusiast and maker of stars.

Oh gosh, I almost forgot about Jennifer Kelly, wise-cracking research analyst with Dyanmic Logic. She was so impressed that a social gathering offline barfed out of a few Twitter exchanges that we're meeting for a liquid lunch 'n' learn session about it.

Oh -- sooo, Thom Bar. A little too ritzy in my book, but then, my book is a little shabby, it wears jeans, and it prefers cows to Cadillacs. Drinks were expensive, I didn't even look at the food menu, and the crowd was a little hedge-fund-looking (oh yes, hooray for snap judgments). Next time, I vote for wings and beer!

Are you getting your buyers, sellers, and big time big cheese together? Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com and consider it covered in Just An Online Minute.

Relive the magic in the online photo set!

Want to know when the next social media happy hour might be? Follow me on Twitter.