Tonight is the night many Westchester Twitter users have been looking forward to for months — the 1st Westchester TweetUp to be held at the POUR Cafe and Wine Bar in Mount Kisco. Tweeters who know each other only through exchanges of 140-character messages on Twitter will finally get to meet their peers in person from 7-10 pm this evening.
The event reached its capacity less than 72 hours after it was announced using the online Twitter RSVP service Twtvite.com. The 50 attendees include some of the area’s most forward-thinking social media innovators, who will have the opportunity to network with each other in the comfort of Anthony Colasacco’s POUR Cafe and Wine Bar, which was named Best Wine Bar and Best Place for a Date Night for 2009 by Westchester Magazine.
Highlights of the evening will include guest speaker Chris Dessi, a Chappaqua resident who is Director of Sales for Buddy Media, an NYC social media firm. Dessi has been featured on this blog in the past.
Registered attendees will also receive gift bags containing goodies from numerous Westchester businesses, and will sample delicious goodies provided by POUR, as well as from our generous co-sponsor Everything LuLu Cake Boutique of Scarsdale.
The catalyst for the 1st Westchester TweetUp was Larchmont’s Andy Barovick (@AndyBarovick) who asked me if I could help organize an event such as this. Andy had gleaned some information from @GetinLoop’s Polly Kreisman, who knew of a successful TweetUp occurring in Connecticut. Not wanting to get in over my head, I contacted Dessi and The Examiner’s Adam Stone (@ExaminerStone) to see if there was interest. Led by Dessi, we Tweeted our plans and the response was overwhelming — Westchester was demanding a TweetUp. A few days later, I was contacted by Sarah O’Grady (@WestchesterLife) and she told me that Anthony had an interest in hosting the event at POUR. O’Grady and Colasacco deserve praise for handling a great deal of the event’s details, assisted by the other five organizers.
An interesting fact is that many of the people on the organizing committee have never met each other. This entire event was conceived and planned in less than two weeks, exclusively using social media.
The organizing committee is looking at this event as the first of many, not a “one and done” event. If you are going to be writing about this event on a blog or in any other medium, please contact me at (914) 960-1533 or by email (chris AT TwitterProfessor.com) so I can post a link on this blog. You can also contact me to receive photos of the event.
We’re looking forward to seeing you tonight at POUR. Check back soon to read my account of the event, along with photos.
