Recap: SMB Twin Cities 2

SMB Twin Cities 2 was a great success! While we gathered at a venue that was admittedly too small for the group, we had tremendous turnout! We had somewhere north of twenty SMBer’s show up despite the nasty early April weather, and another 18-20 join us remotely via the video feed.

Over good coffee and cramped space, the conversation flourished. The group again had ideas of what they wanted to talk about, which I’m glad to see. These “organic” conversations are much more informative and enjoyable than a planned agenda could provide.

Topics the group touched on are at the core of social media, including the question “What is Social Media?”. No, we didn’t get that definition completed for those interested, though someone suggested we lock the door until we did define it!

We talked about Twitter, what it means by Hugh MacLeod leaving it, privacy and how to protect the anonymity for those that need it. Comparison of the professionalism of LinkedIn vs. the personal aspects of Facebook. How to introduce social media tools to those less acquainted with the concepts. What about the rise of shared feeds and services like FriendFeed, Cullect, and similar services. Finally, there was real interest in how to filter all these information sources so it was easier for a person to keep on top of it all.

One of the really fun points at our meetup this week was to break the news of Seesmic’s new Customer Service and Community Support person: Thomas Knoll (dydimustk on Twitter).  Keep an eye out for Thomas on Seesmic (dydimustk)!

Some lessons learned for the meetups themselves are that we need larger spaces, WiFi is a necessity, a live video feed worked well and was much appreciated by remote SMBer’s. Also, bridging the conversation disconnect between the remote viewers and the discussion in the room is needed.

Overall the SMB group in the Minneapolis & St. Paul area is growing fast, our social network (http://smbmsp.ning.com) is now over 40 members and doesn’t show signs of stopping. We’ll be enhancing the meetup and are already setting up the May event.

Thank you to everyone who was able to take time out of their busy day and make it over to the meetup, or to tune in online. See you in May!

Share This