How can SMC RDU events be improved?

[Jim Tobin]

Great to see so many of you last night at the relaunch. I think it was a good start, but it seems to make sense to ask the community what it wants from these gatherings and what the best format for doing that should be.

I'll kick it off with some specifics thoughts to get your reactions:
* I'd suggest 6:30 to 8:30
* I really enjoyed Wayne Sutton's SMC on live videocasting, as it was full of practical tips, so I'd love to see more specific how to's. (Taylor's Seesmic update was interesting, I'd like to learn more on that.)
* Love the informal chatting and back and forth part.
* Keep the pizza (yum).

What are your thoughts?

Thanks to James, Lisa, Taylor and Wayne for a great kick-off.

~Jim

[Diane Aull]

I'm totally bummed I couldn't make it to the relaunch, but I was on a my way back from a conference in Ohio and couldn't work it out to be in two places at one time.

Jim's suggested times sound good to me. Since I work in Raleigh and live in Clayton, I generally don't get the chance to go home between work and these meetups and such, so a slightly earlier start (and potential earlier finish) would work better for me. Or maybe some kind of pre-get-together get-together to help occupy my time between end of work at start of meeting?

If I may be permitted a personal wish, I'd love a slightly more central location for next time. Durham is a great town, but it's a pretty fair hike back to Clayton, especially on a work night.

Love the idea of specific how-to's, as long as they don't occupy the entire evening. There's tons to learn, and so many awesome experts in our area with so much to share! But I've also always been a fan of chatting / networking / socializing / whatever you want to call it. I mean, it is called the Social Media Club, so having a reasonably significant amount of time for person-to-person social interaction just makes sense, n'est ce pas?

And definitely there should be pizza, and lots of it. Yum is right.

--Diane/Torka

[Jim Tobin]

Good stuff Diane. Hope to see you at the next one. Agree there needs to be some decent informal time baked in.

The meetings at Edge Office had unofficial meetings at the Hibernian before and after for folks who wanted to, and that was always fun...

~Jim

[James Wong]

We're definitely looking to change the time frame... it had been suggested before the re-launch that we change it to 6-8, but I think 6:30pm is a much better alternative, and will allow plenty of time (but not too much) for people to get to the meetings.

It is definitely our intention (for now), to always reserve time for presentations at the end. A great asset to groups like SMC-RDU, are its members. We can only grow as an organization, if its members are all willing to participate by sharing ideas, tools, solutions, and knowledge.