That was the question out of the waiter’s mouth as he watched our group of 5 quickly double in size and was looking out the doorway as more people were coming down the stairs. “Nope” was my response. We had a great meeting, nonetheless, with about 12 people in attendance. We were a tad too big for the Main Street staff (sorry) and were given a private room to accommodate us. Which worked out rather well! Thank you to our waiter and the patient NECI staff!
I for one wasn’t exactly sure what we’d talk about but that didn’t stop us from digging in. I knew in advance we’d have different levels of experience so I wanted to know what they were. An informal show of hands yielded we had a couple of people with little or no exposure to social media of any kind and many that have accounts on one or more of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. There were some surprises too! Some people that I took for granted would have Facebook accounts did not! I appreciated the discussions on why people made their decisions. I think there’s a lot more there for us to discuss and that it will help others in making decisions for themselves. And I think it safe to say we’re all still finding out what works best for each of us.
What I found particularly interesting were the questions from the retailers that we had with us. I sort of expected there to be basic questions like “how do you use Facebook to drive traffic” but I wasn’t prepared for even more basic questions like what type of account is best and how do I setup a Facebook page! You can bet we will explore these and other more basic questions in future meetings!
When the meeting was over Carter Stowell and I chatted a bit more about how to make future meetings more effective for everyone. It was obvious there’s interest in the subject but it was equally obvious the meeting needed more organization. I had hoped for a more free form discussion with everyone able to mingle and chat but once we moved into the wine room and sat around the table, the discussion was more focused and it begged to be lead in some direction.
So Carter and I will likely continue our conversation and begin to layout the agendas for some future meetings that have a bit more structure. If you want to get involved, please contact me. Ideas include “how to” presentations as well as “solve a problem” formats – e.g. have local business come in with an issue they’ve run into and we as a community see if we can help them. Who knows where this will lead. I’m very excited that we had such a good turnout and I look forward to the next one!
In attendance to this mixer:
- Colleen Paull – Vermont Trading Company
- Leslie Koehler – Leslie Koehler Pottery
- Bo Muller-Moore – Eat More Kale
- Samantha Kolber – Vermont Chamber of Commerce
- Sian Foulkes – Foulkes Design
- Mary Admasian – Light’s On Marketing
- Carter Stowell – Figrig Webcrafters
- Rene Churchill – Astute Computing
- Michael Lewis – Downhill Media
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