This is a manic February for New York City bloggers; we’re racing to cover a full slate of social media events on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
In the past two weeks I’ve attended Social Media Week, the Travelzoo “I Heart New York” happy hour and Vail‘s “CoSummer” tweetup. I skipped Fashion Week, which lured my stylish peers, but am gearing up for the New York Times Travel Show next weekend.
It’s been a crazy month, but I can’t complain. I’ve met interesting bloggers who work the travel, tech and fashion beats and have enjoyed free drinks with old friends.
Scroll down to see the highlights of February’s social media events.
Travelzoo “I Heart NY” Tweetup (2/10)
Jake and I represented Downtown Traveler at the Travelzoo tweetup, which promoted the new Local Deals feature on Travelzoo.com. It was held at SD26, a swank restaurant and wine bar. We were given flashing heart necklaces to differentiate us from the non-blogging patrons. Don’t you think Jake looks great in this 1990s raver-inspired jewelry?
I don’t get a chance to meet many fashion bloggers since I usually stick to travel events. Fortunately, there were several in attendance at the Travelzoo tweetup. I was impressed by the style and friendliness of these writers from @AfricaStyleD and @blayreport.
NYC travel bloggers are a fairly tight group; I tend to see the same faces when I attend TBEX happy hours and industry events. It was refreshing to meet Aaron, also known as @adventurousness, at the Travelzoo tweetup. He’s traveled throughout Asia and comes with impeccable references– he’s a friend of my Twitter pal Jeannie (@whereisjeannie).
NY Social Media Week (2/7- 2/11)
This was my first NY Social Media Week and I was pleased to learn that most of the events are free.
I kicked off the week by attending a TBEX-sponsored panel on working remotely, held at the Wix Lounge, a free workspace for creative professionals. Panelist Matt Stabile explained how he developed and published his first book, The Expeditioner’s Guide to the World, while almost completely avoiding in-person meetings. Brooklyn blogger Alisha (@makeshiftalisha) moderated the discussion.
I met up with friend and fellow HBO vet Ashmi Dang (@AshmiNYC), who blogs about new media and entertainment trends. Ashmi is the quintessential blogger; she was actively using a smart phone, a Kodak PlaySport video camera and an iPad during the event!
I went old-school and jotted down notes on actual paper.
One of my Social Media Week highlights was hearing Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley speak at the JWT cafeteria. I squeezed into a packed booth and met passionate social media marketers.
Tweets were flying on laptops and smart phones. Not surprisingly, the print copies of Fast Company remained untouched by these new media aficionados!
I was floored by Foursquare’s CEO, who is young, smart and accessible. I was also mesmerized by his hair, which is pin straight with flip-up bangs. It puts Mark Zuckerberg’s curls to shame! When I tweeted about it, he actually responded that he had just gotten a haircut. Impressive that a CEO with 25,000 followers (@dens) personally replies to the blogging minions.
Vail/Beaver Creek Summer Tweetup (2/16)
On Wednesday I met tourism reps from Vail and Beaver Creek, bonded with fellow travel bloggers and gorged on oven-fresh donuts at the “COSummer” tweetup, held at A Voce in the Time Warner Center.
Most exciting of all, I got to meet one of the bloggers I’ve been following since I first logged on to Twitter. Carol (aka @NYCityMama) writes engaging posts about travel destinations, food and cultural attractions. She has nearly 10,000 Twitter followers and was tweeting up a storm at the event!
I learned a great deal about Vail, which recently underwent a $2 billion redevelopment and boasts heated city sidewalks. It seems that New York artists flock to Vail in the summer, making it a great place to listen to the philharmonic or take in a ballet performance.
I caught up with friends and tweetup regulars Matt (@TheExpeditioner), deemed “cute” in the Twitter stream, and Charu (@Butterflydiary), who won a two-night stay at a Colorado resort hotel.
The food was amazing, and Matt went back for seconds!
I was impressed by the donuts and enjoyed more than my fair share. Yet another perk of being a NYC blogger!
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A benefit of living in NYC. I go to local networking events and they roll their eyes at the idea of Twitter. They are behind the times on Social Media here- but so am I-lol.
It’s great living in NYC. I consider myself tech savvy, but I’m constantly learning about new gadgets, apps and services from other bloggers!
Such a great post! You met Dennis Crowley? Awesome! Next time, let me know–I’d love to tag along, even if it is to be your scribe 🙂
I didn’t meet Dennis Crowley, unfortunately! I heard him speak at Social Media Week and he replied to my tweet. That made my day 🙂
Awww looks like it was such a fantastic experience! I’ll try to make the next one for sure. Especially if Mrs Charu will be there 😉
Would love to meet you in person. Charu is great– we have regular travel tweetups. It would be amazing if you could join us
So great you learned a ton and met a lot of fellow bloggers – you’re on a roll!
Thanks Maria!
It was wonderful to meet you too! Glad you figured out who it was dropped my name!
Jeannie mentioned you the next day and it hit me! Love your latest post btw, very interesting topic for a photo essay… 🙂
Ahahahaha! Thanks….
Boy, you have been incredibly busy!! Good for you…and congratulations on all those connections!
It’s so wonderful to see you having so much fun and your passion and enthusiasm really shine through your writing!!
Good luck!!
Thanks Jeff! Would love to have you visit so we can hang out and tweetup in NYC
Great pictures from the tweet-up. Dennis Jacobs and I organized a tweet-up in Chicago and five people came. This included me, Dennis, his wife, and two other people. We have a lot to learn from the New York City gang.
That’s not a bad turnout for a first time tweetup! I can’t take credit for the crowds at these events, they were planned by PR people 🙂
Looks like a busy but fun week of socializing!
Yes, it was fun– I can’t complain 🙂
This looks like such a fun and exciting event to attend! Ah.. great to live in NYC indeed! Wish that there would be more of these outings over here in KL. hehe.. a great exposure and network!
It seems like there are a lot of travel and foodie bloggers in Malaysia! Do you see the same people over and over at the foodie events?
This is great! You really got to a lot of events. The site looks amazing!!!!
Thanks Ashmi 🙂 I enjoyed hanging out with you at Social Media Week. You’ve taught me a great deal about apps and online tools. Now I have to start using them!
you’re such a social butterfly you are, Les;) keep it up!
Thanks Ciki 🙂 Hope you come to NYC soon so I can show you the town. That would be the best– an intercontinental tweetup!
I’m in NYC as well…would luv to find out about future NYC tweetups!