Social media meet-up recap.

Dear Blog,

Last night was Halifax's first-ever Social Media Meet-Up, thrown together by Ben and the lovely folks at Colour. I'm a little late on the ball for a recap, since I mainly blog while I'm at work instead of twiddling my thumbs and tapping into my higher brain functions to get the phone to ring. Please go read some lovely recaps here and here, with photographic evidence of our coolness here.

I was very nervous about going. I'm not the type of person that likes being in a crowd of strangers because, well, I have a tendency to automatically dislike people until they say or do something to make me not dislike them. (Hey, you, in the back, I can hear you thinking "paranoid.") Also, being one of possibly only two people there without an actual background in PR was somewhat daunting.

Once I was there, however, I was glad I talked myself into going. I was very impressed with the variety of attendees, and everyone had a genuine interest in networking and sharing their thoughts and ideas on social media. I had a very interesting/inspiring talk with Justin that really reflected a lot about changing attitudes and mindsets. Plus, he had some neat gadgets to show off. A fellow named Ryan had a brief talk about social media playing a positive role in Halifax libraries. I thought that was very interesting, having been very impressed recently with the interactive changes the Halifax Public Libraries webpage have made to make it more accessible.

Overall, I had a great time as a casual user on the outskirts looking in at how social media is an important tool in the professional world. I really enjoyed being around a group of people who are passionate about what they do and the ways to make it more accessible and more efficient.

Rock on, social media moguls in Halifax!

- JB