Why Tweetup?

Twitter is great but the Tweetup is a phenomenon all it’s own. In Flagstaff, Arizona we are privileged to have had tweetups put together since 2009 by the always fabulous Paula Monthofer (@PMonthofer). I have been a part of other organizations but nothing quite like a tweetup, in fact I was looking for something new to get away from dual graphic design jobs, working in publications and web management at The Flagstaff CVB and burning the midnight oil with a graphic design freelance business. The first Flagstaff Tweetup came at just the right time as I was feeling burnt out in my virtual world of graphics and online avatar friends and needed a real world professional outlet. It was at Picazzo’s where members of a blossoming twitter community first came out from behind their PCs and mobile devices to meet IRL. What a truly motivating experience to meet people of similar interest and to talk about Twitter, then still very new. You can view photos from the first Flagstaff Tweetup on Deborah Soltesz’s Flickr Stream (@dsoltesz) .

From then on it was history, through Paula and friends like James Anderson (@Jim_Anderson1) and Carra Riley (@Cosmiccowpie) Flagstaff and Sedona Tweeps would continue to meet at various places throughout town on a monthly basis, meeting new tweeps and tasting fine samples of food provided by the generous restaurants and business owners. The tweetup became a volunteer effort by the members who chose to come and contribute, some took video, some wrote blogs and some bought drinks for those that came (Thanks Jim). This went on until Paula became “set at bay” with the much tweeted about #BellyPirate. Pre-occupied with her soon to be born, bundle of joy and her business as a Realtor and Instructor, I was obliged to take my turn in helping things along by bringing the much anticipated reopening of Bookmans and #Flagstaff #Tweetup together in one celebration. The 2011 January tweetup was a large one, no doubt due to the help from Kate Beles (@Bookmansflag), also a community who cherishes its local venues and an uncontrollable growing twitter audience. Within this tweetup there were mini tweetups: the twitter Rat-Pack of Flagstaff; @Kordean, @Bobraibourne, @drewlesaurus , @Mouuntain_O, @Eunicebrownlee, a group of new twitter Parents including Paula, @Schussman and @HeatherAinardi, a group of NAU Communication Arts students curious to check out the tweetup and a group of tech talking tweeters including @Bschorr, @Flagcent and @Sedonadogg, and so much more. With Paula’s support and encouragement I would go on to plan two more tweetups and am happy to say I found that real world professional outlet.

Thank you to Paula for not only starting the Flagstaff Tweetup, or #Flagup as coined by Greg Roybal (@Piogreg), but also encouragement and love to all us tweeps who use twitter to it’s full benefit and promote our wonderful town of Flagstaff.

Tweetup at Flagstaff Visitor Center April 2011

Here are a few blogs dedicated to the Flagstaff Tweetup.

http://www.michellekoechleblog.com/flagstaff-tweet-up/

http://www.squidblogs.com/2011/07/have-you-ever-been-to-a-tweetup/

http://paulamonthofer.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/furiosa-flgup/

Traveling via iPhone and Social Media

So I just got back from a day trip to Phoenix for a Adobe CS5.5 workshop. It was a last minute decision to go, but I’m glad I did. Not only was it a great workshop and a good networking experience but it was also a Social Media experience in traveling with an iPhone.

Going down to Phoenix, Arizona, a two hour drive from Flagstaff in Northern Arizona is a necessity when living in a small town and trying to maintain a big city career as a graphic designer. If you want to stay up on current trends and fresh on the current software and technologies you need to participate in all the events you can. Webinars are great but you sacrifice face time and valuable networking. I have found maintaining contacts in Phoenix a valuable resource and refreshing source of inspiration. Plus you can’t beat the real life exposure to the city. It is alive with networks of communication that speak to you the moment you enter; roadway signs, city transport advertising, architecture, radio airwaves and fashion trends all seek to get your attention and inspire or motivate a mind in need of new motivation.

With my iPhone prepared I planned ahead the night before and asked on twitter for the best app to use as a navigation tool. I go to phoenix a few times a year and typically get lost or thrown off course at least once or twice. Thanks to @Mountain_O, a friend in the Flagstaff community of tweeps, I was referred to Mapquest, I’ve heard of it before but had not used it until now. So I tried it, plugged in my destination, along with a destination to a nearby lunch venue and lastly to a friends house from the event so that I would leave no room for error. Mapquest turned out to be a great tool and friend; the soothing female voice giving directions became quite comforting. Even though I’ve been to Phoenix a thousand times I never fail to take the wrong off ramp or get detoured by construction and end up in some undesirable neighborhood off the freeway where I feel like I need to lock the doors and not make eye contact for fear of starting a gang riot. Upon reaching my destination, a half hour early, I found I had time to do the necessary Foursquare checkin with an added photo of the brilliant architecture of the ASU Building of Design and Architecture where the event took place.

In addition to planning my route the night before I also purchased tickets online the night before via Eventbrite and was able to use my iPhone as a ticket at the registration table. The workshop itself was put on by AIGA Arizona and featured Brian Wood, an Adobe Certified Instructor. The course audience was mostly AIGA members from what I could tell but a few others had made it from the outskirts with one person from Winslow and another from Tucson. Upon entering and taking a seat I immediately went to my twitter account to find where the discussion would be taking place online. All I could find is the comments from various AIGA members using the @aigaarizona twitter handle. The first thing I look for in a seminar like this is a hashtag so that I can follow along with my iPhone too see what others are saying about the instruction, it also helps to push out quotes and thoughts to my friends back home and to network before and after the event is over. Twitter in defense to those who think “it’s a distraction during meetings or rude”, is in my opinion a great way to become even more a part of the discussion and for an outsider to learn a little about those sitting around you. As the discussion began I kept an eye on my twitter account but there was not really a lot being said, and if it was I was missing it because I was not a part of the networks within the room who most likely knew each other so I decided to tweet: “This #adobe workshop needs a hashtag @aigaarizona #justsaying.” Immediately I got a response from @MarkDudlik well known for writing an open letter to the Phoenix design community, calling for unity and forward thinking and thus inspiring Phoenix Design Week. Mark put out a suggestion that we use the hashtag #adobeaigaaz which seemed good enough to me. At the end of the event I thanked Mark even though no one had really used it besides us, however he did say they would continue to use it for all the following workshops. So in a way I felt I had contributed in a small way to the groups’ presence on twitter and hope it will become a future resource to keep all tweets in one unifying stream so outsiders like me can participate while attending, or if we can’t attend but want to know what’s going on.

The next phase of my iPhone enhanced day would be to find my next destinations via Mapquest which I did seamlessly and of course to foursquare each stop. The amazing part of foursquare is that you are able to see what and where your friends are while out and about and I came across several Phoenix friends’ trusted spots along with tips and recomendations. It was quite a cool experience going into a restaurant and getting a tip on what to order from a familiar face. It was also cool to see that many of my Flagstaff friends were also in town that day and as a matter of fact some were nearby, given more time I would have chatted them up via twitter, but I was in a rush to get to my buddy’s house where I would be able to recharge my battery sucking device and visit “IRL” (in real life) without digital intervention for a while (unless you count that we watched the new Star Trek on his Blue Ray T.V.)

My last endeavor of the day would be on my way out of town where it became necessary at the oncoming sunset to find the nearest Starbucks. This usually does not require a digital device as there is one on every corner, but when you find yourself scouring parking lots and hitting every red light and every store front people-crossing you decide that an immediate source of information is better than endless searching, so I downloaded the Starbucks app and sure enough there was one just down the street from where I was. Upon leaving, Mocha-Coconut Frapucchino in hand, I Foursquared: “Time to head back up the hill. (@ Starbucks) http://4sq.com/k25BXf” and received yet another tip of a nearby restaurant from a foursquare friend as well as a message from a twitter friend @Azdurawrap, to have a “safe trip”.

All in all it was a great day participating in virtual and real life experiences where I was never for a moment alone. The voice of my trusty Mapquest companion kept me on the right path. I received tips and suggestions of my Foursquare friends. I helped provide a place to stream tweets about the future AIGA Arizona events and oh yeah I attended a great workshop via @AskBrianWood and @aigaarizona.

Jim Nissen president of AIGA Arizona

Related Articles:

Social Media In Travel: Over-Hyped, Under-Hyped, Or Who Knows

Phoenix Design Culture

Proud to know Mark Dudlik

Creative Introvert and Social Media.

There are two types of creatives in my experience. The typical extrovert, who we all know and love. They are the rock stars, the life of the party that we all hope to, by osmosis, absorb our own creative side from. Clients flock to these creative guru’s as if they were doctors who could heal their creative crisis with their own personal style of enigmatic flare. They may be prima donna’s but they get the job done no matter how much attention they may require. On the other side of creative expression is the introvert, more closely related to the studio artist who does his greatest work from the private confines of his own studio. Society at large does not quite know what to do with this type. They tend to need space to work out their creativity and may not inspire the same pizzaz, but are cool cats nonetheless.

In society in general extroverts tend to outweigh the introvert population by 3 – 1 putting “innie’s” at a disadvantage. Trying to get noticed and bring attention to yourself as an introvert is difficult in a sea of extroverts who have made the loud and vibrant persona the standard. When it comes to social media, perhaps the introvert finally has a shot. The misconception about introverts is that they  are antisocial and prefer to be left alone, which is not typically the case. Introverts need to challenge themselves with social interaction or else they can end up in isolation.

Social media may be a beam of hope for introverts for it has created celebrity out of mediocrity worldwide. Everything we do is posted for all to see no matter who we are. For those of us who tend to not embellish on everything we do and live seemingly non-eventful life’s, it would appear that this was just another chance to be out-shined. It has been said of introverts that they access their information from long term memory storage, while extroverts have info on demand in short term memory. This explains why introverts don’t do well in social situations. However social media is perfectly suited for heavy thinkers who don’t always have a quick reply, but take more time to think and analyze their response. On Social Media platforms you write about things that are real, and reflect on them in a somewhat quick tempoed way. It’s quick snippets of reality that can can be thought out and filtered. On Facebook and Twitter one can reply with every bit of cleverness as the next quick-witted extrovert, from the confines of their own comfortable world.

Since my interaction with a growing community I have found that my career as a graphic designer, who rarely sees the light of day, has changed significantly. People in my community who never had a chance to get to know me, now know the deepest insights of my day-to-day life. The transparency that I reveal in my postings becomes subject matter for conversation or just a recognized “hello” from someone who before wouldn’t be so sure to say “hi” given what might come across as an intimidating or, as a percieved antisocial exterior. With Facebook my avatar is always smiling and open for comment, and my posts are typically upbeat. I can’t say how much I enjoy corresponding with my local and extended communities and sharing a since of connection by simply posting what I had for lunch, what the weather’s like or the funny thing my kid said. Opponents to social media will criticize the lunch comments or the simplicity of 140 characters and how nothing can be truly gained. However aren’t these the fundamentals of everyday conversation. “Hey Bob what about that game last night.” “So Jill have you been to that new restaurant.” Or, “guess what movie I saw last night.” This is how extroverts do it right? They start small and lead up to in-depth conversations, thus the blog or the link to the site and the eventual friend status. For this I thank the masterminds behind these applications and the new world communication they have allowed for.

Some related blogs in research of this subject:

Creative innie By Mary McCauley-Stiff

Introvert and social media by Ladunkin

Don’t Reduce Your Designers And Developers To Stereotypes by Rob Borley

Greetings!

Welcome to my new blog!

About three months ago I began a social media experiment that involved what many are doing these days, creating accounts in Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. What I’ve found in my studies is that none of these really do anything for you unless you have something to yak about (yak here is used as in Yak Yak or talking, not in it’s traditional meaning: a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia), and it really helps to have a place to keep all your yakkings so that if people like your yak they will pursue your yak links. So here I am creating a blog to place all my valuable yakkings to further my experiment and to maybe post a couple of my designs and illustrations, (so far none  of which include Yaks – the traditional kind).