In early September 2009, the PocketSmith team was up in Auckland (first time the three of us were in AKL togther). We had exactly 4 days and 3 nights to make the most of our time in the biggest city in New Zealand. While we could have spent half of the money for the TUANZ ceremony awards ($270 per head!) cruising around Auckland in a stretch Hummer drinking champagne (as suggested by Jason) we ended up being really busy – catching up with people, meeting with potential partners and attending the ceremony on Thursday.
A week prior to our trip, I had the idea of organising a TweetUp in Auckland - the idea was to get bunch of cool people together and provide them with a conformable space where they can mingle and meetup with the PocketSmith team! According to the Urban Dictionary, a TweetUp is “a group of friends on Twitter (social network) that are planning to meet up.” (the second definition being “a gathering of nerds attempting social contact, likely for the first time. Usually disintegrates into everyone running to the nearest computer to type to one another.” hilarious 
). More seriously, a TweetUp is actually a networking event on steroids! Here is my “secrets” to get it right:
1) Organisation:
- I personally use a (free) service called Twtvite, a very easy-to-use invitation service built for Twitter. They have a large number of tweetups listed and make it easy to organising your own. It also helps you to keep track of who intends to attend the event. Don’t forget to use an appropriate hashtag, in that case we used #akltweetup, which made it really easy to follow what people where saying about this event in real-time (Twitter, I <3 you!)
- Pick a nice venue – ideally, find a spot that has a separate drinking area. Not that you cannot socialise with people outside the TweetUp but proximity is key when people are meeting up for the first time! This time, we organised it at Brooklyn Bar, 57 Lorne Street – friendly staff and free venue! Also, make sure to plan for more people to show up than you think (hope), the reason being that the people you are inviting are generally really good at spreading the word (well, that’s the power of Twitter right?
- Super-ideally, have a guess speaker + wifi. We had none of these but the event was definitely successful! It all comes down to people! What makes such a event special is its “random” factor – everyone should be welcome ! Also, remember that you have to talk to the 16 year old kid with the same respect that you would show Seth Godin. (More on dos and don’ts in this great article by Stuart Foster).
- Get names tags print out – these are great to break communication barriers! Plus if you are like me and your username is totally different from your real name (e.g. @kaedron), chances are that people would only recognise your Twitter name. Jason designed names tags in 5 minutes (he is awesome, check the new The Distiller website he recently re-designed in an hour!!!) and we got them printed out on the same day.
2) Promotion: Now that we got the basics covered, it is time to promote the event!
- I started by leveraging my existing Twitter network. For example, both @audaciousgloop (Simon Young) and @bwagy (Ben Young) are active Twitter members in Auckland – I flicked them an email seeking support/advices and they immediately put me in touch with TweetUp “organisers” in Auckland, aka @lewisbostock @justinflitter. These two have been amazingly supportive, inviting their community of tweetpeeps to join the event.
- Leverage on your connections’ collective wisdom and networks to create buzz and support for the event. There is no need to be a Marketing / PR guru to promote a tweetup – ask your friends to help you out spreading the word by re-tweeting your invitations. Invest a bit of time get the ball rolling and you will see exponential results (imagine friends of your friends re-tweeting!) With regards to this, I’d like to thank Paul @five15design who literally “pimped” the event from Dunedin (Eg: “five15design: sorry doing a little unashamed pimping for @kaedron and the #akltweetup http://twtvite.com/h74r8i he and @pocketsmith are organising.”) + Big Up to @michaelqtodd who supports Kiwi businesses from Japan!
- Invite people, even if you don’t know them! Twitter is a fantastic networking tool because you can talk directly to someone using 140 characters, meaning that you don’t have to spend hours introducing yourself before connecting with people! Obviously, be polite but also franc (funny is a bonus There are plenty of third-party apps that would help you to find Twitter users in a specific location: Twitter Search, TwitterLocal, Nearby Tweets, Twitter Grader, Geofollow… More about this in this article by Josh Catone.
- Try to contact community leaders: I use a service called meetup to get in touch with local communities. I am always informed when they organise regular meetings and I try my best to attend their events when I am in Auckland. I recommend you to join the following groups in Auckland: the “Auckland Web Meetup” (@sponno) and the “Auckland Game Development Meetup” (@sknightly who joined us at the TweetUp, thanks mate!)
- Tweet! Make sure you reply to everyone asking you questions via Twitter/email/texts – be professional! Remember that it is your event so be front and center to handle and address any concerns/problems that may arise. Also on the day of the event, act as a “facilitator” i.e. introduce new folks around.
TweetUps are a lot of fun – if you organise one, feel free to invite me!
@PatrickCavill: “#Akltweetup was a great night! Not use to being around people I don’t know (men in suits = intimidating) but thanx twitter for bridging the gap”
Sources:
HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup by Stuart Foster
How to plan for a tweetup; Your before, during and after to-do-list
10 Ways TO Create A Community Around Your Tweetup by Jade Craven
Local Tweets: 9 Ways to Find Twitter Users in Your Town by Josh Catone
Ohh a Tweetup sounds fun, and you guys look great! Do you ever travel to Canada at all? Tnx =)
-Madi
Hey Madi, thanks for your kind words
We have quite a few Canadians using PocketSmith and we are also talking to a couple of organizations about potential partnerships!
We would love to get a chance to pay a visit to our friends in Canada! Where about are you living?
Kind regards,
Francois