I’m Actually a Midlander

The last edition of the London Bloggers Meetup was in actual fact a little while ago now, sorry it’s taken so long to blog about it folks. However, that does not mean it was anything other than another fantastic evening. I have to say we had more than the usual number of new faces, perhaps all of the beer bloggers who turned up to hear from Greene King IPA tipped the balance, who knows. What I can tell you was this made for an interesting evening with a nice mix of bloggers, beer aficionados, regular LBM’ers and good old fashioned regular bloggers.

I thought John Bexon, the Head Brewer from Greene King IPA was a fantastic speaker. In fact, had we been at a beer convention and not a bloggers meetup, I could probably have sat and listened to him for another couple of hours. Check out his blog and also a fantastic looking iPhone app too – the iBrew.

John talked about the difference in the tastes between the North and South versions of Greene King IPA and I have to say from memory the Northern version was more to my liking. But being a proud midlander I’d be keen to see a version just for us – although you might say that given so much beer is brewed in the midlands around Burton-on-Trent and so on that all beer is made for us anyway… It was certainly a pleasure to draw some prize winners out of the ice bucket so congrats to those who won rugby tickets, weekends away or just good old beer. Do come back and let us know how you enjoyed your prizes.

Following on from John we had Lorena Sparenberg talking about the fantastic work in Madagascar from charity Azafady. As a quick reminder about Azafady:

Azafady works with local people to conserve threatened forests situated along 70 km of coastline, home to countless endemic and endangered species. Our aim is to help the poorest communities in Madagascar to empower themselves and develop in sustainable ways, increasing local access to health care and education. A core priority is to conserve the delicate ecosystems of Madagascar through facilitating viable alternatives to deforestation. Our projects and volunteer programs are at the frontline of global conservation and development work, with integrative and innovative projects which emphasise training, capacity building and education geared towards helping local people to help themselves.

If you want to help out, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with Lorena. I think largely Lorena is looking for help on how to make the most of their blog and other social media to raise the profile of the charity and I’m sure there are more than a few social media experts in the crowd who could add some value!

All that’s left is to thank Greene King IPA Revolution and Consolidated PR again for hosting us. It truly was an thoroughly enjoyable evening and I’m grateful for the samples we took home too. I tucked into the Rutland first, given that’s just down the road from where I call home and so far so good. Of course great to meet so many bloggers again as usual, too many to name check, but I’m pleased you were all able to attend. You can see ome photos of the evening below and also here and here.

Did anyone else spot Lawrence Dallaglio when he popped in for a pint…?

Photos couresty of Consolidated PR