Tuesday 3rd November was a very good day

Why you might ask?

Well, largely because it was the day of yet another really great London Bloggers Meetup. We were back at one of the LBM favourite spots at Dogget’s Coat and Badge on Blackfriars Bridge. Such a good venue with magnificent views over the river, a plentiful bar and lots of room for a very relaxed Meetup. I would say we had around 50-60 bloggers in the end with a really good mix of newcomers and regulars.

london bloggers meetup

The evening was very generously supported by Paramount too. I have to say, they were very welcome to be there, not only because they bought some beers and ran a great prize draw, but because their team was generally very knowledgeable. I was particularly delighted to hear about Iron Man 2 coming out next summer. I never thought I would like Iron Man, but on a long flight last year I watched and massively enjoyed it, so I can’t wait for the next edition.

Alongside the Paramount shenanigans we had a talk from blog tipster Marko Saric from Howtomakemyblog.com which was both entertaining and nicely pitched. Marko has some great ideas for complete beginners and a few tips even the more established blogger could take away. You can see Marko’s slides below and there’ll be a video out shortly soon too. Keep your eyes peeled on Marko’s blog for the video, or come back here in a week or so. Look forward to seeing the guest blog post we setup with Seojoblogs too!

As usual thanks to Peter for the excellent photos which can be found here or there are a few samples below. Also some name checks:

Tikichris – maybe you could raffle that flat screen you won for charity…
Godwyns – a pleasure as always
Matt – presumably you left last..? BTW can you send me on of those Starbucks cards, seem to have mmisplaced the one I picked up at the LBM
Siany – a brief hello and goodbye, but nice all the same. Looking forward to some cakes!
Shell – same dress for 14 days is impressive, do you think I could do the same thing with a pair of jeans and a shirt…

And so many more. Thanks to everyone for coming, it really was a fantastic evening.

Cheers,
Andy

Marvellous Mayhem at #LBM

We had another enjoyable #LBM last week with Mojito Mayhem and the very generous sponsorship from our friends at Havana Cultura. Not only did they provide us with an unending supply of Mojitos – one of which was made by my fair hands – but there was also some free tacos and a handful of great prizes. I can’t think when we’ve had more prizes tro give away in one evening, particularly with the last minute surprise gifts from Girl Geek Dinners and from the charismatic Timinator.

If you would like to know more about the Twitter Treasure Hunt (launching on 19th Oct) and the chance to win yourself a trip on Eurostar to Paris to the Giles Peterson launch party, check it all out by following them on Twitter

A huge thank to Judith from SEO Chicks for the great presentation on SEO, the slides from which you can see below. I certainly picked up a few good ideas which I’ll be looking at as soon as I grab a spare five mins. And of course thanks to Tim, best of luck in Australia and I hope we cross paths again some time soon. See if you can setup a live hookup with the Sydney version…?

Well, all that’s left to say is enjoy your Mojitos, good luck in the treasure hunt and I’ll see you all at the start of November for another fantastic London Bloggers Meetup.

Blaugust #LBM

Did you wake up this morning, tired, with a slight hangover, dehydration and a ringing in your ears?

If you did, it’s probably because you went to the Blaugust #LBM last night, which was another cracking evening. Thankfully, the tiredness and the hangover were quickly resolved with a nice cup of coffee. Now I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to be quite surprised by how good Starbucks’ new instant coffee really is – see the picture to the left if you haven’t seen one of them yet. There was much scepticism last night, but so far the chat on Twitter today has been really positive and I’m delighted to have a life time supply – well at least enough for 20 cups (I grabbed the left overs before heading off for my train). Thanks so much to Starbucks and the Edelman crew for supporting our event.

OK, so the heat was a little much last night, but I suppose we are in British summer time, apparently. I think I’ll probably head for a slightly larger venue next time, as much as I liked the Old Crown, I would hate to be in there when they fill it with 80 people. We had around 60 and it was packed. Oh and I’m told the wine selection was pretty dreadful, at least according to our resident expert @thirstforwine.

So what was great about last night?

Well, apart from the coffee and free beers, Matt Brown from Londonist delivered a really interesting talk. Can you imagine producing over 20 blog posts each day, I struggle with one every week! This was followed by Chris from Buy.at who talked a bit about monetisation through affiliate promotions – I was surprised to hear the potential through this channel. I’ll certainly be giving it a go at some point soon.

It was great to see some old hand LMB’ers and new newer faces too. I had a good time chatting with Ruthy, Godwyns, Splendid Chris, the Bitch Buzz crowd, Mirona plus one, Jason and the Edelman folks and so many others. I always love the friendly atmosphere you all create!

That’s it from me, hope to see you all at the next #LBM which looks like being another cracker – details coming soon.

Andy

Hot Hot July was Hot Hot Hot

Wow! I say again Wow.

What a great night I had at the last London Bloggers Meetup. So great in fact that I’ve had to take two weeks off to recover, hence the incredibly late post.

Actually in truth I had a few weeks holidays already booked and decided it was high time I packed away my laptop for a couple of weeks – I even stopped checking email on my phone!

It’s only right that I say a few words of thanks to everyone invovled in the last LBM who made it such a great evening, notably those brave individuals who were prepared to stand up and say a few words. On first of all was Mr PhileasBlog (Edd) who talked about the travel blogging adventures he’d had with his co-author. Looking rather nervous Edd took to the stage (which was actually behind the bar at the Carpenters Arms pub on Whitfield Street) and gave away some top tips and certainly some inspiration for many. I’d sure like to retrace his steps around the world.

Next up was Eva from Lastminute.com who talked a bit about what  the blog she runs for Lastminute and what they are doing in social media. Actually hats off to Eva, the blog looks great and has some pretty good content on there already considering its only three months old. Oh and because she stepped in at the very Lastminute… I know, rubbish gag but it’s not too far from the truth!

Of course, Lastminute.com were also sponsoring the evening which meant they had some great prizes to give away, along with buying everyone a generous beer or two – now that’s what I call “social” media. There are the regular photos online provided by Peter Marshal and some from LBM regular Pete Stean that are worth a squiz. Congratulations to Ruthy and the other winners of the Lastmiute.com prizes. Do please let us all know which adventures you chose to take up and how you get / got on.

Well, that’s it. Thanks to all who attended and I look forward very much to seeing you all at the next edition. Keep August 4th clear in your diaries.

Cheers,
Andy