I’m not going to write very much about the London Bloggers Summer Social, just pass on some of the feedback I received:
Mex
“ Excellent event. Lovely location looking out onto the river. Stella sponsorship was extremely well pitched with nice competition, some goodies and drinks – kudos for not just supplying Stella ”
Lewis
“ Best yet me-thinks! ”
jedb
“ Really good time was had… got there early and had time for good chats with new faces. Well done Stella for the sponsorship. See you lucky people on Friday in the Airship! ”
Navin
“ had an excellent time.. a very helpful and warm organiser.. and warm knowledgeable people.. good stuff to talk about.. ”
Chris
“ Brilliant! ”
Gary Andrews
“ Great idea, really good evening. Everybody was really friendly, was good to meet other bloggers. Great fun. ”
I have to say, I agree with all of the above. It was a great night. Thanks must go out to Jason Mical at Edelman for arranging the Stella Artois sponsorship. For me it was a really great way for Stella to engage with the blogging community, but I’d be really interested in hearing your feedback too.
Did you appreciate Stella’s sponsorship, could they have done anything differently, was the airship competition suitable, did you take a glass and a USB stick.. and would you be interested in more corporate involvement at the meetups?
Please let me know your thoughts with a comment or two..
Peter Marshall has kindly added some photos to the meetup page and there are a few of my terrible snaps below, including a photo of the airship!
The winners of the ride on the Stella Airship are listed below and their entries can all be read on the Stella competition post:
Epicurienne
Robert McIntosh
Lewis
Jed
Debbie
Allison
Enjoy your flight guys (if the wind ever drops enough for the airship to take off that is!).
Thanks everyone for making the socials what they are today! I have to share Pete’s thoughts:
“ Lovely venue, lovely people – I’m convinced that if we really got our heads together we could come up with the next Google 
met people with some amazing new ideas and angles on existing technologies ”
I’m going to skip August and take a summer holiday, but we’ll be back in September with some potentially exciting new supporters.
All the best,
Andy
No not Stella McCartney, but Stella Artois. That’s right our friends at Stella Artois have decided London’s hard working bloggers deserve some cool, crisp, liquid refreshment and have agreed to sponsor our summer party. They’ve promised to buy everyone a couple of pints of cold Stella, or a glass of wine, or a soft drink as you fancy.
Not only is Stella buying the beers, but they also are running a fabulous competition just for members of the London Bloggers Meetup. The prize is a trip in the Stella Artois: Star Over London airship.. to take in London from above. Currently retailing at £185.00, this really is a fantastic opportunity! Thanks Stella!
So how do you win such a fantastic prize?
It’s simple, in 150 words or less, describe your local pub and what it is that makes you keep going back..?’
Simply post your answer as a comment to this post by close of play on Friday 25th July. The entries will be judged based on entertainment value – the more entertaining the more likely you are to win!
There are SIX places up for grabs!
Well, what are you waiting for..!
We’ll announce the winners at the Summer Social on the 29th. Get writing folks and I’ll see you all on the 29th!
Andy
I am delighted to announce we have a sponsor for June’s blogger meetup in the form of M3, a mobile social network. They would like to come along and show you what they’ve created to help bloggers (and non-bloggers too to be fair) to get connected and stay in touch with London’s vibrant social scene. I am working on the finer details but it looks as though there will be some free drinks floating around.
You should check them out online to get a real feel for what they’re all about. But essentially they offer a mobile phone led location based service to help you hook up with friends when you’re out and about. Sounds pretty good and I hope I can get some mileage out of it for the meetup. Oh did I mention it was also free (as you’d expect in this day and age really).
Other news is we may well have a presenter coming along too. Someone has volunteered to talk about a new plugin to help drive reader engagement on your blog. More news on that coming soon.
Please don’t forget to RSVP on the meetup page!
We had another very successful bloggers social last night, back at our old haunt the Camel & Artichoke in Waterloo. Around 40 or so people turned up, all of whom were given a goodie back from event supporters Berocca. I have to admit, I didn’t really understand the link between blogging and Berocca (a vitamin supplement) when they first approached me, but when I heard about an article in the New York Times it all started to make sense.
Apparently us bloggers are working until we drop, putting in long hours and fitting blogging in around full time jobs, or other freelance projects. I can certainly relate to this and probably a lot of you can too.
What’s the link with Berocca then..? Well, the little orange nuggets of Berocca are jam packed full of vitamins to help rejuvenate your tired body and give you a bit of a kick start. Especially useful after a long night writing blog posts before an early morning meeting – trust me, I’ve been trying these little beauties out all week and so far so good. I do however have to point out for those first timers that you will probably notice a bright green colour when you go to the bathroom. Don’t be alarmed, it’s normal (according to Berocca).
For those interested in cocktails, we tried one in a pint of Guinness at the meetup and it wasn’t at all bad. I’m sure Chris and Tom will agree – although perhaps just half a Berocca next time.
What’s next for the bloggers social then?
I got a few comments from bloggers liking the move away from the Coach & Horses (a venue that’s a bit over done now apparently) so we probably won’t be heading back any time soon. I also had some requests for more content at the meetup, much like the legal presentation we had before. Any suggestions are welcome, but I have in mind a talk at some stage about managing content production and I know M@tt from Londonist has agreed to talk about something along these lines before. M@tt?
I’m also in the early stages of talking to a mobile social network about sponsoring the next meetup. This I hope will bring the return of a free drink for us all – I know how everyone likes a tipple every now and then. I will put more information out on this soon. I’m also looking for a good new venue again, preferably with a private room, big screen TV and ideally wheel chair friendly. I’ll let you all know how I get on, but again, any suggestions welcome.
Thanks to everyone who came along on Tuesday, we really are building a vibrant community of bloggers. The comments always reflect what an interesting bunch of people you all are and I hope you will keep coming. New faces are always welcome as are the regulars. Special thanks to Peter, Mex, Andy and the handful of others that have attended every month!
I’ll see you all on the 24th June. In the mean time ‘keep on blogging’, but keep healthy and of course let me know if the Berocca has added that extra little bit of spice..
Cheers,
Andy
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