Yeah, K-Tat knows his parties.

Put this down in the history book:  It’s 25 days till the next #NWITweetup and I’m getting you the basic details….NOW!

Here are the essentials:

Venue: #NWITweetup Summer Picnic – the Tatgenhorst Ranch!
Date: Saturday August 28th, 2010
Time: 3pm – sunRISE
Address: 758 Gadwell Ct. Valparaiso, IN. 46385
Fun Stuff: BBQ, Swimming pool, lounging deck, bonfire, free food and refreshments, Bags (cornhole) tournament,
Map to the Event:

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Here’s what we need to know:

Are You Coming?
Can You Bring Anything to the event? (Food, ‘refreshments,’ cornhole set…)
What more would you like to see at the event? (Games, speaking, Wii tournament)

What we need:
Prizes

• Bags tournament
• water balloon toss
• door prizes

Water Balloons (for the water balloon toss)
Food Dishes
Drinks
& Your partying selves!

Leave a comment below or email us at one of the following:

finn@nwitweetup.com
dave@nwitweetup.com
eric@nwitweetup.com

and let us know your plans for the August #NWITweetup!

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So, people have been wanting to know how this July 2010 #NWITweetup work. Here’s the story from A to Z

From 6pm-8pm, the poker run will be open. You can complete the run at any point during the time frame

1) To participate in the poker run, head over to Evelyn Bay Coffee Company. You will get a sheet of paper where you can keep track of your poker hand. Once there, you will have the chance to pick a card (card face-down. No cheating). Once you pick the card, an NWITweetup volunteer will write it down on your sheet and put their initials on it. From there you will go to Phillips Ace Hardware (2 block south down Calumet. East side of the road). FOURSQUARE USERS:  Remember to check in!

2) At Phillips Ace Hardware, you will head to the back of the store – towards the Service Dept. (Make sure your poker sheet is with you). Once at the service desk, you will pick a card again and go through the steps. After you get a card you will get a free gift. Then you head on to Cartronix (1/2 block down the road. HINT:  Park at Cartronix BEFORE you go to Ace Hardware and you can walk to each of the remaining locations.). And if you have FOURSQUARE…check in

3) At Cartronix, you will get your third card and be eligible for free gifts. Do the steps, get the card, check in with FourSquare, and then head on down to Majestic Jewelers (a couple storefronts south).

4) Majestic Jewelers:  Once you get your card from Majestic, you will get a complimentary bottle of Nail Polish Remover you’re welcome, Daver,
and a 20% off coupon! Then it’s time to, “hail, hail. the gang’s all here,” at Billy Jacks Cafe & Bar! (just a couple of stores away).

5) Billy Jacks Cafe & Bar:  Get your last card, and see your friends and colleagues. Stay, hang, be one with.

Once you have all 5 cards:  take it to either Daver or Finn so they can use them for the drawings.

At 8pm, we’ll do announcements, talk a little about updates, and then drawings will begin!

Note: You have to have a full poker hand to be eligible for the drawings!

• Valpo Life Gear
• Free Car Washes (pending)

And the grand finale:  The Sonos Wireless Multi-Room Music System

Then after the drawings are done, the mixer can continue,

• drink specials
• including specials on GUMBALLHEAD
• and the soothing acoustical sounds of none-other than Valparaiso city mayor, Jon Costas!

And, Mr. Mayor, I hope we get to hear your rendition of “Fire and Rain!”

If you have any questions, please email either:

• finn@nwitweetup.com (Nat Finn)
• dave@nwitweetup.com (Dave Woodson)
• eric@nwitweetup.com (Eric Carter)

and hope to see you there.

and, now, you don’t have to do the Run and can just go hang out, but what fun is that?

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Social Media Day NWIndiana

We are really doing this last minute – I know

Here is the line up so far:

• June 30, 2010
• 11:30 to 1pm Pepe’s in Valparaiso, IN
• several local Social Media Leaders will speak
• We will discuss the #nwitweetup to help it grow to foster more community and business involvement

We want anyone and everyone there that can come.  It will be a great time of community, networking and business.

In the coming days and weeks, we will be looking for more involvement and direction on which way you want to take the monthly Tweetups.  Please do not be bashful, this is Social Media, where we take the online offline.

We, also, hope to be able livestream the even on ustream, we will post the link as we get closer.

Dave

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We are still working out the details for Social Media Day whether it is going to be a lunch or a after hours extravaganza.  We would like to get a few more businesses there and then have some great learning sessions and some of the best networking in NW Indiana.

So stay tuned for more details and there is going to be one great low-lite reel on this very special episode of #NWiTweetup Video Recap

Social Media Day June 30th, Pepe’s In Valparaiso, Social Media Luncheon more details coming soon

and for the record, I know the sound is off on this I am working on it.

Stay tuned

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Daver and I just stopped by Gauchos on the eve of the June 2010 NWITweetup and, well, we couldn’t resist.

The Gauchos Cigar bar looks immaculate after their recent remodeling:  wood floors, gold window treatments, flat panel TVs, and an aquarium (no, Daver didn’t ash his cigar in it).

The bar manager, Amanda, makes great mix drinks, is down to earth, and doesn’t charge for the smiles. Samantha, Jerry, and the rest of the gang…it should be enough to bring a few of the stalwarts out of their spring slumber.

June 2010 NWITweetup Quick Facts

Date: June 15, 2010

Time: 7pm CST

• PreTweetup:  6:3o pm
• DaverTweetup:  Since 9pm June 14th
• AfterTweetup:  There is no aftertweetup (Remember Rule #1 of #AfterTweetup)

Special Guest: Amy Stark, founder, Indiana Social Media awards.

Specials: Appetizer Specials

SWAG: Bring your business cards!

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for those that showed up to the Albanese Candy Factory and the flash mobbed Zao’s Island where I did spin a kid out for blocking.

Gaucho’s Brazilian Steakhouse (red light/green light), Martini bar and lounge. Are you ready to get your steak on?

June 15th, from 7 to 9pm(official) and we all know that there will be a pretweetup and an aftertweetup

See you then

D

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Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.
Benjamin Rush

Can't we all just get along?

For those just now checking in for details on tomorrow’s tweetup at the Blue Chip Casino – see our original post Kyle Lacy Tweetup at Blue Chip Casino

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE EVERYONE!

Now for the controversy that rocked  NW Indiana on Friday some bullet points:

• The NWIndiana Tweetup has been working terrific for the last 14 months as a collaboration of many participants, no one person has control or is trying to make money off the effort.    (@nwitweetup)
• There is an active social media scene in the Michiana area and a tweetup was destined to take place.  At some point in 2009 Cheryl from Michianatweetup.com began the planning, set up a ning social networking site, and starting connecting interested people.
• Our own group here in NW Indiana thought it might be fun to reach out and do a joint event in Michigan City, and the opportunity was upon us with Indianapolis author and social media expert Kyle Lacy coming to town tomorrow April 13th for another event.   We asked Kyle if he would be willing to stay around for the evening and join us.  He agreed and it was on!
• At some point in the promotion our own Dave Woodson (@davewoodson) talked to a Wayne Clayton of another group calling itself Michianameetup.com but moving quickly on April 6th during these same conversations to attempt to take control of the name #MichianaTweetup for his company.   He even went so far as to suggest that because they were scheduling an event on April 30th, they could not help promote our event on the 13th.  Weird!
• It would be awesome to show Wayne’s first mildly threatening comment on this blog, but he has since edited our the threatening portion.   Well after threatening this blog with words suggesting that he owned the term and would like us to stop using his term … the floodgates opened wide.
• Now some 80 comments and 45 retweets later it would appear that Wayne’s company was attempting to be the only Michianatweetup organization, and perhaps even profit off the name.   To put it simply … things started to get ugly.

Now that raw nerves have calmed down, and cooler heads in both NW Indiana and Michiana have prevailed we come to the point of a few salient summaries.

• First, no one owns a twitter hashtag
• Second, this tweetup in Michigan City was probably going to be attended by our normal 40-45 people … but now due to the controversy we can expect to see a far greater number of attendees.  The shear volume of comments, tweets, retweets, and other blog posts about the subject has driven the information into more hands.
• Third, as we’ve noted in the past … a whole lot of links and events get promoted in the many hashtags on twitter.  But in the absence of the A-list users getting involved, it’s hard to get noticed.  This is the same as any other kind of media or marketing.  Twitter is no different, the only real change is that you can become an A-list Twitter user if you put in the work to collaborate, engage, retweet, and give freely.   It takes time, and buying 15,000 followers does not an A-lister make!

I would suggest that the controversy was good for Northwest Indiana and Michiana.   Did Wayne suffer from wading into the fray, sadly yes.  But even at that members of our own group have offered to cross promote his profit making event and work with the competing group.  Why, because we’ve all benefited from the collaborative environment that exists in NW Indiana.

As a political fan, one who doesn’t think all things political are bad, this raises the question of fabricated controversies.  In this instance there was no battle until Wayne jumped into the fray with a veiled threat.    But what are the twitter and blog ethics surrounding fabricating a controversy just for the sake of traffic, activity, promotion, and profits?

Or did we …”

(Contributed by guest author Steve Dalton (daltonsbriefs) from Northwest Indiana Real Estate and Mortgages)

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Every month, I am more and more amazed at the crowds we are drawing to the monthly nwitweetups even when we have 2 in one month.

Needless to say, we brought a lot of business to Brickworks and we greatly appreciate everything you all did for us with the half-price beers that I think we all took advantage of. Even though, @parrotheaddad5 wanted a martini he got along just great with a couple of Phaino and even @babysteph took home a growler to the husband at home.  The long distance award go to my good friend @drdoughpizza who came to us via Joliet and was greatly impressed with the crowd that showed up and there are some talks of heading to Plano for a pizzatweetup.

Sadly, we have a tragedy in out midst.  I lost the sign-up sheet, but we had over 40 names on it and we all know not everyone signed in.   However, if you want a copy of the business cards just let me know.

I want to thank our sponsors that night for the fantastic give-a-ways.  Rick from @gossersales for the great #nwitweeup logo hats if you want to order one just let Rick know or you can visit his northwest Indiana custom logowear website.  Thanks again for the hats, Rick.  I love mine.

Also, @coachlee for letting us give away your great coaching book on how to increase sales by being the “red jacket”.  I think that is something I do very well.

Let us not forget, the great t-shirts from @brickworksbrew and the great NW Indiana brew experience.  I saw you give a couple of tours and I know that @drdoughpizza and @fanbrew greatly appreciated it.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and having a great time.  We got some great stuff planned for April and remember this is a team effort.  If you have an idea or want to go someplzce special we are here to help.  We want everyone to have a good time and lets have some fun while we learn, network and take the online offline and be social.

Dave

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We all had a great night at the March 11th #NWItweetup at Uptown Cafe out hosts of Tia, Rich, Heather and Kyle gave us a great sample of the many menu items of food, tea and coffee.

There were plenty of give-a-ways from a $25 gift certificate to bluetooth headsets from Cartronix.  We would like to thank Cartronix for the give-a-ways and if you are in the market for AT&T phones, Direct-TV or just need a wireless expert call the guys from Cartronix.

Also, we picked a winner from the #nwitweeup logo contest and it was Jason from @JMAdesignstudio and if you are looking for design work from websites to Facebook fan pages to Twitter backgrounds then Jason is your guy to call.  He even got a trophy donated from Cartronix as well.  It looked eerily similar to my first car phone from 1994.

There were plenty of pictures taken and even some of someones pink shorts, damn he had some fine legs.  It takes a special man to wear pink shorts and whoever he was he looked good with them on.

Make sure when you come out to future #nwitweetup events to bring plenty of business cards for networking, the give-a-ways and always make sure you sign the “sign-in sheet”

Again, thank you to Uptown Cafe for hosting the early March #NWItweetup.  We look forward to coming back for breakfast, lunch,

Dave

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We are doubling down in March and bringing the first Lake County NWItweetup, and we are headed to the Brickworks Brewing Company on 327 Main Street in downtown Hobart, IN on the 23rd of March.  We all look forward to seeing a good turnout for some great handcrafted beers, free appetizers and drink specials.

there will be a great selection of beers on hand

• O’Mordha Irish Red – a classic red ale
• Phaino – a classic American light lager
• Assimilation Oatmeal Stout
• Cornerstone Pale Ale – American pale ale the #1 seller
• Potawatomi Porter – described as “liquid milk duds”
• …and several others

drink special for the night, buy one of the special glasses and get it filled all night for half-price($5 for the mug, $1.75 to fill it all night, you keep the glass)

Also, there will be a t-shirt give-a-way and perhaps some other things as well. (bring your business cards)

This will be the great normal fair with business networking and social liveliness featuring a great non-smoking atmosphere.

Follow Brickworks on Twitter

Please, always remember to drink responsibly, they want us to come back.

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We are doubling down for the month of March.  Hopefully, the really bad cold weather is behind us and the first sign of Northwest Indiana Spring will be upon us.  Yep, you guessed it.  Dave in shorts.

Back, by popular demand, a Thursday night Tweetup.  Come join us for Socializing, Networking and laughter all caffienated by UpTown Cafe on 1400 Lincolnway in downtown Valparaiso.  Do you know why we have so many Lincolways in NWIndiana?  I do.

Thursday, March 11th from 7 to 9pm.

There will be appetizers, give-a-ways from @Cartronix

For more information comment below or hit me @davewoodson

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Originally scheduled to be the February 2010 NWITweetup, the March 2010 NWITweetup looks like it’ll take place at Valparaiso’s newest cafe’ hotspot:  Uptown Cafe in downtown Valparaiso, IN.

Want to get a glimpse into what Uptown Cafe is all about? Forget to get reservations on Valentines Day, again? Well, then take a look at the opportunities available at Uptown Cafe.

There’s still time to do right on Valentine’s Day

Uptown Cafe Valpo Menu:  Food, Coffee, Tea

And for their complete list of coffee, food, and tea menus for their Valparaiso, IN location, please check out the slide show below.

And if you have an special food or dessert selections you’d like to see available for the March 2010 NWITweetup, then let us know.

Have you been to Uptown Cafe in Valparaiso, IN?

Let us know.

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