Wow. 4 years. Really? It seems like only yesterday I was preparing to exit a wounded industry still morning the loss of Billy Mays when Dalton approached Daver and I about helping to organize the tweetups with him and a small crew. For Daver, he was looking for life beyond a radio show and with more sugar and spice than the Mortgage industry.
Down Memory Lane…
At the Valpo BW3s during an early December luncheon we agreed to come aboard. Our first tweetup was the Christmas party – I think. I’m not exactly sure because back then there wasn’t a website, email addresses, a Facebook page or a Google Plus page to keep track. The aforementioned crew never manifested too – though Dalton has always made sure we get hydrated at the events so it has balanced nicely.
…past old haunts…
From there, Daver and I took #NWITweetup for quite the test drive. We did weekday events, weekend events, lunches, dinners, breakfasts (just kidding). We’ve sampled cuisine from the most iconic restaurants on this side of Lake Michigan. We’ve been there as the brewing craze in the area launched, tasting the finest concoctions from Figure Eight Brewing – on their opening day to as recently as this past spring in their new location on the Square. We also hit up Crown Brewing with Harrison Painter, Brickworks Brewery in Hobart (RIP), and finally making it out to Shoreline Brewery with the Figure Eight Crew just off the shore in Michigan City. We celebrated Social Media Day at Pepe’s in Valparaiso using UStream presentations simply because that’s where my supervisor and I had lunch on Wednesday. We sampled what was at Lincoln + Main in Valparaiso before it was Lincoln + Main. We cooled off at Coldstone Creamery as well as legendary Valpo Velvet / Browns Ice Cream Parlor. It’s almost amazing our diets aren’t more successful, but we couldn’t be any more thankful for those who’ve invited us into their places of businesses.
…and the people who stopped and waved at us…
We also had some of digital marketing’s industry experts come on up for a spell. My bromance, Douglas Karr of DK New Media, braved a lake-effect blizzard to come speak about his book “Corporate Blogging for Dummies“. It took a tweetup at Blue Chip Casino to get Kyle Lacy (“Twitter Marketing for Dummies,” / Senior Manager of Content Marketing and Research for ExactTarget) to come out (just kidding). Robby Slaughter of AccelaWork taught us the value of Failure at Cornucopia Coffee Company (RIP) during a beautiful Indian summer night. Erik Deckers braved a cold December night to give quite the delight presentation in the days before him and Jason Falls took the Bulls*** out of Social Media – literally.
…through stops and starts…
We’ve had incredible successes and hard-luck failures. The crowds grew, split off to form other groups, and from there we grew again. We’ve done tweetups weekly, monthly, bi-monthly… We’ve had great experiments such as celebrating the end of summer at a pool party at Karl Tatgenhorts’s house – one of my fav events. We’ve endured ice storms like the one we had a BW3s in Portage back in 2010. The storm we fought through in January 2011 to get to Northwoods Dining in St. Johns, Indiana was so bad that Eric Carter of Cartronix drove me out there in his Jeep Wrangler or I would not have made it. We found out that Tweeps don’t like to do poker runs to get to final destinations and never, ever split the event up at two locations in two counties, even if they are Albanese Candy and Zao Island – then again, I’m being hard on myself. The families who showed seemed to enjoy the fact they could run off the sugar rushes on the mini golf course. I’d do the Albanese / Zao again in a heartbeat. I just need to know it’s 20 minutes apart instead of 10 between the two…
…as we raced towards the Finish Line…
And still all the while we’ve finished nights off with aftertweetups and afteraftertweetups. And what would a Tweetup be without the DaverTweetup 30 minutes before the action starts.
…to Victory Circle
With the support of Jenny Craig, Chris Mahlmann, Brett Fuller and the crew at Ideas and Motions, we took #NWITweetup a step further and built it back u to the biggest successes we’ve seen. The first one they helped with at Catch22 came with no strings attached. It was brilliant. Form there we packed the place at Industrial Revolution with 5 area mascots including the Valparaiso Crusader. Then, this summer at Railcats Stadium on exceptionally short notice we packed out the suite – them burgers were good. Even our last one at Zao Island last week between Thanksgiving and Christmas…now people know the place is for more than kids. Incredible.
Now that Jenny, Brett & crew have full freedom to shape #NWITweetup in their image, I’ll excited to see what they’ll be able to do without our curmudgeon butts in the way. I hope I get invited to the occasional white board session to see what they’re planning – just to be a fly on the wall.
I don’t even know how to thank everyone
Where to start? Do we start with Dalton and crew for giving us a chance? Do we start with Mahlmann, Brett & Jenny for giving it the much-needed shot in the arm? Do we thank all the establishments? From Uban, Neil and Lahti at Figure Eight to Cathy Brown Brown at Valpo Velvet to Rich at Lincoln + Main to Karl’s wife for letting use the pool…to the Indy crew for coming to visit…I really don’t know. I’m a bit overwhelmed. And I don’t want to do a cheap catchall thank you but in the same breath I don’t want to miss anyone. So in one simple breath a say, “Thank You,” in a simple prayer.
Daver will probably do it with a Davertweetup or to.
Time to hand over the keys to Jenny Craig & Co.
I hope y’all treat the 5th director, Jenny Craig and the crew at In Motion Media, with the same respect you showed Daver and I. If you treat them right, they’ll lead you to new and exciting places.
It’s your turn to drive guys. I’m signing off. Check under the hood once in awhile and give her oil when she needs it. If you do that, she’ll drive straight and true and will always get you home.
Sincerely
Nat Finn
Past-Director
#NWITweetup
