Yes, the Pre-Mesh Hook Up happened early this evening at the Irish Embassy — and I’ve got to say, it was pretty cool. Mesh, for the uninitiated (and really, I am in that group) was a conference held earlier this year, focusing on social media and had some pretty fascinating keynote speakers, including Om “they don’t call me GigaOM for nothing” Malik and Steve “Micropersuading Edelman to Go Virtual” Reubel.
I decided to go primarily so I could see a whole bunch of interesting guys that I have blogged about and / or commented on and / or emailed and /or simply annoyed by my blogging, including:
* Mark Evans, VP at B5 , who was kind, ebullient and gracious as a host, introducing me to a whole whack of people.
* Rob Hyndman, tech lawyer extra-ordinaire, who was much larger than I imagined (but in a good non-threatening way).
* Mat Ingram of the Globe and Mail, who was ever the grizzly ol’ tech journalist, regaling me of bigger and better parties that I missed out on by about 20 years
* Stuart MacDonald, who still has to tell me what he thinks of Farecast (but was doing a good job of imitating a waiter later in the evening).
* Jeremy Wright, B5 CEO, who was much younger than I imagined (but in a good natured approachable way).
* Darren Rowse, The Problogger, who was far away from home, but surprisingly cool, patient (with some questions I had) and with-it in spite of surely being jet lagged
* Yaro Starak, blogging entrepreneur, who I later found out is going to be in the T-dot for longer than a month (a whole year! — dude, if you want to go out for some great Chinese, let me know)
* Vince Chan, a problogger in his own right, and is blogging for so many financial blogs that I sort of lost count (sorry, dude!)
* Lars Hansen, of C2E consulting, who doesn’t yet have a blog, but wants to start one
* Scott Brooks, of ConceptShare, introducing me to the idea of a “Writely for WebDesign” — and the idea that Sudbury has a booming Web2.0 industry
* Ben Lucier of Hip Communications, who also wants to blog, but wanted to protect client interests
* Rob Schaumer, who wanted to get his blog going, and wondered about “Reddit”
* Vernon Lun, a “Good Blog”-ger whose business card looks like his Good Blog widget (smart move).
And speaking of business cards, I soon ran out of my free Moo ones, which were, I thought kind of unique because of their design (1/2 sized), and the fact that, well, they were free. I’ll be ordering more, since this November the shipping is free worldwide — not as good as totally free, but almost as good.
The most interesting thing I learned (narcissistically) was about myself — number one, many people didn’t really know I am a doctor, and number two, I blog “a lot”. Quite often the nite went — “[introduction] Hey, this is Tony Hung from DeepJiveInterests!” “[answer] Oh, Hey! You Blog a Lot!” or “Man, you are prolific!”, or “Hey — why aren’t you blogging right now?”
To which, I wasn’t quite sure what to say, so more often than not I gave a sheepish look and shrugged my shoulders. Of course to that last remark, I was debating about bringing my laptop to live-blog the whole thing … heh heh.
All in all, it provided an excellent stage for the upcoming Mesh Conference, and a great opportunity to attach faces and personalities to blogs. I wasn’t able to commit any of the guys running the show as to who the upcoming keynote speakers are going to be — but I had promises its going to top this years, and if that’s the case, its going to be hella good in many respects.
PS — Many thanks to a Lisa, whose last name I didn’t get, Leesa Barnes, who was running around trying to get a podcast going, who introduced me to Mark in the first place. Wherever you are — thank you! :)
November 16th, 2006 at 6:39 am | Permalink
I didn’t realize you were in Toronto until just now - nice to see there’s interesting things going on in the old hometown.
November 16th, 2006 at 7:40 am | Permalink
Thanks for coming , Tony - great party!
Wow, you really blog a lot. And I didn’t know you’re a doctor, either. That’s pretty cool.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:46 am | Permalink
doctor, prolific blogger and now mainstay on the Toronto tech party scene! and i heard you never sleep…
Ed
November 16th, 2006 at 10:44 am | Permalink
Ed — heh heh, with my 7 week son here, sleep is a luxury I don’t always have ;)
You should have come, man! It was a great time.
t
November 16th, 2006 at 11:00 am | Permalink
Thanks for coming, Tony. I’m going to let the “grizzly old tech journalist” crack slide, just this once :-)
P.S. the Lisa you mentioned who was interviewing people was Leesa Barnes, local podcaster extraordinaire.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:08 am | Permalink
seriously dude, you blog a LOT. that’s part of the reason I bookmarked the site over here. good, frequent, quality content.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:10 am | Permalink
Mat — if you weren’t grizz–, err, a wiley ol’ veteran journalist, you wouldn’t be able to tell me about all of those crazy debauched parties in LA!
November 16th, 2006 at 11:11 am | Permalink
Joel — Thanks … I think ;)
I guess its good to be known for something!
t
November 16th, 2006 at 11:12 am | Permalink
Rob — great shindig! Sorry we couldn’t talk for longer, but it was great meeting everyone face to face. ;)
November 16th, 2006 at 11:12 am | Permalink
Greg — it was definitely cool.
(I’m just waiting for the next party)
t
November 16th, 2006 at 12:36 pm | Permalink
it was great to meet you last night Tony - very nice to put a face to the name!
November 16th, 2006 at 3:57 pm | Permalink
Here I am! It was great meeting you as well, Tony. You looked lost when I found you, so I just had to take you under my wing, albeit for a short while. Glad I could help connect with Mark and the rest of the crew. My pleasure.
November 16th, 2006 at 4:50 pm | Permalink
Darren — great meeting you too!
November 16th, 2006 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
Leesa — that confused look is often … uh, confused … with my impatient look, as I was waiting for Mat to finish with someone else (who was so keen on talking to him that I ended up waiting … and waiting …. heh heh)
Thanks for leading me to Mark, though! :D
Cheers
t
November 16th, 2006 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
Hey Tony it was cool meeting you too. It’s a rare combination the doctor/blogger gig - especially given you don’t seem to blog about much that is all that medical.
I might just take you up on that offer of Chinese food very soon!
November 16th, 2006 at 6:40 pm | Permalink
Great to meet you Tony. And to be clear, I wasn’t “imitating” a waiter. I *was* a waiter. Much cooler ;-)
- Stuart
November 16th, 2006 at 8:15 pm | Permalink
I don’t see why Mark gets to be “kind, ebullient and gracious” and I have to be “grizzly” :-)
November 16th, 2006 at 8:47 pm | Permalink
Mat — of course you’re ebullient and gracious! :)
I didn’t say that because its already *understood* … and besides, grizzly is a term of endearment.
At least, that’s what I hear amongst older journalists.
…
[ducks]
November 17th, 2006 at 9:55 am | Permalink
[…] There were many others in attendance and I got to shoot the breeze with a few of the B5 Media founders, the Mesh conference founders, fellow bloggers (I met Tony Hung and will be reading his blogs more often!) and Web 2.0 enthusiasts. I fully intend to make the 2007 Mesh Conference to extend my involvement in the community. This little frog needs to climb out of its well once in a while and realize the sky is not just a small circle! […]
November 17th, 2006 at 10:02 am | Permalink
Very nice to meet you, Tony! I guess I don’t blog as much as you do. =)
I guess bloggers not only have a lot to say online, but also in person. It was getting quite loud and I almost lost my voice having to talk louder to get heard. Definitely, a lot of fun!
January 11th, 2007 at 3:35 am | Permalink
[…] Network in person: Find other local bloggers using services like Meetup, and see if they’re literally getting together to commiserate about blogging or their topic of blogging. If you’ve got the time, there’s nothing that makes an impression as actually meeting someone in person. Tip: bring a business card; Another tip: if you don’t have any, make some; yet another tip: if important people are going to be there, really — try and go. Remember, you didn’t know me before Problogger, but I met Darren in person at a function in Toronto that played a part in me writing this. Think about that. […]
January 13th, 2007 at 12:44 am | Permalink
[…] Network in person: Find other local bloggers using services like Meetup, and see if they’re literally getting together to commiserate about blogging or their topic of blogging. If you’ve got the time, there’s nothing that makes an impression as actually meeting someone in person. Tip: bring a business card; Another tip: if you don’t have any, make some; yet another tip: if important people are going to be there, really — try and go. Remember, you didn’t know me before Problogger, but I met Darren in person at a function in Toronto that played a part in me writing this. Think about that. […]
January 17th, 2007 at 1:18 am | Permalink
[…] Network in person: Find other local bloggers using services like Meetup, and see if they’re literally getting together to commiserate about blogging or their topic of blogging. If you’ve got the time, there’s nothing that makes an impression as actually meeting someone in person. Tip: bring a business card; Another tip: if you don’t have any, make some; yet another tip: if important people are going to be there, really — try and go. Remember, you didn’t know me before Problogger, but I met Darren in person at a function in Toronto that played a part in me writing this. Think about that. […]
February 12th, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Permalink
[…] Network in person: Find other local bloggers using services like Meetup, and see if they’re literally getting together to commiserate about blogging or their topic of blogging. If you’ve got the time, there’s nothing that makes an impression as actually meeting someone in person. Tip: bring a business card; Another tip: if you don’t have any, make some; yet another tip: if important people are going to be there, really — try and go. Remember, you didn’t know me before Problogger, but I met Darren in person at a function in Toronto that played a part in me writing this. Think about that. […]
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:18 pm | Permalink
[…] 32、拿工资 你不知道大的博客组织在寻找新人。这是一个展示自己学识的好机会，认识许多博客作者，由此打开了许多专业的“大门”… 33、人际交往 使用Meetup等服务，找到当地的博客作者，和他们一起交流博客心得。 技巧一：带上名片；技巧二：如果没有，制作一些；技巧三：如果重要的人在那里，一定争取去。记得吗，你知道我以前并不认识Problogger，但是我在Toronto的个人聚会中遇到了Darren。 […]
February 5th, 2008 at 4:15 am | Permalink
[…] 32、拿工资 你不知道大的博客组织在寻找新人。这是一个展示自己学识的好机会，认识许多博客作者，由此打开了许多专业的“大门”… 33、人际交往 使用Meetup等服务，找到当地的博客作者，和他们一起交流博客心得。 技巧一：带上名片；技巧二：如果没有，制作一些；技巧三：如果重要的人在那里，一定争取去。记得吗，你知道我以前并不认识Problogger，但是我在Toronto的个人聚会中遇到了Darren。 […]
February 26th, 2008 at 7:25 pm | Permalink
[…] are going to be there, really — try and go. Remember, you didn’t know me before Problogger, but I met Darren in person at a function in Toronto that played a part in me writing this. Think about […]