Tweetup in Wellington - #wellyGLAMtweetup – 14 June 2011
Inspired by our friends in Auckland Hana (@theWhaanga) and I were to arrange a “tweetup” for the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) in central Wellington. Like Auckland our very own “Library Bar” (part of Chow’s Courtenay Pl restaurant) was chosen as a fitting venue – and it turned out to be perfect!
It was a great event and a few non-twitterers went away with just a hint of how powerful a work tool twitter can be… Remember, Twitter is like a cocktail party; short snippets of conversation where YOU control who you FOLLOW, and what SUBJECTS you FILTER information about!
A tweetup for me was always going to be about developing and enhancing my social media skills. For example Hana set up a Facebook event and similarly I set up an event listed on Twtvite – which is a free (or pay option) way to manage events, communicate them, draw questions and even manage RSVP’s – it was a great service that I endorse to you. By searching on the #wellyGLAMtweetup hashtag you can read a quick summary of tweets about the event here if you like – and find the links stemming from & to the event and comments about the evening:
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23wellyGLAMtweetup OR http://bit.ly/iA8roi
(Nb. Both these URL’s take you to the same web address. I find the automatic url shortening offer that twitter provides seriously cool. All I did was copy the first url above into the tweet space and hey presto – instant shortened url as you can see in the 2nd link). So there’s another benefit for me from Twitter/Social Media.
For me the best thing about the #WellyGLAMtweetup for me was the mix of people/personalities. The common thread we had to generate conversations was the twitterverse. It was a great starter which saw me engage in topics such as:
- The relevance of Social media for the GLAM sector;
- Life as postgraduate studying librarianship;
- LIANZA & Te Rōpū Whakahau;
- Archives nationwide;
- Restructures in Libraries; and of course.. at length:
- #Chch #Eqnz :- having @Ross_B and @MoiraFraser certainly focused that conversation (Ross has been documenting through photographs the aftermath and prospectve rebuild of the quakes and returns to Chch 15 June… refer: https://picasaweb.google.com/RossBeckerNZ )…
@SallyHeroes blogged about the event here: http://bit.ly/iBM975 . In her piece titled “Disruption is in the air” she discusses the debate about embracing Social Media (in any of its forms – not just Twitter) as a means of engaging more widely in the Library profession.
As for me I increasingly see the internet as an endless and widening river of data flowing past us – it is up to us how we nourish OR fish that river for information relevant to our lives (work; hobbies; interests). Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook all permit subject- or contact-based filtering and can be excellent rods – I’m hooked!
Have a great day,
Andy Fenton (@Fentnz)