Festivus maximus

Last night’s Pittsburgh BlogFest 3 was terrific in many ways. It was packed, it was loud (but not too loud), it was festive. Photos were taken, a newspaper reporter took down names and stories, bloggers talked and laughed and argued and laughed some more, beer was drunk in great quantity, a team tried to recruit a blogger for political purposes, scarves were knitted, guantlets were thrown down and taken up, arms were bruised (sorry Matt!), more beer was consumed…. It was all we could have hoped for, and much more.

Wojo says there were something like 60 people in attendance over the course of the evening. That seems incredible to me, but I’m notoriously bad at estimates and plus I was busy talking myself hoarse and much too self-absorbed to count.

People got to meet in person those whose writing they’d read and enjoyed. This was one of the very best parts. I have been amazed how friendly and charming our local blogging community is — perhaps it’s part and parcel of the tone of the area, in that people around here are just plain nice. And of course anyone who keeps a blog and chooses to attend a blogging social event is pre-selected to be outgoing. For me, it was good to put faces and voices with names and writing styles. (For the next event though, I must be sure to study up on who’s who and who writes what locally. There are few openings lamer than “Have you been posting much lately?”)

One other delightful result of the evening is that there’s at least one new blog in the area. Two gentlemen in attendence introduced themselves as long-time readers/commenters in the local blog scene. Through a group effort we bullied them into promising they’d start a blog by 5pm Friday — and indeed they did create Challenge Impossible, fifteen hours ahead of schedule. Excellent.

In sum, if you were there, thanks so much for attending. I hope you had a fab time. If you weren’t there, please know you were missed and we hope to see you at the next one.

The final consensus was that every six months was too long a gap between BlogFest. Look for another get-together in late October/early November.

4 replies on “Festivus maximus”

  1. The gauntlets were indeed taken up. Not to be outdone by our moving ahead of schedule you exceeded your challenge by 33% — Good to see a little friendly competition is working.

    The day after blogfest was a big mover for the pittsburgh blogging community. Gcletic posted a good synopsis and Rich from Aldo did some commenting although I missed him at the meetup.

  2. I think I was completely on crack when I made that 60 person estimate… I sat down and thought about it and estimate the high 30’s for the turnout. Still not disappointing at all!

  3. Jake: I’m all about deadlines and competition. Thanks for acting as a perfect spur to get some new posts up.

    Wojo: On reflection I’m putting the number around 40. Not that it matters much to me — I’d have been happy to have just a dozen people there as long as they were pleasant to talk with. Which of course people were.

    Funky Dung: From your blog it seems like you met plenty of people. I’d not have guessed that you were such the introvert. In any case, I’m glad people enjoyed it. Funny how the easiest parties to throw can also be the best.

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