… I’ll be in Dayton.

I was laid off from my job in Dayton last year (through no fault of my own – company had been falling on hard times and was shedding employees – I was one of many to go). It was a bittersweet moment. On one hand, I didn’t have the hour-long one-way commute any more. On the other, I didn’t have a steady paycheck.

I also knew I’d miss the great relationships I’d been building with others in the social media community up in Dayton, like Rich Palmer, Carole Hicks, Mike Cornett, Teri Lussier, Jim Farley, Duane “The Preppy Dude” Myers, Gina Kay Landis, Jeff Long, Ralph Helm, and others.

I would often invite people through Twitter and Facebook to have lunch near where I worked and would sometimes make it to downtown Dayton for some sushi at Thai 9.

Carole Hicks asked me how I’d feel about her starting up a New Media Dayton group, and I was all for it. She, Rich, Gina Kay, Ralph, Mike, and Jeff had been among those who would come down to New Media Cincinnati because there wasn’t officially a group up in Dayton yet.

Ever since they started meeting together in November 2009, I’ve been eager to make it up to one of their events.  They meet together the same day and time that New Media Cincinnati meets, so I’d need to have someone else run the show down here in order for me to get up there.

This Saturday is one of those days.

While I’m up in Dayton getting (re)acquainted with folks in the social media space up there on Saturday, I leave those attending the event here in Cincinnati in the capable hands of others.  I’m going to miss the great discussion and open networking down here because the Questions from a Hat format has been very popular and well-received.  For more information, please check out the New Media Cincinnati website. Especially check out the blog post by your host for this Saturday, Daniel Lewis from D.Joseph Design and The Ramen Noodle podcast.

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Earlier today I ate lunch with some great folks from the Dayton, Ohio area. These “tweetups,” as we call them, are becoming increasingly popularly and requested on a more regular basis. I’m a firm believer in never eating alone, so I’m always looking to meet up with other folks for lunch.

Fortunately, I was able to UStream the tweetup and recorded the event. During this video, you are introduced to everyone in attendance and toward the end of the meetup, we discussed some other topics related to social media success. The video lasts about 40-45 minutes:
Live TV by Ustream

Those in attendance were as follows:

• Andy Pohl
• Megan Grote
• Doug Page
• Joe Gauder
• Steve Brack
• Teri Lussier
• Bill Green
• Chris Johnson
• Ralph Helm
• Darryl Hicks
• Carole Hicks
• Curtis Estridge
• Daniel Johnson, Jr.