A Robust Event

Making an event great is equal parts ambience and people. Robust Wine Bar owners Stanley and Arlene provided both.

Greeting people as they came in, seating them promptly, and being waited on immediately made a wonderful impression on attendees. Arlene joined us and gathered us round the bar. She welcomed each of us personally as we arrived and took time to circulate.

Networking came easy in this atmosphere. I personally gathered several new contacts and cemented previously online only relationships. Helping that along was letting go of a focus on Twitter, Facebook and the like; focusing instead on the food, the wine, and most of all the stories.

Best story of the night? Taran, of Mom’s Originals, is going to the Emmys.

Mom’s Originals will be presenting their pretzel creations to Emmy goers in person. Technology made her sharing this us even more fun as she showed us pictures of her decked out in her Red Carpet gown.

Urbanbacon’s founder, Phil Novara, showed up. Phil gave me the lowdown on his vision for Urbanbacon. He’s bringing restaurants and foodies together, while saving money for both. Restaurants register at Urbanbacon.com, write articles, and offer dining out deals. Folks like me sign up to get the deals and give feedback.

Getting people to a networking event is only the beginning. Breaking down the barriers to relationship building is the real win for such an evening. Stories are the best way to engage, bond, and move on to partnering and friendship.

How have you helped folks break through at events? What stories did you listen to and what did learn?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

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tojosan

Thanks for your kind words. Our hosts made this an easy even to forget about what brought us together other than being friends.

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Can't wait to have the Bring A Tweep To Lunch series there!

Danielle Hohmeier

The Robust event was great! This was my first official Tweetup, and I had a great time!

I've been to other events where the focus is on newtworking, but sometimes it gets awkward and I shell up, only talking to people I already came in knowing. This time was totally different. I think it was the fact that, like you said, we had something other than social media or foursquare or Twitter or work to talk about. The wine, the great food they were bringing out- all of that was great conversation starters that broke the ice!

The Robust event was a lot of fun and I can't wait for my next visit, and my next tweetup! It was great meeting you Todd!