Tag Archives: pghbloggers

Pittsburgh BlogFest 19: PghBloggers.org turns 5!

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finlay is five, originally uploaded by papalamour.

Five years ago, right around this time, a half-dozen or so bloggers in the Pittsburgh area were reading each others’ blogs, commenting, and generally marveling at the discovery that each of us was not alone — that there were not a few folks in the region who had started writing online.

We were a motley collection, writing about politics or sports or writing or random cultural flotsam. While there was no unity of theme, we shared a passion for sharing.

Several bloggers made extensive effort to compile blogrolls of Pittsburgh blogs. Everyone linked to everyone, but it was hard to tell which blogs were about what.

As I recall it, then two things happened. First, Mike Woycheck started on his own to create a site both to list and to aggregate the posts of all the Pittsburgh blogs (an ambitious undertaking indeed). Second, independently, some of the bloggers (Vanessa & Christina, Anne, and I) decided we should all get together and have lunch or a drink or something, in real life rather than just online.

Somehow the two efforts became combined, and we found ourselves with a website — www.PghBloggers.org — and a social event — the first Pittsburgh BlogFest.

Both efforts got off to strong starts. About 20 bloggers attended the first BlogFest. The shocking thing was not the size of the crowd but how well we enjoyed each others company. We immediately made plans to make a habit of convening.

Notably, Mike Woycheck was unable to attend the first fest, but he proceeded to make up for his absence by constructing and launching the website on which we depend to this day.

I don’t know the exact date of the launch. (Please comment if you do.) What I do know is that it’s time to celebrate.

Pittsburgh BlogFest 19: Happy birthday to us!

Come meet your fellow bloggers and social media types in a friendly, unstructured setting. BlogFest is an informal and friendly quarterly gathering of local bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, and anyone who enjoys life on the Internet. It’s more happy hour than meeting: No talks will be given, no credentials required.

WHAT: Pittsburgh Blogfest 19
WHEN: FRIDAY, November 20, 2009, 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM and beyond
WHERE: Finnegan’s Wake (near PNC Park, 20 General Robinson St., North Shore, 412-325-2601), in the Pub Room
WHO: All local bloggers, podcasters, and social media folk of all stripes (and their friends… feel free to bring some even if they don’t blog!)

Food and beverages will be available for purchase from Finnegan’s Wake, as always. Arrive when you like, leave when you must.

SMOKING NOTE: As always, the room in which we’ll be blogfesting will be smoke-free.

If you plan to attend, please send an e-mail to blogfest AT pghbloggers.org

Or to RSVP, leave a comment below. I hope to see you there.

Announcing Pittsburgh BlogFest 18 — Saturday, 8/15

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Beer and Laptop

Pittsburgh bloggers: Come meet your fellow bloggers and social media types in a friendly, unstructured setting.

Pittsburgh BlogFest is an informal and friendly quarterly gathering of local bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, and anyone who enjoys life on the Internet. It’s more happy hour than meeting: No talks will be given, no credentials required.

WHAT: Pittsburgh Blogfest 18
WHEN: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM and beyond
WHERE: Finnegan’s Wake (near PNC Park, 20 General Robinson St., North Shore, 412-325-2601), in the Pub Room
WHO: All local bloggers, podcasters, and social media folk of all stripes (and their friends… feel free to bring some even if they don’t blog!)

Food and beverages will be available for purchase from Finnegan’s Wake, as always. Arrive when you like, leave when you must.

SMOKING NOTE: As always, the room in which we’ll be blogfesting will be smoke-free. The rest of the bar allows smoking, so one can hop out for a smoke break. There’s a glass wall between, so the smokers and nonsmokers can stare at each other and see how the other half lives.

If you plan to attend, please send an e-mail to blogfest AT pghbloggers.org

(Photo credit: Beer and Laptop, originally uploaded by jdn.)

Pittsburgh BlogFest 14 wrap-up

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Pittsburgh BlogFest 14 sign-in sheet

Pittsburgh BlogFest 14 sign-in sheet, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey.

It’s surely a record for me to post the sign-in sheet from a BlogFest on the very next day.

Granted, I haven’t listed and linked up all the signatures to their respective websites. Will do that later today. (If you want to help speed things along, map some of the signatures in on the Flickr page.)

My oh my, it was a grand event. Certainly one of our hottest, not only because the room was sweltering but also because the mix of people was fan-freaking-tastic.

There was conversation, and blogging, and Twittering all over the place. There were drinks and food, including more sandwich wraps than I have ever seen ordered by a single group. There was a birthday chop for a birthday boy who wasn’t actually present (but whom a goodly portion of the crowd caught up with for a post-BlogFest get-together afterwards).

There was also an unidentified movie playing in the corner, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, and a Baldwin. In the movie, the electronic systems of a large boat seemed bent on consuming all the passengers and crew. We speculated on what the movie might be, and which Baldwin it was. I’m pleased now to be able to answer these questions: The movie was Virus (1990), the boat was "a top secret Russian research vessel and finds it infected by an alien life form which regards humans as a virus which must be destroyed at any cost," and the Baldwin was William. (I don’t think any of us guessed William.)

Many photos were taken by Dawn and others. (Did you take photos? Post links to yours in the comments, please.)

Thanks, everyone, for coming and making the event memorable.

Snow? What snow? Pittsburgh BlogFest 13 wrap-up

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Pittsburgh BlogFest 13 sign-in sheet

Pittsburgh BlogFest 13 sign-in sheet, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey.

It was the luckiest 13 I’ve ever seen.

Last Friday’s Pittsburgh BlogFest was perhaps the best one we’ve had yet. Despite the snow and slippy conditions, lots and lots of fabulous, fascinating people showed up. The sign-in sheet, which you see above, gives you a sense of it, but I can think of at least a dozen others who didn’t sign in.

The point is that there were bunches of us, and we mingled and talked and laughed and were completely amazing. I think the last of us left around 11:30, and I for one would have been happy to hang around longer.

Ordinarily I make an image map of the sign-in sheet with links to everyone’s sites. This time I’m trying something new: I posted the sheet to Flickr, added notes for the signatures, and put the list of links there. Click the photo to see this wonder of technology in action, and to add your own notes and comments. If you missed signing in at the event, please add a comment to the Flickr photo or to this post, with a link and a promise to be more attentive next time.

Oh! And if you took photos or shot video, or if you wrote a wrap-up post, tag it with "pghbloggers" so we can find it.

Thanks to everyone who showed up! I’m already looking forward to our next BlogFest; it will probably be in May, that merry merry month.

BlogFest 8: The Ocho Wrapup

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Links to BlogFest 8 attendeesBlogFest 8 was a small and very fun gathering. We must remember to take pictures at these things — but even that wouldn’t quite capture the sense of the evening.

More representative would be a short video of someone looking at their watch and saying, in some consternation, "It’s 9 o’clock already?"

Lots of bloggers told us they found out about the event too late and so couldn’t make it. So, Pittsburgh Bloggers is starting an opt-in email list for announcements of event such as this. I’ll post info when that comes to pass, and you can also check pghbloggers.org for updates.