Tommy Collison

Last Thursday night, I headed up to the third ever BTW, which stands for ‘Blogger, Twitter-er, Whatever’, basically an internet meetup for folks, usually in bar/restaurants. Quite good fun, and a great place to meet (un)familiar faces.

So many people complain that BizCamps and BarCamps and ThisThatOrTheOtherCamps teach us nothings, and these sort of events are just places for people to massage their ego and boost their businesses. Some people have tried to include events like TeenCamp or BTW in these comments, but I’ve always defended them.

TeenCamp, which was, well, a one-day camp for teens held back in January, was basically a fun day out, which was what it set out to be. Sure there were talks there, but just because Klara chatted to us about manga, that doesn’t mean a questionnaire on all things animated in Japan got mailed out to all attendees the following week. At least I didn’t get it..

BTW on the other hand states from the word ‘go’ that it’s a simple meet-up. We all converge on the same place at the same time, we chat, we exchange jokes and laughter, the adults drink beer, I stick to 7up, it’s all good.

Again, we’re there to have fun, to exchange news and whatnot. When I checked my mail (of both electronic and snail variety) on Monday, there was no ‘BTW Quizsheet, page 1 of 13′ page. You’re not really meant to take anything away from it in the same way as you are from the other Camps.

One thing I noticed at BTW, and I’m not sure whether this is a good, bad or ugly thing about it, but people seem to split into groups almost immediately. They come in the door, have a quick look round, see a mate and head over. They sit down, and, unless it’s to get more drink, there they stay until the end of the night.

In the Cork one, I arrived, I sat down with Enda, Aimee and Damien, and didn’t really get up until we left. I exchanged names and nods with the people at the other end of the table, but we didn’t really have much interaction after that.

In the Dublin one, despite yours truly being the first one there, I quickly saw myself pulled over to people I knew. Alan when he arrived and Lex when she came. I suppose it could stem from there being a good few people there who I had no prior interaction with, and I wanted to stay in my comfort zone.

Wow, that felt weird to type. I’m usually the sort of person who throws himself into the throng of these meetups.

“Hi, I’m Tommy, a blogger, how you doing? Enjoying yourself? Well, this has been fun, we should swap Twitter IDs sometime”

Bang, I’m gone as soon as I arrive, and you may notice you have slightly less pizza than you had before I came over.

We should put everyone new to meetups, and to blogging at the front, near the door, so everyone who comes in has to pass these people and engage them in conversation.

What we should do to combat this is to do like the supermarkets do. No, really, one of the oldest and cheapest marketing tricks they employ is to put the everyday items, milk and bread for example, as far back into the shop, away from the door, as possible. Against the back wall if at all possible. That way, when you go inside the store to pick up a pint for your cat, you have to pass all the delicious goods they have to offer on your way there, and as you make your way back to the counter:

“Oooh, we could use some of that!”

This strip from Tintin perfectly illustrates my point. Okay, it’s in Spanish, but if you follow the character actions, you should keep up. The man in brown is Oliviera de Figueira, a traveling salesman, and he sells our protagonist a host of useless objects. The last frame has Tintin saying..

“Just as well I didn’t fall for his patter; you can end up with all sorts of useless stuff if you’re not careful”