Bloggertone

It began with a suggestion between Frederique and Greg to meet up for a coffee. Frederique thought, “well why not see who else can join?”

She emailed the main contributors to Bloggertone, and the date and place were set. Over the weeks, people had to commit to other activities, and by the date itself, we had half of the core group sitting at one table, some meeting for the first time.

Bloggertone opened its doors in October 2009. We had a social meeting before Christmas that year. It was then I met the 3 great guys who keep Bloggertone going: Niall, Fred and Facundo.

I knew instantly I was in great company, and the blogging community of Ireland was in good hands. The site was fantastic, so great in fact, little has changed on the face of it over the last 18 months, except we have updated the Social Networking buttons, and the categories were better defined.

I set out that late morning, having completed other important tasks of the day, and was looking forward to my early weekend, kicked off by meeting some great people. Despite a diversion on the way that added 30 minutes to my journey, everyone waited with ordering lunch until I had arrived. I realised that there was only one blogger that I had not met in person, Derbhile.  Others had only previously known one person.

The lunch was a total success, Bloggertone Meetup#2, and it was hard to leave. Just a few days later, we are already in contact to organise Bloggertone Meetup#3, which we are hoping will include the wonderful Elli St.George Godfrey who will be visiting from the States.

So when you build a relationship online, to actually meet offline is such a bonus. The debate will go on for decades whether online relationships are possible. For me particularly, trust is key. Trust can build easily online through transparency, reciprocation and mutual promotion, as well as dialog outside of the main group that enhances the relationship. Skype is great for this purpose.

I am not saying that offline meetings are necessary, or that they need to happen, but when they do, great things happen!

Thank you Bloggertone, thank you all who made the trip to Dublin last week, and thank you readers, for making all this worthwhile.

I look forward to Meetup#3 already.