The turn out was much higher than expected for the monthly Seattle Blogger Meetup. The meetup, held once a month at Ralph’s Grocery and Deli was attended by only five people the last time. This time around, nearly 20 people showed up. While I would like to think they all showed up because of me, that was not the reason. The group’s founder, Anita Rowland, passed away on December 10, and this meetup was in a part a tribute to her. Many old members that haven’t attended a meetup for a while showed up to pay their respects.
The location of the meetup was quite unique. Ralph’s really is a grocery store with a deli inside. It featured an open dining area for the bloggers to meet and there is open WiFi should anyone wish to do live blogging. Many of the bloggers had notebooks on them. However, nobody did any live blogging.
Like the Vancouver blogger group, none of the members in the Seattle meetup made money from blogging. They are all doing it because it’s what they enjoy doing. It really is refreshing to talk to people blogging for the love of blogging and not for the money.
Meeting Up with John Chow Readers
I got a chance to meet up with a couple of long time Seattle readers. Chris Guthrie on the left and Chris Bloczynski on the right. We had our own little table because the main tables were full. We did join the main group later on. It was really nice to meet you guys. Give me a shout if you come up to Vancouver.
The Meetup Food Is Not getting Any Better
What is it with meetups and bad food? First I get that really bad hamburger at the Vancouver meetup. Now I get a really bad egg salad with bacon in Seattle. The egg was drenched with so much Mayonnaise that you can’t taste the egg anymore, the bacon was dry and flavorless, and the bread was getting hard from sitting around all day. If you plan to attend the Seattle blogger meetup in the future, I recommend you get the food from the grocery store.
A Little Video From The Meetup