Tweet-A-Ride, Run or Swim

Last week I had the pleasure of riding mountain bikes with Bill Bither of Atalasoft. We setup the initial ride on Twitter and followed up in e-mail. Surprising? Maybe. But the point is that Twitter set the stage to let us both know we would be in the same place at the same time, then we took action to make something happen. This can happen with trade shows, business meetings, and even vacations.

Have you setup something similar?

Beyond Tweetups and perhaps something more specific – maybe mountain biking, tennis, hiking, antiquing, touring a city, or anything else that brings twitter contacts together in real life (IRL). I’m thinking there must be a market for Twitter specific apps for this kind of thing. I can envision something for Triathletes and Ironman competitors – where people can tweet about their training locations, schedules, tips and more. Where they can Tweet-a-Ride, Run, or Swim. Maybe they already exist? If they do, feel free to comment below or Tweet me.

For me I like putting the Twitter alias with the face of the real person behind it. I’ve met some great people thru Twitter and I hope to continue meeting more and more people this way. Some of the people I have met are involved with the Social Media Club Seattle efforts – people like Kevin Urie, Shauna Causey, Joann Jen, Rachel Bergstedt, and the ever present Veronica Sopher. I liked spending time with them so much that I have joined the SMC Seattle team as one of the leads for sponsorship (with Microsoft’s Jenn Aaro). (Shameless Plug – If you are interested in sponsoring SMC Seattle events we are booking our calendar for Summer and beyond – click here for more info)

Others include Warren Sukernek of Radian6 and a re-connect with a few former colleagues from Microsoft – Lawrence Liu (now at Telligent) and Charl Pearce (also a fellow surfer).

Truly a Social Network

Twitter continues to impress and amaze me at the connections it helps foster. Some local, as mentioned here, and some far away. I’ve met and/or reconnected with friends all around the world in a way that never seemed to happen with Facebook.

I think with Summer coming I’m going to look for for some Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington Tweetups.  Who’s in?

My previous offer is still open to all:
If you live in the Seattle area or are visiting and want to get out for a Mountain Bike ride – ping me. I ride every chance I get – rain, sun, or snow. Who’s in?

Thanks to Pacific Bicycle of Sammamish for loaning Bill an awesome Specialized Stumpjumper. Bill said he really liked it. He climbed like a billy goat – much to my chagrin.

About The Author:
I have spent the better part of the last 16 years working in various aspects of the ECM space. I spent time at Kofax, Microsoft, FileNet, K2, and most recently Captaris (which was acquired by Open Text in Nov 2008). Prior to that I was a Unix VAR running my own company. Follow me on Twitter, check my blog, send email or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

** I am available for speaking engagements and consulting projects. My areas of emphasis are business development and alliance management at the Intersection of Enterprise Content Management and Social Media.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Copyright 2013