Edmonton Organizations on Twitter

edmontontweetup I’m not the only one who has noticed it – the number of Edmontonians using Twitter is steadily increasing. The EdmontonTweetup account is following just over 450 people, but I know there are probably many more. The vast majority of these accounts are individuals, but there are some businesses and other organizations also.

Here’s a list of organizations with official Twitter accounts (in no particular order):

A few of these are placeholders and aren’t very active. You might think that the Edmonton Oilers should be on that list too, but the Oilers don’t run the Twitter account – I do. A couple of others I’m sitting on include edmonton and ualberta.

Of course, there are also a number of organizations that don’t have an official account which are represented by their owners and/or employees. Some of these have the same name as the organization, but are used more like personal accounts so I am including them here instead of above (again, in no particular order):

Not surprisingly, most of these organizations are in tech, photography, or design. All very creative endeavors.

The problem with a list like this is that it’s easy to miss people (apologies if I missed you), and it’ll soon be out of date. That’s why I’ve created a page on the EdmontonTweetup wiki for it. I’m not sure how much value there is in having such a list, but it’s there anyway. Feel free to add your organization to it, or to ignore it completely! I’ll try to update it when I can.

Don’t forget – the third EdmontonTweetup is taking place this Thursday (October 30th) at 6pm at Devlin’s on Whyte Avenue. You can find all the details here. Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: Added MatrikonOPC, 350 Designs, and Urban Jungle.

EdmontonTweetup3 – October 30th

EdmontonTweetup

The Twitter community here in Edmonton continues to amaze me. New users sign up every day, and existing users do a good job of following one another. As a result, there are really interesting discussions taking place all the time. Quite a few people have adopted the #yeg hashtag too, making it even easier to find Edmonton-related items on Twitter.

A tweetup is an opportunity to strengthen those online relationships and perhaps forge new ones offline. Or if you’re new to Twitter, it’s a great way to come and find out what all the fuss is about. Some people will undoubtedly talk about tech at the event, but for the most part it’s a non-geeky get-together. Join us for some food, drinks, and good discussion. Here are the details on EdmontonTweetup3:

WHO: Twitterers and the Twitter-curious in Edmonton and area!
WHAT: An event to meet one another in person.
WHERE: Devlin’s Cocktail Lounge on Whyte Avenue (map)
WHEN: Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 6:00pm
WHY: Because you need to get off the computer once in a while!

I hope you can make it out! If you’re planning to attend, please add your name to the wiki page so that we have an idea of how many people to expect. Follow edmontontweetup and/or myself on Twitter for updates.

See you there!

Recap: EdmontonTweetup2

Tonight we held our second tweetup here in Edmonton. Our last tweetup was held during the day on a Saturday, so I expected that we’d have a different audience out this time and for the most part we did. Of the 18 or 19 people that came tonight, I would guess that only 5 or 6 of us were at the first tweetup. To me that’s great, because it gets new people involved and illustrates that the Twitter community in Edmonton is quite big! Hopefully we’ll have a tweetup one day that everyone can make it to.

I only took a couple photos tonight, but @bruceclarke took quite a few shots with his fancy camera! You can see them in the Edmonton Tweetup set. Thanks Bruce!

EdmontonTweetup2

The venue was The Billiard Club on Whyte Avenue, which worked really well. We made our way to the patio in the back to soak up the sunny, thirty degree weather. There was no wifi access, but that didn’t stop us from having some really interesting and lively discussions!

It’s always great to be able to put a face to the username and chat with some of the most interesting people in the city. That’s what I love about the tweetups, and that’s why I think we’ll continue to have them every now and then.

I’ve added as many of the attendees as I can remember to the wiki page, but if I missed you, please feel free to add your username. Also add your links to blog posts and photos, etc. I’ve also created a page for our next tweetup, so if you have ideas, post them!

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight!

EdmontonTweetup2 – August 14th

Next week we’ll be having our second tweetup here in Edmonton. It’s a great way to meet other Twitter users from Edmonton and area – there’s quite a few of us already and the number keeps growing! The event is fairly informal and relaxed, the goal is just to have some fun meeting new people! You can read about our first tweetup here. Hard to believe it’s been three months already!

It’s always a challenge to find a date and time and venue that everyone can make it out to, so we’re trying something different this time. Here are the details:

WHO: Twitter users in Edmonton!
WHAT: An event to meet one another in meatspace.
WHERE: The Billiard Club on Whyte Avenue (map)
WHEN: Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 6:00pm
WHY: To chat about anything with other Twitter users!

If you’re planning to come out on Thursday, add your name to the list on our wiki. You may also want to follow edmontontweetup and/or myself on Twitter for updates.

See you there!

EdmontonTweetup1 was a success!

edmontontweetup Today we held the first ever tweetup in Edmonton (a meetup for Twitter users) and I think it’s safe to say that it was a success! We met downtown at three bananas cafe in Churchill Square at around noon. I wasn’t sure how many people would come, and was a little worried when I received a bunch of “sorry, can’t make it” messages this morning. In the end though, the attendance was much better than I could have expected, considering Twitter is still fairly niche. We had 17 people, including myself. You can see the full list of attendees on our wiki page.

Some of us took photos, Greg took some video, and Ian even did a podcast! You can find links to everything on the wiki (please add to the list).

EdmontonTweetup

We didn’t have a formal agenda, but that didn’t matter much. As I suspected, everyone found things to chat about. Connections were made and everyone seemed to be having a good time! There was some Twitter-related talk, mainly around apps and how people use Twitter. I talked about the “track” feature and also hashtags. It seems that most people have really gotten into Twitter in just the last few months.

Three Bananas was a great venue, very bright with reliable wifi. Today was a lovely day too, which made it even better.

I think we’ll probably have another tweetup, I’m just not sure when. You can help us plan it by contributing to the wiki page for EdmontonTweetup2.

Thanks to everyone who came – it was great to meet you! And to everyone who wanted to come but couldn’t, we’ll see you at the next one!

EdmontonTweetup1 – May 10th

edmontontweetup A month ago I wondered if anyone would come to an EdmontonTweetup, a meetup for Twitter users in Edmonton. I’m still not exactly sure what we’re going to talk about, but enough people have expressed interest that we’re going ahead with the event. Here are the details:

WHO: Twitter users in Edmonton!
WHAT: An event to meet one another in meatspace.
WHERE: Three Banana’s Cafe in Churchill Square (map)
WHEN: Saturday, May 10th, at 12pm noon
WHY: To chat about all things Twitter with like-minded folks!

You can see the above details as well as a partial list of attendees on our wiki page for the event. Feel free to add yourself to the list. There are also Facebook and Upcoming events if that’s more your style. You may also want to follow edmontontweetup or myself on Twitter for updates.

I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone – hope to see you there!

EdmontonTweetup anyone?

twitter A few weeks ago status_girl, myself, and a few other local people on Twitter started throwing around the idea of having a meetup (for some reason it seems weird to use a Twitter friend’s real name until I’ve met them…status_girl is actually Melanie Nathan). She created a Twitter account, etowntwits, and asked anyone who was interested to follow it. So far, twelve people have.

Nothing happened since then, and I started thinking about it again a couple days ago. I learned that there is actually a name for these events; a Twitter meetup is called a Tweetup. It seems to be less organized than a barcamp, but a quick Google search reveals Tweetups happening in Buffalo, Atlanta, Huntsville, Boston, and many other places. Why not Edmonton?

So being the geek that I am, I registered edmontontweetup.org, and created the requisite Twitter account. There’s nothing at the website yet, but I think a wiki or something would work well. Every day I find interesting new local people on Twitter, so I think a Tweetup would work quite well!

A few location ideas that have been thrown around so far are Three Bananas Cafe downtown in Churchill Square, Cargo & James Tea on Whyte, as well as the other coffee shops along Whyte Avenue. The first two have free Wi-Fi which makes them especially attractive.

If you’re on Twitter, would you come to an EdmontonTweetup to meet your fellow tweeters? If you’re not on Twitter, would you come to learn what it’s all about?

On a related note, I came across TwitterLocal today, which is a cool site that helps you find people on Twitter near you. Here’s a list of people near Edmonton.