Have you ever thought about doing something with local bloggers? I have. I tried (once) to have a local gathering. I was there, alone. At least I’d picked a good place for coffee and people watching. I had a window seat and my book for the whole hour I had set aside for the event. It wasn’t awful but it was pretty discouraging when it came to doing anything like it again.
My only real mistake was in not trying again right away, or within the same month. I did have some people interested and a couple who said they would come (even if they didn’t show up). So I had a start to what could have become a local event for bloggers and writers in my area.
Starting small is a good plan. For one thing you won’t feel you are taking on too much and if you make mistakes you don’t have a lot of people to inform when you change the date, place or anything else about the event.
Find a great place where people can get their own coffee/ refreshments or snacks. I picked a coffee shop on the main street of my town. Easy to find, right on the bus route and enough parking as long as I had it on a week night.
Keep in touch with people, whether they show up or not. Collect email addresses and give them out on a sheet at the event or email everyone the list (save paper). If someone has a book out, or another kind of achievement get them to talk about it and turn all of this into an email list for the group. A good way to remind everyone of the next event and get people talking and meeting each other so they won’t feel they don’t know anyone when they do show up at your event.
If you get enough people start a blog or a group of some kind online. But, make it clear the focus is on getting together for coffee not just hiding behind the computer screen and not being included in the live event.
Find interesting places to meet, relevant to blogging, other local events, local businesses and resources for bloggers in your area. Introduce the people in the group to new and great things they didn’t already know about. This will give more people a reason to come out and find out more, while becoming part of the group too.
Resources for becoming a WordPress WordCamp Organizer (but don’t assume everyone is using WordPress):
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