Omaha's First Ever Tweetup

Posted on June 29, 2008 at 07:27 PM

Aromas in downtown Omaha's Old Market district Saturday night was the site for the first "official" Omaha Tweetup. What's a Tweetup you ask? In a sense, it's a networking event, but more importantly it's a chance for local Omaha Twitter users to meet face-to-face, find out what other Twitter users do and where their interests lie. Last night's Tweetup saw 13 people in attendance including one Twitter user who came all the way from the great state of Texas to be with us.

An essential part of any Tweetup is the name game, where everyone goes around and talks about who they are, what they do, and why they came to the Tweetup. Other parts of the evening revolved around discussing Omaha's first Barcamp and the creation of a new co-working space in Omaha, which are two exciting projects on the Omaha horizon.

So who attended the Tweetup? Here's a rundown of the 13 in attendance last night (in no particular order, of course)

Blaine Buxton - a software developer from Omaha who works for IBM but also runs the Omaha Dynamic Language User Group and also has a passion for creating music. You can read more about him at his blog blog.blainebuxton.com. Follow Blaine on twitter @bbuxton


John Christopher hailing from Bellevue, John too is a software developer currently working heavily in Javascript. He is a relative newcomer to the Omaha metro so he is looking for others to meet up with and work on projects. Follow John on twitter @jgchristopher


Matt "Java Pants" Secoske is also a software developer. He owns his own software consulting company called Nimblelogic, he blogs at blog.secosoft.net, and also created a website called tweight.com that will help you track your weight loss via Twitter. If that isn't enough, he is also organizing Omaha's first barcamp - barcampomaha.org. Follow Matt on Twitter @secos


Jeff Slobotski works by day for the United eWay but seemingly spends every other waking moment getting people in Omaha motivated about creating Omaha's first major co-working space. Jeff also runs Silicon Prairie News and a site called Packs of Promise which collects donations to buy homeless in the Omaha area backpacks with essential items that help them get through the long cold Omaha winters. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jjsnyc


Eric Downs is an Omaha Graphic Designer who is the Art Director for Metro community college. He is currently working on his new site - EricDownsDesign.com - and also organized tonight's Tweetup. Follow Eric on twitter @downsdesign


Dave Nelson runs a successful Omaha based design boutique called Secret Penguin. Dave told us the story of how he went from covering the skateboard scene, to becoming a designer, to starting his company who works with the likes of Mtv and the NFL. Dave's house took a major hit from last Friday's storm, so it was nice that he was able to make it out to the Tweetup. Follow Dave on Twitter @secretpenguin


Maren Hogan is a marketing professional for an Omaha company called HCI that recruits technology professionals. She also blogs at Big O Recruiting and contributes to FistfulOfTalent.com. Follow Maren on twitter @marenhogan


Sandie Law just started a business called MacaroniAndPeas.com which is devoted to showing families how they can integrate healthy eating into their busy lifestyles. You can follow her on twitter @sandielaw or @macpea


Erica Tesla is finishing up her degree in Physics from UNO and also works for the Department of Defense. She could have told us more, but then she would have had to kill us all. Follow her on Twitter @etesla


Sam Tesla, husband of Erica, is another software developer who works for a Ruby-on-Rails hosting company called EngineYard.com. He also writes at blog.alieniloquent.com/. Follow him on Twitter @stesla


Roby Fitzhenry was our long distance traveler who came to us from Bryan,TX. He is currently collaborating with Eric Downs on a few projects and just happened to be in town for tonight's Tweetup. He gave the group some valuable insight on the creation of co-working spaces, Barcamps, and Refresh events he has helped to organize. He blogs at robyfitzhenry.com and runs a brand and web development company called Always Creative. Follow Roby on Twitter @robyfitzhenry


Zach Origitano is a designer and web developer for an Omaha agency called Envoy Inc. He also blogs at NE Creative Follow Zach on twitter @zorigitano


All in all it was a great night of discussion and I look forward to more Tweetups in the future. If you couldn't make last night's talk be sure to check out the Omaha Tweetup Invite page or follow @OmahaTweetup on Twitter.


Thanks to all for a great night.

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Comments

What a great post! Thanks again for being part of such an exciting and dynamic group of projects!

Posted by: Roby Fitzhenry | June 29, 2008 08:58 PM

Great writeup Joe! Wish I could have made it, it sounds like a great time. I'll be at the next one for sure!

Posted by: Dusty | June 29, 2008 09:54 PM

Sorry I missed it. I will be at the next one.

Posted by: Adam Nielsen | June 29, 2008 10:38 PM

Joe-

Thanks for the great writeup and for coming! Looking forward to the next killer event!

Posted by: Jeff Slobotski | June 29, 2008 11:43 PM

I had a lot of fun! Can't wait for the next Tweetup and Barcamp!

Posted by: Sandie Law | June 30, 2008 08:23 PM

I like eggs.

Posted by: Cory Reinert | January 9, 2009 12:19 PM