AlanBarber.Org
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Toledo Nerd Dinner 1.0
I got back from the first Toledo Nerd Dinner. People have been setting up these dinners in a few other locations and they’ve gone over really well I guess. One setup in Portland has been a major hit I guess and staff from Microsoft actually come. If only we could be that lucky. Josh Baltzell of A Short Domain Name set this one up in Toledo. We met at the EasyStreet Cafe in downtown Toledo.
EasyStreet is a pretty nice place. It’s your typical bar/food joint. I ended up having a Georgia Ruben and two Michelobs to wash it down. If you ever eat there try it. The Georgia Ruben is a oven roasted turkey breast on grilled whole wheat with monterey jack cheese and cole slaw. The cole slaw is on the sandwich, it’s not a side dish. It sounds a little odd at first but believe me it’s really good!
It was definitely a blast to get to hang out with some fellow techies. We talked about all sorts of topics. We rambled on about Wi-Fi for a while, bitched about doing tech support for family and friends, several conversations about security related topics… Honestly, I can’t remember it all.
It also turned out pretty well for networking. No not LAN networking, social networking for jobs and such. I managed to give my resume to one, Josh actually, and I gave another fellow my name and Email since he said he’d keep an eye out for any openings where he worked. So I’m happy about that!
I can’t wait for the next one. There were like 12-13 there I believe. That was probably a pretty good size. It was small enough that everyone could talk to each other. The conversations would sort of ebb and flow between small groups of people mostly. From time to time everyone would sort of quiet down and listen to one person talk about something. It would be nicer to see it grow some but personally I don’t think I’d want to see it grow much over 20-25 people. Once it gets that big then you start to end up breaking into small groups and you don’t get the big group discussions that are the fun part.
So whenever another one is formed I’ll make sure to post about it here to help spread the news. I was hesitant to go at first but I’m glad I did now. It’s good for us geeks and nerds to get out and meet in the real world. We get so accustomed to living in our offices or bedrooms surfing on the web that we tend to forget there’s a whole world out there. So don’t be afraid people and start your own nerd dinners in your town. It’ll be fun. I promise!
on 07/01/2004 at 10:52 PM
Computers & Technology • General • (2) Comments • Permalink
It was a great time indeed! It was also a pleasure to get to meet you Alan!
http://josh.glmotorsports.net/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=39
I’m glad you had a good time, I did too. I will keep in touch, just let me know if you have any suggestions about the next one.