January 29 Beer & Blog Round-up

WOW! What a turnout! There were at least 40 people at Beer & Blog when I left for class at 6:40, and more were on the way.

We had a couple items of business this week:

1. As discussed last week, we would like to occasionally (perhaps once a month or so) put on a more formal guest speaker event with either local talent or a visiting blogger. Jacqueline Mason and Michael Wilder looked into our options at Freakin Frog and the new Greenspun School of Journalism & Media Studies building at UNLV, respectively.

Freakin Frog’s manager Trish said it was OK for us to use the sound system and DVD projector (presentations must be in DVD format), as long as we wrap it up by 7 or 7:30 (when the musicians need to start setting up).

Michael spoke with people in the Journalism department and they are interested in co-hosting speaker events. They have rooms that can hold up to ~200 people, with screens, projectors, and wifi.

The Journalism building seems like the best option for speakers, so perhaps we could have occasional speakers there at 6 then afterward we can walk across the street to the Freakin Frog to drink. Michael will be the liaison between Beer & Blog and the Journalism department for scheduling rooms for these events.

2. The Las Vegas Twestival (a Twitter meetup fundraiser for clean & safe drinking water in developing countries) will be held in two weeks, on Thursday, February 12, in the Revolution Lounge. Tickets are $20 and go on sale tomorrow. Follow @LVTwestival on Twitter for updates.

Manya Susoev, one of the organizers, attended Beer & Blog tonight and asked for our help. We voted unanimously to hold the February 12 Beer & Blog at the Twestival. The Twestival is also seeking donations for their raffle, so please contact them if you have anything to donate or any contacts that could help. 100% of the proceeds will go to Charity: Water.

In other news, the owner of the Freakin Frog, Adam Carmer, stopped by tonight and chatted briefly with a few of us. He is thrilled to have us meeting there and said we should “make [ourselves] at home.”

John Hawkins has set up a Flickr group for Beer & Blog photos. I saw many camera flashes go off tonight so I hope that you will all upload your pictures to that group! I will start adding your photos to these blog posts to make them a little more exciting than plain text.

Michael Wilder had a great idea to bring a paper list of people to check off (or write themselves in on if they’re new) as they arrive to keep track of who attends each Beer & Blog. That should be much faster & easier than trying to update the online list as people arrive (too many arrived all at once for me to keep track of tonight!). So I’ll have a paper sign-in sheet at future Beer & Blogs. The point of this is to make it easier for everyone to find the online presences of the people they meet and chat with at Beer & Blog.

Thanks to Sara Mooney for bringing the nametags and pens for the past two weeks! Instead of making new handwritten nametags each week, I will look into making a bunch of easier-to-read pre-printed nametags that regulars can reuse from week-to-week.

If you have anything you would like to add to this report, please comment! Or blog about it and post the link here!

List of bloggers in attendance is under the cut. I know I am missing a bunch of people so please check the list and let me know if I missed you or anyone else. I will alphabetize the lists by first name from now on.

  1. Bill Cody: Las Vegas Real Estate, VegasBill on Twitter
  2. Bob Firestone, Residual Income Isn’t An Accident, bobfirestone on Twitter
  3. Brad West, Internet Marketers Guild Blog Co-Op, BradWest on Twitter
  4. Brian Betz, Betz in Lanai
  5. Carmen: Poker Girl in Vegas
  6. Chris Hawkins
  7. Chris Rauschnot: The Macintosh Wizard and PC Tech Blog, 24k on Twitter
  8. Chris Tilley, sefkac on Twitter
  9. Cindi Reed: C. Mood Reed, authoress, cmoonreed on Twitter
  10. Daniella Cortez: For the Bright At Heart, danidocrafty on Twitter
  11. Dave Courvoisier: Voice-Acting in Vegas, courvo on Twitter
  12. David Lander: Brass Taurus Productions
  13. Doug Daulton: Doug Daulton, dougdaulton on Twitter
  14. Dustin Wax: The Writer’s Technology Companion, dwax on Twitter
  15. Dylan Bathurst: DylanBathurst.com, dylanbathurst on Twitter
  16. Hurricane Mikey
  17. Jacqueline Mason: Jacqueline’s Web Writing Class Blog, jackie1776 on Twitter
  18. Jennifer: I Own No More Castles in Spain
  19. Jess Berlin, JessBerlin on Twitter
  20. John Hawkins: John Hawkins Unrated, vegasgeek on Twitter
  21. Julie: Julie’s Journal, JustJulie on Twitter
  22. Laura Coronado: Lollie Shopping, lollieshopping on Twitter
  23. Linda Lou: Linda Lou, Writer/Humorist, vegaslindalou on Twitter
  24. Lori: Las Vegas Net Daily, BajaLori on Twitter
  25. Lori: Viva Vixen Las Vegas, PokerVixen on Twitter
  26. Manya Susoev: Organizer of the Las Vegas Twestival, The Light Group, manyas on Twitter
  27. Michael Lee Vasquez: Michael Lee Vasquez, Nothus on Twitter
  28. Michael Wilder: Learning in the Future, michaelwilder on Twitter
  29. Michaelski: Pokerati
  30. Michelle Fox: Rally’s Mobile Blog, rally666 on Twitter
  31. Mikey: mikeyvegas on Twitter
  32. Neal Mason: 99 Problems But A Job Ain’t One, nealmason on Twitter
  33. Pedro: What Hangover?, 24lbsofBoost on Twitter
  34. P.J. Perez: Bleeding Neon, pjperez on Twitter
  35. Roger Erik Tinch: CineVegas Blog, cinevegas on Twitter
  36. Sara Mooney, SaraMooney.com, Sara_Mooney on Twitter
  37. Sarah Gerke: Sarah in Vegas, Photostream, sarahinvegas on Twitter
  38. Sarah: From the Mind of 408 Down, 408Down on Twitter
  39. Sheryl Loch, Life as a WAHM, SherylLoch on Twitter
  40. Steve Brooks: Blue Ring Design
  41. Steve Frazer: Frazer.net
  42. Stevie Puckett: Career Tips Blog, SteviePuckett on Twitter
  43. Mr. Steve Puckett
  44. Todd Huish: 606diaries, toddhuish on Twitter
  45. Warren Whitlock, WarrenWhitlock on Twitter
  46. Zach Zeman, Spinabifida Won’t Stop Me, zm_dawg on Twitter

Please let me know whom I missed! Thanks!

Published
by
Jacqueline Mason
on January 29, 2009
in Weekly Reports
. 13 Comments

13 Responses to “January 29 Beer & Blog Round-up”

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  1. 1 Vegas, Mikey
    January 29, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    I’m hurt, deeply so, that I’ve been left off the list. Perhaps vegasgeek and I need to up our game at the next meetup?
    That, and next time I’m bringing my own nametag. ;)

  2. 2 Carmen
    January 30, 2009 at 1:30 am

    Wait!
    Isn’t the Freakin Frog located in a really shitty part of town?

  3. 3 Doug Daulton
    January 30, 2009 at 2:32 am

    It was great to put faces to names tonight. Related ramblings found here:

    http://www.dougdaulton.com/2009/01/29/las-vegas-beer-and-blog-episode-3/

  4. 4 Serena
    January 30, 2009 at 4:38 am

    I wish I had known about this yesterday! =( Please send me an invite and information for your next event. I would love to meet and network with other bloggers =)

    http://singlegirlinsincity.blogspot.com/

    Serena

  5. 5 Jackie1776
    January 30, 2009 at 6:31 am

    Freakin Frog is a college bar in the University District, on Maryland across from UNLV. It’s primarily a student neighborhood.

    While it certainly isn’t fancy-pants Summerlin, I wouldn’t call it “a really shitty part of town” — there are far shittier places in the northeast much more deserving of that label. :)

  6. 6 VegasLinks
    January 30, 2009 at 9:25 am

    Featured LVB&B on VegasLinks today. If any of the members that host Vegas related websites would like to be featured on VegasLinks, drop me a comment and your url.

    You can also participate in the Vegas Webmaster/Insider Q&As let me know and I’ll forward the form to ya.

  7. 7 Kelly
    January 30, 2009 at 11:01 am

    What a great turnout you guys had!

    I ran across this link ages ago and you might find it handy for the regulars:

    http://tweetupbadges.com/

    Enjoy! (:

  8. 8 Carmen
    January 30, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    Across from UNLV…just like I said, a real shithole side of town! Wow, Freakin Frog must be oh so very lucky to have actual paying customers for a change that don’t necessarily have to ride the bus and trash or urinate in the place.

  9. 9 John Hawkins
    January 30, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    @Kelly, thanks for the link! I just ordered my Tweetup Badge!

    The turnout last night was awesome. The two plugins that we ended up talking about at the event last night are called:
    - No Comments On Pages
    - TweetSuite

  10. 10 Jacqueline Mason
    January 30, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    Dude, Carmen, what is your issue with Freakin Frog? Have you ever actually been there?

    It’s one of my husband’s and my favorite bars. We’ve been there dozens of times and never seen the type of problems or clientele that you describe. The other patrons were usually either college students (or in that age group) or fellow beer connoisseurs.

    Freakin Frog is a mecca for people who enjoy microbrew or foreign beers because of it’s amazing 400+ beer selection. The local homebrew club meets there, and the owner, Adam Carmer, is a professor at UNLV teaching the beer and wine classes for the hospitality programs.

    The rest of the businesses in the neighborhood (Maryland Parkway between Flamingo and Tropicana) are a mix of bookstores, bars, coffee shops, inexpensive restaurants, banks, copy and mailing services, etc. It’s a student-oriented neighborhood so everything is cheap but I don’t see how anyone could describe it as “shitty”. It’s similar (although smaller) to the university districts of other cities and towns I’ve lived in.

  11. 11 Carmen
    January 30, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    Yes, I was in there once and was panhandled coming and going to the parking lot. Thought the place was dirty and my table was sticky. I’ve been to the Kinkos several times and was usually accosted by many vagrants in the parking lot – some urinating in the open. LVAC used to have a small club there, but wisely moved out when their lease was up due to the large number of break-ins/vandalism to the cars in the parking lot.

  12. 12 Carmen
    January 30, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    By the way, Summerlin doesn’t impress me much either – a bit overrated.
    But since you compared the two neighborhoods, it definitely is less grimey than Maryland Parkway!

  1. 1 Las Vegas Beer and Blog - Episode 3 | www.dougdaulton.com
    Pingback on Jan 30th, 2009 at 2:27 am

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