Arianna O'Dell

Lying in bed, unable to sleep, I started to think about tech and social media. Two years ago, both of these words would have made me go “huh”?  Believe it or not, it was just over a year ago that I joined Twitter and immersed myself in the tech scene. From Twitter, I have met so many people and have heard about so many fantastic gatherings and meet ups.

Thinking about how I had originally been introduced to the Seattle Tech community, I realized it has all stemmed from Twitter! I have made friends, found work, and have been connected to so many things from just Twitter alone. Instead of sleeping right now, I thought it will be interesting to reflect on my Twitter experiences. Here it goes!

When I first joined Twitter I had no idea what it was. Signing up for an account, I had no idea who to follow nor what the purpose of having an account was. Trying to get tapped into the tech scene, I did some Googling and found the Seattle 2.0 website. From Seattle 2.0, I found some great information and after perusing the website, I found that the editor, Danielle Morrill & founder, Marcello Calbucci, were both on Twitter. I began to follow both of them. Not knowing anything about Twitter at the time, I read their streams and randomly began to follow some of the people they had been engaging with.

For a few weeks, I followed my Twitter feed for news and heard about all sorts of events going on in Seattle. From following Danielle and Marcello’s networks, I began to gain much insight about the Seattle technology community. Through my newly acquired Twitter stream, I got up the nerves to attend my first event – a Social Media Club Seattle event. I remember not knowing anyone in the entire room and pretending to read my phone as I was too scared to strike up a conversation.

Looking at my Twitter stream during the SMC event, I began to see that some of the people in my Twitter network were there. Danielle Morrill from Seattle 2.0 tweeted something to her followers saying something along the lines that she was “the redhead in the back of the room” and to “come say hi!”. Danielle Morrill was someone I had been wanting to meet so I took her up on her tweet and introduced myself. Danielle was wonderful and gave me some great advice on what events to attend and how to get involved in the Seattle Startup scene. Later on, she even met up with me to offer feedback on the startup I was working on.

After the SMC event, I felt welcomed and encouraged to attend more events in the area. It was then that I heard about a thing called a “Tweetup”. (A great way to meet folks from Twitter in real life!) Little did I know I would be attending these on a regular basis.  Thank you to Stephen Matsumoto for hosting my first one! From tweetups, I began to meet more and more people from the Seattle tech scene.

Another awesome person who shaped my tech experiences is Chris Pirillo. Found through Danielle and Marcello’s networks, I connected with Chris though Twitter. Chris offered to meet up for coffee before he even knew me and before I even knew all of what he did. Which seems to be everything! (Sorry Chris – this was back when I was a tech noob! ) Ever since I followed Chris, his stream has been a source of great information and I have continued to meet people through Twitter after my first positive experience meeting Chris. From Chris, I also found out about his yearly conference, Gnomedex, which was the first technology conference I have ever attended. At Gnomedex, I got the chance to meet some of my longtime Twitter friends like @AndruEdwards who I had been talking to on Twitter for months. One of Chris’s other events, Geek’a'licious Hackday also enabled me to make  more friends including @aphughes, @anneghammer and @michellegamboa who I have kept in touch with ever since!

After Gnomedex, I attended other events in the area and continued to meet so many great people. Another connection point in my experiences, would have to be MindCamp hosted by Andru Edwards. At this event, I got to hang out with Roberto Hoyos who I had briefly met at Gnomedex and then got to hear more about Throwboy pillows – (which I highly recommend !)

After meeting Roberto, I began to use a service called DailyBooth which he was a part of. DailyBooth is another connection point in my tech experiences. After utilizing the service for a few months, I saw that the founder – Jon Wheatley was on Twitter. Even though I had only tweeted to him a few times, Jon was my first connection into the London startup scene. Finding out that I would be coming to London, I began to follow a few people from his stream to see what was going on in the startup scene. Through his stream, I found @JamesProud who was my first London Twitter meet up. As I mentioned in a previous post, James gave me some information about what events to attend and how to get started over here.

Taking his advice, I attended Geek’n'Rolla which introduced me to a whole set of  London tech enthusiasts. Since then, I have attended many UK events enabling me to meet so many great people from the other side of the pond.

After all of these events, I look back to see everything stemming from Twitter! Would I have attended these events if I had not had a Twitter account? Probably not. As cliche as it sounds, Twitter has changed my life!

Here is the quick version highlighting a few degrees of separation that have led to my experiences today – in case you don’t want to read this whole post.

I went from:
Not knowing anyone and anything about tech
to
Following Danielle Morrill and Marcello Calbucci of Seattle 2.0 on Twitter
to
Chris Pirillo
to
Aaron Hughes
to
Roberto Hoyos
to
Jon Wheatley
to
James Proud
to

London Friends and Events

to

Right now, knowing much more about tech and with so many great friends!

I know I have left a lot of people out of this post, but there isn’t enough room to list the hundreds of incredible people I have met! I tried to focus on a few connection points even though everyone has been important. If we have even only exchanged even one Tweet, thank you – you have all shaped my experiences so much!