Tweetup in A-Town

I am in my element, in the zone, dare I say “en fuego” sometimes when working a party.  Yeah, I know, I’m full of myself (or full of something), but talking about wine, tasting and sharing it with others seems like second nature to me and Tuesday night was no exception.  I felt I was Crushing It!  From idea to execution, I found myself focused and driven and loving every minute of it.  Furthermore, I was lucky enough to be apart of some leading-edge, forward-thinking efforts at the nexus where wine and technology meet.  I am, of course, talking about St. Supery’s east coast Tweetup Tour that included an unveiling of TastLive’s new winery-custom interface.

When Rick Bakas, the Director of Social Media Marketing for St. Supery, posted tour dates and venues that included Murphy’s in Atlanta as one of the stops, there was no question I was going to attend.  But, then I had an idea.  You see, the Atlanta metro is quite large and Murphy’s is in midtown.  However, many folks also reside north of town in the suburbs that lie OTP, or “Outside the Perimeter” which is demarcated by I-285, which surrounds the city.  I felt many of those suburbanites who love wine may not venture ITP (let me know if you can’t decipher this using the OTP reference) and deal with Atlanta traffic, which ranks 4th worst in the nation, to attend the event.  One of my pals who lives way up in Alpharetta, a mere 30 miles north of town, confirmed my thoughts.  With Rick coming to my hometown, I really wanted more winelovers to have the opportunity to experience this really cool event!

So, I pitched the idea to Rick and he loved it.  I was able to secure the Wine Room owned by the Atlanta Wine School in Roswell, thanks to Michael Bryan, and the game was on like Donkey Kong.  With just 18 days of lead time, the marketing strategy and execution proved successful as we ended up effectively doubling the bricks-n-mortar attendance of the Atlanta event by having the second location.  Other benefits included more folks being exposed to the world of social media and how valuable it can be, more folks enjoying St. Supery wines and of course exposure for both Muphy’s and AWS.

Overall, it was a tremendous experience and I thank those who attended both venues as well as online.  There was wonderful wine conversation and a lot of intrigue and curiosity regarding social media and Twitter, in particular.  There are several winelovers I know who will now be experimenting online and opening their horizons in the space thanks to this event.  I hope everyone who participated got as much out of it as I did.  And if you’re not on the TasteLive Tweetup train, you better get on before it leaves you behind!

Special thanks to Sue Loth who prepared the room, kept the wine flowing and the glasses clean.  She was a huge part of the the event’s success at the AWS Wine Room!

Cheers!