The Melbourne set

We all thoroughly enjoyed our Big Fat Tweetup last night down on the riverside in Melbourne. Even the sudden early summer downpour couldn't dampen our enthusiasm for RL (Real Life) encounters with people we have all know for some years. Many have remarked on this, but it's true - when you eventually meet face to face the people you have been conversing with for years on Twitter, you feel you actually know them. You don't of course, but you can bypass a lot of the awkward social manoeuvring you often experience when you meet someone for the first time. It was a gathering for learning technologists and educators from all around.

Stephen Heppell (@stephenheppell) dropped by to share a glass with us en route to another event. Claire Brooks (@clairebrooks) and Dave Cummings (@daveymelb) were in great form, along with our tweetup host and organiser Joyce Seitzinger (@catspyjamasnz) and the excellent Mr. Mark Smithers (@marksmithers). Even Shelley Gibb (@mollybob) put in a surprise but very welcome appearance, all the way over from Sydney. It was great talking again with Colin Warren (@colwar) whom I first met face to face in Barcelona at last year's PLE conference, and to feel intuitively that we are kindred spirits. Good on ya mate! I met Jenny Ashby (@jjash) and Pam Kamande (@pamarasan) for the first time and we shared our experiences. I also enjoyed my discussions with Megan Colasante (@megacolour) about digital identity, anonymity and blogging as a professional practice. The weather remained warm and muggy, in spite of the heavy shower, and rich and varied conversations went on into the night.

Image by Joyce Seitzinger (from an idea by Mark Smithers)


The Melbourne set by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.