August 2, 2010 8.45 am This story is over 163 months old

Lincoln’s social meetup turns one

Friday Drinks: Lincolnites on Twitter have been meeting every month for a year now, and are ready to celebrate their achievement.

Friday Drinks, Lincoln’s only social media meetup, will celebrate its first year of socialising with people from the Internet on Friday, August 6. The event, running on the first Friday of every month, brings together people from across the city who use the Twitter social network for a casual drink, and connect with like-minded people.

The first meeting, also known as a Tweetup, took place in August 2009 at the Holiday Inn on the Brayford Pool, and around 10 people showed up. “It was great meeting people who I only ever met online,” said Justin Reid, who has been organising the meetings ever since.

“A the first [meeting] we had some die-hard Twitter fans, and we also had people who just joined, and were looking to make connections, and just have a nice drink,” said Reid, who is also the Technology Manager at RealWire, a local Internet-based public relations company.

Justin Reid was keeping in the loop with his Twitter feed during our interview.

“Each meeting is as good as the previous one, even though there’s only a hand full of people turning up — that’s fine,” he said. The biggest turnout at the Lincoln Friday Drinks Tweetups was just over 20 people. “All we do is drink and talk about what people are interested in at that particular time.”

A year on, “there are a lot more people in Lincoln on Twitter now, and there are a lot more groups that I have yet to connect with,” Reid explained. “There is a core number of people who come to the meetings, and the challenge is to try to extend that and push it out to people.”

“I’ve learnt that even in Lincoln, people can be social and open with people they don’t know. Every time I see that happen, it’s quite nice,” Reid said, as he admitted that he can be an introvert at times as well.

The July Friday Drinks Tweetup took place in the Widow Cullens Well.

The one-year Friday Drinks Tweetup takes place on August 6, at the Adam and Eve Tavern at 7.30pm. Reid doesn’t know how many people to expect at the big event: “I usually turn up the first one and sit in an empty room, hoping that I’m not going to the only one there in an hour’s time — it’s a continuous leap of faith.”

Reid is inviting any Lincoln Twitter users to the celebratory one-year meeting: “It’s an opportunity to step outside your area of comfort, and discover new people and new relationships. I’ve made friends, especially people who come regularly. It’s a different level of connections next to regular friendships.”

— Follow @JustinReid, @FridayDrinks, and @TheLincolnite on Twitter.

Photos: Bagel Me!, Chris Brandrick, Justin Reid.