The turn out was much higher than expected for the monthly Seattle Blogger Meetup. The meetup, held once a month at Ralph’s Grocery and Deli was attended by only five people the last time. This time around, nearly 20 people showed up. While I would like to think they all showed up because of me, that was not the reason. The group’s founder, Anita Rowland, passed away on December 10, and this meetup was in a part a tribute to her. Many old members that haven’t attended a meetup for a while showed up to pay their respects.
The location of the meetup was quite unique. Ralph’s really is a grocery store with a deli inside. It featured an open dining area for the bloggers to meet and there is open WiFi should anyone wish to do live blogging. Many of the bloggers had notebooks on them. However, nobody did any live blogging.
Like the Vancouver blogger group, none of the members in the Seattle meetup made money from blogging. They are all doing it because it’s what they enjoy doing. It really is refreshing to talk to people blogging for the love of blogging and not for the money.
Meeting Up with John Chow Readers
I got a chance to meet up with a couple of long time Seattle readers. Chris Guthrie on the left and Chris Bloczynski on the right. We had our own little table because the main tables were full. We did join the main group later on. It was really nice to meet you guys. Give me a shout if you come up to Vancouver.
The Meetup Food Is Not getting Any Better
What is it with meetups and bad food? First I get that really bad hamburger at the Vancouver meetup. Now I get a really bad egg salad with bacon in Seattle. The egg was drenched with so much Mayonnaise that you can’t taste the egg anymore, the bacon was dry and flavorless, and the bread was getting hard from sitting around all day. If you plan to attend the Seattle blogger meetup in the future, I recommend you get the food from the grocery store.
A Little Video From The Meetup
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U dont have luck to food in meetings John
When I first saw the pic I thought you meant big because of all the fatties there.
Chubbies is more PC.
Yea. That sandwich looks so nasty. I hate egg salad sandwiches though.
Don’t worry he’s had his share of good food
hehe
The Meetup Food may not getting Any Better, but the picture of it looks very nice and kind of artistic.
You know the food’s going to suck when it’s served on paper plates
ROFL true on that, it is the first sign of whats the taste of the food going to be, paper like.
Damn. Did you actually eat it
I think you should bring a packed lunch to the next one.
Yes You are right
, John next time try this way - http://www.vhxn.com
Ouch, you’re going to have to go out for a good meal soon so we don’t keep hearing about bad food experiences!
Do they only have these blogger meetups in Seattle lol?
haven’t seen too many in Pittsburgh..
Where I live people wouldn’t even know what a blogger is let alone have blogger meetups hehe
John,
Any plans for a Los Angeles, CA meetup??
Vik
I’d go to that one :D! Only like 7 hour drive.
I read about this on Chris Guthrie’s blog. Quite a good idea to do this (the meetup). Pity this doesn’t happen in South Africa.
Im thinking Vegas will have plenty of good meals in store for ya
If only you ordered the clam CHOWder.
har-har-har.
Looks fun! Wish I could go to the next one where you’re going to be at.
I thought the sandwich looked pretty good at first. You don’t seem to be having the best of luck with food lately John.
I find the bad food reviews a lot more entertaining then the good ones! haha
Dot Com Pho FTW!
come on john.. don’t be a devil just eat!
Your telling us you’d actually have eaten that sandwich
If you really hated that sandwich the pizza slice you had when you first got there must have been terrible!
Again, it was a pleasure to meet you John and I hope I can make it out to an upcoming convention to hangout with you and other bloggers.
[...] Yes, I like to read blogs. I hope to become bigger on the internet with this guiding me. Big Turn Out for The Seattle Blogger Meetup | John Chow dot Com I met John Chow | Chris Bloczynski dot Com __________________ [...]
John, you know once you taste good food after being rich, you tend to be picky and have high expectations. That sandwich would probably taste very good to some of us
-Mike
I can make a better sandwhich. It’s not hard
Y
You should do a world tour for food and find the best around the world.
I went for a ham and cheese, and it wasn’t so bad. I ordered it when I saw him slicing the ham, though, so I knew it was fresh.
You sure this wasn’t a mafia meeting? Grocery? Leather jackets..?
I have started a Toronto Bloggers Meetup and know how difficult it can be to co-ordinate and plan for the events. You want to do you best to make sure the attending members leave with some sort of value.
The good news is we have a core group of about 10 people who show up every month (in addition to 5-10 more short term members) and they are all committed bloggers that have a tremendous amount of experience to share with the rest of the group.
Where are you from?
Having a blogger meet up place is a great idea, you can share your thoughts and have some fun and get to know other bloggers.
I think it’s kinda awesome that bloggers actually meet up offline. Could be awkward but it what a great way to get to know people. John my respect for you has grown since your last meetup posts. You’re making a lot of money by blogging about money, but it really shows that you love blogging. Great post.
bring the food with you next time
Just thought you might want to know that there’s a little thread at DP forums started by Chris Guthrie regarding his meeting with you. Starting to get interesting. Here it is…
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=610676
2 bad meal posts and both from blogger meetups. Maybe you and Shoemoney should hookup and try some of the Omaha Steaks that Shoemoney was saying (I’m assuming) are so good in his blog post.
Anyway, what do you usually do after eating meals like these if I can ask? Weird question but just wondered…
He blogs about them
and ridicules the people that prepared them 
That sandwich doesn’t look so bad.
The food on the table looks nice.
huge turn out? I See like 7 people!
That video was taken towards the end of the night. Most have gone home.
Hello John, open a food section please
Hi
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I post here as maybe somebody talk about this news on bloggers meeting :
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_New_Trojan_Virus_Bumps_Google_Ads_12143.html
[...] Viral Marketing - Probably one of the best ways of getting traffic. Go to some sort of blogger meet-up and talk about your blog there. Odds are, people will check it out, they may also like what they [...]
[...] was linked to by John Chow, Yaro at Entrepreneurs Journey, and Maki at Dosh [...]
Except for the food, it looked like fun.