How To Set Up Your Own Dot Com Meetup

Social Networking

Networking with other like minded people is one of the keys to blogging success. In addition to attending tons of local and out of town networking events every year, I also have the weekly Dot Com Pho meet up. I’ve received quite a few emails asking for advice on setting up their own dot com meet up.

Join The Social Networks

Before you can set up a dot com meet up, you need to have a network of like mind people. Fortunately, finding them is a lot easier than ever thanks to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Meetup.com.

I especially like Meetup.com because it’s designed to get people face to face with each other. If you can’t find a meetup group to join (which is pretty hard to do), you can create your own and have other meetup members join. Once you get enough members, you can set up the first live meet.

Choose a Meet Up Friendly Place

Depending on the number of people attending the meet up, you may want to call up the restaurant or bar to make sure they’ll welcome your group. If I have a lot of people attending I will go check out the location to make sure it can accommodate our needs.

Ideally, you’ll want a place that will allow everyone to sit together yet allow for free movement so people can mingle and get to know each other. If you’re checking out a bar, make sure their music isn’t blooming during your meet up time. The music maybe off when you check the place out but that doesn’t mean it won’t be on later.

Make It Affordable for Everyone

While I would love do a meet up at a five-star restaurant, it’s best to keep it affordable for everyone by choosing a less expensive place. This is why Dot Com Pho works so well. A bowl of Pho and ice coffee will set you back $10. This is something everyone should be able to swing. Remember, the food isn’t the important factor. The face to face networking is what you’re after.

The History of Dot Com Pho

The history of Dot Com Pho goes all the way back to 2001. Back then it was call Bad Pho Day. The name was a play on words from the video game, Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Most North Americans don’t know this but Pho is pronounced “fur” and not “full.”

Bad Pho Day happened every Friday between myself and a few employees from Ralph Audio in Vancouver. We would get together at a Pho shop on Broadway to talk about audio mostly. However, the stuff I do on the Net was also a hot topic. Bad Pho Day ended when most of the Ralph employees that went quit and moved on to other jobs. It came back to life as Midnight Golden a few years later.

Midnight Golden was held at the Golden Award restaurant. We would go there at midnight (hence the name) and stay there until it closed at 2AM. The group was made up of myself, Carl Nelson and Ed Lau. We would do Midnight Golden multiple times per week. Mostly on the weekdays so we can have the entire restaurant to ourselves. Midnight Golden ended Carl moved to Hong Kong. Today, Golden Award is call Silver Castle. Midnight Silver just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Dot Com Pho started long before the Dot Com Pho videos came out. I’ve been going for weekly Pho noodles for as long as I can remember and always told anyone who wish to meet up to come out for a bowl. On one of these meet ups, I brought along a Flip Video camera that Pure Digital sent me and decided to film the event. And that’s the Dot Com Pho you know today.