My first Lunch2.0 event

Just got back from my first Lunch 2.0 event. This one was at LinkedIn.

Got to meet some of the engineers behind the popular business networking site and their community evangelist Mario Sundar. Had a chance to chat a little bit with my web strategy role model Jeremiah Owyang about my own web strategy challenges and was really tempted to do the Jackie Chan bit with Apple Evangelist Guy Kawasaki.No bull-shitake.

I saw Justin from Justin.tv. Now I know livestreaming is just another Web2.0 thing…I actually saw a couple ustream.tv guys there (the camera attached to the ustream.tv hat was a dead giveaway?) and while the concept isn’t exactly new to me, it was just kinda awkward. But I know that’s just me and I really can’t explain it. I even delayed getting some peanut butter brownies because Justin was around there and I don’t know why but I avoided the camera guy like the plague. Ugh. Not exactly Web2.0-ish behavior. I’ll try to do better next week at the Lunch 2.0 event at Netgear.

Being totally new to Lunch 2.0, my boss and I had a discussion about how companies benefit from community events like Lunch 2.0.

Boss: People who go to these events are probably already “in.” So if the goal is “to get more users” then an event like this wouldn’t help you achieve it because it’s like preaching to the choir.

Me: Well, true. You are preaching to the Web2.0 population. A good percentage of which are bloggers. And considering that bloggers are the “new influencers” as opposed to traditional media (and you can even go on to say that some readers don’t even know they are reading blogs and not traditional media), Lunch 2.0 gives corporations a cost-effective tool to round up the “new influencers” in a casual, positive environment where there is plenty of good food to talk about.

I also think Jeremiah’s post on Lunch2.0’s ROI was right on.

The only thing I would suggest for future Lunch2.0 events would be maybe provide food that is more networking-friendly. Armadillo Willy’s catered today’s event and while the barbeque chicken was delicious, it wasn’t exactly something you could eat while you’re trying to mingle with people. It’s messy (forget about shaking hands) and it requires you to sit down. I come to these events to network. The food is just a bonus.

(Oh but the peanut butter brownies were more than just a bonus. They were to to die for.)

I definitely see the value in going to these events that I’m even planning on going to the LunchGeeks event tomorrow. I’m not quite sure yet, the geek theme is a little intimidating and I’m not sure I can carry out a conversation if people start talking code. I’ll sleep on it tonight, I guess.