Geek Dinner London #gdldn – Part two – After

I attended my first geek dinner last night at Gig’s grill house.

Overall review – it was a great time!

I’m sure Gig’s loved me, I spent a whopping $3 on Pepsi.

I met some interesting new people and finally got to put real people to twitter names.

I want to thank the people who made me feel a little less like an outsider looking in, or a fish out of water.

So here it goes:

Thanks @mwickett – aka Mike Wickett for saying hi when I got there, it was appreciated.

Also thanks to @phronk – aka Mike Battista for introducing me to people and inviting me into conversations last night, it meant a lot.

And thanks to @timfelsky – aka Tim Felsky for making me feel like I wasn’t totally out-of-place and that I did have some roots in the group (thanks to twitter).

 

I learned a couple of things last night.

One, my twitter name and its origin continues to confuse people. I’ve probably had about a dozen people ask me where my twitter name comes from since I created it.

For those of you who don’t know, my twitter name is Sadie_Liz. My real name is Sarah Elizabeth. My real name is actually fairly popular (first and last, and even middle). So all variations (that I liked) of  my name were taken on twitter (and everywhere else, have you seen my mammoth Gmail address?).

So I came up with Sadie_Liz. Sadie is a variation of Sarah, both mean princess (some might say I was appropriately named, as I am a royal pain, just kidding). Sadie was also my great-grandmothers name, and later my Grandpa’s dogs name (my Grandma named her, we all wondered if that meant something).

Anyways Sadie is a variation of Sarah and Liz is obviously a short form for Elizabeth, so Sarah Elizabeth, became Sadie_Liz.

 

The other thing I learned last night was that 13 years later, I still really suck at Laser Quest. A group of us from geek dinner took a mid-dinner hiatus for a round of laser tag. It was us and a family, with a couple small kids. They were probably between 8 and 10, so when I saw small, I’m talking more in size.

It is really not fair to be playing with kids who are like 3 feet tall. I’m looking eye level for targets, as they are shooting at me, from the height of my knees. I was dead from the get go.

Also Tim is apparently a king when it comes to laser tag and every time I turned around, I had found him again and I was shot.

I also kept finding @RachFee aka Rachel Fee, at one point we agreed to work together, but she still kept shooting me every time that she saw me.

Then to add to it, I found myself in a corner, being shot by Mike, though I got in a couple good shots of my own, I think.

It was a lot of fun, we all came out so sweaty, it was entertaining

 

After laser tag was over, we headed back to Geek Dinner and I got to meet and talk with more great people, thanks again to Mike (@phronk) for making the introductions and making room for me in the conversation, it was appreciated.

From here I learned that once again I am known to the twitter world as the Blue Jays girl, apparently I need to diversify my tweets.

I finally got to put real people to the online personalities of @ronnyxu aka Ronnie Zoo (now) and @Edjackman aka Ed Jackman.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk to Ed as much as intended, but there is always next time!

 

I got to meet a lot of other people last night too, that I look forward to getting to know more in real life and via twitter happenings.

So it was nice to meet @brianfrank, @lukejohnsondev, @brendanpierce, @mattasross, @evilflu and @laurashelby. I am certain I missed people, but it was really great to meet everyone.

Thanks for making my first Geek Dinner London experience a success, I think I’ll come back next time, if you’ll have me.

 

 

 

My first #gdldn Part 1 – Before

For months now I’ve been reading tweets about Geek Dinner London and have been contemplating attending. To this point, I haven’t actually made it to a Geek Dinner, but I have decided that tonight is the night! I am going to my very first Geek Dinner.

While I am excited, I am also nervous (which is silly). I’m a bit shy, not that anyone who knows me would believe that, but I am. Despite the fact that I have been conversing via twitter with a number of the people who attend Geek Dinner, I still feel as if I will be walking into a room full of strangers.

Despite it being a huge part of my chosen profession, networking at times makes me uneasy and that is something I have yet to entirely shake. I know that I can push through it, I have and I will, but it takes some effort on my part to get past my initial shyness.

Once I get to know someone I am fine; I am louder, I talk more  and I don’t hold back my opinions (for better or for worse). At first though, I am a quiet observer, who watches and listens.

Any of my close friends would read this and laugh, because to them I am an outgoing individual who isn’t afraid to take on the world. They would say that I am an extrovert, and while that is true, there is still part of me that is a bit of an introvert.

This is my goal though, to get out more and be more involved with the things that interest me and tonight that means going to Geek Dinner London and leaving the introvert at the door.

But if anyone sees a girl sitting in a corner being rather quiet at Geek Dinner tonight, that’s probably me.

See you all at Geek Dinner!