OBA September Cleveland Blogger Meetup (AKA FitBloggin’, here I come)

This past Tuesday night was another gathering of the Ohio Blogging Association at Wonder Bar down on East 4th Street. The blogroll for the evening included:

• Alicia from Poise in Parma - that’s me! 
• “Cleveland Chick” from Happiness is a Hot Pierogi
• Jen from Why CLE?
• Sarah from Cooker Girl
• Stuart from sosAssociates and his wife Julie

A small yet mighty group. And I’m grateful for that.

As an event planner, the goal traditionally is to get as many people as you can to attend your events. The more, the merrier, right?

But sometimes the event planner drops the ball. Sometimes she picks an activity revolving around a baseball team that has been doing much of the same. And sometimes the weather or busy schedules just get in the way.

So the fact that five other lovely individuals were able to take time out of their days to hang out with me for about two hours makes me incredibly happy.

Wonder Bar has $2 pizzas on Tuesday evenings, so the others placed orders for such creative offerings: a Brie pizza, a Meatball pizza, a Taco Pizza and an Eggs Benedict pizza.  I was lucky that the chef could make a quick subsistiution to their chicken lettuce wraps for a gluten-free option. I contently ate every bite while sipping on a glass of pinot grigio.

I was surrounded by good people chatting about everything from blogger outreach to self-hosting, from the Indians to the Browns, from their jobs to their hobbies. It was laid back, it was comfortable and it was exactly what I needed.

Not every meet up needs to be a blow out. That is one of my lessons in my Fitbloggin’ presentation: Taking Your Online Community Offline. This Saturday afternoon at 12:15PM, I’ll be sharing all the knowledge I’ve got so that others can experience what our blogging community has here in Cleveland.

It’s quite the task when you think about it. But considering I’ve planned events for more than 1,000 people, run two half marathons and overcome crushing anxiety to settle into a life where I’m thriving, a little 45 minute presentation seems as easy as planning a Tuesday happy hour gathering.

So watch out Baltimore, I’m coming for ya. Let’s do this, FitBloggin‘…