It’s back! Does that make it a ‘#retweetup’? Come and try the #dartfordtweetup, Wednesday 6th June. Malt Shovel, Dartford 7:30pm

A few years ago I tried out something called the Dartford Tweetup. It was a bit of a shot in the dark. I’d previously seen groups of people, who had been talking on Twitter about some shared interest or other, brought together in face to face meetings all around the world. These were called ‘tweetups’ and most often took the form of business networking events.

But when I saw lots of people tweeting about life and changes in Dartford, many of whom had never met each other face to face, I thought the same thing might work for that.

The result was quite a lot of pub-based gatherings, about a month apart – varying from big turnouts to a small band of ‘usual suspects’… me included. During the short life of the Dartford Matters blog I teamed up with the editors and re-christened it ‘Dartford Natters’. [Yeah – I know. But I think that did attract a few people who had previously found the whole ‘tweetup’ idea a bit nerdy]. Then Dartford Living started running the ‘Dartford Living Live‘ events and I thought that the inclusion of voluntary organisations might make the #dartfordtweetup a bit surplus. So the tweetup twittered out.

But it seems everyone, including the guys at Dartford Living, think there’s room for both.

So here’s the proposition. If you are interested in community activities and new developments or change in Dartford, if you are one of the people who keeps local social media groups going, if you run a voluntary organisation or project in the area, or if you just want to meet other people with those interests – come and give it a try.

7:30pm at the Malt Shovel in Dartford on Wednesday June 6th. A couple of hours of informal chat and a few drinks. No agenda, no proceedings, no record, no public speaking… just unhurried conversations and new connections.

If it’s a success, I’ll fix up another – maybe every two months?

NB: Although I have become a member of Dartford Labour Party since the last lot of tweetups, these occasions are and always were intended not to be a big ‘P’ party-political thing. Though if conversations touch on important local topics, it’s likely to get small ‘p’ political. And the old #dartfordtweetups certainly attracted a few ‘twitter curious’ Councillors and candidates from several parties.