I feel so young, well mentally anyway! I have just been to my first TweetUp and it wasn’t too bad.

I didn’t know what to fully expect in advance of the gathering. It was organised by @DukPond in the private function room at Pond award winning tapas restaurant just off Winkley Square in Preston.

I secretly dislike networking or any occasion where I have to chat with large groups of people before I actually know them. But this was different. It was so well attended that the upper floor was at capacity (estimated 65). But it wasn’t heavy or BNI-like at all. It just worked without fuss.

The organisers gave a great introduction and highlighted how many networkers can be in your face, at business orientated meetings of this type. I wrote about it here in an earlier blog and called it lack of foreplay. They set the scene perfectly and had sufficient pre-organised activities to get dialogue rolling.

I’m lousy at names but I’ll try to recall the details of a few that I met. There was;

Natalie @AmaboBoutique (Owns a boutique in Lytham)

Derek Deighton @deldeighton (an engineer turned agent of change with an interesting blog about how our commercial world must become more economic with resources)

Catherine Curry @PinklinkBurnley of Pink Link Ladies (A women’s forum – I daren’t ask more)

Sharon Snape @altitudestudio (Who owns a premises design and fit-our firm)

Georgie Lomax @altitudestudio1 (A graduate staff member in  Sharon’s team)

@Insurancerepair (A V6 Golf driver with several laps of the Nurburgring under his belt who runs a property claims management and repair business)

@lancashirelife (A Preston based journo who really gets out and about looking after content on Lancashire Life Website)

Jane Caunce @ellisonprinting (Runs a printers, a family and a prolific Twitter profile)

Ali Hanscombe @AliHandscomb (Authority on leadership and healthcare and renowned blogger)

Emma Maudsley @SockMonkeyEmp (Produces monkeys made from socks because some folk need those)

Paula Hardman @PaulaSHx (Brazilian book reviewer who lives in the Ribble Valley)

Simon Moore @Sci_Tie (Inventor of biodegradable cable ties)

Sandra Rolstron @SelectHR (HR consultant)

To those that I missed, I apologise. I did expect to meet some nerdy twits but there wasn’t a “twit” in sight. So it was pure volume of attendees that prevented me from chatting with all of those in attendance.