Bryan Person eating breakfast
(Photo by Andrea Mercado)

Twenty-five participants. Dozens of great conversations. New connections. Delicious — and free — food.

Yes, the inaugural Social Media Breakfast held Wednesday morning at The Pour House in Boston was unquestionably a success.

Some nuggets I took away from the event:

Twitter rocks for promoting events. It was far and away the No. 1 way that word spread about the breakfast.

Social media evangelism isn’t going away anytime soon. I spoke with PR practitioners wanting to learn more about how to implement social media programs for their clients, as well as a client who’s struggling to school his agency on the social media press release. There is still plenty of work to do on the teaching and sharing front — all the more reason to have another breakfast!

Breakfasts only start the conversations. Now we have to continue them, and, as one participant suggested, take them “to the next level.” A Google Group is being formed to help us all keep in touch. We’ll ask and answer each other’s questions, offer up suggestions for social media projects, and spur each other on to new creative and innovative heights.

New faces, new stories. Some 40 percent of the crowd consisted of people I had never met, like Dave Cutler, who took the time to share his passion and hopes for public libraries with me. And David wasn’t even the librarian of the group — the affable Andrea Mercado was!

Having a sponsor helps. Chip Griffin and CustomScoop (also a New Comm Road sponsor) stepped up to cover the tab, sparing us all that terribly awkward task of whipping out $20 bills and then trying to divide a big check into neat and equal smaller portions.

The Social Media Breakfast will get bigger and better. When an event like this goes well, the next logical question is, “So when can we do this again?” I certainly heard that yesterday. Know that the wheels will be set in motion very soon for Social Media Breakfast II, and that it will likely be held in early or mid October. I’ll be looking for a venue that can accommodate even more of us next time, so drop me a line if you have recommendations.

Also, check out photos from the first Social Media Breakfast.

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