To all of our customers, employees, friends and family:
Well-known author Shel Israel has a new book coming out this week, Sept 3rd, called TWITTERVILLE. In the book Shel tells the story of how Twitter came into being and the businesses that have since leveraged the power of Twitter to have a conversation with their marketplace. United Linen is honored to be one of the many businesses mentioned in TWITTERVILLE.
To cut the ribbon and officially announce the launch of the book TWITTERVILLE, Shel (Twitter handle @shelisrael) held a party at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, Ca. on Aug 23, 2009. I was one of over 300 in attendance that day and the place was crazy with excitement. I had never personally met any of the people at the TBash event, but several of us had come to know each other through Shel's blog, Global Neighbourhoods.
Having decided at the last minute to come to the TBASH event, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had never been to a book launch before, although I had seen versions on TV and in the movies...you know the kind I'm talking about...a bunch of hoity toity, rootin' tootin' high falutin people all dressed up, kissing each other on each cheek when introduced, etc.
Not in TWITTERVILLE.
Shel's TWITTERVILLE Tbash was so cool. Everyone was generous and engaging. They were excited for Shel, for Shel's new book and for the opportunity to shake hands, take pictures and rub elbows with Twitter family that geography had kept apart up to this point.
I thought if I could meet 5 people that early evening, that would be a great. Instead, once I got inside and tried to get to everyone I had either met or heard about through Twitter, it was time to go. 4 hours. Boom. (snap) Just like that!
The energy at TBASH was tangible...I'm still feeling the refreshing breeze from the winds of TBASH against my sails a week later.
Please indulge me as I share pictures and video of the TWITTERVILLE book launch event, below
This is Valerie Kameya, one of the volunteers working the TBASH event. She was helping iron on Twitter handles on T-shirts (you can see what I mean in the video)
This is Alex Alshvang, owner of Samovar Delicatessen & Catering. I found it easy to visit with him because of all the caterers we serve in Oklahoma and surrounding areas. Alex's specialty is Russian-inspired foods. You can find his business at www.bestrussianfood.com. He gave me quite an education in a short amount of time about what makes Russian food, Russian. BTW, the food was good. Not bad tablecloths he was using either.
As I strolled across the room I ran into Beth Kanter (@kanter) who is influential in the non-profit circles and mentioned in TWITTERVILLE. We donated 5 books for her to give away to non-profit orgs.
After meeting Beth, I turned around to find Catheryn Hrudicka (@creativesage) who has a great story in TWITTERVILLE about using social media to help build a hospital in Castro Valley, CA. Her hat is her signature.
I got to visit with Cathryn about her Twitterville experience and this is what she had to say...
If you've noticed people wearing blue buttons in the pictures so far, these buttons said "I'm in Twitterville, and helped identify those who are in the book.
This next segment is a video I took of a visit with Aneta Hall of Pitney Bowes (@anetah) and Tatyana Kanzaveli (@glfceo)
Picture of Frank Barry (@franswaa) and Matt Perez (@matt_perez). This is an example of what I mean when I say this was a generous group...Matt asked me to sign his book. How cool is that? So I said OK and signed his book. Then I thought I should follow his lead and do the same thing, so I got my book and had him, Frank and a bunch of others sign my copy. Very cool idea.
This is Arie Ball (@arei_ball), a 30 year veteran of Sodexho and VP of their Talent Acquisition Group. We share stories in chapter 9 of TWITTERVILLE. Arie Ball, a class act.
The Twitterati...Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) and Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang). Frank Barry helped me get this picture.
Two great guys from the Dell scene...Richard Binhammer (@richardatdell) and Lionel Menchaca (@lionelatdell)
Jesse Luna (@jesseluna) and I had a great conversation about B2B marketing and how to use Twitter in this capacilty.
...and last but not least, author Shel Israel, who is one heck of a storyteller.
I had never personally met Shel up to this point, but like so many others I met that night, we had already become friends through Twitter. In the 4 hours that we mixed and mingled in the Hiller Aviation Museum, it was great fun to have geography on our side and be able to shake hands, laugh and be excited with like-minded people who shared a a common bond that is Twitterville.
Twitterville comes out Sept 3rd. Like Aneta Hall said in one of the videos above, every business should buy a copy.
You can Retweet this blog post by copying the following
Rt: @unitedlinen Attending Twitterville's book launch event. http://twurl.cc/1j5t
