Indianapolis tweet-up

What set them apart?

• They were very professionally done. NASA had held a half dozen or so tweetups before I first attended one, but I attended their first Shuttle launch tweetup & their first Mission Control - Houston tweetup. All were once in a lifetime experiences. It's NASA of course, so the events were highly structured with timelines/agendas but there was also ample room to allow for meeting and greeting folks. The best (IMHO) NASA Tweetups run two full days, but I've been to one of their one day ones as well. And they're extremely popular -- they have to run a random drawing of Twitter followers to choose attendees, which is the major reason I've only attended two of their now 13 or so total tweetups. Their next one is October 31 thru September 1st for the launch of STS-133. Follow it at #nasatweetup on Twitter to see how much excitement a well-done tweetup can generate and spread like wildfire.

NASA's tweetups expose people to things that many of them (myself included) have always wanted to do but NEVER thought they'd have an opportunity to experience themselves:

• See a Space Shuttle launch live, with my own eyes, from closer than anyone except media, emergency crews & the astronauts themselves. (STS-129 NASA Tweetup in Florida, November 2009)

• Sit in Mission Control for both Shuttle & the International Space Station as astronauts talked to the President live; climb into the very same Space Shuttle simulator every Space Shuttle astronaut has trained in since the Shuttle program began. (STS-130 NASA Tweetup in Houston, February 2010)

• In both tweetups: Meet, talk to and get to know astronauts and space scientists as well as people involved in science, technology, education & mathematics (STEM) education, etc. And, honestly, I've made amazing friends I converse with daily and try very hard to meetup with in person more often -- there's an amazing spirit of kinship & shared passion and excitement that's infectious at these events.

I've blogged a bit about the tweetups I've attended and posted photos on my Flickr. You can find all that, or ask me for a link, via Twitter if you'd like to research the events more for inspiration. I'm a huge space geek but there's nothing to say a tweetup couldn't fire up a group of people passionate about some other topic or activity.