Last night I attended the monthly Tweetup of the Social Media Club of Saint Louis (SMCSTL) at Robust Wine Bar in Webster Groves. The excitement for the night was the arrival of 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) founder Jeff Pulver. Jeff has been driving from city to city, live streaming from his car, to promote the conference.

Jeff took a corner of the bar and addressed the 100 or so folks that showed up. Jeff's passion for communication, and using technology to facilitate, was evident. He spoke of converting your Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) into a Chief Listening Officer (CLO). Smart businesses will learn to listen to their customers and with the new social media tools available they are all talking. 

Jeff also touched on the power of new media to do social good. The Haiti disaster is a prime example of people using these tools to give support and to coordinate relief efforts on a scale never seen before.

He capped off his short speech with a gift of a digital video camera from Kodak and gift cards from GM. Jeff asked "who can do some good with this camera?" I gentleman that works with college kids said he could use the camera in his work. He was handed the brand new device without question. Very cool.

I had never been to Robust Wine Bar before. It's a great place with an excellent selection of wine and beer. It's the first place I have been that had a real reward for checking in on Foursquare - a free Tin Mill beer. I plan on bringing my wife back on our next date night.

SMCSTL is a lot of fun. I have been to a ton of networking events and I don't usually like them. Too much work. SMCSTL is a very laid back environment. Sure people talk business, but usually the people showing up love social media and there's more to talk about than buying insurance. If you are thinking about checking it out then you'll want to attend next month for sure. It will be held at Busch Stadium before the game. See you there.

PS- I had a lot of people check out the QR Code on my name tag. People were interested in how it worked and how to get one for themselves. I'm working on a "HOW TO" that I will be sharing soon.

Video #SMCSTL August Tweetup @robustwinebar