eROI Event

The internet is great for bringing like-minded and sometimes opposite-minded individuals together to express opinions or  share their ideas, triumphs, and failures in a community like setting. However there is no replacement for the creative volcano that can explode when you get those same individuals together in person.

Portland is known to be a community town where people love people and this could not have become more apparent to me this summer.  There are always local events going on all over for the creative and tech minded in my industry as well as everyone else in between. Just in the last few week there was Lunch 2.0, Beer and Blog, WordCamp, Cr8Con, and of course there is always another Ignite Portland to look forward to. All of these events are a great excuse to get online communities together offline where ideas can bloom, mingling and learning can commence, and libations are consumed.  Dare I say that online communities are like an overfilled frothy mug of beer that just cannot seem to help spilling offline.

One such recent event that really followed this online to offline pattern successfully was the Old Town Block Party that eROI help to sponsor in our hood,  Old Town-Portland.  For non-Portlanders,  Old Town has had a somewhat negative connotation. It the last area downtown to really see a rejuvenation, but businesses are moving in and the streets are cleaning up fast. Whenever there are renovations, old mainstays are sometimes removed. Once such mainstay was a much beloved landmark, the Hung Far Low sign. Local companies in Old Town, both creative industries and local merchants/businesses, were upset that this landmark had been removed so they quickly turned to their online community to express their frustrations through a series of emails, tweets, and blog postings.

As the outraged community posted, tweeted and then re-tweeted something great happened,  an offline community idea was born;  Let’s raise money to get this sign re-erected by hosting a traditional neighborhood block party.  Suddenly area companies who likely would have never met, were coming together online to form partnerships and to plan and shape this event both online and offline. The outcome was nothing short of a success.  The community converged, the creative class was represented through musicians  and artists, local businesses had a opportunity to sell their goods and services, and there was of course yummy Portland food and beer to be had.  Businesses even donated part of their profits towards the cause! The best part is that Old Town got a face lift that day from a community that knows how to work together to bring back an old beauty-mark.

What are examples of online communities spilling offline into your community? Or better yet what events can you drum up support for online and host offline?

Tags: Social Networking