SISARINA SPEAKS

Need Venue, Will Travel

~Liz Glomb (@eglomb)

This week I spent more time out of the office than actually in the office. Nicole and I went venue hunting in Dupont Circle on Tuesday. Other than the fact that it was unbearably hot (I’m fairly positive that my in-car thermometer said 96), we had a very successful day. The purpose of this trip was to find venues for future #DCTweetups and various other smaller meetups that Sisarina may want to sponsor. The plan of attack was literally to start at the metro exit and walk completely around the circle and down side streets. I’m fairly positive that even with that strategy we didn’t even come close to seeing everything, but after 4 hours of walking in the heat we collected at least a dozen business cards from various restaurants, bars, and lounges.

Nicole has had her eyes on Urbana Wine Bar and Restaurant for some time now, so we decided that we would eat lunch there to see what the atmosphere was like, and of course try the food. After lunch we continued around the circle. Some of my favorites from this adventure included Urbana, Firefly, Bar Dupont, Darlington House, and Kramer Books. Even if we don’t sponsor an event at some of these places, I very much intend to make a visit for myself. I love trying out new places. In fact, I’ve made it a point to never go out to the same restaurant twice since I moved back to the DC area in October. So far, I’ve only slipped up on this maybe twice, but otherwise my plan is still going strong. 

The rest of the week the Sisarina team worked on nailing down when we want to have our events for the rest of the summer and afterwards, I started making phone calls and sending emails to the venues we want to work with.  We’ve basically got our summer calendar set, so keep a look out for some of our awesome summer #DCTweetups to come! I'd better see you there!

Event Phone Use Review

~Nicole Mott (@nicolemott)

With smart phones becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity, our
social interactions are changing. This week I began to think about the following
questions:

• When is it appropriate to be on your phone in a social setting?
• Are people becoming so comfortable with communicating via social media/texts/ emails, that we have forgotten how to communicate face-to-face?

I began to think about this topic more this week as 3 things happened:

1. I went to my first #DCTweetup in Kathy’s beautiful garden in Silver Spring
2. I finally broke down and bought a BlackBerry—not because I wasn’t a fan before now, but because I’m a cheap, recent graduate
3. I went to a women’s networking event, that was not Twitter based

So, last week Melanie, Liz and I went to the Garden Tweetup all pumped up! It
was my first Tweetup, and as a recent Twitter user, I was a little uncertain about
how this “Tweetup” would work. This was before I had a BlackBerry, so
while Melanie and Liz were taking pictures and tweeting about the set up of our
garden party, I was wishing I had a new phone! I began to wonder, "In this social
setting, what is the proper etiquette?"

In my opinion, a few variables come into play. It depends on:
1. What type of event you are attending. So for this “Tweetup” it was appropriate at an event orchestrated via Twitter that the attendees tweet about their experiences or
promote the event to their twitter followers.

But then the other issue arises:
2. Who is your audience? If I’m talking with my fellow intern Liz while tweeting, it
seems appropriate but if I’ve just been introduced to someone new, it is pretty
rude to talk to them while tweeting about the event.

It also depends on:
3. What you are doing on your phone.  Texting friends while mid-conversation would be
rude, but if you are really tweeting or responding to someone about the event it
seems much more appropriate.

This issue has become increasingly more complex as our forms of communication have changed from beepers, to phones and text messages to emails on phones and BlackBerry Messengers. As a recent BlackBerry owner, I am amazed at what a phone can do. I can check my Twitter account, while talking to a friend on bbm, while listening to a song on Pandora..all from my phone. And as Americans and business-folks we are all pretty great at multitasking. We live in this fast paced culture in which we feel the need to have access
to email, phone and now social media sources 24/7.

Talking in person while on our phone is another issue we are learning to balance.  If it’s a friend that doesn’t mind and is also on their phone that’s one thing, but if it’s someone you've just been introduced to, it's rather rude.

Regardless of the factors that play into your social setting, sometimes we start to lose focus of the importance of face-to-face conversations.  When out, it's always acceptable to set your phone down and enjoy the company you are around!