Last night was the first ever Pompey Bloggers meet up and it was great.
Having previously attended blogger meet ups in Manchester and Southampton I started to look for a more local group in the Havant, Portsmouth, Southsea area. I really couldn't find anything.
Boosted by the occasional bit of inspiration and motivation I decided that I could just set up a group. Surely there would be other bloggers in the area that, like me, wanted to meet up, chat and connect with other bloggers... and so Pompey Bloggers was born.
Fast forward about 5 weeks and it was the evening of our first meet up. A group of 10 was going to meet for the first time, no one having previously meet. Isn't that just one of the best things about blogging and online communication? Getting to talk and meet with people you've never met before. So cool!
Our venue was Spice Island in Old Portsmouth. Chosen partly because of the lovely view. Well...the fog was so thick that that view was non existent hahaha.
I had booked (thanks to Ali at Spice Island) a table for 12 upstairs. It was nice to be a little tucked away, with the venue being so busy downstairs on the night. As it turned out we were all very polite and there was pretty much always only one person talking, so having somewhere that was quieter really worked out.
I had spoken to Jenny at South East Bloggers Circle about the meet up before hand about the event. She reinforced my thoughts of having a sign or poster at the venue to help identify the group and make people feel more at ease with coming over. Jenny showed me what she has for SEBC and from that I made the simple sign for Pompey Bloggers.
The venue itself was lovely, the staff were super friendly and even came to let us know when food orders were stacking up.
The fog may have stopped us having the view, but the atmosphere was lovely and I did enjoy the music being played particularly when I arrived and took a couple of photos. I may have had a little jig before anyone arrived haha.
Unfortunately 3 people were not able to make it on the day, hopefully we will see them next time. It was great to meet everyone that turned up, it was so interesting to hear about all our different blogs and life's. Plus we shared some fun ideas for future meet ups. So if your in or near to Portsmouth then get in touch and come along to a meet up! Fareham, Gosport, Waterlooville, Havant, Emsworth, even Chichester are all a short joinery away from our lovely city.
If we are a little too far then please do visit South East Bloggers Circle. They have information on all / most of the blogging groups in the South East.
It was great to hold the first meet up and I'm already excited for the next one, hopefully in April. I promise Ill actually take photos of people next time.