Newsflash: Blogfest Doesn't Erupt in Violence

Glenn and I attended a blogfest of Tennessee bloggers at Calhoun's in Knoxville last night and had quite a nice time. The consensus from other bloggers who attended seems to be that it was quite an achievement that about 25 or so bloggers and their family members got along and/or did not start a bar brawl for almost three whole hours while conversing over ribs (or in my case, salad). I sat next to a blogger, Perry Nelson, who posts the following about the event:

It was a very civil gathering, I thought, despite the fact that a group of that size represented almost every variation of political, social and cultural perspective imaginable.....I had the pleasure of dining between Dr. Helen Smith, a.k.a. Mrs. Glenn Reynolds, on the one side and Ms. Lissa Kay, with whom I worked at ClientLogic a while back, on the other. In the two hours and forty-five minutes the group spent together we made cultured conversation and behaved quite respectably. Quite an achievement, if you ask me, for a group of such potentially disruptive forces in the community.

SayUncle makes a few observations about the cast of characters:

A few things on meeting other bloggers:

There were no laptops (that shocked me).

There was very little discussion of politics.

Every few seconds, someone’s camera flashed.

Dr. Helen doesn’t like to be called Dr. Helen.

I was only called crazy once.

So here are a few tips I garnered from this shindig, for the benefit of other bloggers who attend blogfests and who want a good time:

1) Keep the party short--no more than three hours, bloggers have short attention spans but can generally behave in public for about that length of time. If the party goes longer, who knows where the alcohol and conversation will lead. Nowhere good, that's for sure.

2) Do not discuss individual views of politics lest the person sitting next to you would not vote for a "Rethuglican" or "Leftard" if their life depended on it. Just a thought, why is it that grown people in their 30's, 40's or even 50's who pride themselves on being progressive or civil always refer to others who do not think like themselves with such names?

3) Do not call anyone crazy more than once: it is bad manners (but then, you would know that if you spent more time away from the computer screen and around real live people!) and most importantly:

4) Keep the alcohol flowing freely; an open bar puts everyone in a good mood. For some people, alcohol seems to bring out their violent side, but for bloggers, it seems to put them into a friendly stupor where they open up and share their darkest secrets. As long as the secrets are not political, all seems to go well. And finally:

5) Have fun -- how often do you get to meet your fellow bloggers in the flesh? Kind of like meeting Mick Jagger or something.