It started with a idea. If other areas of the country are having “TweetUps”, why have we not had one in Western MA?

"Let's get some of these Twitter people together" was the thought I had in December of 2008. It would be fun to meet some of the people that we've all been tweeting with. Seemed simple enough.

I took a quick poll on Twitter, trying to sense if there was interest in putting together a face-to-face gathering of Western MA tweeps. Turns out there was. Some of the first people to respond to my question were people I conversed with on a regular basis… @lisaturcotte, @keithlaflam, @insightphotos, @adamconnor, @writerjax and @derekallard. Six people, that's not bad for a start.

Next to pick the venue. Where should we meet? Many people would agree that good beer and good conversation go hand-in-hand. I decided we would have the very first WesternMA TweetUp at The Dirty Truth in Northampton. There were known for their great selection of micro-brew beers. That was it… the last step was picking a date.

When? December is a tough month for gatherings. Most people are in "holiday mode" and have little time. So I decided that January would be a good time, a couple weeks after New Years' Day to let everything settle down. I mean, what could go wrong in Western MA in January after all? Well, when the day finally came to have our first TweetUp, Mother Nature decided she was going to come as well and bring a whole bunch of snow! First WesternMA TweetUP - #fail.

We're New Englanders. We're used to it, so a quick reschedule to February fixed that problem and the WesternMA TweetUps were born. It was a great start to what would turn out to be a great year of TweetUps! All sorts of folks showed up. I finally got to meet some great tweeps like @mmpartee and @lesleylambert (who would later allow their Twitter friendship to blossom into romance), @ron_miller, @valnelson, @christinepilch and more. We had about 20-25 folks come and go through-out the night.

It was such a great turn-out and everyone had a such good time that I immediately planned the next one for April, again at The Dirty Truth. That TweetUp had even more people show up.

I think they like it.

Even the local newspaper was interested in what the WesternMA TweetUps were all about, coming down to interview me and several others about the Twitter "phenomenon".

While we were having fun at The Dirty Truth, it was time to take the show on the road. These were the "Western MA TweetUps" after all. And while The Dirty Truth has great beer, the place tends to be really loud and the owners didn't seem to care that we were even there.

Next stop… June and the Apollo Grill in Easthampton. What a cool place this is. To say they treated us well, would be a huge understatement. Kim and the staff at Apollo Grill were great… we even had an official "WMTweeps" beer! The attendance soared as well. We had around 50 people show up at this TweetUp!

The Apollo Grill treated us so well, that it was a no-brainer to have the next WMTU (Western MA TweetUp) in August there too! I even came up with a new idea - sponsors. I figured that there have to be businesses in WesternMA that want to reach out to the people on Twitter and increase their follower counts. What better way than to feed the masses at the WMTU events? WMTU sponsors pay for the food at the TweetUps and in return would be mentioned in every official tweet about the WesternMA TweetUp they were sponsoring and a logo and link placed on the Official WesternMA TweetUp website, http://wmtweeps.com.

This too, was a great success! @fathers_n_sons stepped right up and claimed the title of very first WesternMA TweetUp sponsor. In quick succession @amherstbrewing, @holyokemall and Greenfield Savings Bank stepped up to be sponsors as well! Wow! Such an amazing response, that the WMTUs went from a bi-monthly to monthly schedule!

In between the TweetUps, I contacted our local NBC affiliate @wwlp, who are very active on Twitter to see if they could offer a tour of their studios for 20 or so of Western MA tweeps. They welcomed us warmly! We got an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the production facility and met a few of the on-air personalities like Barry Kreiger and Brian Lapis. A great time was had by all!

The next couple TweetUps were held at The Amhest Brewing Company (@amherstbrewing was the sponsor as well), Pizzeria Uno at the Holyoke Mall (sponsored by @holyokemall) and most recently, the Greenfield Grille (@gnflgrille and was sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank).

I want to personally thank all the sponsors for their great support! I think I can speak for most everyone that attended a TweetUp that we all had fun and got to meet some great people from throughout Western Massachusetts.

The WMTU will be taking the month of December off, but will start back up in January. If you know of a local business that would be interested in sponsoring a TweetUp, please have them contact me on Twitter… you can find me under the name @jasonturcotte.