I have the huge luck of living in one of the biggest cities in Romania, Timisoara. Officially we have a population of half a million people (still we are getting close to 1 million with all the ones who have no legal forms in Timisoara). Not a huge city for the coutries that have bigger ones than we do, but pretty “dense” when it comes to people on the web and even bloggers.

Even if I don’t quite like getting out to meet strangers, I tried to leave the loner attitude aside and be more social. And I really haven’t got ANY reason to regret this.

I don’t go to web conferences. Most of the time these cost quite a lot and again most of the time there are only some general issues being discussed, things I can learn easily from articles and tutorials, for FREE and in my own time and speed. Most conferences are led by people who haven’t done too much to impress me and who can’t offer me some real solutions for the money I have to pay. So, no, I don’t believe in such “events”.

Still the local bloggers meeting is something else. We had a well known blogger make the arrangements, we have all been contacted and invited to the pub. It’s a small pub in Timisoara and the only “obligation” we had was to come there and be able to pay for our coffee or beer. Or natural orange juice or whatever we’d drink or eat. It’s just like getting out with a friend, less costly and more informal. God it was a blast.

Sure, we didn’t know each others by real name. I had to present myself as “Ramona Iftode” and then, seeing their faces (it was clear the name didn’t say anything to them), I had to add “I’m dojo, from dojoblog.info”. “Ah, it’s you, so nice to see you” was the response and I suddenly realized people DO read me and they do know me. At least they know that mean woman who’s writing on the Romanian blog.

The great thing about this meeting was that we were able to see the person BEHIND the blog. Most of the time we have a small picture on the blog and few words about ourselves. Imagine the thrill of getting to know that “picture” and talk personally to that “presentation”. Some people found me to be quite chatty and funny, others were more quiet and maybe weren’t too impressed. It’s absolutely normal: I also had people who really impressed me and some I wasn’t able to know that well and love from the first time we met.

The costs were very very small as compared to those famous web conferences. I drank some hot chocolate and an oranje juice, others “killed” the beers and others just fed their caffeine addiction. Some smoked and we all talked. We changed places at the tables (we were 20-30 people there) so that we can chat with other people too, we exchanged links and business cards (the ones who are also firm owners or just had the time to create some cards), and we even planned some projects together.

Right now we are working on creating a non-profit organization for bloggers. We’ll try to promote blogging in high-schools and show the students there all the advantages of a nice blog. Many bloggers are 16-20 year olds, why not be able to offer them more information and some official help? Blogging can be something wonderful for a teen-ager, we can help them and guide them as much as we can.

We have also discussed about a magazine I’d like to start and after chatting a little about this project, the most proeminent blogger in my city declared he’s 100% by my side and he’d help me as much as he could. Now this is really a great result after just 2-3 hours of chatting.

Our first “encounter” was so successful and we had such a nice time with all those strangers that we decided to meet monthly. On the last sunday, each month, we meet in a pub or outside for a barbecue since it’s so nice and warm outside. We have exchanged links, got to know some great people, some even befriended and started meeting outside our events.

This really made me think about the power of local bloggers and the fact many don’t realize all the opportunities. I see many people willing to drive hundreds of miles to God knows what conference, but they never thought about meeting other people from their own town/city who share same ideas and dreams. Sure, those huge conferences do have a point, you get to know the “biggies” in your area, but why not try to meet the local bloggers too? Sometimes you get better results from partnerships with smaller bloggers than with one huge one. Because some of these bloggers, just like you, might become big too. And it would be great to get your name out there, as much as you can.

So … have you ever been into such a meeting? How does the local blogger community look like in your own city?