PodCampDC Happy Hour: Social Schmoozing, Secret Handshakes and Unauthorized Persons on the Track

Friday night was the pre-PodCampDC Happy Hour at the Capitol City Brewery in Capitol Hill (moved from the location downtown).

I got there more or less on time. John Croston was outside, and as we headed in, we met up with Justin Thorpe and started picking up steam.

The setup was in the back room. There was a cash bar (only without the bar -- a few of the waitstaff ran orders to the front of the house.) I chatted for a bit with Nick O'Neill and Jessie Newburn and gleaned what bits I could from the Wisdom of Consultants (Jessie is also going to be doing a session tomorrow about social media across generations.)

Of course, Aaron was there, though he wasn't streaming. I guess that's tomorrow.

Judging by the cards I collected, I spoke to a pretty good mix of media types -- Lauren from National Geographic (and she knows the AOL alums I know over there); Kerri Forrest from NBC News (and of course she knows New Media Jim); independent filmmakers (Carl Eyster; also Christina Ruppert from the 48 Hour Film Project); and oh, even a few podcasters (the prolific Jerry Brito; Michael and Melissa, dating podcasters, in both senses of the term).

I also ran into a bunch of folks who I'd seen in various Twitter incarnations. And there were more photographers than you could shake a stick at -- there were so many cameras flashing, I didn't bother with any pictures. (Well, I took one, but it sucked.)

Let's see, other than that, I went through most of my usual social media conversational stock lines (remember, if you haven't heard me say it, it's new to you); I did get to work a reference to the uncanny valley, and I was subject to a secret handshake that is apparently similar to the APO secret handshake (but wasn't). (Note: The point of doing a secret handshake is generally lost if the recipient of said handshake, whether by cluelessness or malice, gauchely blurts out, "Hey, that was a secret handshake, right?")

Things broke up before 11pm, but I didn't feel like staying out, so I headed home. I would be lying if I said it didn't have anything to do with catching the replay of tonight's Battlestar Galactica.

I almost didn't make it in time -- as I twittered, the train was stuck in Farragut West for about 10 or 15 minutes, due to "*garble**garble**static* unauthorized person on the track at Rosslyn."

Though it gave me time to finish my crossword puzzle.

Sessions start tomorrow morning. I anticipate I will be tired for the first few.

Tags: podcampdc