Beer with Bloggers is this Thursday evening in Ypsilanti… and you don’t have to be a blogger to attend

I just wanted to quickly remind everyone that the big Beer with Bloggers event will be taking place this Thursday evening at the Corner Brewery, in Ypsilanti. In addition to myself, we’ll be joined by the likes of Chris from Eclectablog, Ben from Damn Arbor, Murph from Common Monkeyflower, Anne from The Savage Feast, Sam from Sam’s Thoughts, Christine from Blogging for Michigan, Whitney from The Creationista, Vinnie from VinnieMassimino.com, Elizabeth from Wits and Vinegar, Leslie from Painting with Fire, Patti from The Palate of Patti, and Tony from First Shift with Tony Trupiano. And that’s just the folks that I know for certain will be there. I suspect there will be quite a few more… Among others, I’ve heard from Mike from the Cashiers du Cinemart blog, Steven from EMU Talk, Hillary from The Hamtramck Star, and Jeff from Concentrate that they’re hoping to attend as well… So, I’d say we should be close to reaching critical mass.

I should add that you don’t have to operate a blog to attend. I thought the “with” in the title of the event made that obvious, but I just heard from someone who wasn’t aware that he, as a non-blogger, could attend. I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, but, as much as I’m looking forward to meeting my fellow bloggers, I’m probably looking forward to meeting my readers even more. So, if you’ve got some time free, please drop in and say hello. It’s not very often that us bloggers, who, by and large, are an anti-social lot, get motivated to emerge from our parents’ basements and mix with surface dwellers, so we’d like to cram in as much meaningful dialogue as possible into this two hour span of time… So, come and engage with us. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, what’s important to you, etc… Seriously, we want to know. As I’ve said before, without blog readers, blogs are nothing. And I really mean that.

I don’t want to overstate it, but this, as I see it, is about more than just drinking beer with people whose writing we like. This is about engaging in a conversation about how we, as a community, come together, leveraging the online tools that are available to us, to make Michigan a better place to live, do business, grow as human beings, and raise our families… At least until we’ve had our first few beers. Then, who knows.

If you’re planning to come, and feel inclined to do so, you can RSVP here, on Facebook.

See you Thursday.

Oh, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that, while a little good natured sparring with those who disagree with us can be fun, we’d rather not have to spend our evening fending off assassination attempts. So, if you feel as though you might need to punch one of us, if you should meet us in person, we’d appreciate it if you’d just stay home and work on your trolling skills.