Category: Trends

My meetup events are a good hobby. I’ve grown a group to be the second largest 20s & 30s social group in the cities in one year, and I didn’t do anything.

I like to do a bunch of random stuff, and I guess that’s what everyone else likes, too. Unfortunately, we live in a stand-on-the-esculator kind of world.

After growing the group (actually, there’s another group too, 7,000 total, some doubled members though), the organizers wouldn’t talk to me. So I just started my own group.

I made it mid 20s so I don’t have kids come to it. I made it “or so” because friends were 39, and I wanted it to not have a hard line. I’m sure other groups have that in their description, but who reads the description when looking at groups? Perhaps everyone but me.

The group is going to tailor more to, well, my kind of people. Truth is, I just want more friends. Not just friends, but awesome friends.

I’ve made some from my events, and I sure have introduced a lot of people to each other (you’re welcome to all my Ukrainian friends).

My events are starting off in the North Loop. Why North Loop? North Loop is an area I want to explore more and rarely get the chance to do so.

Previously, I did that with Uptown.

It’s also really good because I’m learning about venues and making contacts, as I plan on making business events very soon, meaning before next tax season.

History-buff friends may be looking at my event location and thinking I’m looking back in the history book, but I’m only going forward. Speaking of which, I’ll be announcing the next chapter on Friday.

On my birthday, I told all of you Facebookers “thank you for the wishes” and that “for 31, it’s time to get going.”

You may have wondered what I meant by that. While it could have meant a lot of things, as I am getting a lot of things in gear right now, but it didn’t.

Naturally, I was talking about events. My social events aren’t a big deal, but I brought a couple groups from initially less than 600 members and no events to over 5,000, just from my events. I kindly asked the organizers if I could talk to them. I basically wanted more control over the groups. They kindly didn’t get back to me, which is Minnesota Nice, I guess.

So I formed my own group, Mid 20s-30s (or so) Twin Cities Social on Meetup http://www.meetup.com/Mid-20s-30s-or-so-Twin-Cities-Social/

Basically, I had some friends who were 39, so I wanted them to still come. Also, I didn’t want as many college kids. Not a big deal, but I wanted everyone to be in the same place in life. I also wanted to help build collections. My friend D complained that meetup people are just at meetups. I wanted to make my group integrated with FB, so you could make a new friend and they could keep in contact by likes and such.

I kind of don’t think my friend will commission anymore since I introduces him to a friend at an event and he dated her for a couple weeks. Who knows. But there’s more.

I’m also using it to get closer to restaurant management. Not so they can be my clients, but for the main thing on which I’m going to start to get going: business events.

I’m great at events, I’m great at teaching, I go to business events a lot, and I know exactly what’s missing in the business event world.

I’m going to have two kinds of events. Without giving away things while they’re in the development stage, I’ll have one type of event that will teach people the basics. The other one will teach them how to kick it up a notch.

The latter one needs more development. The fist one is about 30% created. It is fully conceptualized and it’s infrastructure is being made.

But that’s what I meant. I want 2016 to be another year of unprecedented growth. So far, YTD sales are only up 28% over 2014.

Kicking it up a notch keeps me busy!

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There seems to be confusion about what’s going on with the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

Is this it’s last year? Is next year? Will prices go up even more?
I spoke to an insider and have the answers.

First of all, no, this is not the last year. One of my clients is a partnership that has very strong connections in the leadership, so not only did I get several tickets to visit, but I also talked to Gregory, the man who is in charge of the partnership, and this is what he said:
The Ren Fest will definitely be there for the 2016 season. The lease on the lad expires after December 31, 2016.

However, the developers are looking at other land, and he said the most likely parcels are within 15 miles of the current one.

Further, the Ren Fest will buy the land, instead of leasing it.
More importantly, he said that should lead to such non-Renaissance luxuries such as running water and electricity. I’m pretty sure the electricity will be for things like ovens and credit card machines.

He told me more interesting things about the Fest itself. He said the shops are actually owned by the merchants. As such, one of the considerations the festival is making is how much to comp people for their shop.

Gregory told me that some shop keepers have been there for over 30 years (it opened in 1971), and see the move as a natural end to a good run.

Naturally, this makes room for ‘new’ and ‘innovative’ Renaissance artisans (quote because it’s the Renaissance, folks. There’s nothing new about it).

He told me that as buildings and shops needed replacement, for the last 5 years or so shops have been build with kind of a detachable fou
ndation.

He assured me that the Renaissance Festival is not going awayanytime soon, so we’ll all be able to go to it and see what we love.

People who even vaguely know me know that I make a lot of social events in Uptown. Weekdays, weekends. After work to late night. I’ve noticed things that are useful for event planners:
In general, there is an area of Uptown that mostly caters to the post-college “going out” kind of person. This is officially Uptown, according to Google Maps. There is another area of Uptown that caters to those in the early-career stage “going out”. This is Lynne-Lake.

In Uptown, you have popular bars such as the Uptown Tavern, Bar Louie, Calhoun Square, etc. In general, you also have a ton of shopping, and it’s more “trendy”. It easily attracts a younger crowd, as they don’t have their own style yet, so “popular” is best for them. Uptown is busier, too. It appeals to the masses. And that’s great sometimes. Comedy Sportz caters to the younger crowd, as it is short-form improv, meaning it requires less attention span and tends to include more physical humor.

Some of the best attractions in trendy Uptown are Bar Louie, Calhoun Square, and other popular bars. While it is a little between, Coup d’Etait is in Uptown.

Some different Uptown locations give a style a little different than most of Uptown. For instance, Famous Dave’s does not typically cater towards a young crowd. It’s one of the few places in the Cities that consistently has good jazz and a dance floor. There are dance lessons and dancing tends to be more organized than just club dancing. I secretly want to tell everyone my age who dances at a club to learn how to dance.

Obviously, nicer restaurants don’t cater towards the young crowd. I still need to explore Uptown south and west of Calhoun Square. That is on my summer itinerary.

Lynne-Lake is awesome, as it caters mostly to my age group.

My three favorite places are obviously HUGE Theater, Louie’s Wine Dive, and HUGE Theater. I just know a lot of people, so my opinion may be a little slanted.

HUGE Theater has “long form improv”, meaning instead of “Whose Line Is It Anyways”-like skits that last 10 minutes, they have one, 45 minute skit. The players are more intellectually engaging, and the shows are very entertaining. The disadvantage is that sometimes if I walk in late, I have no idea what’s going on, adn I usually have to wait until the next show to have a good idea.

The Bryant Lake Bowl is another area that is split. The bowling part obviously caters towards the young crowd, but they also have theatre.

Lynne-Lake generally has less parking than Uptown, but it’s pretty much always free.

The Herkimer is also a nice Lynne-Lake place. It fulfills the general “bar” needs without specialties like wine or bikers (there’s a biker bar right on Lyndale and Lake St.

Much like with everything in life, a good mix between Uptown and Lynne Lake is best. Each one offers its own uniquities.