Quoted in News & Observer about Deep Fried Triangle Tweetup

Today’s Raleigh News & Observer features an article about the upcoming NC State Fair and the Deep Fried Triangle Tweetup that my business partners and I helped organize.

Even if you don’t play the plastic guitar or send text messages to your BFFs, you’ll be welcome at the first Deep Fried Triangle Tweetup, an event organized with OurHashtag, a Triangle-based social media group.

The group tries to host tweetups each quarter, said Jeffrey L. Cohen, a partner in OurHashtag. Tweetups allow people who know each other from Twitter, the microblogging site, to meet in person and share ideas about online communication.

“It’s a way to get together to put a face with a Twitter name,” Cohen said.

The first Triangle tweetup in 2007 attracted five people to a coffee shop. The group’s 2009 spring get-together attracted 250 people.

Attendees at the fair tweetup will be able to sample some of the fair’s deep-fried offerings, interact with fair entertainers and participate in a scavenger hunt using Twitter.

While most of these competitions are aimed at young people, [state fair spokesman Brian] Long hopes they don’t spend all their time in the gaming tent.

“If we can get young people in and still use the fair to educate them about the importance of agriculture, that’s a good thing.”