Thank you to all who came out and helped us celebrate our one-year anniversary at the Spitfire Grill. As usual, our members showed up in droves, and we were pleased to have some new faces join us, too.

“It was great to have a time to say thanks to the community that has supported us all year long,” said SMC Seattle President Kevin Urie. “They are an amazing group of people that I’m just glad to be a part of.”

The event was a smashing success, and we are so glad to have had your help in raising funds for the Jolkona Foundation and one of their projects to benefit the Technology Access Foundation (TAF). We hope the raffle winners enjoy the prizes that were donated (some pretty amazing stuff was given away)!

In the end, the event raised $2,650 to support Jolkona Foundation and one of their projects, Technology Access Foundation. The funds raised will provide 35 students with science, math, technology and engineering training through Technology Access Foundation (TAF). Stay tuned for a blog post in a month as we track how our funds are helping Jolkona and the students at TAF.

It’s hard to believe an entire year has passed, and yet when we reflect on all the relationships we’ve built, the time spent planning, the things we’ve learned – well, it’s been a pretty jam-packed twelve months. The key to everything, of course, is the community. It’s what “social media” is all about, right? Building relationships and communicating in an interactive fashion. This year has been about getting to know one another and reviewing the basics; this next year will be more about growth.

“The goal of SMC Seattle is to connect, educate and empower the Seattle social media community,” said Urie.  “We’ve seen some outstanding things happen this year in the community, but we look forward to providing a more educational atmosphere in 2010.”

Some of our goals include:
·         Up-leveling our content to reflect the growing sophistication of our members. Most have the social media concept down, and are looking for more specific, targeted help. We’re going to do our best to provide that. Look for speakers to cover more detailed aspects of SM – e.g. CRM connection, strategy building, ROI tracking, etc.
·         Having larger venues in which to congregate. Ideally, we’d never have events sell out – as it stands we’re 12 for 12. We want to have room for everyone who makes time to join us.
·         Continuing the SMC EDU efforts. We want to keep offering specialty training sessions on relevant SM topics, outside of each monthly “main event.”

How can you help?
Talk to us! Let us know how we’re doing, what you’d like to see, and how you might be able to help. Perhaps your workplace has large meeting rooms available we could use. Maybe you or someone you know is an expert in some aspect of the business of social media, and could be a speaker at an event or an educational session. Possibly your company would like to sponsor an event by covering the cost of appetizers and drinks. There are several ways you can communicate with us:  via our Twitter account, by making comments here on our blog, by engaging with our LinkedIn Group, by using the discussion area of the Facebook Fan Page …if none of these quite work, you can even email us directly.
We’re looking forward to another year of learning, growing and connecting with you!

Thanks again to our sponsors, Seattle.SocialCentral.Net, Spitfire and Gist, and the businesses who so generously donated the raffle prizes, including:  Hotel Max, Kodak, The Ultimate Ears Social Media Team, Cat’s Eye Design, PRWeb, True Fabrications, and Clear Awakening.