Social Media Comes to Elk Grove

Social media has come to Elk Grove.  At last.  We had our first-ever Elk Grove Tweetup last week, and two Sacramento food trucks journeyed here on Saturday.  We are now fully part of the Web 2.0—and all the wonders it can offer. 

Why is that important?   Web 2.0 is an umbrella term for all the elements of the Internet that enable and facilitate collaboration, communication and dialogue between and among all of us no matter where or how we live. Web 2.0 is what makes our world truly a global community.  Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Yelp, Patch—the list seems endless because it grows daily.  Web 2.0 is what gives us—we, the people—our voice.  

Thursday was the Tweetup.  That’s a made-up word: a mashup of Twitter, the now-ubiquitous social network that enables real-time on-line communication in 140 letters or less, and Meetup, the equally-ubiquitous social networking portal that facilitates off-line group meetings among aficionados of any and every topic imaginable.  The Tweetup, then, is a Meetup of people who use Twitter.  

Tweetups are a regular part of communities all over the world; I’ve been going to the Sacramento Tweetups since they started several years ago.  They are, as their organizer—and former Elk Grovian—Alejandro Reyes bills them, “two thirds social and one third business.”  For me the emphasis is on the social—and a chance to try Sac’s ever-growing restaurant and lounge scene. For others, it’s a business networking opportunity where the demographic is broad, yet specifically geared to contemporary concerns.   

Rodney Blackwell, another regular at the Sac Tweetups, decided Elk Grove needed its own.  “I’m interested in bringing community together and getting to know my neighbors better,” he says, “and Twitter is good at lessening the 99-engendered East Elk Grove/West Elk Grove split.” 

Rodney, working with Krista Guerrero of Elk Grove Online, organized the entire event.  They found the sponsoring site—Coaches, the restaurant inside Strikes—and got other sponsors (Sacramento Zoo and Sinful Treats Desserts) onboard to provide the door prizes.  Then they let loose the callout to their Twitter followers with a link to the Eventbrite invitation.

When I arrived at Coaches, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Perhaps it’s that I don’t have kids in school or belong to a local church, but my experience of Elk Grove is that there is limited opportunity for casual socializing.  I travel to Midtown in Sacramento for all my social forays, which doesn’t exactly make me happy.  If this Elk Grove Tweetup works, I thought as I walked into Strikes, then maybe I don’t have to go so far afield to feel part of contemporary culture.  

It was, I’m happy to report, a resounding success and, as the saying goes, a good time was had by all.  Prizes were won, drinks were had, food was eaten, contacts— both social and business—were made.  Rodney tells me they are planning the next one, so keep an eye out for it.  You don’t have to be on Twitter to go, although  you’re missing out on a lot of information, fun and friendship if you’re not. 

And if you’re not on Twitter, you won’t be getting the Tweets from the two mobile food trucks in Sacramento alerting you to where you can find them.  News10’s Suzanne Phan did a story on the nascent mobile food movement in Sacramento.  While these rolling restaurants are all the rage in other cities, Sacramento is far behind because of an ordinance requiring mobile food trucks to move every thirty minutes, something that precludes the complicated food experience they offer.  But there are at least two—Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen and the Miniburger Truck—and last Saturday, they were, miracle of miracles, both in Elk Grove.  I missed the Miniburger Truck (some grinches made them leave their site early) but I was just in time to join the crowd at Drewski’s Hot Rod, which was at one of our playgrounds just off Bilby. Their pumped-up grilled cheese sandwiches are, as they say on some TV show, to die for.  

So, yeah, I ate at a food truck; what’s the big deal?  Think back to one of the first columns I wrote, lamenting the dearth of foodie experiences in Elk Grove.  The food trucks are a way to solve that problem.  There will be about fifteen of them from around Northern California this coming Saturday at the SactoMoFo (Sacramento Mobile Food) Festival, from noon to 6 p.m. at Fremont Park on 16th and Q.  Take your appetite and your urge for face-to-face social networking; maybe the next MoFo Fest will be in Elk Grove.