Please join us on Sunday December 18 at 3:00 p.m. at Connor’s Lake Dog Park for a walk in the woods with your pooch.
Big and small pups are welcome. We have had quite a few puppy tweet-ups in the past and they have been a lot of fun, so please join us!
Contact @mayor_of_twtr or @valette with questions
In early 2009 — nearly 3 years ago now — the Alaska Tweets community started to form. And in the years since a lot has happened. Too many tweetups to count, and not just in Anchorage. Seriously — check out the Flickr Pool.
Well, it’s time for another Tweetup. Just for fun. No agenda.
For those new to Twitter, this is a chance to meet in person the people that you follow and that follow you online. A chance to use more than 140 characters and get to know people better. It’s casual, social, and yes, you’re allowed to stare at your smartphone screen as much as you like. 
Getting back to 2009, when Tweetups were still new, @MKinMotion was one of the earliest to join the Alaska Tweets community. He was a friendly face with a passion for music, photography, and, well… Spenard Roadhouse. We’re expecting him at the Tweetup on Friday, but sadly this may be Matt’s final Tweetup on the Last Frontier — he’s moving south very soon.
Matt didn’t want a big send-off Tweetup event in his honor. So this is the “Not-About-Matt All-Hands Tweetup” to which everyone is invited — even if you’ve never met Matt. The point is to socialize, hang out, and get a drink with friends that share jokes and news and links and photos online together. Laid-back. Just like Matt. (But it’s not about him — we swear!)
Remember: This is not about Matt. But you know, it would be nice if you said hello. And goodbye.
@MKinMotion photos all borrowed from the Alaska Tweets Flickr Pool. Photos by @Valette, @Okiave, @jmproffitt, and the late @hogbiker, among others.
Alaska Tweets’ very own Marian Call / @mariancall has completed her multi-year labor of love: a double-album of original music called Something Fierce. If you’ve lived in Alaska for even just a little time, you’ll recognize a lot of the Last Frontier in there — though all the tracks have universal appeal. The album was officially released October 1 and Marian’s been doing events Outside since then.
But today she’s back in Anchorage and this Friday she’s doing a solo hometown concert to celebrate the launch.
The concert is not a tweetup, but it’s definitely an event our Alaska Tweets friends may want to check out. Here are the details:
We hope to see you at the Snow Goose this Friday, or at least let’s tweet some Marian Call lyrics back and forth, like a secret code!
October 18 is Alaska Day, a day for State workers to stay home because, you know… why not? It also commemorates the sale of Alaska to the United States from Russia.
But this year it also commemorates the first Tweetup hosted by Alaska Airlines in the State of Alaska.
We don’t have a lot of details, but it sounds pretty darn good, and you might like to sign up and attend, even if this is a last-second notification. Here’s what we know:
Special thanks go to @alaskanexplorer for being this little birdie’s little birdie — she mentioned it in passing on Monday, and that’s how we found out about it. Of course, if she actually attends, it will be her first tweetup. Not an official AlaskaTweets tweetup, though, so it won’t count on her punch card. (Mwahahahaaa!)
If you plan to go, be sure to sign up. You can see who else has signed up while you’re there.
Have you noticed there’s a new restaurant in town and they are just cah-razy for the social media? Yep, I’m talking about Table 6, the new midtown gastropub on Denali, just south of Benson. They tweet from @Table6 and post at this thing called Facebook (did I spell that right?) here.
If you go to Table 6 between now and Monday, be sure to put your Twitter name on your receipt — the owner is collecting them and tracking who’s been there lately. Why? Because they’re going to hold a drawing for a secret prize this Monday, August 1.
To give away the prize and celebrate the Alaska Tweets Twitter community’s support of Table 6 in its first 60 days, they’re hosting a Tweetup! So mark you calendars and be there:
Please sign up at Twtvite if you’re coming!
In the mean time, be sure to follow @Table6, put your Twitter name(s) on any receipts during lunch, dinner or drink visits, and… try the “Jenga” Churros.
We’ll be there with name tags (not as fancy as the End of the World Tweetup, though), so even our newest family members are welcome — we want to meet you!
Questions? Contact @Table6 or @AlaskaTweets.
After some confusion, discussion and a much larger turn-out for the venue than we had anticipated, we have been able to reschedule this event. We would love to see everyone who responded to the original event take this opportunity to celebrate his life and the impact he had on all of his “Tweeps” in this final tweetup.
Please join us for a farewell Tweetup for our dear sweet @hogbiker. That infectious laugh, the humorous one-liners. If you knew him, you loved him. Come out and tell us a story about Karl and meet many of the people who knew and loved him.
Come out and have some dinner, drinks and fellowship to honor our friend Karl.
Kids are welcome with parents (up to 9:00 p.m.). We are set to have a bar open for us on the patio, but they will move us upstairs and inside if the weather isn’t so great.
We will have a donation jar for the family if you are so inclined. Or you can send donations via PayPal to Karl’s daughter: crowbreak@gmail.com. Finally, @jmproffitt will be on hand to swipe your credit or debit card for donations if you’re short on cold, hard cash.
If you’re planning on coming, please REGISTER online here so we can prepare for the right size crowd.
We hope to see you there!
This Saturday motorcyclists in Alaska — especially friends of recently-departed @hogbiker — are encouraged to participate in a fundraiser for Karl’s family while enjoying a group ride from Anchorage to Summit Lake Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula.
Details are over on Facebook, but in short, be ready to ride at 10:30 a.m. in South Anchorage on Saturday, June 25, and pick up one card at each of 4 more stops along the way to the Lodge — Girdwood, Turnagain Pass, Hope Junction and finally the Lodge itself.
It’s $10 per hand, and you can play as many hands as you like. Proceeds go to the LeRay family to help cover funeral and related expenses.
Thanks to long-time AlaskaTweets pal @BigDaveGrizzly for organizing and promoting this event!
Bad News: I sold my motorcycle a couple months back, so I had to stand on the sidelines for the @hogbiker (Karl LeRay) memorial biker escort.
Good News: I was able to shoot a little video at the escort to share.
Plus, there are photos available on Flickr here. There will be more.
We ran into some problems with planning the “A Farewell to Karl” event and must develop a new plan. Here’s what’s up:
[1] Official Memorial Service Set
Posted on Facebook, the family’s official memorial service and celebration is set for this Thursday, June 23 from 4:00pm to 8:00pm at Janssen’s Evergreen Memorial Chapel in downtown Anchorage. A prayer ceremony is set for 7:00pm. There is a motorcycle escort from the funeral home to the crematorium scheduled for 3:00pm.
Be sure to review the event on Facebook and note whether you’re attending so the family knows the number of people attending.
This is the primary memorial and we wouldn’t think of setting up a conflicting event. Which brings us to the next point…
[2] “A Farewell to Karl” Is Overloaded and Must Move
Our event, originally intended for @hogbiker‘s Twitter friends and other social media acquaintances for this Wednesday evening, has grown to more than 70 people since being posted last week. We had planned to gather at Spenard Roadhouse, but they can handle, at most, only 30 people. We’re now more than double that number, so we need to move elsewhere.
We looked into moving the event to Embassy Suites, where we had another large, successful Tweetup in the past. They’re not available on Wednesday. But they are available Thursday. That sounded great… until the family’s event was set for Thursday evening.
So no day can work at Spenard Roadhouse due to group size. And Thursday won’t work anywhere due to the memorial service conflict. We need other options.
[3] Our Solution: Cancel and Reschedule
We still want to have an event to remember our friend Karl. But since neither Wednesday nor Thursday will work, we have to arrange something else. Starting Tuesday (6/21) we will look into options for this Friday or sometime next week.
Please note we expect to charge for the new event — for two reasons. First, because renting space and buying catering for such a large group costs real money, and second, we want to raise money to help Karl’s family pay for the memorial expenses. We’re thinking somewhere around $10 per person to cover the space rental, hors d’oeuvres and soft drinks for attendees, then a hosted cash bar. Details when we post the event.
We will directly email everyone that signed up for this event and invite folks to sign up for the next event. We will also post the event details here at alaskatweets.com and post via the @alaskatweets account.
Our apologies for the confusion, but as you can imagine, a lot of details had to be worked out by the family in the last few days. And we didn’t expect such a large turnout — though we’re heartened by the response!
For now, here’s what you can do:
We hope to see you at the memorial service Thursday. And at our own gathering as soon as it’s scheduled.
We will reschedule this memorial tweetup for Friday, 6/25 or later. Details to be posted here at alaskatweets.com and the @alaskatweets account.
Original post follows…
It’s been a terrible day for a lot of us in Anchorage and beyond, as we learned that a great friend passed away overnight: Karl LeRay — our very own @hogbiker.
There’s no way for us to capture the magnitude of our loss effectively right now, but we can at least gather to share memories and honor the life of this veteran, biker, father, teacher, friend, businessman, radio host, and social media pal. In fact, we already have. There were two lunch gatherings earlier today — one in Anchorage (thanks @onefunnybroad), one in Juneau (thanks @awpz) — and a karaoke bar gathering this evening.
This one is next Wednesday, June 22, so folks have time to prepare and by then we’ll probably know more about how the family, including @crowbeak, would like to handle things and whether there’s anything the AlaskaTweets community can do to help.
For now, please check your calendar and see if you can join us for this informal memorial gathering:
The details and the sign-up is over at Eventbrite. PLEASE SIGN UP. We need a tight estimate of attendance so we can advise the venue ahead of time and/or change venues. Plus if you sign up, we can email you with any updates.
Meanwhile, we’ll all continue to grieve in our own ways. We hope to see you there with happier remembrances and kind words for Karl’s legacy.
UPDATED 05/20/2011 AT 1:45PM
Here we are. Together. At the edge of the universe, looking into the abyss. Mere hours from Judgment Day.
Who’s ready for some beer and burgers?!?!
Apparently the following people are ready to party at The End of the World. They signed up and we’ve got custom Twitter name badges for all of them. Even if you haven’t signed up, here’s your chance to hang out at the cool kids’ table — and listen to @mariancall — one last time:
Bring your smartphone, your camera, your sense of humor and the curiosity to meet new Twitter people and hang out with old Twitter pals. Share social media tips, talk about the summer plans you won’t be able to use after Saturday, and enjoy a cold Snow Goose microbrew.
And if you’re a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fan, don’t forget your towel.
Finally, don’t forget these Tweetup details:
We’ll see you there!
Man, everyone is getting in on the End of the World action these days. Stephen Colbert just alerted his viewers to the perils of May 21. “Folks: This means there are only 11 shopping days until there are no shopping days.“
But before Judgment Day got the coveted Colbert Bump, local songstress Marian Call setup her last concert ever, right alongside our last Tweetup ever. You’ll be there to tweet and to take in the smart and sassy singing, won’t you?
So far we’ve got 34 tweeps signed up to hang out with new and old Alaska Tweets pals. Where will they be? When? How can you get in on the fun?
As we mentioned in the original post, this is a No Agenda™ Tweetup — no theme (well, mostly), no fundraising, no greater purpose than getting Alaska Twitter friends together in the same place at the same time to chat, eat, drink and be merry. All social, all the time. We’re especially interested in getting new friends to join us, so please invite anyone that’s never been to a tweetup before.
In the mean time, get your affairs in order. We’ll see you at the Snow Goose!
And stay tuned for information on the Pearly Gates Tweetup.
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