It all started during a discussion with Michael Schneider about the burrito, which we both agree  is the perfect food. We thought it be great to get a bunch of people together who also felt the same way about burritos as we did.

The BurritUp was born.

You see, one of my favorite things to do is bring people together around common interests and passions. In this case, the focus was centered around the burrito – plain and simple.

The plan was to keep this little TweetUp low-key, but the day I posted the event on Eventbrite, it was written about within The Brookline Tab Blog by Neal Simpson (who also attended the BurritUp with a photographer for a story he wrote about the event here). Through the power of word of mouth, or Twitter in this case, buzz continued to build about our little “BurritUp” and before we knew it, there were 60 people signed up to share some burritos with us.

John Pepper, CEO and founder of Boloco, who always looks for opportunities to connect with customers offline as well as online, loved the idea and decided to come along. He also gave all the BurritUp attendees gift cards to come back for a free burrito. Before the BurritUp began we had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he uses social media to market Boloco and future plans for the business. Please check out the video interview below.

Ultimately 45 burrito lovers came out to the first ever BurritUp. Which goes to show you that all you need is a great idea, passion,  and some amazing people with big appetites and you have all the ingredients for a successful event! This will certainly not be the last BurritUp and there were a lot of grumblings about other food-related TweetUps that we are sure to see soon!

Want to get a taste of what the BurritUp was all about? Take a peek at this video slideshow of the BurritUp I created below using Animoto’s new video feature (very, very cool). I also included a photo slideshow Steve Garfield pulled together using Animoto (Thanks Steve!)

Other BurritUp photos can be found on Flickr. Videos from the BurritUp can be found on BurritUp TV.

Be sure to follow @BurritUp on Twitter for news about future BurritUps and just talk about burritos.

For my 7 year-old daughter (pictured back row, left), it was her first day of 2nd grade. For my little one (pictured in front, right) it was her very first day of kindergarten and also her first time riding on a school bus – the same bus she watched her sister get on for the past two years and drive away without her.

I thought for sure I would be a mess as my baby got on the bus for the first time, but it was actually the complete opposite. You see, Lauren banged her eye on a table last night and got a HUGE black eye (perhaps you can see it i the picture?) Well, she was hysterically crying this morning (a continuation from last night’s crying) which meant I had to remain strong for her.

But as the bus began its decent down the hill towards our driveway, Lauren snapped out of her crying spell. Even at 5 years-old she knows that first impressions are everything and didn’t want to cry in front of everyone on the bus.

Now it was my moment of weakness. As the girls walked onto the bus I followed behind, ignoring the dirty looks from the bus driver watching me go down the aisle. I wasn’t going to let this “first” moment go without taking this picture – one that I will remember forever.

For all those parents out there…I hope you and your children all had your very own ‘firsts’ that you will remember for years to come.

I have attended and been involved in planning many TweetUps over the past year with my first being an impromptu one I “organized” with @girlgamy and @Geechee_girl at Pocos Bow Street Cantina in Portsmouth, NH. I use the word organize loosely because all we really did was decide we wanted to hang out and meet some people we tweeted with then chose a location and Bam! People actually showed up.

Jeff Cutler & Christine Major MargUp! (photo credit: Steve Garfield http://www.stevegarfield.com & http://www.twitter.com/stevegarfield

Since then, I have planned many other TweetUps including, the #MargUp at Margarita’s in Portsmouth, the #NHTweetUp at The Portsmouth Gas Light Co. (which ended up in the upstairs lounge because it rained) and some movie-themed events such as the #BondUp for the James Bond movie Quantum of Silence and the #BostonBeamUp for the new Star Trek movie. In all cases, we were able to draw a nice group  - both Twitter users and non-Twitter users, who also shared the same passion for networking and just hanging out with friends (along with movies and popcorn).

The latest NHTweetUp - tagged The #DeckUp – took place on 8/12/09 at The Portsmouth Gas Light Co. again, this time on their outdoor deck since the weather actually cooperated with us. Local videographer/photographer Jay Duchin from Duchin Productions attended and brought along his video equipment to capture some on-site interviews and footage of the event. He asked a few attendees, including myself, several questions about TweetUps, specifically what makes for a good event and the benefits of attending a TweetUp. Below is the final version of his video. If you are curious about what a TweetUp is or the value of attending them, you will want to check this out. Better yet, find out when the next TweetUp is taking place in your area and just go!

So what do you think? What makes for a good TweetUp/networking event? Let me know your thoughts with a comment below. Would love to hear from you as I have been having many discussions around this topic lately with varying degrees of responses. A future blog post perhaps? You bet!

Photo credit: MargUp Jeff Cuter & Christine Major photo taken by Steve Garfield

Photo booth picture with Pepere – May 2009

Originally uploaded by cmajor2

Sneaking a shot of my girls and their pepere getting their yearly picture taken at the Hampton Beach Casino photo booth. We have one from every year posted on the fridge.

How do we look?

Originally uploaded by cmajor2

Mother’s Day 2009. A yearly tradition with my girls and their grandfather is to go to the Hampton Beach Casino to get their photos taken in one of the many photo booths. This picture was taken just after as they were waiting for their photo to develop.