Online communities continue to move offline

Anyone who doubts the committed audience of online communities should have gone with me to Miami Yelp’s Spice Trade hosted by the Mandarin Oriental, where local reviewers could mesh in real life. It was quite a happening, with some of the Miami’s leading restaurants offering up Chinese dumplings, Indian curry, California rolls, cupcakes, and exotic drinks to match. Entertainment included tents with henna painting, hand massage, and Bijoux Terner provided a choice of a free piece of costume jewelry. Norwegian Cruise Lines had a glass sculpture of their new ship Epic, with a bench in front where people could (and were) snapping photos with the ship in the background. The event was full of 20 and 30-something year olds, just the kind of demographic that many marketers covet. The email campaign they sent me was effective and efficient – an evite to rsvp, confirming my attendance.

We’re believers that this is a trend that will have legs. As most of the country’s top networking experts agree, an online network can grow faster and have longer life if the network offers its members face-to-face meeting opportunities, making the networking more “real” at a local level. A network is tribal and people want to know who their chief is. Facebook started at Harvard because founder Mark Zuckerberg was at Harvard. A successful online network is a materialization of a network that already exists outside…but it has to have street cred to really succeed.