The first event to give Memphis some much-deserved national attention was the LaunchMemphis TechFuel night featuring Business Week writer, Yahoo! TechTicker host, and blogger, Sarah Lacy.  Sarah, being a Memphis native, was already familiar with the local business climate.  After interacting with a full host of entrepreneurs during the stop on her User Generated Book Tour, Sarah wrote an epic blog post about what Memphis is doing right.

The Geoff Livingston tweetup on the 22nd was the second event to spawn great press from a better source.  Geoff, author of Now is Gone and top ranked PR blog The Buzz Bin, met with a group of Memphis entrepreneurs and Social Media proponents at Quetzal cafe, where he got to know several members of the business community, and shared some great conversations everyone there.  Afterwards, The Buzz Bin interviewed LunaWeb President and LaunchMemphis co-founder, Dave Barger, about the future of entrepreneurial Memphis and Social Media.  You can see the post here.

If you missed Sarah and Geoff, there’s still more on the horizon in Social Media.  Upcoming on the calendar is the Social Media Breakfast on October 1.  As well as Barcamp Memphis on November 7-8

It’s an exciting time to be a Memphian!  Let’s keep up the good work and continue to make Memphis great.

Monday night, Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone and his PR blog, “The Buzz Bin,” met for a tweetup at Quetzal cafe in downtown Memphis.  Attendees included everyone from seasoned Social Media veterans, to several fresh faces looking to see what the web has to offer their business.

Despite the excitement surrounding Geoff’s attendance, the evening took on a very relaxed tone as the crowd mixed through the room networking, finding familiar faces, and engaging the featured guest in conversations about the state of the blogosphere and the benefits of Social Media for business.

As the evening progressed, the tweetup culminated in a Geoff becoming the centerpiece of a group discussion, moderated by LunaWeb’s Dave Barger, where an eager group shared their ideas and questions about Social Media, while the Washington D.C. based PR and blogging guru addressed each topic, drawing from his own experience for examples and anecdotes.

The event was a huge success for LaunchMemphis and a great experience for all of the attendees.  Upcoming on the Social Media horizon is the Socia Media Breakfast on October 1st at the Crescent Club.  The breakfast is open to everyone!  See details on the Meetup page.

After some initial meet-and-greet time, the evening started off with some quality time with the internet celebrity.  Sarah spent about 20 minutes talking about her experience in Silicon Valley, sharing moments from her book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, and answering questions from an eager assembly.  After that… the party started.

The group dispersed to the next room over to mingle over drinks and food, while Sarah signed books and gave advice to some very eager Memphis Entrepreneurs.  For 3 straight hours, with the support a single Heineken, Sarah spoke to every single person who approached her at the event.  Some of these conversations were simply humorous anecdotes of Silicon Valley personalities, while others were filled with unflinchingly delivered, hard, straight-shooting advice to entrepreneurs who willingly took the kind-hearted criticism she delivered.

The next LaunchMemphis event will be with PR guru Geoff Livingston at the Quetzal coffee shop on Monday the 22nd from 7-9 p.m.  Geoff is the author of Now is Gone and high-profile blog writer.  Join the Facebook event for more details!