Making Friends Online...

So, this story begins a few years ago...

I saw some Tweets by Dughall where Peter, a Liverpool fan, had taken him to a football game (Liverpool versus Norwich). Dughall had enjoyed the experience and had begun building a friendship with Peter. 

So, me being a Newcastle United season ticket holder, I arranged to meet Dughall and his son prior to Norwich's game at St. James' Park. We had a few drinks, chatted, walked up to the ground, went our separate ways and then summed up the game afterwards. The next season, we met up again before the fixture, but this time, Dughall had Bryn tagging along. So, through Dughall, I'd now made a contact with another member of the 'Educators who Tweet Club', who happened to also be a fellow Newcastle United fan. This resulted in me meeting Bryn with reasonable frequency before games home and away to chat football and education.

So, all very nice so far, but what's my point?

Well, going on a step further, Bryn introduced me to Martin. Another person to chat to before a game, bump into at conferences and converse with in 140 characters. 

Earlier this year, I was looking for someone to lead some online safety workshops with pupils, staff and parents at our school. I tried the local authority, Google and Twitter. I struggled to find anything inspiring and at the right price. So, I mentioned it to Martin - he said yes. Yes to an overnight stay, yes to a 500 mile round trip and yes to working for the day in my school.

He did a great job. I'd thoroughly recommend him. But how did I come to find Martin? Met a man (with some similar interests to me) off Twitter in a pub, met him again and he introduced me to another man and he introduced me to another man. And, after all this Tweeting and meeting in pubs, it lead to ONLINE SAFETY training...