Tampa Tweetup at the Florida Aquarium

This past weekend, I attended the Tampa Tweetup at the Florida Aquarium (701 Channelside Dr Tampa, FL 33602, (813) 273-4000). This was my second tweetup and my first time at the aquarium.

The thing I’ve come to expect from Tweetups was proven at this meeting. Everyone is supposed to come together to mix and mingle, but there’s really just a lot of thumbs on keypads as people compete over the tweet wall. This wall, being updated constantly by tweeters in the room, occasionally makes me laugh but a lot of it is self service non-sense as well.

The Tweetup was organized by Julia Gorzka of BrandTampa fame. She made a quick introduction with that crazy energy that she has. Then, we had to sit through a presentation by the aquarium staff, a small payment of time in return for getting to use the aquarium for our meeting (no cover charge!). Thankfully, I was already pretty liquored up by the time that started so I kind of drifted in and out of consciousness.

I got bored of the Tweetup aspect pretty quickly and moved out into the aquarium with a small group, snapping photos and taking in the many exhibits. The aquarium itself has some interesting stuff, but nothing I’d ever pay the $20ish to attend.

For instance, their “shark tank” didn’t have a single Great White, or even a Bull Shark. The sharks they did have were the kind you can buy at an exotic fish store. Not impressed. The scariest thing they had was a giant grouper, which I immediately thought would make an awesome sandwich. I also didn’t see one squid. Really? An aquarium without a squid?

Here’s a few picture highlights:

Social Activism Social Networking Florida Aquarium, tweetup