From the familiar stomping grounds of the Blackfinn to a new fave of Rochester Mills Beer Company, 2012 was awesome.
January saw us wrapping up loose ends from our first Support The Troops event, so we were already starting off on a good note.
Our events throughout the rest of the year kept gaining steam, especially after we finally went public with IT in the D.
We added new venues into the mix like Tipsy McStaggers and Clubhouse BFD, and even went with a new place, Woody’s, for our Pink Slip Party in June.
As more and more solidified with IT in the D, we built up towards another great year-end Support The Troops event that somehow managed to even blow away our inaugural effort.
But now…standing on the tip of things bridging the gap between 2012 and 2013…it wasn’t really as much of a roller coaster as we thought it was along the way.
Oh it’s still part of the coaster experience…but in hindsight, 2012 was just the steep ride up before the real insanity starts…
A greater writer than I will ever be once penned the phrase “It was the best of times…it was the worst of times…”
In many ways, there’s not a more accurate statement to describe 2012.
If there’s one thing we learned a hard lesson on, it’s that we have to be more careful who we “float” our ideas past. IT in the D is something that we’ve been working towards and building for three years now, and we clearly chose incorrectly in a few cases. Lesson learned.
Let’s call that a bump in the track, or maybe even one of those gut-wrenching drops that makes you wonder if that funnel cake was such a good idea, and please god just don’t hurl when the stupid ride-cam takes a picture…
But the ride continues. IT in the D continues to move forward.
And it’s not like it was all bad. Oh heavens, no. We met some amazingly awesome people through our events over the course of this past year, quite a few of whom have become regular anchors of our group at this point. We’re thrilled to have them engaged and working with us not only on IT in the D, but our events in general and other things that we’ve got going on.
Such a crazy ride of those events through. From the snow that graced our winter month events through the heat that got washed away with a rolling line of thunderstorms during our Pink Slip Party in June (and yes, lesson learned…no more Pink Slip Party events in June. Or July. Or August, for that matter), it was definitely a fun year for events.
As far as milestones go, November and December saw a couple of momentous ones for us.
In November, we stopped trying to half-ass this so much and actually became a corporation.
Yeah, we know…kind of freaky to us, too.
On top of that, the ball’s rolling to become a 501c3 non-profit organization. Why? Because we’re genuinely looking forward to taking this to the next level when it comes to helping people, that’s why. It’s not going to make life any easier on us, in fact it opens us up to a lot more scrutiny, and means we have to be even more careful lest we become Fallen Angels…and you know how much we’ll fight to ever keep that from happening.
December’s milestone was our five year mark of getting serious about this in the first place, and so, of course, we celebrated with a few beers back where that particular ball got rolling.
That sound you hear? That’s the tacketyticketytacketytickety sound of the car we’re in getting closer to the top of that big hill we’ve been climbing.
So yes, we’re still somewhat riding the high from our Support The Troops event and all of the great things that happened that night…
…but we’re also very aware that we can no longer see the track ahead of us, which means that we’re getting ready to start the ride down…
Friday, January 4th. Star Wars Night at the Palace. Turns out you can still get tickets if you want: http://www.ITinTheD.com/event/star-wars-night-at-the-palace/
Thursday, January 17th. Como’s. Casual Networking Event for information technology folks upstairs in the private room. http://www.ITinTheD.com/event/january-casual-networking-social-2/
Thursday, February 21st. Falling Down Beer Company. Casual Networking Event for information technology folks. http://www.ITinTheD.com/event/february-casual-networking-social-2/ Oh, and February is another milestone. ITintheD.com started in February of 2001. Happy birthday to us.
…and then the real madness hits. IT in the D. March 13th. Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit. http://www.ITinTheD.com/it-in-the-d/
And yep, we know…by this time last year we already had the first six months of events out and published. Actually, we do have a good chunk of the year in progress, but our focus is almost exclusively on IT in the D at this point.
tacketyticketytacketytickety
Please keep all arms and legs inside the car at all times, folks.
tacketyticketytacketytickety
You didn’t have the funnel cake…
…did you?