You had me at online...

Have you ever found yourself realizing something that should have dawned on you before, but it never did?

That happened to me today as I was walking through the halls of the office and it was shockingly simple...but it never dawned on me before.

I realized that I love online communities and I have for more than 10 years. You say, "Come on Christine - don't talk crazy talk!" That's impossible there were no online communities 10 years ago!

But it's true!

I've been participating in online communities starting in 1999 when I was planning my wedding. I found that Martha Stewart had an online discussion board where brides of all types could gather and discuss all the intimate, nit picky aspects of wedding planning. We could complain to each other about prices of flowers, dress, invitations, whatever. But there was one thing in common - we all were excited about our wedding.

I have a fair amount of self awareness and I realized quite early on that not many people cared about my wedding as much as I did and REALLY did NOT want to hear it. My outlet for my excitement was Martha Stewart's online discussion board. If fact, I just visited it today and it's still alive and well (http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/community).

It was a little piece of heaven for me - my secret outlet for wedding obsession with a lot of other gals who were equally wedding obsessed (not bridezilla's as today - but just girls who were super excited).

By the time I was expecting Leo I was already on Facebook and LinkedIn (not on Twitter though) - and I as I searched the web for a site that could give me the same sense of community I had when I planned my wedding 8 years before, I ended up at the What to Expect website.

What I loved about this site was that I was not only in a large community of pregnant women, but I was in a subset of women who were all due in the same month as me. I mostly lurked on this site because it often got very "interesting" - but I enjoyed having a place to learn and hear from others who had similar questions/issues/concerns.

So, here I am, participating on Twitter and writing a blog and connecting on Facebook and LinkedIn and it has connected me with a lot of very interesting people, from all walks of life, all different career paths - but we all have one thing in common - we are passionate about the meetings industry and association management.

History is repeating itself my friends - and I'm glad I have you to hang out with!

-Christine