Courtesy of My Accidental Muse

Update:  Online experience is “real life” so I’ve come to use the phrase “face-to-face” instead of “in real life.”

I was checking my twitter timeline on my way from the airport to my hotel in Newport, Rhode Island for the NASPATech Conference when I realized I was missing out on the experience of seeing this new place for the very first time. While it was late at night and it was hard to see outside from the shuttle van, it was an experience I told myself I should not be taking for granted.

At that moment of realization, I put my iphone away and started a conversation with the driver, talking about the signs on the roads and how I noticed that Newport seems to be surrounded by water. I learned some things about him like he used to live in Orange County in California but he was born in Massachusetts.

I know some folks at this conference via twitter and I’m thankful for being introduced this way. I will make the effort however to make sure to have more  conversations rather than tweeting and looking down my iphone, missing the experience of meeting these folks in real life.