BlogOn dinner invitation, Friday 23rd

I’ve been asked to co-host a blogger dinner next Friday evening, July 23rd, in association with the BlogOn Conference’s blog. Yes, it’s BlogOn’s Blog’s Blogger Dinner by and for Bloggers, with a side of Blogging.
I’m actually thrilled. My secret confession is that I like dinner parties better than panel discussions.
The cool thing is that even if you aren’t able to attend or afford the conference proper, if you are geographically available, and a blogger, then you’re welcome. Just let us know you’re coming!
The dinner is Friday night, July 23rd at the Pyramid Brewing Company in Berkeley, California. (Nondrinkers note that there is good food and nonalcoholic beverages in the Pyramid’s spacious environs.)
As far as I can tell, agreeing to help host this dinner means I have to eat dinner and hang out and schmooze with a bunch of interesting bloggers, and try to mingle, and especially introduce people who might know each other by reputation but have never met in the all-important flesh.
I’m told I may have one advance copy of my book available by then, too, and if so I’ll at least flash it if not allow people to actually gaze at the tender ripe pages below the cover.
Better yet, the other hosts are some of the coolest nice people andn icest cool people I’ve met in this local bay area blogging occasional-extrovert cabal: Tantek Celik, Cheyenne Burnsworth, Marc Canter, and Mary Hodder.
I knew Tantek’s name from his CSS box model hack and from the utmost respect directed toward him by Zeldman and other standards-conscious design gurus. I met him for the first time in person at one of Dave Winer’s blog dinners in S.F. In fact, it was on that same occasion that I first met Marc Canter although I’d followed his work over the years going back to the Macromind days. I guess I met Pirillo at that dinner too. That was a fun evening. Evhead dropped by. Scoble was there, right? Many other great people.
I still owe Tantek high quality originals from that roll of digital shots. I think I have them. I’ll ftp them soon. Gah! I’m so lame…
I also met Cheyenne at that same dinner – how cool (she almost singlehandledly balanced the gender imbalance at the Technorati salon)! Isn’t there a chance Dave Winer will be in town as well?
And then what evening of blogerati would be complete without the hostly charms of Mary Hodder? She gave the chapters of my book a good grilling and made me work a lot harder to justify my assumptions and connect my case studies and anecdotes. It will be good to catch up on her research and future plans. I know she and Susan Mernit and JD Lasica were a few of the prime movers behind the whole conference.
I suspect that although Susan isn’t listing herself as a co-host that she will still be an identifiable presence at the dinner. Likewise JD and other available luminaries.
Drinks and dinner should run about $25 per person–come for drinks at 6:30 and dinner at 7.
To RSVP, add your name to the wiki. If I know you, and you’re local, and you blog, I don’t want to hear any excuses! (And if I don’t know you, then please introduce yourself that night.)
I’ll be checking the RSVP list on the wiki and nagging anyone I can think of who could make it and hasn’t signed up yet.
(conference, map)