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"The short version: Mashable is launching a Press and Blogger Lounge at Mashable Monthly San Francisco, August 21st.  Bloggers, photographers and online video creators are asked to arrive at 5.30pm to set up.  Tickets to the entire event are available here.\n\u2014\nMashable's SummerMash US Tour was, by all accounts, a huge success - financially and strategically for Mashable, but far more so for the thousands of attendees.  More than 3000 entrepreneurs, investors, journalists, bloggers and tech addicts turned out to events across the US - as evidenced by the thousands of Flickr photos.  Getting to know my Facebook friends and fellow Twitter users in person has fundamentally changed how I use those services...for the better.  If you attended an event, I hope it did the same for you too.\nAnd yet...these aren't parties as such - they're very much networking events.  Business cards flow around the room faster than free drinks, and the first question to arise in conversation is inevitably \"what's your Twitter name?\"\n\nMost of the value-add comes later, online - an outpouring of blog posts, videos and Flickr photos concretes those relationships, sparking a flurry of new connections on LinkedIn, Twitter and the rest.\nGoing forward, we want to emphasize this \"value add\".  How, we asked ourselves, can we:\n-ensure more coverage for the startups in attendance\n-foster more social media creation at these events\n-provide more \"quiet spaces\" to encourage conversations about social media issues?\nAnd so, at the very first Mashable Monthly in SF next week, we'll become the city's first monthly tech gathering with dedicated resources for bloggers, press and social media creators.  The Press &amp; Blogger Lounge will consume most of the lower floor of ROE, on San Francisco's Howard Street, and provide tables, power, wifi, pizza and a quiet space from which to blog or conduct interviews with attendees.\nThe Press and Blogger Lounge opens early - at 5.30pm - and you're welcome to store laptops, cases and power cords there once the partying begins upstairs at 7pm.  For security reasons, access will be granted at the discrimination of the staff, and priority will be given to those with Blogger Passes (these are being distributed at WordCamp San Francisco on Saturday, August 16th).  \nLook out for more updates as we draw closer to next week's event, and don't forget to BUY A TICKET before we sell out!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/15/mashable-monthly-blogger-lounge/>