Here are a few pics from Wednesday night’s Mpact After Hours at the Orpheum:
Thanks to Chris Allen of Mpact for providing the pics. I took some with my camera too, but his turned out much better. Holy crap he even managed to get a decent picture of me! That almost never happens. By the way, the guy sitting to my right is named Sridhar and he’s a good person to know if you do web development in ASP.NET or PHP – he has positions available NOW. If you want to meet him shoot me an e-mail and I’ll do the introductions.
I titled this post “Mpact Memphis the way it used to be” because it reminded me of the events I attended during Mpact’s golden era from 2002-2004. Members got to socialize and network, got connected to a key element of the community (the Orpheum in this case) and we got to do something most people never get a chance to (sit on the Orpheum’s stage). Everyone got a free pass to one of the Orpheum’s summer movies, and several people won nice door prizes. Pat Halloran gave a presentation to encourage those in the 21-40 age group to get involved in the arts – if not the shows at the Orpheum, then the ballet, the symphony, or one of the other arts organizations around town.
I also noticed that a few of the old-schoolers from Mpact’s golden era are starting to make their way back in. That’s a good sign.
Mpact’s next After Hours will be Tuesday, May 22 at the Flying Saucer… needless to say, I will be there. It will be an NBA lottery draft watch party and will be covered by the local media. Members of the Grizzlies’ dance team and mascot Grizz will be there. There will be Grizzlies-related door prizes to win. And best of all, there will be waitresses in miniskirts serving beer. Here’s the flyer (click for a larger image):
That happens to be Tuesday Trivia Bowl at the Saucer as well. Rapscallions: I’ll need to hand off the team captain role/power of the pen to someone else that night. I’ll be hanging out with Mpact most of the time but will keep an eye on the trivia questions and will run over if I know the answer. I have a feeling several members of our team may be hanging out with Mpact that night, so Clay’s team might actually have a chance of beating us, especially if they ask a lot of questions related to Clay’s area of expertise (boy bands of the late 1990s).
Anyway, back to Mpact. They have a lot of other stuff going on this month too:
- They’re forming a 5K run team, to allow members to connect with Memphis’ running community through Mpact;
- They’ll be recruiting people to participate in Nexus on the 15th – you’ll be able to get a professional mentor to help guide your career;
- Their group that focuses on nonprofits will take a tour of the Oral School for the Deaf on the 16th;
- If you’re not sure what Mpact is all about, there’s an “Mpact 101” at Dish on the 17th.
And that’s just a sample of the calendar. Check out MpactMemphis.org for complete event listings. If you like what you see and decide you want to become a member, you can join online.