Blog sosAssociates

I was fortunate to attend TechPint Cleveland V: Winter Jam on January 22, 2015, at the Beachland Ballroom. As the name implies, this was the fifth TechPint in Cleveland (there have also been Akron TechPints).

As in the past, the interesting location is also part of the draw of the event. Beachland Ballroom allowed for a creative atmosphere. With tickets sales exceeding 300, it was great that the Beachland Ballroom was able to open their back room to accommodate an additional 50 attendees. I heard that TechPint came very close to selling out all 350 tickets -- a big congratulations to the TechPint leadership team!

I've been to several Codemash conferences and highly recommend them. This is the Codemash-Part Two blog post. It will include resources from the Friday, January 9, 2015, sessions I attended. Also included are my tweets/retweets from Friday and from after Codemash, plus links to other people's blog posts about Codemash. Please also read the Codemash 2015 - Part 1 of 2 blog post, which includes photos of the entire event.

My goal is to share some of the flavor of the event and some of the useful information developed for the conference. I hope you find these two blog posts interesting, if not useful -- enjoy!

I've been to several Codemash conferences and highly recommend them. In this Codemash-Part One blog post, I will share tweets from before and during the first part of Codemash 2015, along with my photos from the entire event. Codemash-Part Two will contain tweets from my last day, and after the event, along with a list of other Codemash blogs. I will also share some of the resources from conference sessions I attended.

My goal is to share some of the flavor of the event and some some of the useful information developed for the conference. There are over 300 tweets/retweets regarding @Codemash. Be sure to take a moment to review them. Some reflect the unique humor that develops when you gather such a large group of creative people together. Other tweets provide links to useful technology resources, and blog posts developed for Codemash 2015.

I enjoy the conference every year -- I am writing this blog post as my way of thanking all the many people who volunteer their time and financial support to make it a success.

After attending six of the Cleveland Foundation's centennial events in 2014, Stuart was disappointed that he would not be available on December 30th for the final event due to work commitments.

Then, unexpectedly, he was given two extra days off from work! This allowed him, on December 29th, to enjoy a day of hiking on the Buckeye Trail in the Cleveland Metroparks and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. On December 30th, he was able to return to both parks and University Circle for Cleveland Foundation's Family Fun Day.

What follows is information about this final centennial event, and our photos/tweets of our activities of the day. Before we share our experiences from this one day, we want to share with you, the reader, Cleveland Foundation's "Enduring Trust" video. Understanding the worldwide importance of the first community foundation is more important than our thank-you message for one day of family fun.

As we ended 2014, I took some time to review the year. 2014 = good year.

The following are my New Year's Eve thank-you tweets and some other tweets/retweets. I decided to save these in this blog post to remind me of the fun year and as a record of those that I appreciate for adding great value to my life in 2014. There are many more people/organizations that I did not have a chance to mention -- to you all I want to also say thank you!

I was not able to attend the City of Cleveland and OneCommunity's November 21, 2014, announcement. I watched it via Twitter, and thought it was very important to write this blog post to say:

Congratulations, @CityOfCleveland and @OneCommunity...

...for making Cleveland the first city in the United States to have a commercially available 100-gigabit fiber network!

I have been to the LeanDog boat many times for tech meetings or for Cleveland GiveCamp-related activities, but when I received my invitation to attend the Arras Keathley and LeanDog boat christening celebration, I knew that this would be different -- that this would be big!

The christening invitation for the Thursday night, October 23, 2014, event indicated that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Arras Keathley President Jim Hickey, and LeanDog President Jon Stahl would all take part in the champagne christening. I also heard that famed Cleveland singer Alex Bevan would be performing. I was excited to hear this, since I had never seen him perform in person.

Robots! 3-D Printers! Hackers! Mobile Broadcasting! Makers! Astronomy! Circuits! Kites! Make A Telescope! - Akron's October 2014 Mini Maker Faire had all of this and more!

Congratulations to the Akron-Summit County Public Library staff for this year's success! They doubled the attendance this second year of the event, with over 1,500 attendees.

On Wednesday, October 1, 2014, I was invited to attend two events about the positive things going on with the growth of technology in Northeast Ohio, and the new challenges created. In this blog post, I will share my notes and the related tweets. Since I could not capture all that occurred, I recommend reading the tweets, particularly for the Tech Town Hall event. We had some pretty impressive live tweeters for this Cleveland event.

• Amplify Speaker Series - Cleveland Technology

• Tech Town Hall Cleveland

Cleveland Technology + Art = Ingenuityfest Weekend!

Every year, the tribe of people interested in supporting artists and technologists in our community comes together in an annual gathering called Ingenuityfest. 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of this gathering.

My goal is to share a little bit of Ingenuityfest 2014. To truly experience it, though, you must attend this annual Cleveland event.

On Saturday, September 27, 2014, despite already having planned to spend the day and evening at the Cleveland IngenuityFest, we added attending the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Open House and Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant tour to our day's schedule. The day before the event, we received an email stating that they had over 500 people registered for the tour. We had no idea that so many others would be interested.

Our main interest was twofold. First, we wanted to understand the technology behind how all the wastewater for our region is handled. Secondly, and most importantly, we had already learned about the importance of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District from the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Gift: Weekends on the Water cruise and wanted to learn more.

September 13 and 14, 2014 -- Stuart's second and Julie's first Cleveland's One World Festival. We had such a great time enjoying the international diversity of Cleveland coming together as one community, that we wanted to share our photos and tweets about the day.

OneCommunity's work is interesting and important!

 
ABOUT ONECOMMUNITY 
 
MISSION: OneCommunity is expanding high-speed broadband access and adoption to strengthen Northeast Ohio.  
 
VISION: Advanced digital capabilities and effective use of technology will help transform the region and establish Northeast Ohio as a national hub for innovation and economic growth.

In this blog post, I write about OneCommunity (formerly OneCleveland) and the exciting things OneCommunity is doing in Cleveland today!

Thank you, Cleveland Foundation, for your September 13 & 28, 2014 Centennial Gift: Weekends on the Water!

We are very fortunate to have been among the 6,000 Clevelanders who received free tickets to an educational cruise on Cleveland's largest excursion ship, the Goodtime III. On Saturday, September 13th, we joined a joyful crowd on the docks at the end of East 9th Street near Voinovich Park. A light rain did not dampen the spirits of those waiting to board the ship.

Thank you, Cleveland Museum of Art, for your 2014 Chalk Festival. As always, we had a wonderful time! We attended on Sunday, September 14, 2014, and want to say...

Congratulations on
25 Years of Chalk Art!

Yes, this is the 25^th anniversary of this creative tradition in Cleveland at the beautiful Cleveland Museum of Art's Fine Arts Garden.

This blog post was originally intended to be a short description of a pleasant Sunday morning tour of part of the Flats area of Cleveland. However, as we learned more about Cuyahoga River-related developments, we kept finding additional important facets about which to write.

• A Sunday Morning Hike
• Lunch By The River
• Bike Ride - Scranton Flats
• Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation
• Tweets & Retweets
• A Great Gift!
• Bike The Ohio & Erie Canal
• Sound Of Applause - Live Remote: Merwin’s Wharf
• The Next Gift: Cuyahoga River & Lake Erie Educational Cruise

On July 17, 2014, I wrote to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler in response to his call for comments regarding net neutrality.

.@sos_jr next we are taking reply comments up until 9/10 & then we reads all & start 2 figure out our course. #netneutrality

— Gigi Sohn (@GigiBSohnFCC) July 14, 2014

It is NOW September! The date for submission has been extended to September 15th! Time to take action!

RT @FCC: The #netneutrality reply comment period will be extended from 9/10 to 9/15. Tell the @FCC what you want in new #netneutrality rules

— Stuart O. Smith, Jr. (@sos_jr) August 30, 2014

Please read this blog post on how you can take action.

Thank you, Cleveland Foundation, for another great centennial gift to the community! We enjoyed seeing Singin’ in the Rain on August 23 , 2014, at the world famous PlayhouseSquare. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first community foundation in the world, at the second largest theatre district in the United States and world’s largest theater restoration project, says a lot for Cleveland!

We keep hearing from people we talk to that there is so much going on in Cleveland. One of the great ways to learn about what is up-and-coming in our city is by attending a PechaKucha Night Cleveland. All PechaKucha Night Cleveland events are special, but on August 7, 2014, it was combined with other events happening in our community that made it all extra special -- AHA! Cleveland events and Gay Games 9.

We want to share with you Stuart's experiences at PechaKucha Night Cleveland, and both of our experiences with the AHA! Light Up Cleveland installation.

We had not planned on writing a blog post about Heritage Tourism Take a Hike Tours, but we had such a great time that we wanted to let others know about these tours.

The fifth annual Cleveland GiveCamp took place over the weekend of July 18-20, 2014 at LeanDog and Burke Lakefront Airport. In 2010, the first year there was a GiveCamp in Cleveland, our tech and design community set a record for having the largest first-time GiveCamp in the nation. Today, Cleveland GiveCamp (@CleGiveCamp) has grown to be one of the largest (possibly the largest) GiveCamps in the United States.

This blog post will share the involvement of Mike, Kevin and Stuart Smith, plus links to resources shared during the weekend, and links to other blogs about the weekend. We highly recommend reading through the tweets from the event, since they will give you a taste of the weekend. If you have never participated in a GiveCamp, we highly recommend volunteering your talent to help local nonprofits. It is a lot of hard work, and more fun than you would imagine.

The INITIAL public comment period to the FCC has been extended to Friday, July 18, 2014. If you have not submitted your comment yet, and it is before July 19th -- what are you waiting for?

.@sos_jr 2 contact re: #netneutrality, file comments in our electronic comment filing system online or send email openinternet@fcc.gov

— Gigi Sohn (@GigiBSohnFCC) July 14, 2014

7/18 is new deadline to submit initial comments on #NetNeutrality. To submit comments go to http://t.co/EjFcs6Ng9K & click Proceeding #14-28

— The FCC (@FCC) July 16, 2014

If you are reading this blog after Friday, July 18th, then I recommend following the @FCC, @TomWheelerFCC, and @GigiBSohnFCC on Twitter, and watching the www.fcc.gov website for details. There will be opportunities for additional comments up to September 10, 2014, per...

.@sos_jr next we are taking reply comments up until 9/10 & then we reads all & start 2 figure out our course. #netneutrality

— Gigi Sohn (@GigiBSohnFCC) July 14, 2014

Thank you, Cleveland Indians, for inviting us to watch the May 30, 2014, game against the Colorado Rockies from the Indians Social Suite. We had a great time watching the Tribe win the game with a score of 5 to 2!

We enjoyed a fantastic view of the game from the Social Suite, and as a special treat, watched a terrific post-game fireworks show from the visitors dugout! Our photos and videos will give you a sense of the fun of the evening.

Even though we are very familiar with the institutions surrounding Wade Oval, it was great to visit them again as guests of The Cleveland Foundation.

In addition to sharing our photos and videos from the Wade Oval event, please see the information on the next Cleveland Foundation centennial gift of free Tri-C JazzFest outdoor concerts on June 27 and 28.

Here are this week's Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings this last week in May! These meetings don't seem to be slowing down at all as we enter the summer month.

Bal Ingénieux 2014 was a fun fundraiser for Ingenuity Cleveland, which took place on May 3, 2014. It included vaudeville entertainment, music and comedy.

After the main show, I went down to where a DJ was playing music, and where many of the people dancing were wearing masks. It made for a fun environment where people danced freely with partners and as solo dancers. My videos show a very spontaneous occurrence that ended up being one of the most unique happenings of the evening -- shadow dancing.

I'm having a busy week again, so I know that there are more meetings to add to this list that I have missed. Please feel free to add a comment below, or mention to my @sos_jr Twitter name, if you know of a Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, or social media meetings that I should be promoting this week.

I also heard good news regarding Cleveland nonprofits signing up for Cleveland GiveCamp. Please take some time to help spread the word to local nonprofits that the Cleveland GiveCamp application process is now open! Please retweet and forward this message...

The #Cleveland #GiveCamp #Nonprofit Application is now available: http://t.co/DUfC9fWP4o Plz spread the word! #CleGC pic.twitter.com/44gYvvckoY

— Cleveland GiveCamp (@CleGiveCamp) April 16, 2014

Please join my on Saturday, May 17th for my WebSigCleveland.org on Integrating UX in Agile. In this session Carol Smith (@carologic) will share best practices that she has collected through her own work, as well as through attending training and workshops with advanced UX/Agile practitioners.

Here is my weekly listing of Cleveland Tech, Entrepreneur & Social Media Meetings I track. Please share this blog post with others who are interested in any of the following meetings. If you are on Twitter, please retweet those meetings that you find interesting to share with others. Thank you.

Cleveland's Playhouse Square "Dazzle The District" event can be seen as the accumulation of years of work, which came to a climax at the huge outdoor party on the evening of May 2, 2014. Playhouse Square, as the second largest theater district in the country, was already a significant destination. The new outdoor elements further define Playhouse Square as a Cleveland highlight.

Dazzle The District was promoted as a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it lived up to and surpassed expectations! The 19,740 people who attended were truly a part of history. We were moved to see so much pride in Cleveland. It was amazing to see this huge crowd of people smiling, laughing, and dancing in the street!

If you are like me, your month of May started off very busy, but please take some time to help spread the word to local nonprofits that the Cleveland GiveCamp application process is now open! Please retweet and forward this message...

MT @CleGiveCamp: #Cleveland #Nonprofit Application is now available http://t.co/6nibl0LqPu Plz spread the word!#CleGC pic.twitter.com/YrEaasLzDr

— Stuart O. Smith, Jr. (@sos_jr) May 5, 2014

Here is my weekly listing of Cleveland Tech, Entrepreneur & Social Media Meetings I track.

We attended and greatly enjoyed the Akron Mini Maker Faire on November 2, 2013, so we were excited to be able to attend the Cleveland event this year. (We missed the first Cleveland Mini Maker Faire last year.) As the date of March 29, 2014, approached, we heard that the Cleveland Mini Maker Faire was going to be huge -- and it was!

As we enter May, I want to remind you to please spread the word to local nonprofits that theCleveland GiveCamp application process is now open! This is the fifth year in Cleveland where members of our incredible tech community volunteer their time each year to help local charities at Cleveland GiveCamp. Cleveland area charities can find details to sign up at: ClevelandGivecamp.org/nonprofits/

Here is my weekly listing of Cleveland Tech, Entrepreneur & Social Media Meetings I track. 

My goal is to share a little of what I experienced and learned at the 2014 Northeast Ohio Entrepreneur Expo . In this post, I would like to share some comments I heard during the day, as well as photos, tweets, and links to what others wrote about the event.

When I first arrived, I was amazed by the size of the event and how the Cleveland Museum of Art made a great venue. (I subsequently heard that it was the largest entrepreneur expo in its history.) The large and varied group of people added to the excitement. My only regret is that I did not get around to all the many booths.

Can you believe it is mid-April already?! This year is going so fast!

It is mid-April and that means I want to focus on these three items before my weekly listing of Cleveland Tech, Entrepreneur & Social Media Meetings I track:

• First, as I mentioned last week, this is NEOSA's Tech Week (April 11-18) in northeast Ohio. Learn more about it at NEOSATechWeek.com for more events beyond what I list below.

• At my last WebSigCleveland.org meeting, I indicated that there might not be a meeting this month. However my schedule conflict did not happen, so please mark your calendars and share with others this week's topic: Saturday, April 16th @ 10:30 a.m. - Write the Right Words for the Internet – Words People Read® with Deborah Chaddock Brown, founder and president ofAllWrite Ink and The Social Media Roadmap

• In Cleveland, members of our incredible tech community volunteer their time each year to help local charities at Cleveland GiveCamp. Please tell the nonprofit organizations that you know that the application process starts April 16, 2014! Charities can find details to sign up at: ClevelandGivecamp.org/nonprofits/

Thank you, Cleveland Foundation! We had a great time at the March 24, 2014, Cleveland Foundation free day at the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF)! While we could make this blog only about the good time we had, and the films we saw, of more importance is how this day represents more than just one good day. The day was one of this year's monthly activities honoring the 100 years of good work of The Cleveland Foundation.

Friday officially starts Tech Week in northeast Ohio, but to my experience, most weeks in Cleveland/Akron are tech week. Take a look at all that is happening this week!!!

(Learn more about NEOSA Tech Week April 11-18 at: NEOSATechWeek.com.)

Here are this week's Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings!

We want to take this opportunity to thank Bizdom Cleveland for the Cavs tickets we won at the Brite Winter event. We are also using this opportunity to share our experiences at Brite Winter. When you view our photos, videos, and tweets, you can see what fun we had at these events.

For this weeks blog post I not only list the meeting that are happening this week, but also wanted to share some other interesting happenings in our community.

If you did not see my Saturday, March 8, 2014, two-year "Blogiversary!" blog post, please take a look at the "call for action" suggestions I made. We have so many people working to improve our community, I wanted to use my Blogiversary to make note of it. My Blogiversary included a list of 140 groups I track (I bolded the ones I have added since last year).

At the same time I was celebrating my second Blogiversary, I with the help of my son and wife, completed several blog posts in a very short time! Please take a look at all my blog posts at: sosAssociates.com/blog/

It was great to be able to attend the TechPint Akron II - "And All That Jazz" event at Jilly's Music Room in downtown Akron, especially after I had featured one of the speakers, Eric Wise, in my TechPint Cleveland III blog post.

I had never been to Jilly's Music Room, but after checking out the ReverbNation website, I was interested in seeing their venue.

On Saturday, March 8, 2014, I celebrated my two-year "Blogiversary!" Be sure to take a look at the list of 140 groups I track (I bolded the ones I have added since last year), and the "call for action" items.

I hope the post inspires others to do more to thank leaders, and assist in promoting these free or low-cost tech, social media, and entrepreneur meetings in our community. Our community is much stronger for having these opportunities to learn from each other.

As I mentioned last week, in addition to my 3/8/14 Blogiversary: Two post, I had a busy time posting the following four items:

1. 2/28/14 PechaKucha Cleveland at The City Club

2. 3/2/14 Cleveland Tech, Entrepreneur & Social Media Meetings Mon 3/3 - Mon 3/10
   (This is one of my regular weekly blog posts.)

3. 3/3/14 FREE! Great Lakes Science Center

4. 3/5/14 Deathtrap! Great Lakes Theater Social Media Night

What a great way to celebrate my second anniversary -- completing so many blog posts in such a short time! Please take a look at all my blog posts at: sosAssociates.com/blog/

This being the third week of the month, I also want to invite you to my monthly WebSigCleveland.org meeting this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. All meeting are free and open to all, so please help me spread the word by inviting others. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending:

• Saturday, March 15, 2014, Search Engine Optimization in 2014 with Leslie Carruthers (@TheSearchGuru), the President of The Search Guru, Inc.
• Saturday, April 19, 2014, I just had a topic change, so watch for updates at WebSigCleveland.org.
• Saturday, May 17, 2014, Integrating UX in Agile with Carol Smith (@carologic).

Please share this blog post with others who are interested in any of the following meetings. If you are on Twitter, please share those meetings that you find interesting with others. Thank you.

Two Years!

Two very fun and active years have passed since my first "Hello, World! My First Blog Post!" message!

Last year, for my first Blogiversary, I listed 120 organizations that I tracked. I have found that in the last five months, I have not been able to keep up with all the exciting growth in Cleveland and Akron, but I try to do so in my weekly tech blog posts.

In addition to my weekly tech and social media blog posts for our community, I (and sometime we -- my wife and sons co-write with me) also write about other items that interest me. Please check out all the blog posts that I have completed these past two years on my "Blog sosAssociates."

On a cold Saturday night, Stuart and Julie arrived at the theater in excited anticipation! It was another Social Media Night, this time for Deathtrap at Playhouse Square's Hanna Theatre! Stuart had seen the play years ago on Broadway for a college theater class, but had forgotten the details of the show. He only remembered that it was a great show, and he was glad to see it now as a Great Lakes Theater production.

Weekends and weekdays -- we have found that there is so much going on in Cleveland! We want to share with you here two events that we attended last weekend.

The first event, attended by Julie and Stuart, PechaKucha Cleveland, was something we have enjoyed many times in the past. Knowing the history of the location, The City Club, added an interesting dimension.

The second event, attended by Julie, Kevin, and Stuart, was a gift to the community from the The Cleveland Foundation as part of their 100th birthday celebration -- a free day at the Great Lakes Science Center.

This is the second installment, entitled FREE! Great Lakes Science Center

Weekends and weekdays -- we have found that there is so much going on in Cleveland! We want to share with you here two events that we attended last weekend.

The first event, attended by Julie and Stuart, PechaKucha Cleveland, was something we have enjoyed many times in the past. Knowing the history of the location, The City Club, added an interesting dimension.

The second event, attended by Julie, Kevin, and Stuart, was a gift to the community from the The Cleveland Foundation as part of their 100th birthday celebration -- a free day at the Great Lakes Science Center.

This is the first installment, entitled PechaKucha Cleveland at The City Club.

A slow week in Northeast Ohio! (Sarcasm intended - there is always more to do in Cleveland than I have hours in my week!) At the time I am writing this, I know of only about 21 technology and social media events happening in the Cleveland and Akron area. Please help me learn of more by adding in the comments any that I may have missed. I will then share with others on Twitter. Thank you!

Julie and Kevin were intrigued after reading Stuart’s blog post about the grand opening of the new Cleveland Public Library TechCentral MakerSpace, and decided to see it for themselves. They joined Stuart at the Greater Cleveland PC User Group (GCPCUG) “field trip” to TechCentral last Saturday, February 8, 2014, where they learned that so much is happening at the Cleveland Public Library!

The group of about 30 people was warmly welcomed by TechCentral Manager C.J. Lynce and TechCentral Coordinator Sam Tripodis about half an hour before the library opened to the public for a private tour of the new MakerSpace. They gave a very interesting introduction to the different pieces of equipment that make up TechCentral and its MakerSpace.

As part of announcing this week's tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings, I am also announcing the upcoming WebSigCleveland.org meeting.

On November 21, 2009, I arranged for a special field trip to the Cleveland Sight Center, where we learned about their good work and had a WebSigCleveland.org meeting on Website Accessibility. We have also in the past covered the topics of search engine optimization (SEO), and website user experience (UX).

With all the changes in technology that impact these fields, it is important to keep current with the latest trends. That is why I am pleased to ask you to mark your calendars to attend, and invite others to the the listed WebSigCleveland.org meetings.

Here are this week's tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings that I track.

So far in 2014, I keep hearing about more and more happening in Cleveland and Akron. Please, if you know of any meetings that I may have missed, please share in the blog comments section. I will then also share them on Twitter.

TechPint: A mini tech conference. In a bar. With pints.

Kismet -- I think I was meant to attend the sold-out January 23, 2014, TechPint Cleveland at Mahall's 20 Lanes in Lakewood, Ohio.

Cold in Cleveland today (again!!), but luckily we have hot meetings in Cleveland! Here are this week's Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings!

A busy week (as always) in Cleveland and Akron! Note that I am posting this list on Wednesday, which is why I recommend watching my daily @sos_jr tweets and retweets to be sure you don't miss a thing. There has been a large increase in activity, and I would hate to think you would miss out. If you are not on Twitter, you can still see it all at: https://Twitter.com/sos_jr

Here are this week's Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings! Please share this blog post with others who are interested in any of the following meetings. If you are on Twitter, please re-tweet those meetings that you find interesting to share with others. Thank you.

I had fun last Saturday! After attending the great Codemash conference last week, I did not want to experience post-conference technology withdrawal symptoms, so I decided to attend yet another technology-related event.

The grand opening of the new TechCentral MakerSpace at the Cleveland Public Library showcased some exciting technology. What makes the MakerSpace truly remarkable is that these tech resources are now accessible to anyone with a library card.

Here are this week's Cleveland tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings!

Despite the record cold start to 2014, things are still hot in Cleveland's tech, entrepreneur, and social media meetings! Plus, in nearby Sandusky, Ohio, there is the Codemash conference -- technology geeks at a water park in winter. How great!

We are posting our photos and sharing Stuart's @sos_jr tweets from the day as a way of thanking the University Circle museums that opened their doors for free for the Cleveland Holiday CircleFest 2013. Just as we wrote in our blog post about the Cleveland Winterfest, the best part of the Cleveland Holiday CircleFest is that most all of what we saw is still happening in Cleveland's University Circle through the end of the year. If you missed this event, you can still go to the circle for winter activities.

We were so excited! This year, in addition to our annual visit to the great Cleveland Winterfest (which seems to be getting bigger and better each year), we were invited for a private backstage tour and viewing of Great Lakes Theater's production of A Christmas Carol. This was a special Social Media Night at A Christmas Carol tour for Cleveland bloggers to learn about the 25th anniversary production of this great Cleveland tradition.