The Lunch Social Networking Site of Noonhat - presented at Ignite Seattle
New Orleans is not geeky, admittedly, but people in the Big Easy like eating good food. Besides, I would even dare to say that New Orleanians seem to take their time, and have a longer lunch break than people living in the real rush hour, high speech speed cities on the East or West Coast. Of course, not every day, but as a tendency based on anecdotal evidence, I’d say longer lunch hours apply here. Also, things happen slower, which has its downsides, but that’s absolutely an advantage when it comes to food, networking over food, and enjoying all the appreciation surrounding meals. Eating a good meal needs at least a 60 minute undisturbed slot from the moment the plate lands on your table till the final napkin swipes (in my estimatation).
Noonhat is building on this experience: we like eating food in general, we also like having someone else to share our lunch with (lots of statistics apply here, especially for elderly people), so why not just sign up and leave a message to the world where you are going to have some seafood gumbo, ratatouille, jambalaya, chickpea hummous etc. on that very day. Sharing lunchtime will not shake the world it by its roots, says the message, but “we start small, really really small.”
You specify the location (Google maps), the time and give your email, plus freeze your dating urges as it is not meant to be a dating site - at least according to Brian Dorsey from Noonhat. I especially like the “How flexible are you on location?” function which adds a radius to your chosen restaurant.
As of the middle of August, the site is also open to all of North America, and it has generated lunches in SF, LA, Houston, and of course in the hometown, Seattle. It is a pity though that the site does not match your IP address yet. So the default is Seattle metro.
So let’s see: I will make a suggestion for 12:30 Sept 8, Saturday at St James Cheese Company, plus a radius. feel free to join me, I would gladly meet new people here.
If you are familiar with meetup.com, you could argue that such a lunch meetup group could easily be organized on meetup.com, but here the features are totally different. You don’t have a profile, you will be notified via email who has joined your lunch (rather than every event taking place in the meetup group), and you have the map radius function too. Well, at least for now. The site will definitely change over time based on user experience.
Tribute
This whole Ignite Seattle series thing comes to me through Attila’s IT/BT geek blog, and thanks, Deepak for pointing me to the video series hosted on BlipTV.
Noonhat is a very nice idea Anna, hope to eat with you tomorrow. Usually people in my lab are reading newspapers (someone’s old New Yorker’s and Rolling Stone magazines) in the common kitchen and call it their silent times. But I swear that lunch conversation sre very important in science too.
NoonHat rocks. I have used it, and it’s such as simple but cool idea. Highly recommended
Thanks so much for thinking of us, but we are actually closed this week, including Saturday, Sept. 8 for inventory and other maintenance. We will be open again starting Mon. Sept. 10.
Danielle
St. James Cheese Company
Ooops, thanks, Danielle, that’s really good to know. In this case, we will find something in the radius (neighborhood) and miss the cheese poetry.
Updates?. Your topic about The Lunch Social Networking Site of Noonhat - presented at Ignite Seattle needs more comments. I\’d like to spend me Sunday nights reading about networking - general