The first time I met Bryan Person was when he traveled by train from Boston to New York for a geek dinner co-hosted by myself, Neville Hobson, and new daddy Joseph Jaffe. After Bryan contacted me last week to let me know he’d be vacationing in San Francisco and had an extra ticket to the Giants-Diamondbacks game at AT&T Park, I tried to remember the last time we’d seen each other. After all, we’d had a ton of interaction since then. But it turns out we hadn’t seen each other since that dinner about 13 months ago. But we met at the park and picked up a conversation as though we’d had lunch last week. Such is social media.

The Giants handled the D’Backs a good, old-fashioned ass-whipping, taking them down 13-0. Meanwhile, my Dodgers were beating the first-place Padres 5-0, which put the Dodgers one game back of the Padres and a half-game up on Arizona. Bryan and I chatted about this and that for most of the game and you couldn’t have asked for a more perfect summer day in San Francisco. All in all, a great day.

After the game, we walked over to the Thirsty Bear, a tapas bar on Howard Street, where Bryan had a reservation for anyone who wanted to join him for a geek dinner. The restaurant wasn’t open yet when we got there, so we trotted across the street to the W hotel for a couple beers, then headed back to the Thirsty Bear. We were joined by Sallie Goetsch and Berkeley real estate blogger Andy Kaufman. We also were joined by Sean and his significant other (sorry, don’t know his last name or their exact relationship). Sean—who works in law enforcement in Miami and had just arrived yesterday for vacation—had found the dinner by scouting around in the blogosphere. He’s not a blogger or podcaster, but likes having dinner with groups of strangers. Bryan and I both remarked on how this (which also happened when Neville and I hosted a geek dinner at the 2006 IABC conference in Vancover) proves that the blogosphere is more than an echo chamber. Yes, we may be talking to ourselves to some extent, but a lot of people are listening and make decisions based on what they hear.

Sean and his wife (I’m guessing) left for a walk, and Sallie, Bryan, Andy and I had a discussion about the notion of social media overload and how to address it. I taped the conversation, which I’ll run on Thursday’s FIR. We had to cut it short because Sunday, it turns out, is when the Thirsty Bear presents flamenco dancers. Very entertaining, but not conducive to recording conversations.

Thanks again, Bryan, for the invitation. I had a great time! (Bryan won’t read this until next week. He opted not to bring a computer with him on the trip. I wouldn’t want to experience the email backlog he’ll find waiting for him when he gets home!)