And so it was. The Cville Pie Down was the convergence of Twitter, community and the good people on and offline. It’s easy to dismiss the phenomenon that is Twitter until you see what occurred on Sunday, 24 May on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

What does this have to do with Charlottesville real estate? Nothing at all, other than to highlight something that I think is really quite cool, and representative of the people and community we have here in Charlottesville.

What started on Twitter led to dozens of people crammed into the Mudhouse on the Downtown Mall … talking, laughing, having a good time … all due to pie.

Shoulderblog has one of the best summaries I have seen of the event:

And that’s part of the beauty of social networking. Among other things, it’s a democratizing force, bringing people together and allowing many to participate in discussions, events, and organizations in ways that they never would have been able to before. And social media is such a part of our lives now, in so many different ways. Me, I use it professionally (to connect with important people in my field, to stay current with news and technology that helps me in my job) and personally (to keep up with family, friends, and an ever-increasing circle of cool local folks and news). Today, social media brought me all that, plus some kick-ass pie. You really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Not to mention @Marijean’s account:

The Pie Down was so much fun –  so many people were there and those who weren’t were following along online. It’s a fantastic social media/community building story, appropriately covered by the Daily Progress and NBC-29 (traditional media) as well as the place where it all started: Twitter.

The Daily Progress – @DailyProgress – has an outstanding slideshow of the event. (Update June 2019 – broken link, darn it) Update May 2023 – link to the story itself is fixed.

As @ancym said – on Twitter naturally – about photo #20: (June 2019- re: broken link; that was one of my favorite pics of my daughter)

@jimduncan Photographic proof that the pie really was for your daughter (i believed you, really i did)

So, thanks, everyone. It was fun. I can’t wait for the Fall PieDown in Crozet.

* Stay tuned for a story later this week about coffee shops and community …. in Crozet.