Long Story, Short.
HashtagMKE was founded in 2017 by JMatt because, at the time, it was hard to find locals working in the social media industry. What started as a modest attendance of four people at the first event has since grown to become Milwaukee’s premier networking community for content creators and social media enthusiasts.
One thing JMatt has said since the start is that people shouldn’t be expected to pay for networking events. This is why HashtagMKE’s networking events (held every second Thursday of the month) have remained free to attend since the start.
Fun fact, HashtagMKE was first used as a place saver as a brand name – so while the logo is often stylized as an abbreviated #MKE, our branded hashtag is actually #HashtagMKE. Yes, when said out loud, it’s hashtag-hashtag-M-K-E.
Short Story, Long.
The first-ever HashtagMKE networking event was hosted on January 12, 2017, at the Ale Asylum Riverhouse along the Milwaukee River. Four people attended the first event, Matt Curtis and Kellie McGinnis were two of the original attendees and continue to be active members of our community.
2017
For the first year, HashtagMKE focused on consistency, hosting a new networking event each month and allowing the community to develop naturally. By the end of 2017, HashtagMKE Socials averaged 20 attendees per event.
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2018
After reaching an average attendance of 20 people, JMatt started inviting local experts who specialized in various social media-related topics.
The format remained the same – no panels or presentations – just casual networking. The inclusion of local experts gave attendees specific people to seek out and talk to directly about their questions.
Some of the first topics included personal branding, improving your content visually, and optimizing your content.
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2018 was also the year when we started offering free headshot events twice a year. Martin Moore of Koss Headphones was the first photographer to volunteer his services. We also worked with Andrew Feller for the second event – it’s ideal to update your social media profile picture once a year.
In addition to networking events with the occasional free headshot event, JMatt added workshops to teach people how to create custom GIFs and improve their regular content. GIFs are a great way to help your brand stand out in the sea of photos and video content. Learn more on how you can make your own GIFs too.
After just 18 months of hosting events, our efforts caught the attention of Discovery World who collaborated with HashtagMKE to host a unique, 3-hour hands-on networking event.
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As if the year wasn’t already fully loaded, HashtagMKE also launched an event series which was called the Agency Happy Hours (later renamed to the Agency AFTER Hours). This event series became an exclusive partnership with Low Key Hospitality to provide cocktails for attendees. Each event was hosted by a Milwaukee-based agency which would also provide a 20-minute presentation on a social media-related topic.
2019
We kicked the year off by celebrating our 2-year anniversary with a free networking event at Discovery World presented by Margle Media where attendees could explore the Aquarium and Great Lakes Exhibit.
Agency AFTER Hours continued on Tuesday nights every other month.
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Our content creator workshops expanded to include TikTok tips (which was just beginning to gain attention at the time) in addition to GIF-making tips.
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Toward the end of 2019, HashtagMKE partnered on two events with 414Digital (an organization for all digital marketing in Milwaukee, not just social media). One event featured a Personal Branding Panel in addition to free headshots by Brianna Griepentrog at Lucid Light Lounge.
The second event we co-hosted with 414Digital was the Digital Marketing Speed Mentoring event at C2 (think speed dating but for professional connections). Twenty local digital marketers were available to answer questions for a few minutes at a time. HashtagMKE’s friends at Low Key Hospitality also provided cocktails for this event.
2020
HashtagMKE had a lot of momentum going into the start of the year and was already months ahead with confirming venues and local experts. We also hosted our biggest event yet, our 3-year anniversary at the Milwaukee Art Museum presented by Moët.
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Our last in-person networking event of 2020 was on March 12, days before the lockdown was put in place for Wisconsin. We shifted our plans for April to be a virtual event on Zoom, powered by Plum Media.
With the continuation of the pandemic, we chose to put our efforts towards event planning on pause. We continued working behind the scenes to keep ourselves ready for when it’s safe to return to networking.
At the end of April (through July), JMatt kicked off a virtual learning series called “LIVE & Learn” hosted on HashtagMKE’s Facebook page.
We ended the year by announcing a partnership with the MKE Esports Alliance and continue to support them.
2021
The long overdue HashtagMKE website launched in April! Followed by the return of networking events in July. Our events went back to our 2017 core, just giving our community an opportunity to come out and network.
2022
HashtagMKE celebrated its 5-year anniversary at Nō Studios. With JMatt’s success on TikTok, featuring city of Milwaukee businesses, he started hosting Milwaukee TikTok Meetups to encourage content creation and giving back through food donations to the Riverwest Food Pantry in partnership with Palermo’s Pizza.
We also brought back topics for our events and started inviting special guests again. Free headshots returned twice in 2022 with photos taken by Media Bolt Productions and Brianna Griepentrog.
2023
Our topics changed into featuring various local industries and their use of social media (e.g. fashion, sports, food, and more).
The first free headshot event had photos taken by Natalie Sanchez.
Milwaukee TikTok Meetups evolved into Content Creator Meetups (similar to the workshops we hosted in 2018).
2024
We have a lot of plans for 2024 including the return of popular topics like influencer marketing and personal branding. You may also see the return of another past event series!