Long Story, Short.
HashtagMKE is Milwaukee’s premier networking community for social media enthusiasts and content creators hosting free monthly events within the city. The community was founded by JMatt at the start of 2017 and has grown from 4 people at the first event to 200+ at our anniversary event (our average attendance is about 50 people at our Socials).
A big part of JMatt’s philosophy is that networking should be free (at least for those that attend the events) and he has stuck with that from the start. Due to the pandemic, we are on a temporary event hold but plan to resume as soon as it is safe (and socially acceptable) to do so.
Short Story, Long.
JMatt founded HashtagMKE and hosted the inaugural event on January 12, 2017, at the Ale Asylum Riverhouse along the Milwaukee River; including himself, four people attended – two of which, Matt Curtis and Kellie McGinnis, continue to be active members within our community.
2017
2017 was dedicated to growth, playing around with promotional efforts through social media, and seeing who would show up to help develop the direction of the community. “Socials” were once a month on Thursdays from 6-8p and many attendees often stayed well after the event ended. By the end of the year, HashtagMKE Socials were averaging 20 attendees per event.
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2018
2018 was the year of enhancing the events to add more value to attendees. In February, local experts were invited to offer their insights on a given topic. We didn’t want to drastically change the format of our monthly Socials, rather we wanted to enhance the experience. Instead of stopping networking conversations to have all our guests sit and watch a presentation or listen to a panel, we kept the flow of the event the same. The invited experts were available for 2 hours during the event for any guest to approach and start a conversation with based on their specific interests.
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In the Spring (and again in the Fall), we offered to provide free headshots for anyone that wanted to update their profile pictures on social media. Martin Moore of Koss Headphones was the first photographer to offer his services as we tried out this concept. We also worked with Andrew Feller in October to offer another chance to update headshots for free.
In the summer JMatt added creator workshops, to offer attendees the chance to learn how to make custom GIFs in addition to their regular content. GIFs are a great way to help your brand stand out in the sea of photos and video content; we have an article all about how you can make your own GIFs too.
In August we hosted a 3-hour hands-on Social at Discovery World to encourage attendees to come out and network while having an experience worthy of sharing to social media. This was a fun opportunity to experience a space not traditionally paired with young adults and networking events.
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A third event series was also added at the end of August called the Agency Happy Hours on Tuesday nights every other month, also free to attend. This event series became an exclusive partnership with Low Key Hospitality to provide cocktails for attendees. Each event was hosted by a different agency within the city of Milwaukee and had a 20-minute presentation by the hosts on a topic that was social media related.
2019
2019 was about refining and continuing to provide value for our community. We kicked off the year by celebrating our 2-year anniversary with a free event at Discovery World presented by Margle Media where attendees could explore the Aquarium and Great Lakes Exhibit.
Agency Happy Hours shifted to being known as Agency AFTER Hours and continued to get Hashtaggers in front of local agencies while enjoying networking and cocktails from Low Key Hospitality.
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In July, we hosted an experience-focused Social at Punch Bowl Social including a scavenger hunt to encourage attendees to explore the recently opened venue while creating content for social media. The event was partnered with OnMilwaukee and Koss Headphones gave away a select number of headphones and Bluetooth speakers to random winners of the scavenger hunt. We also featured a local non-profit called Teens Grow Greens of Webers Greenhouse.
Our creator workshops expanded to include TikTok tips (which at the time was just beginning to gain momentum in the social media world) in addition to GIF-making tips.
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Toward the end of the year, we partnered on two events with 414Digital (a community that more broadly covers all of digital marketing in Milwaukee). In October we co-hosted a Personal Branding Panel networking event with free headshots provided by Brianna Griepentrog at Lucid Light Lounge.
Then in November we co-hosted a Digital Marketing Speed Mentoring event at C2 – think speed dating, but for professional networking. We had 20 local digital marketing professionals available to answers questions for a few minutes at a time before having attendees rotate. To ease the possible apprehension around the event, we have cocktails provided by our friends at Low Key Hospitality.
2020
2020 was going to be the year of partnerships – but then COVID-19 hit. We did get to host our biggest event yet, our 3-year anniversary at the Milwaukee Art Museum presented by Moët, music by DJ E.Rich, and a select amount of gifts from our friends at Koss Headphones. We also tied in a cause close to JMatt, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP – WI Chapter); since the start of HashtagMKE, he has been participating in the 22 Pushup Challenge for the previously 22 (now 17) combat veterans that die by suicide daily. As our events came to a close month after month, a select few Hashtaggers would stick around to join JMatt for a set of 22.
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Our last in-person 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.
At the end of April, JMatt kicked off a virtual learning series called “LIVE & Learn” hosted on our Facebook page, it was a series that carried us through July.
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.
We ended the year by announcing a partnership with the MKE Esports Alliance and are excited to help as they grow their community in the years to come.
2021
We launched this website and our apparel line! JMatt created his one-of-a-kind HashtagMKE event just before the 2-year anniversary event and wears it all the time. Over the years, many Hashtaggers have asked him to make the hat (and more merch) available for purchase. It was always something he wanted to provide, but never had the time to explore. The silver lining of the pandemic was that all of a sudden we had nothing but time. Seemed like a great excuse to finally create the apparel line.
JMatt has also been very busy growing his presence on TikTok and has found countless locals from Southeastern Wisconsin that are eager to meet up and attend our events in Milwaukee. We have no idea what networking will look like when we start back up, but we are excited to take this online world and merge it with the community we grew up in until March 2020.
Thank you for your patience and we’re excited to connect with you in person again soon! Don’t miss out on our first event, make sure to sign up for our newsletter.
Follow @HashtagMKE (same handle on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Snapchat). Join our Groups: Facebook (mention you were referred from the website) and LinkedIn. Be the first to be alerted about new events, follow us on Eventbrite!