As the web, social media, and social networks continue to change the very nature of human interaction, it is important not lose sight of the power of face to face meetings.

In Lawyer Marketing: You Have to Get Away from Your Computer to Make Rain, experienced law consulting professional Cordell Parvin shares an important point made by attorney Angie Davis:

You absolutely must get out of your office to become a rainmaker.

While the Internet provides an extraordinary vehicle for the "virtual you" to get out of the office, your strongest relationships are still those that are nurtured through real-life interaction.  

Despite the fact that more and more legal professionals are embracing online relationship building, fewer are successfully bridging the online/offline relationship gap.  Fortunately, the web even provides tools for us to turn our web relationships into old-fashion face to face interactions.

One of these tools is Meetup.  Meetup describes itself as

The world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Their stated mission is to

Revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

In this short interview, Meetup Co-founder Scott Heiferman discusses the dangers of spending too much time staring at screens and using the internet to get off the internet:

Many organizations and social network leaders schedule offline meetups directly through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Turning more online friends, connections, and followers into offline colleagues, referral sources, and clients is just smart professional reputation building.