ING Meet and Tweet in Toronto

I was really hoping to meet that guy from the ING commercials.  You know the guy.  "Save your money!"  Alas, he was no where to be found.  But that was okay as ING Canada managed to attract some of Toronto's best and brightest from the city's tech and social media community to downtown's Darkhorse Expresso Bar. 

The event started off with some great food by Freshii and Designer Cookie while the attendees mingled, talked, caught up and made new connections.  Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING Direct Canada, started the formal part of the evening by thanking everyone for coming.

As direct banking continues to grow in Canada, Peter felt the time was right to start engaging with the social media community.  Peter thanks all of us for allowing them to join the conversation on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.  ING feels they are able to better engage with their community and continue to tell their story via social media.  And in hosting this Meet and Tweet they want to turn their activities that happen on channels such as Twitter into face to face conversations.

Matt Hartley, tech reporter for the National Post was next.  As a writer for a traditional (legacy) media company Matt admitted that he (as well as most people) are still trying to figure out how best to approach technology and social media's implications for his industry.  Matt presently uses Twitter as his personal newswire as well as the forst place to breal stories before writing to the web and his paper.

Matt concluded his talk by identifying the three types of people on Twitter:

1. Hunter. 
2. Gatherer.
3. Discussion Leader.

Preet Banerjee wrapped up the formal part of the evening by telling us how social media and technology has helped him become successful.  Preet's blog on personal finance is very successful and has enabled him to venture into new opportunities.

ING could have taken this opportunity to sell their products and toot their horn.  And many people there were waiting for the pitch.  But it never happened.  Instead, Peter and the rest of the ING team took the opportunity to mingle with all of us.  We had great discussions about Toronto, culture, and yes, even technology.  Never once did the conversation go to banking.  And for that, I applaud ING Direct Canada.  They truly "get" what it means to be (to steal a line from Trust Agents) "one of us".