I attended Mashable’s Social Media Day meetup at The Ivy Ballroom in Sydney’s CBD. What the heck is Social Media Day, you ask?

This event, celebrated world-wide by over 5,000 people in 93 countries, was the brainchild of the social media blog Mashable. This day and all the meetups that occurred were to “celebrate the revolution of media as it becomes more sociable,” according to Mashable’s CEO, Pete Cashmore.

So why meet up with people you don’t know and celebrate Social Media Day? Because you can. That’s the whole point of social media, right? To be SOCIAL! It’s also an opportunity to speak to people from different industries and different viewpoints to see how and why social media is important to them.

The turnout for the first-ever Social Media Day in Sydney was really good and having it at The Ivy Ballroom didn’t hurt either. Everyone wore nametags with their twitter handles on them, which was a very appropriate touch and everyone socialised, drank champagne and shared their love for all things social media.

Euen Semple, ex-BBC journalist and social media expert, spoke about “real work,” social media’s evolving nature and how the web is changing our lives every day. Euen joked that everyone thinks that working in social media isn’t “real work,” but those of us who work in the industry know the truth. Social media isn’t just about facebooking and tweeting. The growth of the field and doing things the right way takes many hours of strategic thinking, brainstorming, reading and understanding the social media space.

One of many more meetups to come, this event is a way for like-minded people to share ideas and opinions in the flesh. Afterall, what’s the point in being social if you can’t connect?

Check out the video from Pete Cashmore, Mashable’s CEO about Social Media Day: