Twitter + Friends = U2

A couple of weeks ago, I realized that U2 would be in Atlanta the same day I was scheduled to arrive for a speaking engagement at Catalyst. I knew immediately that the show would be sold out so I decided tweet out a request to see if anyone had extra tickets I could buy. To my surprise, Jon Tyson, lead pastor of Trinity Grace in NY whom I met briefly at a conference earlier in the year, direct messaged me on twitter with a possibility of an extra ticket.

Quite honestly, I wasn’t holding my breath. I knew I couldn’t be THAT lucky. Could I? 🙂

A few days later, I got another message from Jon saying that the ticket was 90 percent mine. I tried to stay calm. After all, U2 was only one of my most favorite bands in the world…not to mention, I had never seen them live before. I had only watched every one of their concerts on video!

Well, eventually the good news came a few days later. Yes! I was so happy that it didn’t even dawn on me to ask where we were sitting. I was just glad to get in.

I then went ahead and changed my flight to an earlier flight so that I could get there in time.

Once I got to Atlanta, it got even better. Jon’s friend, Ron Roark of MindPunch, who got me my ticket had actually won an auction item to benefit the RED campaign. As a result, the tickets he got were in the RED zone (the pit right near the stage). As you can see from the photos below, it was a great view of the concert.

It turned out to be a perfect night. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and made some great friends in the process. U2 was truly amazing live. The overall production went way over the top and the continual focus on caring for the world was a beautiful thing to see firsthand. I love U2’s music and heart for humanity.

Many thanks to Jon and Ron for making this happen. Also, I’m glad to say that social media came through again. 🙂