Building, networking, and nurturing online communities??

I’m getting pretty excited about the local new media and tech unconference BarCamp coming to Nashville this Saturday at the Exit/In.  All this excitement has me thinking:  what have other folks done in terms of creating a robust blogger community thats been successful?  How can the blogging and new media community best get its tech on?

 

I know big mega-conferences like yearly Blogher, Gnomedex, YearlyKos can all be helpful.

 

I realize free unconferences which are all over the globe like BarCamp and PodCamp can be helpful as well. 

 

Monthly meetups like Blogging meetups, Social Media Club , and Net Squared are likewise an addition to the community.  I imagine that San Fransisco, Boston, and London are on the frontlines of new clubs like Open Coffee Club for the tech community.

 

I know local information hubs are critical too.  For instance, a friend of mine in DC kept DC Tech Events, which was a weekly posting of upcoming events in the DC area.  Very simple, very helpful.

 

What ideas do you have?  What have you seen thats worked?  How can we collaborate and community build virtually better?