Ryan Carson runs Carson Systems and Vitamin.  He also puts on some of the best web conferences in the world, specifically Future of Web Apps (FOWA) and Future of Web Design (FOWD).   While I’d love to hit both, FOWA is in London this October, which is a bit of a hike for me.  FOWD is in NYC, though, and a few of us from Viget will be there.

To help promote FOWA, Ryan is mixing 2 of his favorite things: drinking beer and meeting people.  At the recently (and nicely) redesigned FOWA Road Trip page Ryan invites people in 12 European cities to “get away from our laptops and have a good ol’ fashioned night on the town.”  Ryan’s Twittering along the way, and the FOWA crew is documenting the trip.  Looks like they’re having fun so far.

Being the earth-friendly type, Ryan’s also using the Climate Careprogram to offset the CO2 emissions from his trip.

I think this is a great idea — especially for a guy with seemingly endless energy like Ryan — for how to get out and promote a conference while making a real connection with the community he cares about.

I met Ryan at SXSW earlier this year, and invited him to participate in the Web 2.0 for Business conference that I help put together through ExecutiveBiz.   Ryan will be moderating a panel on … what else?  The Future of Web 2.0 for Business.  Looking forward to having him in town — perhaps we’ll invite some folks out for a beer …