Well, another internet conference has come and gone. It’s so good to be back in LA. I think I’ll actually stay in town this weekend. Overall, the event was a huge success. I reconnected with many friends and met a bunch of people I admire. The community sessions were extremely relevant and thought-provoking. It was the first time I was officially representing my new company, Revver and I’ve got a lot of ideas and contacts to follow up on. Some highlights:
- Best session: The New Community with Derek Powazek. See my notes below.
- Best party: Thursday night’s shindig hosted by Rain City Studios, Bryght and Nitobi. Congrats to the Nitobi guys on their launch!
- Best people I met and/or need to follow up with: Jeremiah Owyang, Global Web Strategist; Will Pate, Community Ambassador at Flock; Brian Oberkirch, Web Consultant Extraordinaire; Greg Narain, Socialroots.com (Social Roots is going to be way cool!); Kit Seeborg, Seeborg Strategies; Andy Baio, Upcoming.org.
- Best Idea(s): 1) Lead the conversation in your industry by hosting online discussion groups and meatspace community events. Invite your competitors to speak. 2) Foster ongoing discussion with your peers to share best practices. I’m going to set up a private blog for folks working in online community-building. Let me know if you’d like an invite.
- Most fun moment: Super hott motorcycle ride with Jeremy Hubert. Thanks, Jer! Ooh, I can’t wait to get my bike.
- Best quote: “And this brings us to the subject of chicken sexing.” – from Jared Spool’s entertaining and informative keynote, The Dawning of the Age of Experience.
There were a couple downsides to the event:
- The hangovers. These events just kill me. I’d love to make a movie about the conference subculture and its inherent alcoholism.
- There was no water available for much of the event. At times, the Starbucks in the convention center was open, but at other times, it wasn’t. Attention conference organizers: Water simply is not an option. If it’s not readily available for purchase, give it away for free. In fact, you should really just do that anyway if you’re charging people money to be there. Besides, people are very thirsty at these things given the previously stated downside.
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Thanks Micki! It was great meeting and hanging with you! We’ll have to catch up again soon:)