BloggerCon III-Opening and Context Reflection-Dinner at Ming’s
I am behind on my BloggerCon III reflections so bear with the shattering of the reverse chronological order paradigm!
BloggerCon III-Opening and Context Reflection-Dinner at Ming’s
BloggerCon III is about relationships and I feel richier for it. Stanford University specifically and Silicon Valley in general was a fabulous venue, both aesthetically and intellectually stimulating. As you see from my previous post my original intention was to live blog the conference and my thoughts. I quickly abandoned this approach as there was so much information and interaction.
The format of the “unconference,” as Dave Winer terms it, is importance to the value. I will not recapture the rules and protocols of BloggerCon that keeps it productively pure for a new technology realm (i.e., blogging and podcasting) to mature. However, I will mention a couple of critical foundation points that created some controversy during the Saturday sessions. First, no vendor pitches–at all! Second, the conference is for users. I know it was a bit uncomfortable during the controversy, but having been at other technology conferences I began to understand the value of a dogmatic adherrence to these fundamentals.
My experience began with some apprehension as I knew no one beyond their abstract personality I had observed online in reading and/or listening to their content. I signed up and attended the opening meet and greet dinner at Ming’s. This is when I began to witness the relatively unpretentious crowd, even the “celebrities” in these emerging concepts. During this event I got to briefly meet many of the personalities I have been following over the past couple of years blogging and only the last several weeks podcasting. Here are some of the notables:
Dave Winer
Adam Curry
Robert Scoble
Eric Rice
The following people were at my discussion table:
Michael Geoghegan
Jaime Bátiz-Mendoza
Micki Krimmel
Trevor Cook
J. Craig Williams
Our discussions circled around concepts of blogging and podcasting. Specifically, how these marketing concepts can be used to promote professional credibility and competency, potentially gaining direct and referral business. This drew us into conversations around personal PR and building your “self-brand.” There were also discussions of how blogs are increasingly being used as professional portfolios. This was a great warm-up for what was to follow on Saturday. A full 48 hour relationship building opportunity. We were building community and linkage much like we do within the blogosphere.