My session on Blogging 101 went okay: I didn't demonstrate nearly as much as I wanted to (and when I did demonstrate how to blog, I did it at the end rather than the beginning as planned), but I was pleased with the amount and type of questions asked. For next time:
- less boring slides, or even better, less reliance on slides
- drink more water
- press record when the people podcasting the session ask you to (I completely forgot, so I'm hoping that there are notes people took, which I will happily point to). Time passes, and you can cancel that regret call: I understand the podcaster involved had the presence of mind to press record for me, and they have posted the audio to my Blogging 101 session, though I understand the questions may be less audible.
I wanted to do the Brian Lamb thing and take a picture of the audience and post it. It would have made a good demonstration of posting photos to Flickr, but also, it turns out, out of the scope due to time. That tells me that not only can we do Blogging 101 sessions for a while to come—or, more likely, Blogging 201, which is how to do more than post but rather promote and do it really well—but Social Web 101, or rather, how to strategically use the tools I'm very familiar with to promote whatever it is you're interested in promoting (yourself, your company, or interesting and pertinent ideas).
While we're speaking about people using the tools, Northern Voice, not to mention other conferences like it, are great demonstrations of people documenting an event in real time. I wish I could do it better, that is, take photos faster and publish them faster, but since other people do it well already then I don't feel the rush. I'll post them on Sunday. Says the guy who's writing about the first half of the day before the first half of the day is over: Anil Dash's speech was an interesting, different take on why blogging is important and meaningful, I learned a little more about the subject while holding a session on it, and Travis Smith, a journalist in his own right, had a fair and balanced approach to the new and emerging citizen journalism.
Mack: I'm glad it's
Richard — Sun, 2007-02-25 14:34Mack: I'm glad it's available online. My girlfriend didn't get a chance to attend the session, so she and others who missed it will be able to listen. I'm not too keen on listening to the sound of my own voice, but I understand the questions might be hard to hear. Hopefully it's obvious from the answers I give what the questions were.
Gene: thanks for the
Richard — Sun, 2007-02-25 14:33Gene: thanks for the feedback. You might have seen the tabs I had open, which linked to a couple of blogs and some tools, but I ended up going with the slides and Q&A. Thanks go out to Julie for moderating, andd who reminded me there were 10 minutes left, just enough time to demo posting to a blog, and to the audience who had really great questions. I'm glad I was able to keep it interactive.
Hi Richard, great
Mack D. Male — Sat, 2007-02-24 20:59Hi Richard, great session...sorry about the recording confusion! You shouldn't have had to worry about starting the recorder, it's just that it was sometimes difficult for us to tell when things were getting started. Anyway, sorry about that, glad we got your session recorded :)
I enjoyed your presentation.
Gene — Sat, 2007-02-24 20:27I enjoyed your presentation. It was thorough and genuine. You could have easily moved down a number of paths but kept it on track. I learned a number of things.
Now onto the Transit Camp!