SOBCon08 was Great
Flying back from SOBCon08 in Chicago. It was a great experience, and I’m grateful to Liz Strauss and team for putting it on. I’ll have more to say soon. I’m working on my business right now, and trying to get things done, and kind of overloaded. I’ll put up something meaningful for Monday, but I wanted you to know that SOBCon was a good time, loaded with great people, and is worth your radar for 2009.
Why SOBCon Should Be on Your Calendar
Liz Strauss is passionate about the 2008 version of SOBCon, taglined, “Biz School for Bloggers.” What makes this concept really important is simply this: we’re at a time in our universe where we don’t NEED a lot of the old infrastructure to do something meaningful and making a reasonable living, but we DO need business knowledge, business sense, and a reasonably worked out plan of what needs doing and which steps to take to get there.
All kinds of crazy hooligans are going to pile on their business perspective and give you a sense of how you can advance your efforts into something that might become a sustainable business. Hooligans include:
Anita Bruzzese from Gannett USA Today, on online reputation management, Brian Clark, Copyblogger, on online business models that work, Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress, one focusing your business to get noticed, Chris Garrett, on managing the editorial, Muhammad Saleem, on what makes an appropriate social networking portfolio, Chris Brogan, on social media choices that produce, Dave Bullock, a sales model that converts, Liz Strauss, how to build an irresistible offer and Wendy Piersall on success management.
By the way, if you register before April 1, it costs less, but honestly, either price is within the realm of reasonable if you consider this a business consulting opportunity with tons of minds that understand the old school and the new school.
So, if you’re interested, register and get your future put in order.
Photo credit, Brian Solis
10 Ways To Make Your Next Conference Better
Before your next conference, consider these 10 simple things:
- Scour the web (technorati and Google Blogsearch) to see who’s coming, and reach out to people you want to see.
- Schedule meetings with people on day 1, as soon as you can, because time runs out.
- Drink more water than you normally do, and wear VERY comfortable shoes.
- Pack business cards. Tons of them. But get theirs, because then YOU can ensure a reply.
- Have a really simple, brief sentence to answer: “What do you do?” “What are you working on these days?” “What brings you to the conference?”
- Blog a VERY RECENT photo of yourself so that people know who they’re going to meet.
- Check Upcoming for related events and parties. Attend a few.
- Take some pictures of you and some folks you meet. Post them with links to the people, if you can find such.
- Never assume people are better than you, or that you’re somehow not good enough or important. You are. And if people don’t know you yet, go in like they know you reasonably well anyway.
- Don’t hide behind your laptop, BlackBerry, camera. Step out and be brave a few times. It WILL pay off.
Would you be willing to add YOUR advice to the comments? I know you’ve already thought of something I’m forgetting on this list. Help us out, okay?
Lets Write 100 Conference Sessions WE Want to Attend
Conference season is almost upon me in full swing. My own company’s IT events are ready to launch. Jeff Pulver is building Video on the Net a new way for May. I just got back from PodCamp Toronto 2. And I’m so jazzed to be going to South by Southwest for the first time this year.
But what I want to do is this: I want US to write 100 sessions for conferences that we WISH we were attending. Write a title and a short paragraph for a session that you think would be cool to attend. It can be a keynote. It can be a panel. It can be interactive. Whatever you want. I’ll add a few, too.
Ready? Go!
