 |
| Chris Carfi, via Flickr (CC license) |
| I was slightly excited when I won the SXSW pass. |
So I’m here at O’Hare airport, trying to catch an earlier flight home to Denver on standby. I’m on my way home from BlogHer 2007, which was awesome, encouraging, and exhausting.
The cool stuff:
- I won! At the luncheon yesterday I won a free registration to the South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive/music/film festival in Austin, TX next March. I’ve never been, and I’m excited about it. Yeah, I still have to get my own room and plane ticket, but this is a $650 event, so no small potatoes.
- Rooming with Lisa Williams. Over the last couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the OPML goddess Lisa Williams, founder of Placeblogger and H2Otown…
Lisa and I are like-minded spirits in many ways, but we never got much of a chance to sit down and talk at length. Well, I had been staying at the Chicago International Hostel (which is just fine, as hostels go, but rather a haul from the Navy Pier where the conference was happening). I found out that Lisa’s roommate at the swank W hotel on Lakeshore Drive ditched on her. So Lisa graciously offered me the spare bed in her room. We stayed up way too late two nights in a row figuring out how to make media and community work better together. Dangerous stuff, but fun. Thanks, Lisa!
- Today’s unconference. Just when I thought I was burnt out and on total people-overload, something cool happens. I stayed today to attend the morning half of the BlogHer unconference. If you haven’t been to an unconference, it’s worth trying out. It’s a refreshing experience, with the right group of people — and this was the right group of people. Basically it’s a participatory, discussion-focused gathering based on Open Space principles. There I had a small-group discussion with Tarrant Figlio and Maria Niles about neglected blogs (like, um, this one has been). They gave me some much-needed guidance and encouragement to overcome obstacles I’ve encountered with Contentious, get it back on track, and make it fun again.
The not-cool stuff: HUMIDITY! Ugh. That’s one big reason why I fled the east coast. ‘Nuff said.
More to come shortly if I don’t get standby on this flight….
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds
BlogoSquare
2 Trackbacks
[...] still on standby, waiting for the next plane to Denver . And it’s damn hard to find a power outlet in Chicago [...]
[...] as I mentioned earlier, I’m going to South by Southwest in March 2008. I’m not on the speaking lineup (yet) but I’m really excited about it! I [...]