This year was my first at South By South West and I had a blast!

Making it a real success though required more than just showing up.  South by South West is all about community and living on the Internet, as well as meeting up in person.  If you couldn’t bring the right tools along, neither of those would happen.

I’d have considered myself very prepared. Laptop, check. DSLR, check. P&S camera, check. Flip, check. Money, check.  It turns out both yes and no.

A laptop seemed like a great choice for an online/offline event.  I chose my 15″ MacBook Pro.  It’s not huge.  Let me tell you, it was about too much, besides holding one of the things I hadn’t thought to check, a battery.

A 15″ laptop doesn’t sound like it’s going to get in the way. That’s until you see how little table space there is to be found.  Often your laptop literally ends up on your lap.  Not a good choice for anything awkward, hot, or needing more space than you have. A great alternative, and much seen this year, are netbooks.  Miniature notebooks of all brands on hand, running a variety of operating systems.  These little gems provided both a low footprint, low weight, and were easier to stow and carry than a full size laptop.  I’m so convinced of this that I’ll be purchasing one for next year.

Canon, Nikon, Sony and more make great DSLRs.  The problem? They aren’t something you can stick in your back pocket, shirt pocket, purse, or want to wear around your neck all day.  (Well maybe if someone is paying you to.)  My Canon XTi quickly wore out its welcome with me by Tuesday of the conference.

A great alternative is a good quality point and shoot camera.  I brought along a simple 5 megapixel Nikon, but even it was a bit bulky.  If you don’t have a camera that slides into your pocket and doesn’t weigh much, consider getting one for your next conference, especially one as heavy duty with picture opportunities as SxSW.  The addendum to this note is about batteries.  Bring spares.  By spares, I mean at least two, and charge them up at night.

Video cameras were another great thing you’d think would be great to have along.  Again, a common mistake is to bring a full blown HD video camera.  The storage and carrying will kick your tail fairly quick.

One word answer:
Flip

Now, about the money.  Lots of folks brought cash.  Cash is a burden.  It’s a pain to dig in your pockets for. It’s easy to lose. Someone will always want to borrow it.

Bring a bank card, a charge card, or both.  Use them exclusively. It’s both easier to track expenses, and easier to spend.  There wasn’t any place I went that didn’t take a charge card as well as cash.

I covered everything in my small list in a bit of detail, but there’s a couple of other essentials.

Shoes – two pair – alternate them; bring three if you plan on dressing up

Hat – buy on site or bring

Business cards – 100 or so minimum – readable, interesting, easy to reach

Spare shirts/tops – BBQ

Last but not least of my recommendations can replace all but the money from the original list.  That would be a smartphone.

Smartphones, essentially hand held computers, provide for Internet access, photos, video recording, and can even work for contact information exchange.  The most common models I noted were the Blackberry and iPhone. Note that if this conference were in other parts of the world, likely it would have usable for charging purchases as well.

Some of the items in the short list, such as business cards, require a more in depth post. Those alone are probably worth more than one.  Just bring some please.

So I came prepared this year and perhaps overly so.  Next year my checklist will be shorter, lighter, and easier to carry.

What’s on your must have list for SxSW?

Yours,

Todd, @tojosan on Twitter

PlayStl Speaker Badge

This weekend at the InterPLAY:stl Interactive festival, organized by the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, I’ll be speaking about Social Media and Ethics. Fellow panelists include Jaelithe Judy, of The State of Discontent,  and Matt Homann, of the [non]billable hour.

This will be a  roundtable discussion on the ethical questions surrounding the world of social media. Topics addressed may include: privacy of bloggers and those whom bloggers write about; truthfulness v. artistic license; email and comment etiquette; and more.  The Emerging Ethics of Social Media panel is at 1 PM on Saturday.

In addition to participating as a speaker, I’ll be hosting the Blogging and Social Media 101 panel at 11 AM.  Panelists include Ben Vierck, of StL Bloggers,  Tanner Hobin, and Mike Flynn, of ToastedRav.

A complete list of panels and venues can be found on the St. Louis Bloggers Guild site.  I’m in the coolest venue for both of these panels, Blueberry Hill’s Elvis Room.

Post idea totally stolen from Tanner Hobin.

     It was a rainy Chicago afternoon and evening, on a Spring day in May.  They’d come from all over the United States and the World.  Views and opinions as diverse as their points of origin.  Powers of observation and writing never before brought together were no in one place, on one busy block.

     Who were they?  Superheroes? Power brokers? Yes! They were Bloggers! And they came to take Chicago!  Well, not actually that last part, but it sounds better yes?

     SOBCon08 had drawn bloggers of all types.  Bloggers of politics mixed with technology bloggers as well as mommy bloggers.  Each brought with them not just a desire to learn and be engaged for the weekend, but they came to share, to support, and to blog.  They came to take blogging up a notch.

     Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker assembled a crew of presenters for a human scale event and it was powerful.  Chris Brogan, Anita Bruzzese,  Chris Garret, David Bullock, Terry Starbucker, Brian Clark, Lorelle VanFossen, and Wendy Piersall talked and presented on blogging and business throughout the weekend.  More than that, they shared deeply about blogging and themselves.  Each poured out tips, tricks and heart during their presentations and off-stage as well.

     The SOBCon08 weekend was jam packed with business and blogging information, but also with fun and friends making.  Shashi Bellamkonda and I have been online friends for most of year but had never met.  Leave it to a blogging conference to us together.  Rick Mahn and I had also been online only contacts for quite a while, this weekend allowed us to share a great experience and become real friends. There was the boat ride, where I took this skyline shot, and enjoyed the music of Christine Kane, and the wonderful dinners with my blogger friends.

     Did I take anything away beyond that? More than I can absorb.  On the mental and supportive side, I realized I’m not alone out there, and these other bloggers, even the most successful ones, are only an email away.  I realized others, yes those big name ones too, struggle at times with their blogs and their businesses.  The support and encouragement doesn’t end with the weekend.  Becky McCray has organized some of us into a biz and blog support and mentoring circle.

     As part of the take away from the SOBCon08 conference, I’ll be changing up things on the blog.  It’ll be slow at first, but hopefully the improvements will be noticeable both to readers and to me.  Also, I’ll be formulating some business plans, goals and more.  Don’t think either that I’ll try to work in solitude.  You, the readers, and you, my fellow bloggers and biz folks, will be on the spot.  I’ll be asking you for guidance, reassurance, and support because of the respect and appreciation I have for you all.

     In summary, the weekend brought me more than I expected, and I can’t express enough in blog posts even how much so. While I make some attempts here though, I’d love to hear from you.

     How did SOBCon08 impact you, your blogging and your business? What will you change?  Or have you been to another conference recently that made a significant impact on your life?  Tell me about it!  I want you to share here, on your blog, or drop me a line.  Don’t blog? I’ll be happy to post your story here.

     Come, tell us about your experience.

Terry Starbucker brings us his take on why SOBCon matters to him and why it should to you and me.  Terry talks about conference planning and how it’s impacted him.  As well, he talks about SOBCon’s cofounder Liz Strauss and working with her.

Terry is convinced about the value of the SOBCon conference. He’s not the only one. I’m convinced as well.  Great bloggers from across the blogosphere will be on hand.  They’ll be leading us through several models or paths that a blogger can pursue.

Beyond just reviewing ways to make our blogs successful will be the networking.  It’ll be me and 249 other bloggers plus the conference presenters working together.  An intensive day of learning, planning and growing along side one another.  A day that will result in not just solid workable take aways, but friends.  The ground work for a success network will be layed that day.

I’ve not attended and yes, I have high hopes, but I want you to question yourself. Is your blog really successful? Can you even tell? Do you even have goals for it? Where will it be a year from now?

For a lot of us that blog those questions are tough to answer.  I believe at this time that the cost of the conference is worth it as investment in myself and the future of my blogging efforts.

What are you willing to invest to move your blog to a full time business?

Please take a minute to check out the SOBCon site and see if this is your conference for the year.

The results are in as of day 20. SOBCon 2008 Marketing Contest results that is.

And yes, yours truly is still in the lead.

Here’s the top two:
1) Todd Jordan - 113
2) Alex Shalman - 104

Here’s how it works.  I provide the links to SOBCon and you provide the clicks.  Yes, it’s that simple.  No registration. No leaving your email. No sign ups or ins. Nothing to click on the SOBCon conference site.  Just find any link here on my blog leading to the SOBCon conference site and it’s done.

SOBCon isn’t selling anything. This isn’t about some marketing things. SOBCon is a conference for bloggers about the business of blogging.

So I won’t be asking you to register or give me anything or buy anything or any of that silliness, it’s just all about supporting one of your favorite contacts, me.

Come on folks; let’s take this viral.  Can you make me the most requested blogger to send to SOBCon?  I challenge you to take me to the top.

Thanks you to all of you who’ve shown your support already and to those in the future who will help bring this home for me.

Best regards,

Todd

If you haven’t heard, I’m going to SOBCon08. SOBCon08 is a three day blogger conference for bloggers about blogging by professional bloggers.  N’uff said.

So often folks talk about what they’ve learned at a conference or picked up in conversations while they were there.  Some people will talk about the social networking that happened on site or afterwards.  Finally, some will relate stories of the fun, including wild parties they had.  But few bloggers will blog about what they learned on the path to get there.  I’m here to tell you that I’m learning plenty already and I’ve not even made my hotel reservations.

Get your friends involved

 It’d be easy to sit on the sidelines and moan about how hard it is to be a better blogger, or pay the way to the convention. It’s most tempting to do that moaning to friends.  But what I’ve learned is it’s a far better tactic to bring them along side as partners.  Heck, I’ve got hundreds of contacts on my social networks, why not get some help.

I’ve sought them out and they’ve responded. Daily reminders both in person, on the blog, and through the network have allowed them them to directly respond with helping me get the lead in the contest but also get my blogging fingers working. They’ve encouraged me with great feedback about the blog posts themselves, and the contest.

What’s amazing is that several of these people I’ve yet to even talk to live, yet they’ve reached out to help me push along.  Cheers to you guys and gals.

Supporters will show up to help

So I started off with this wild idea to improve my blogging by attending this conference.  Then I realized how crazy it seemed. What makes me think I have something to contribute? Am I really blogger material? Woah.

Of course I blogged and talked about it; sent it out to the either I did.  To my surprise, not only did my existing buddies come on board, but folks not even on my attention list did too.  The folks over at SOBCon08, Liz and Terry, have both stepped into my life and begun providing encouragement.  They’ve taken time to visit my blog and leave comments, and send me personal messages.  Liz even took time out of her hectic schedule for a one on one pep talk. WOW!

To sum that up, if you ask for help and speak boldly, others will join your cause.

Blog better now

Signing up for the conference made me step back and evaluate where my blogging is at today.  Talk about a sanity check. Not only was I hardly posting a few times each week, but most of the posts were one paragraph or less.  There was no multimedia except on rare occasions, and not enough link love.  You get the picture right?

Of the few things I’m mentioning here, this lesson hit me the hardest. I realized that what’s to gain from a conference if I wasn’t going to put my best foot forward.  This has led me to some changes you might have noticed.

Longer posts, more conversational posts, cartoons (courtesy of Toonlet), commentary on other blogs are just a few of the changes and directions I’ve taken.   More work to come.

The results?  I’m having some 100 hit days on this current blog.  The toons are a big hit.  Comments are happening.

In Summary

Those those three lessons might not seem like much, but trust me they are.  They’ve resulted not only in the practical things, such as leading the contest, and a better blog, but in a less tangible way.  My confidence has been boosted too.  I’ve come to realize that success isn’t some far off concept, only available to other lucky folks. It’s about what you do and about moving forward boldly and bringing your friends along.

It’s not about the belief that I’ll be successful, only time will tell that.  It’s about losing the worry over the end results and focusing on the process.  Focusing on the doing and not getting lost in frustrating second guessing.

As a fellow blogger put it, I’m going forward and let a higher power tell me no if they want. But barring that, I’m making a run for the little ring.

Your fellow blogger,

Todd

SOBCon08 is running a contest for attending bloggers where the payoff is admission and hotel expenses.  The contest works by counting hits to the SOBCon08 website from the competing bloggers.  I’m in that contest.

The contest just posted an update here, and guess who is in the lead? Me!

Yes, you, my readers, have put me in the lead.  But the contest is not over yet.  Far from it, there are 22 days left and I’m not far enough out in the lead to make it certain.  The very fact that people now know whose in the lead will have an affect.

The contest is simple, so if you want to help, all you need to do is click here.  That’s right. Just click there and that’s it. No registration. No sign up. No giving your email.  Just click any link to SOBCon08 and their site.  Every hit counts.  The more the better.  Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell strangers, but please, send them to my blog and have them click through to the SOBCon08 site.

To be transparent:

Convention cost: $450

Hotel cost: $300 +

Getting there: ????

Thanks you again for your support thus far.  Sending me to SOBCon08 will improve my blogging skills, resources and my network of support.

As an added incentive, if you leave me a comment letting me know you click, and provide a link to your blog, I’ll provide a link back on my blogroll and I’ll include you in an upcoming cartoon.

Sincerely,

Todd

Click here to help me win free admission plus hotel costs.

SOBCon08 is “Biz School for Blogging.”This year’s event tracks entrepreneur bloggers and corporate bloggers alike, with an innovative format and a stellar cast of speaker/instructors.

Purpose

The SOBCon08 program guarantees to send each attendee home with a Business Action Plan that can be immediately executed for measurable success. The “mastermind”

teams in which attendees will be interacting will provide uniquely deep working relationships that are more meaningful than the business card trading found at other conference/networking events.

So when and where is it?

SOBCon08 will once again be held in the Chicago area from May 2-4, 2008; the place will be announced shortly.

I’m not a business blogger but I’m looking forward to networking with successful bloggers from across the US. It’ll be a fun and educational experience, and a chance to make some new friends.

Your support in making this happen will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to help with room and board, transportation at the conference, and extra meals. (grin)

If you are going, let me know and we’ll plan to meet at the conference.