Guilt and Embarrassment

I remember one Christmas I received a pair of gloves with a matching scarf from an aunt. I really wasn’t wild about the colors, so I put them on the top shelf of the hall closet and pretty much forgot about the gift. And, somehow, I never wrote a note acknowledging the gift. I am usually pretty good about this – I figure if someone is going to go to the trouble of picking out a gift for me, wrapping it and walking it to the post office, then the least I can do is write a note. But this time I was so guilty!

But it gets to be Valentine’s Day and I remind myself, “You really ought to…” By Easter, I am at a point where I am simply too embarrassed to write that note, just not wanting to call attention to my dereliction.

Blogs are like that. Three people have said to me in the past two weeks, “Don’t you blog any more?” Who knew that anyone followed these rants and musings? So here I am in October embarrassed that I haven’t posted a word since August.

But not because I have been swanning around the pool playing canasta. Work on the Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference moved into high gear in September and so far this month has taken on a life of its own. The conference is registering very nicely, thank you very much. So now I am worried about the hotel selling out of sleeping rooms, about having enough room to serve lunch in the Product Showcase, and lots of “good problems.”

Meanwhile, seeming like a bolt from the blue, the program for the Voices That Matter; Google Web Toolkit Conference finally clicked two weeks ago. I was worried about getting just the right speakers, about the balance between Google speakers and outside speakers, about session descriptions that conveyed meaning and sparked interest, about trying to stay true to the GWT passion. And, finally, all the work done over the summer, all the thinking and agaonizing and talking to people paid off, seemingly overnight.

So, I have two babies of whom I am inordinately proud. But raising these kids is taking so much time and energy. I am seldom on Twitter, this blog has been anemic and I am worried that Chris Brogan will think I have fallen off the face of the earth.

PS – Go Red Sox!

Every Day Social Media (or not)

Some random thoughts about social media tools this morning.

Heard the mayor of Minneapolis on NPR this morning. He said one of the most tangible ways folks can help each other out is to drive to work together. I guess it is a sign of the times and world in which I live, but my first thought was that they needed a Google Maps mash up. I started designing it in my head as I waited for the train. Each company could have map centered on their location and the roads that are affected by the loss of the bridge. Folks could identify where they lived and what time they left the house each morning. If you wanted to ride share you could either contact someone “upstream” from you and they would drive or “downstream’ and you could pick them up. Within an office building or industrial park, companies could integrate their maps to make the possible ride share options more effective.

Unrelated thought, reading Twitter this morning. My old boss, Jeff Pulver, had recently posted about his preference for FaceBook over LinkedIn. Early this morning, Jeff came across a blogger who really flamed him for that opinion. Muhammed Saleem said Jeff obviously didn’t understand the two products. He called Jeff stupid (which he really isn’t) for holding an opinion. But the interesting thing is that Muhammed’s blog does not accept comments to any of his posts. He advertises himself as some sort of expert on social networking and he closes comment? Duhhh. End of story.

Someone asked my last night why we weren’t advertising the conference on Twitter. It was really hard to articulate how very wrong that would be. (And since only about 60 people follow me, not even close to effective.) Another colleague asked me how I used Twitter. That was easier to articulate: I used it just like he used a cigarette break, entertaining, diverting, refreshing. I did acknowledge that I often got great links to blog posts and videos from Twitter. Plus, a lot of my speakers (also known as authors here at Pearson) are on Twitter and I get a kick out of knowing that Dori Smith’s dishwasher is on the fritz. But advertise the conference on Twitter? Finally, I suggested reading Twitter for a day or so to really understand what was going on there. Sigh….

Meanwhile, I am feeling slammed at work, juggling two conferences, one thirteen weeks away, one seventeen weeks out. And facing the requirement to continuing to plan for the entire 2008. Every hour I am making decision between the urgent and important. Yikes!

Fourteen Weeks and Counting

Our first conference in the Voices That Matter series is on Web Design.
It takes place October 22- 25 in San Francisco.
That is fourteen weeks, in case you are counting. I definitely am.

Last night I emailed each of my speakers with the final schedule, which will be on the web tomorrow.

Yesterday, the files for our four page attendee brochure went to the printer. I am really proud of the piece and grateful for the hard work done by Aren Howell, who was working from her hotel room on Monday night, when she should have been in the hot tub, enjoying her day off.

Meanwhile, this morning's mail brought links to two interesting points of view about the life and challenges of conference managers.

Chris Brogan sent me a link to David Meerman Scott's blog that proposes video-based and YouTube-enabled speaker proposals. Intriguing idea. In general, my life as a speaker recruiter is easier here at Pearson than it ever was at DCI or Pulver, since I now have this pool of incredible authors to draw from. These are folks we know and who we have generally seen speak at other events.

One of the most interesting speakers who is coming to the Web Design conference is Jeremy Keith, who is part of a web design agency called Clearleft in Brighton, England. Jeremy's business partner, Andy Budd was recently interviewed in Digital Web about their event, d.Construct, a single day, single track event which they have been running for three years now. Their registration opened on July 10 and they are sold out in hours apparently -- 600 registrations. Thanks to my colleague at Peachpit,Wendy Sharp, for the pointer to this interview.

I like that there are so many different conference business models out there. VTM: WD is two and a half days and two tracks in San Francisco, featuring world-renowned authors. I believe that potential conference participants are well-served by having a range of choices. Length of conference, focus, location, format, speakers.

Two Videos and a Restaurant Review

Really geeky song parody.
Perl in a Nutshell.
Thanks to Allison Randall at Radar O'Reilly for the pointer.

Great, really stunning look at our Web world today.
The Machine is Us/ing Us

And my review of a restaurant in Manchester, MA
Lunch at the The Landing

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Here at Pearson, I am part of a loosely-knit, semi-official group of folks who are doing all kinds of new things with authors and with content. New being almost anything *besides* printing that knowledge on white paper and binding it between two covers.

My piece of this effort is developing and organizing and marketing face to face conferences.

My good friend at Pearson here in Boston is called Eric Garulay. One of the many things he is working is podcasts. Readers of this blog with a long memory will remember when I helped Eric manage the process of recording some video podcasts at SD West.

Well, from that effort, we are all thrilled that our On Software podcast series is number 21 in iTunes' in the TechNews category, number 46 in Technology overall. Yay!! We rock!!

Results of Yesterday's Challenges

OK, these are the five things Chris challenged me (OK, me and his 1138 plus friends) to tackle yesterday.

** Delete 5 emails or action items or “save for laters” you MEANT to respond to but haven’t yet.
What I did here was go through my email inbox and moved probably 200 emails into their proper folder. My way of organizing email is to file it, just in case, by project. What is left over, what is not filed, I move to archive folders set up by month. So, yesterday, since I was in a housekeeping mood, I moved my March and April sent and received to their dusty backroom storage.

** Take a 20 minute unplugged walk. No phone. No ipod. No whatever.
I did this. At lunch, I walked over to Downtown Crossing, which is just less than twenty minutes. I was going to call home; Doug is entertaining my goddaughter and her fiancée, and see how the leisure class was doing. My cell phone battery absolutely *dead* so I walked over unplugged. On the way back, I took some pictures of me on Boston Common, does that count as plugged or unplugged?

** Do just one thing you’ve WANTED to do for months but have been putting off.
I did two things I have been meaning to do and they are both going to reveal me as shallow and lacking in the breadth of vision Chris was hoping to wring out of us.

I bought a wristwatch in January with an expansion bracelet. This watchband has been too big for me since the first time I put it on and I have been meaning to have four links taken out all through the spring. Did that yesterday.

The other thing is I had a $50 gift certificate at DSW shoe store. Used that yesterday.

Although these tasks aren’t as inspirational as I might have wished, they do represent my getting out of the building at lunch. Not a small achievement, so thanks, Chris!

** Buy someone else near you a cup of coffee or a soda pop or a beer, and ask them about their future plans.
Just didn’t do this one.
Well, maybe. As I said, Doug and I have my goddaughter and her fiancée staying with us. Last night, we barbequed some chicken and sat outdoors and listened to them talk. Being that they are like 19, the talk was full of their future plans. I know it helps to keep me young. And, of course, while I was doing it, I had no sense that I was checking this challenge off my list. I was just drinking a beer and smiling.

** Believe in yourself. Close your eyes for a moment, and just BELIEVE that you matter, that you’re something special.

My direct boss, Karen Gettman, is in China for two weeks. Her boss, Paul Boger, called me yesterday morning just to see how things were going for me. As I outlined what had been accomplished over the past month or so, the hiccups I had addressed and worked around and what I wanted to get done in July, I really felt good. I realized that I was doing something good here at Pearson, both for our authors and for the community at large. I am something special and I am making a difference.

Some Interesting Stuff on Twitter

I came across this post by Maria Langer about Twitter thanks to a Twitter from New Media Jim.
Four Steps to Get the Most Out of Twitter.
Interesting, though I think I use Twitter more for my own amusement than for conscious network building. A nice break from the heads-down grind. And, as Chris Brogan Twittered yesterday, I find pointers to fine videos here.

Maria's post sent me to Grammar Girl's Style Guide for Twitter. Mostly common sense but interesting to review. I had been thinking about Grammar Girl recently because I saw her publisher speak last week about her audio book.