nerd’s eye view

Impromptu Seattle Blog Fest

October 12, 2008 – 9:10 am | by nerd's eye view

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I’ve been feeling a little envious lately of all those who jetted off to Blog World Expo or who are making plans to attend the various travel related conferences popping up all over the place. I’ve got no business feeling that way, after all, I was just in New York and I’m off to a writer’s conference in Tampa at the end of the month, but there’s something about the company of your fellow bloggers. They get that maybe it’s not all vanity, or they’ll indulge yours. They know that you’re trying to “do something” with your blog even if they don’t get what, exactly it is because whoa, you can so not explain it to them. They understand your weird time consuming obsession - don’t be calling it a hobby - and your inability to shut the hell up. Even where I work, in tech, you can still find people who are not down with the blogging. So it was nice to spend a good chunk of my weekend in the company of Those Who Think Blogging Matters.

On Friday afternoon, I attended a travelbloggers lunch hosted by Pat Jenkins of Uptake. There were five of us total - Pat, Beth of Wanderlust and Lipstick, Debbie of Delicious Baby, Michelle of Wandermom, and me. We talked about a bunch of stuff including why blog, our professional backgrounds (surprisingly nerdy!), how we like to travel, and, for some reason, our preparedness for emergencies, I’m not sure why. No matter. It was a lovely gathering of really smart people who love both to travel and to blog about it. We ate at Taste, the restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum where the food and the staff are both great. I recommend it - but maybe go when your companions are not so very diverting so you can pay a little more attention to your food.

On Saturday, I spent the day at Bigfoot, a small blogging conference at the University of Washington. There was an interesting collection of speakers - Tracy Record of our own righteous local West Seattle Blog, Monica Guzman of the Seattle PI’s Big Blog, Chris Pirillo of Gnomedex, Andru Edwards of Gear Live, and Karen Anderson of Writer Way.

If I had to pin an overarching theme on the gathering, I’d say it was about how to engage your community - online and in person - as a blogger. That’s a little limiting, though - a bunch of other topics were covered including public vs. private personas, how to do some basic “stuff” with your blog, how to use social media and not be a jerk (my reinterpretation of the concept), getting to know your readers (Hiya! Do I know you?), and getting off the blog to meet your people in person.

I had a great time, and that’s no small thing to say since it involved being inside on a breathtakingly gorgeous October day. I sat with Mary Jo of Fly Away Cafe, chatted with travel photographer Kristin Gill, finally got to say hello to Toddie Downs in person (oh my god, she’s going to China!) and met a handful of other swell folks who I hope to cross paths with again.

You want takeaways? Again, it was more conversational than educational for me, but that in itself says a lot about the wildly social direction blogging is going. As an insignificant little blog, I loved hearing that there’s a shift in thinking about traffic from quantity to quality. I realize this is a difficult thing to measure, but for me, it means that the important thing is not so much to have a zillion anonymous readers, but to make connections with readers who are doing important work (whatever THAT means to you) in the space where you blog.

I also enjoyed hearing that these influential bloggers value the 3D interactions with their audiences as much as the stuff that happens on site - Monica Guzman mentioned that when she hosts a gathering, she figures if one person shows up, it’s a success. There was a spirited discussion about pay - you’ve seen it before, but it was nice to see in person and I think it was Chris Pirillo who said that if/when you decide your work is worth more than free, then you should do something about that. Karen Anderson and Andru Edwards gave some good brain cycles to my question about how long your posts should be - and I felt my heart leap a little when my hand was up and I got a “Yes? Question? Nerd’s Eye View?” from the stage. (Hey, I’m not totally devoid of vanity. Are you?)

It was fun to go introduce myself to Chris and tell him, “You remember that ‘best Gnomedex success story ever‘? That was me.” He took me over to meet his wife and seemed genuinely delighted for me. Finally, as a neighborhood devotee to West Seattle Blog, I enjoyed hearing about their evolution, their modesty and surprise at their success, and their enthusiasm for continuing the valuable work they’ve begun. And hey, WSB: The Herald. NO contest. You’re very gracious, but you rule the hyperlocal news.

The whole thing was exactly my speed, big enough to not know everyone, small enough to not be overwhelming. Kane Hall is a great place for a speaker session, though there’s a shocking lack of outlets for this sort of gadget crazy crowd. The whole event was sponsored by iCultur, who were so low key I didn’t know who’d put the thing on until the end of the day. All in all, thought provoking and inspiring - in a “hey, I can do that!” sort of way. Time well spent. And hey, nice to meet you.

For some virtual soundbites, here’s the Twitter feed for #bigfoot.