BlogIN 2008 Summary
The BlogIN at IUPUI was a great Open Space event. Thanks to Smaller Indiana and Compendium Blogware for sponsoring the event. The conference was, obviously, about blogging, but the main focus was not on a set agenda, but an attendee selected list of topics. If you’re not familiar with the Open Space format, it goes like this:
- Whoever comes are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it’s over, it’s over
This means the participants of the conference run the show. It’s very Agile and open-ended. If you don’t like a session you’re in, you vote with your feet: go find another session to attend. After keynotes by Chris Baggott (CEO of Compendium Blogware), Kevin Makice and Doug Karr, suggestions were made for breakout sessions. Topics included:
- Blogging 101
- Blogging on Smaller Indiana
- Political action blogging
- SEO and RSS
- Monetizing your blog
- Wordpress tips and tricks
- Writing effectively
- Business blogging
- Video blogging
- Identifying local bloggers
I bought a new Flip Video camera and caught some video:
What I learned
One of the main points of attending a conference is learning. A few take-aways for me:
- Video blogging is easier than it looks.
- Both in video blogging and blogging in general, perfect is the enemy of good. Just get it out there.
- Blogging is about spheres of influence. We have different areas where we have conversations and things ripple out from there. Each person should feel comfortable sharing what they know in their sphere. It may be duplicate within one sphere but completely new in another.
- In order to build up the Indiana blogging community, we need to blog about Indiana.
- Finding other local bloggers is challenging.
- I suck as a live-blogger. I’m too interested in the topic to take notes I’m willing to post immediately.
BlogIN isn’t the only event happening in Indiana on the topic of blogging. In August there is a 2-day blogging event called Blog Indiana happening on August 16-17. I think many bloggers from BlogIN are excited to have another opportunity to talk shop here in Indianapolis.