Tid-bits from SOBCon ‘07 - An Insider’s Perspective

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I know many of you might be SOBConned out at this point but I thought I’d share a bit about what the conference looked like from my perspective. Call it an insider’s view of the conference.

So here are a few tid-bits from what I saw at the conference that you might not have seen:

Liz ended up getting to the hotel way later and way more stressed than she planned because there was a service failure in the shipment of the purple bags. Long story short, after spending hours on the phone tracking them down she managed to get a commitment for them to be delivered to the hotel early Friday morning. And fortunately they were.

Lorelle, Joe, Easton, and I don’t know who all else worked for a good while stuffing those bags full of goodies for y’all.

Robyn Tippins grew up right down the road from where I live. If the accent didn’t give it away she’s way more Georgia than San Francisco.

In addition to being a phenomenal singer and song writer, Christine Kane is incredibly funny. At dinner Saturday night she had our end of the table roaring with a little help from Tony Clark and Ben Yoskovitz. Gorgeous and I were close to peeing our collective pants. I’m surprised no beverages came out any noses during that meal.

Speaking of funny people, Rodney Rumford had Gorgeous and I rolling too. He arrived at the hotel Thursday and we were able to spend some time with him before things started rolling. Rodney is a guy who is full of ideas and is a very innovative thinker. Definitely interesting conversation there.

Andy Sernovitz’s speaking experience showed as he rolled in a bit before his timeslot with his presentation in hand. He gave us plenty of time to upload it and have him set up before he took the stage. A professional and a very nice guy to chat with too.

Speaking of presentations, Rodney Rumford has Vista on his machine and wouldn’t you know his was the only presentation that ended up being incompatible with the presentation computer. Even the Apple users were even able to produce compatible versions. What do you suppose that says about Vista?

Dawud Miracle gets this whole idea that business is about relationships as well as anyone I’ve ever met. It was refreshing to hear how committed a man like him is to his family. If you get the chance, spend some time getting to know him. And thanks, Dawud for volunteering your blog for Liz and David to critique.

I’ve been a part of these sort of things many times before. One thing that stood out to me was how little went wrong during the event. Sure we had some challenges. But all of them were minor.

The Sofitel did an outstanding job helping us make SOBCon a success. They did a great job ensuring that we’d want to have our next event at their hotel again. Not only that, but all of their employees were wonderful to work with. Nice people, every one.

They were accommodating and willing to help us out with all sorts of things. They even rearranged the room for Saturday not once, but twice to get it the way we wanted it. Stephanie, Volkmar, Mike, and Salvador did a wonderful job making everything just the way we wanted it. Thanks guys!

We stayed on our timeline until we got to the raffle time in the afternoon. That was the one thing we didn’t build into the schedule. I’ve never worked with a group of presenters that large where everyone of them honored the time of the following speakers so well.

My hat’s off to each of them. They were all wonderful.

One final tip for everyone who attends next year. Some of the best conversation and connections happen outside of the formal sessions. You will completely miss out if you don’t

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SOBCon is ON!

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Getting It Together

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Don’t Feel Left Out

Carolyn at Thoughts and Philosophies couldn’t come to Chicago this weekend, so she’s carrying on the spirit of things for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at her blog Thoughts & Philosophies. The name of the event is “Getting It Together,” and it has quite a schedule, and some fine folks participating.

Head on over to check it out!

Meet some amazing bloggers online, and do it THIS weekend. Carolyn has set up two sessions — The first is from noon (EDT) Friday May 11th through 6 PM (EDT); the same session will be replayed from 10 PM (EDT) Friday night through 4 AM (EDT) Saturday morning. The presenters include folks we all know — Rick Cockrum, Carma Dutra, Leah Maclean, Nneka, and Jessica Doyle.

Do something great for yourself. Check it out!

Wow! What a cool idea.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tags: Getting-It-Together, SOBcon-07, sobevent.com, Thoughts-+-Philosophies

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David Armano and SOBCon in BusinessWeek

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In the May 08 issue of his column, Nussbaum on Design, Bruce Nussbaum shines the light on SOBCon and David Armano.

Blog conferences are proliferating and I think it’s because people are discovering that blogging–blogging with a purpose– is harder than it appears. This is a lesson that I’m discovering as I meander into the blogopshere. If you want to influence an audience, you actually have to know how.

And there is no better teacher of these skills than David Armano over at Logic + Emotion. David is talking this Saturday at SOBCon07 (who makes this stuff up?) about taking blogs to the next level.

The writer in me really likes this quote:
“If you want to influence an audience, you actually have to know how.”

Powerful statment, but then, the simple truth usually is.

Thank you, Bruce Nussbaum.

The Doobie Brothers would be singing

Take love and give love. It’s got to be. — White Sun

–ME”Liz” Strauss
MAY 11&12 — Why SOBCon not that Other One. Click the button to register now.