Northern Voice:09 Day One

A long day and one full brain later…

still processing all the input from my very first bloggers’ conference: the 5th Annual Northern Voice: Personal Blogging and Social Media Conference.

WARNING: Most of my brain cells are engaged, sorting information.  Some are just plain burnt out.  So if this post seems a little ragged, well…

Lots of information packed into little morsels of time.  Information dim sum.  Or tapas.  And while I liked the variety, I sometimes felt like I took a bite of something I didn’t quite like, or I didn’t get enough of something really tasty.  I’m wondering if less, slightly longer sessions (two 45 minute sessions instead of three 30 minute sessions per block) would have prevented me from feeling stuffed.  I definitely felt like I left the table having overeaten; my fault for being a glutton and wanting to try a little bit of everything instead of taking a session or two off to muse and cleanse my palate.

Today’s Moose Camp was more of an “unconference”…my first time for one of those, too.  Less structured than tomorrow’s schedule.  The Moose Wrangling (scheduling of presenters and topics for the unconference) totally overwhelmed me. Topics flying, rooms and times being assigned too quick for me to catch.  It was obvious the organizers had experience “wrangling” before – I think I was mesmered by the sheer efficiency of it all.

Next year I will be more prepared and less like a stunned moose caught in the headlights.

Despite the ‘whelm, I feel I made some valuable picks in what I choose to attend.  More of what I learned will spill out into the Muse over the next few weeks and in the next month or so I hope to integrate some exciting additions.

Not to start rumours or anything, but the word “podcast” may be involved.