It started earlier than I wanted, and ended later than I expected. Here’s the details.
Woke up at 6:00, got a shower and got ready for the first session. Even though it wasn’t supposed to start till 8:30, I wanted to make sure we were there early. Had a Clif bar for breakfast, and by 7:30 we were out the door. We walked through the vendor’s tables a little, and talked to a nice lady who blogs for Yelp before heading in to get our seats. Turned out that because of some technical difficulties the welcome was postponed till 9:30, and the CMS Showcase was pretty much cancelled. So we sat there.
The even finally got kicked off, and after a warm welcome from John P. (@johnpoz, OneMansBlog.com), we heard from the first speaker, Giovanni Gallucci (@gallucci, gallucci.net). He gave us some great techniques, but unfortunately they were almost so wrong that I don’t dare mention them here. Next was the mesmerizing Cali Lewis (@calilewis, calilewis.me), who gave us a wonderful presentation on “Success with Multi-Media.”
What came next was to me the best session of the day. It was “Clever Tricks for you Blog” given by Trey Ratcliff (@TreyRatcliff, stuckincustoms.com). In his presentation I learned that 1. HDR photography is AMAZING and I want to do it, 2. I need to use more pictures in my blog…
(image above by Trey Ratcliff. You can find out more about him and his art at his blog www.stuckincustoms.com)
How’s that Trey? Lastly, 3. I learned that I need to make my blog prettier, and more fitting for the content that I put out. The rest of the day was filled with some GREAT sessions, but this is still the one that sticks out the most to me.
After Lunch we began the Multi-Media track, and I really got the most inspiration from the very first session by Mark Ramsey (@markramsey, tastylogic.com, techtards.com, pigskinradio.com). It was aimed at Audio Podcasting for Beginners, and while I’m not really a beginner, I haven’t done a lot of audio podcasts lately, and I believe Mark has inspired me to get back in the game. The biggest thing I got from him was that you have to talk about something you are passionate about, and you have to just do it. That’s it.
Just like the morning, there were more great sessions, but that was the one that stuck in my brain. We got the hotel buffet discounted, so we had BBQ brisket for dinner, and then we were treated to a truly AWESOME concert by Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmith, www.theGeoffSmith.com). It was truly unique, and best of all, I actually won something pretty cool! But anyway, after that we went and hung out (or at least around) the hospitality room for a bit, and then headed back to the room to prepare for the next day. I have learned so much so far, and yet there’s soooo much more to come. How will I cram it all in? Good thing I can always take notes!
BTW, I never did receive a tweet back about that free ebook Trey. What’s up with that?
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