If you’ve read my past few blog posts, you will know there were two sessions at Open Camp this past weekend that I liked a lot. One was by Trey Ratcliff about making your blog pretty, and the other was by Chris Pirillo. I discovered today that the video of Chris Pirillo’s session is now on youtube, and since I liked it so much, I’m putting it up here so that everyone can watch it!
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First of all let me start off by giving a big thanks to Trey Ratcliff (www.stuckincustoms.com) for the link, and also to those who actually used that link. I think it blew the previous record for visits to my site out of the water!
The picture to the left is another of Trey’s awesome photos, which I chose to include for a reason (which I will explain below), but you should take some time to view his flickr feed full of awesome photos. Trust me, it’s worth it!
Also before I get to day two, I’ll let you all know about my podcast “Everybody Needs a Hobby” that I’m trying hard to get off the ground. If you don’t mind take a few minutes and give me some input. It would be be much appreciated!
Now, on to day two!
It started off in basically the same way as Day One, except we opted for the Hotel Breakfast Buffet instead of Clif Bars. It was quite tasty too! I’m a breakfast kind of guy though, so bacon and eggs are always tasty to me.
Then we started with the sessions. I have to admit I had some preconceived notions coming into today’s first sessions, mainly from the titles of the sessions. I thought that these sessions wouldn’t really do much for me, but boy was I wrong! I learned something from every common track session, but just like yesterday there was one that stood out. It was the session by none other than Chris Pirillo (@chrispirillo, www.lockergnome.com). Now I will admit that I have not spent a lot of time following Chris, and I actually did have some expectations about what we were going to get in his session, and within seconds my expectations were thrown out the window of a high rise somewhere in downtown Dallas. I can most certainly say that Chris Pirillo is one of the most energetic and inspirational speakers I think I have ever seen! I won’t ever doubt his mad speaking skills again!
We left a little early for lunch to meet a friend of Heath’s, but when we got back we were treated to great sessions by Dave Moyer (@davemoyer,www.davemoyer.org) and Dave Curlee (@davecurlee, www.davecurlee.com). I had thought I would learn many new things I had never known, but what I actually learned from these sessions was that I already know more about podcasting and video production than I thought I did. That plus Chris’ session left me thinking “Why the heck am I just sitting here doing nothing? I can do this, and I need to do this!”
With that, I ducked out early to rest my tired and over-saturated brain because with all the information packed into the past few days I literally could not take in anymore. I had got to the point where it was just bouncing off of me, and not penetrating like it should. That’s why I’m glad the videos of these sessions will be online, because I’m definitely going back to watch them.
Now why did I pick the picture above for this post? Well, it’s because over the past few days I’ve felt like one of those rocks, sitting there letting all the knowledge of many wise and talented people flow around and into me. It’s been worth it too. I was glad to be a rock, and I plan to continue to soak up knowledge as I continue on after Open Camp and until I can one day pour my knowledge out to other rocks.
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?
So yesterday was basically Day 0 of Open Camp 2010. This is the first year for Open Camp, and the first time I have ever been to a conference that I’ve had to pay for. The only other ones I’ve been to are the free ones Microsoft does when they release a new product. Those are cool, but of course it’s nothing like this.
When we arrived yesterday, we checked into the Crown Plaza, which is an extremely nice hotel by the way, and got settled in. Then we grabbed a quick dinner at the McDonald’s down the street and headed over to Greenhill High School to watch the Army Golden Knights do an exhibition jump. Considering I had never even heard of the Golden Knights until they were announced for Open Camp, I wasn’t exactly sure what we were in for. I had already watched a video of one of their performances, but I still wasn’t prepared for the one guy who looked like he was going to land right on us, and he still had pyro shooting from his boot! Overall that was an awesome experience, and it almost even made me want to skydive… but I’m not going to go there.
After the Golden Knights, we walked back over to the Hotel, got registered and sat/walked around the welcome party listening to the music. There were many people I wanted to talk to, but I figured I would conserve my voice (cause it was LOUD) and try to catch them later. It worked out though, because after that party we went up to the “after party” room, and sat/walked around until finally I got my chance. I got to talk to John P., the even organizer (and CEO of Woopra). It was definitely a great start to a conference that really kicks off this morning at 8:30. I’m excited about learning some very useful things today and tomorrow, and of course meeting plenty more insanely awesome people. Networking is something I don’t have a lot of in certain areas, and I’m hoping I can build some of that over the next couple of days.
Oh, and John, if you somehow found this blog… WAR EAGLE!
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