Note: My editing skills and tech are not up to the point of bleeping out swearing, which this video contains. I find it a better general policy overall to allow, rather than to censor or restrict.
How many blogging conferences do you know of where there’s a river boat cruise? I bet not too many!
The cruise took place last Friday. I met a lot of great new people, exchanged a lot of business cards, and I am always awed by the sights of Chicago every time I visit. One of SOBCon’s sponsors, Jim Beam, provided the open bar. Let me tell ya, bloggers on a boat + free-flowing alcohol = good times (some people are probably grateful that I did not put it online).
Opening entertainment was provided by Christine Kane, a wonderful singer/songwriter who blogs. Representatives from Jim Beam talked about how they were beginning to embrace new media communications for their brand (and they probably learned so much by participating in the conference that they got their sponsorship money paid back several times over in precious advice and information).
There was an open mic (the live version of what Liz Strauss does on her blog every Tuesday night) night, where the topic was about your first blog post ever. I kinda missed that because I was up on the deck of the boat taking pictures of Chicago’s stunning skyline from out in Lake Michigan. I was joined by the more serious photography buffs (I am no such thing) like Wendy Piersall and Chris Garrett.
One interesting note about this conference and why I’ve chosen to write about it on Remarkablogger. Would you think of going to a conference on television advertising if you were not in that industry? Probably not. How about a conference on print or radio advertising? I hear crickets chirping in the silence. Blogging is one of those weird things where it makes perfect sense to attend a blogging conference. I think it’s because it’s such a personal, human-powered (not in spite of the technology involved, but because of it) communications endeavor. It’s been said (I don’t know by whom) that SOBCon is an “Internet marketing MBA in 48 hours.”
If anyone else who attended SOBCon wants to, please add your thoughts about the boat cruise or about the worth of attending a blogging conference even if you’re not a “pro blogger.”
LOVE the video! Thanks so much for capturing that – looks like so much fun!! Damn! I’m going next year for sure…
Thanks for the link, Michael! It was great to meet you – and I loved reading your take on all the happenings at this amazing conference!
[...] venture into other media like audio or video or even start a second flagship blog. You can start speaking at conferences. You will consider a professional custom blog redesign. You want to keep inspiring people forever. [...]
Michael:
I was seriously impressed with the video quality knowing that you used a flip camera (right?). That was pretty cool. Made me think maybe I ought to just go for the flip camera or perhaps I’ll go back to my SONY Compact camcorder (which is compatible with YouTube, etc.).
Hmmm….very nice write up. I am grateful to have made such strong spiritual connections with a lot of people at SOBCon08. We didn’t get to chat much but like Adam of Monk at Work told me, there’s always SOBCON09!
Nice job with the write-up. And by the way, the swearing on the video, if there was any, didn’t affect me at all cuz I couldn’t hear any of it anyway! (for the benefit of those who might be reading my comment, I’m totally deaf – deaf since birth). LOL.
Your videos are very well done. I have a flip video recorder but haven’t the first idea about how to edit. Adobe premier I have, but it’s too scary. What do you use?
Was great meeting you at SOBCon, by the way.
–Clay
Great bit of video, Michael. Great to meet you, of course, and I was so impressed with the Flip that I went out and bought one the next day – only to hand it over to a friend of mine whose need was greater than mine once I got back to the UK.
Catch you back there next year – and of course, I’ll continue to subscribe to your feed in the meantime.
Cheers,
Andrew
@Christine O’Kelly – You, girl, should be SPEAKING there next year.
@Christine Kane – Thank you! I really enjoyed your performance (video coming sometime soon!)
@Stephen – Yeah, but you could read their dirty lips!
I have to say that I was blown away by what a warm, earnest person you are. I look forward to meeting you again!
@Clay – If I had Premiere… ooh, I dare not think about it! You are seeing the results of how I torture stupid old Windows Movie Maker to make it do my bidding.
@Andrew – Pleasure was all mine. Good man for helping a friend. We’ll stay in touch!