This past weekend, I performed at (and participated in) the First Annual Successful & Outstanding Blog Conference in Chicago, IL. About 125 bloggers descended upon the O’Hare Sofitel. I was one of them. Here are a few of my snapshots of the weekend’s events:
FRIDAY
- I looked for bloggers on the shuttle from the airport – casually glancing around and trying to match faces with blog photos. It’s strange to know people only from emails and comments. Kammie Kobyleski was my first connection!
- The last person to board the shuttle was a pale lanky kid wearing a white undershirt and baggy jeans. He was carrying a faded Fantasia-themed pillowcase stuffed full. This was his only luggage. During the ride, I turned around and asked him if he was going to the conference. He frowned. He looked at his hands. In a Beavis mumble, he said, “I’m here for the convention.” I asked him which one. He said, “Anime.” And I said, “Animation? Are you an animator?” (I know. I know. I so totally blew it.) He took a deep breath and looked out the window. “I’m just here to see my fiance at the convention,” he said. I was strangely disappointed at the idea of the skinny pillowcase guy having something so mundane as a fiance.
- I got to Liz Straus’s room to find blog stars everywhere. Lorelle, Liz, Starbucker, Phil Gerbyshak, Sean Rox, and Easton Ellsworth. (Note: Easton was the very first blogger to help me with my site. I was so happy to meet him in person!) Sean Rox and I dined at the uber-cool restaurant called something like “Colette.” (Which, I think, is French for “big plates with small food on them.”) Sean is a rock star (really!), and brilliant computer geek who has a non-stop sense of humor and a dog named Roxy.
- On my way down to the conference with my guitar in hand, I passed the pillowcase guy in the lobby. Only he was no longer the pillowcase guy. He was a druid. He had completely transformed. He was clad head to toe in full druid garmenture – robe, hood, rope around the waist. His eyes were fixed on some point in the distance, and he walked purposefully towards that point in a wizardly way that would make even Ian McKellen take note. Who knew that a single faded Fantasia pillowcase could hold such transforming items?
- After I performed, I sat at one of the blogger tables. The microphone was being passed around the room in live “open comment” style. Tony Clark was sitting next to me. At one point, I leaned over and said to him, “Do you know there are druids in the lobby?” And he said, “There’s Ninjas, too.” Then he said, “It’s the Anime convention.” And he explained what Anime is. He added, “I was worried that our conference would make us look like this big pack of geeks at the hotel. But oh my god, the Anime convention is here! Compared to them, I’m like, The Fonz!”
- Wendy Piersall arrived during the open mic happenings. Wendy is not someone who could “slip in” with the other late arrivals. She absolutely lights up a room. From the minute she entered the conference on Friday night, she hugged everyone she was meeting for the first time, bouncing across the room as the microphone was passed from person to person. I love that level of undaunted enthusiasm.
- One man took the microphone uneasily. He stood up, cleared his throat, and said something about being uncomfortable with all of these introductions. He looked around nervously at all the happenings and added, “…and I’m not really sure about the pretty blonde lady who seems to be hugging people she doesn’t know.” At this point Wendy bounded across the room and threw herself into this man and gave him a giant hug. The man adjusted his glasses, handed the microphone to someone else and sat down abruptly.
SATURDAY
- Saturday was the conference with speakers all day long. For some detailed accounts of the talks, see Easton’s blog, or scroll down on Gitr’s blog. Jason Alba took notes on the entire conference too. It was a fantastic line-up.
- Here’s the key thing – there’s a huge power in this medium. Whether you use the word “blog” or not, whether you believe in it or not, people are reaching other people. Big media is losing its influence. (or has already lost it!) As Andy Sernovitz said in his presentation, “Advertising is for brands that are boring.” And he’s right. There were some amazing success stories about careers, environmental victories, business connections, and relationships.
- Lisa Cree (wife of blogger Chris Cree) is officially Wonder Girl. Every conference needs a Lisa Cree. She made it all happen. (I would bet that if she has taken the Myers-Briggs test – Lisa is not a “P.”) Hooray for Lisa!
- I sat next to speaker, author, consultant Steve Farber during the Saturday presentations. Steve’s quite a guitar player and musician, and he admitted that his speaking career is a great outlet for his inner rock star. (You can see video of one of his keynote speeches here.) During one of the talks, Steve pulled out some money and handed it to me, and whispered, “I want to get another one of your CD’s for my daughter.” I signed it, and handed it to him. About ten minutes later, he handed me more money and said, “I want to get another one for my other daughter.” So, we went through the process again. Then about 15 minutes later, he did it again. So, I want my readers to know that if Steve Farber keeps having daughters I’ll soon be retiring.
- I have officially decided (Steve heard me announce this) that I wouldn’t care if I never heard anyone talk about brands, branding, having a brand, being a brand, knowing a brand ever again. (See Steve’s comment on this post.)
- Liz Srauss got a standing ovation at the end of the conference. She’s kind of the glue that brought this particular group of people together.
So, here’s a question for my readers – whether you are bloggers or non-bloggers:
David Armano made a great point. He encouraged people to stop calling themselves “bloggers,” citing that this word comes with a lot of baggage and one-dimensionality. I agree. (He wrote a post about it this morning.)
So then, how would you suggest that a person have a blog on their site? What should they call it? Do you like the word blog? Any thoughts on this subject would be great here. As a songwriter who has a blog, I’m very curious. What would we call this part of our websites if not a “blog?”
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I really appreciated greeting you and sharing the SOBcon07 experience with you and all the rest.
David made a good point about using or not using the term “blogger”. I can see how one might define themselves by an instrument of art, “I’m a violinist”, for example. And even a journalist might define themselves by where their profession is expressed, “I’m a newspaper journalist.” But calling myself a “blogger” doesn’t seem quite right to me. It is like a someone using a wrench a “wrencher”.
Keep creating,
Mike
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Hi Mike, thanks for the note. I appreciated your talk during the conference and how you moved people gently into the hearts after so much time spent in our heads! Great ideas, too…
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Oh my! I love posts like this that send me all over the internet “meeting” new people in the blog world. I’ve had to bookmark it so I can come back when I have a couple hours to play!
Thanks for all the fabulous links!
~Pam
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What a GREAT conference summary! And you’re so sweet for the nice things you said.
Incidentally, the guy who talked about the ‘pretty girl who is giving everyone hugs’ confessed the next day that it was his own shamless plug to get in on the hugging action. HA HA!
LOVED connecting with you, please let me know the next time you’re in the midwest – I’d love to have a little more time to sit down and really hang out with you!
HUGS, (of course!!)
Wendy
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Christine, it was nice meeting you although it was brief. I appreciated your questions and wish I could have seen you perform.
I’m glad you are thinking about the “what do we call ourselves” issue. Mike makes a great point with his “wrencher”. For me, blogging is a tool. Albeit a very powerful one. But I’m a creative problem solver more so than I am a blogger. Maybe some can relate to the distinction—maybe others can’t. But I gotta be true to what I am, and that’s it.
Nice seeing you in person and I love the updates to your blog.
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hey pam – you’ll find some great people here. you gotta come to the conference next year…
hey wendy, hugs back at you!
thanks david, your presentation was great, and I appreciate the conversations you generated! it was wonderful to meet you and get to know your approach to business and blogging…
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Hey Christine, It was nice meeting you up close and personal. You too are a true rock star in my book.
I agree about the restaurant, big plates, small food and huge prices.
Apparently I’m a really funny guy. Who knew?
People suggest that I do stand up comedy but I really don’t know about that. I prefer being a rock star blogging geek
The things I say and joke about just sort of… happen at the moment but if I can make sure there is a steady flow of fellow geeks, Ninja’s and pink nuns around, maybe I can continue being funny
Thanks for the mention and I really enjoyed your music. I will definitely be keeping in touch.
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Carefull what you say about Druids around Asheville, Christine…might find the odd monolith or two in your yard tomorrow. Glad you’re back safe and sound.
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It was so cool to meet you in person. I just wish you felt more comfortable so you could let you hair down and not be so serious.
Just kidding. I love hanging out with people who like to laugh.
I knew you were an awesome writer and musician, but I didn’t know you were so darn funny!
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It was awesome to meet you – your performance really set the tone of the meeting and it was very cool. Well, except that people like me think “okay, I’m so untalented.” But you definitely got talent, and it was awesome.
I’ll always be a blogger. But not all bloggers are “publishers”, me thinks. So I think that perhaps bloggers start out as bloggers and then some of them advance up the ranks. How’s that for a strange answer to the question.
Jason Alba
CEO – JibberJobber.com
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Just think: I hugged Christine Kane in person! I will never, ever wash that shirt!
Christine, you’re as genuine and smart and sweet in person as your music and your blog convey.
Gosh, I feel like I’m signing a yearbook or something. Shouldn’t I sign off with something like, “Stay sweet!”?
Tammy
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hi sean – sorry i punched you in the chest on saturday night! i didn’t mean to shock you! and yes, stand-up comedy could always be a choice for you. however, if you can make money without going on the road, you’re WAY better off.
hi colin – and would you be the one putting the monolith in my yard?
tony – yea, i know about the serious thing. i find that in networking situations that i should only let my sternest business side show. maybe NEXT time we can let our guard down. but i’m not sure… (i giggled the whole plane ride home about your remark about the fonz.)
jason, you win the award for “coolest t-shirt at the conference.” it was great to meet you. i was in awe of your blog dedication!
hey tammy – it was so funny to look behind me and recognize you from your blog. thanks for the fun chat. (and yes, this kind of DOES feel like signing yearbooks. 2Cool
2Be
4Gotten)
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As an old sailor, I think of blog just being a log: it documents a journey. It is not necessarily the end product or final presentation. I was drawn to your site not only because you have a wonderful cumulation of music to buy, video material, biography (all things I would put in the end product categories’), but also your blog. It’s nice to “meet” you along the way and not just at the music store or concert hall.
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I think ‘inspirational writer’ might be a fair label for this piece, though you do so many amazing things.
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Christine, You say Sean is funny (he is) but you and Tony had Gorgeous and I on the verge of peeing our collective pants, and over dinner, no less. (And if you or Tony ever cross me I’ll tell folks exactly what was so funny.
Just kidding. My lips are sealed.)
Thanks so much for your tremendously kind words about my bride. I am one of those truly blessed guys who married way above his deserves. Got me a good one, I did. I’ll let her know she is now officially Wonder Girl.
You are a treasure. If you are ever down Savannah way, look us up. I know Lisa and I would love to get together with you again.
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Hi Christine — great post; you’re a riot!
I wish I had been there to hear more of your music than two songs, but Dawud and I were at the Tandoor place, and if we hadn’t been there Friday, we wouldn’t have known about it for Saturday, and I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to dine with you.
Re: the ‘blogger’ thing : I think David was right on. It becomes a barrier, like most labels do, when we use it to self-identify. For the “in-crowd”, it’s no big deal… but it’s also probably not needed — we’re savvy enough to spot a blog two clicks away. But, for folks who aren’t ‘conversation architects’ (SOCaCon!), it can be off-putting.
Again, great post, and I look forward to getting to know more of your music!
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You were right Christine, you certainly did go in (wonderfully) different direction with this post! It also had the length that I’ve grown accustomed to
I find it so interesting that you have this keen ability, like so many of your other posts and song lyrics, to describe with such texture those details that wouldn’t ordinarily come immediately to mind (at least for me)when writing about an experience such as a conference. Thanks for letting us see through your eyes. See ya at SOBCon08!
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@Chris – I seem to recall Gorgeous sharing a few hilarious (yet potentially damaging) stories, so I think Christine and I are safe
. But I trust you anyway 
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I’ve spent the last few hours checking out the blog links you included in your post. What a wonderful, creative, inspirational community of people you are; thanks for initving me and everyone else to share in it.
I nodded when you posed the question about the blog portin of your websites. In your (fantastic) DVD, when you mentioned your blog, I wondered if the audience knew what a blog was. I wondered if anyone who did not know might think it was so hip-sounding that they would fear they would seem un-hip if they asked what a blog is.
And that in itself is *so* ironic, because that is the anithesis of your blog and the blog community you have shared with us, your readers. Your blog was the only blog I knew until today. I found you by way of your “break-up with your TV post,” and you, your blog and your music have been a (very positive) part of my day ever since. Many thanks for all that has come from that!
So, to have blog? or not? I think we have to look to the classic inpsirational film, “Field of Dreams” for the answer. Regardless of what you call it: “…people will come to your blog. They’ll come to your blog for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up at your blog not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your blog door as innocent as children, longing for community, a laugh, inspiration, and maybe even for a better future. Of course, you don’t mind if we look around, you say. It’s free. They’ll pass over the time without even thinking about it: for it is desire they have and something else they lack. And they’ll read your posts and your reader’s comments; they’ll take it all in. They will find posts that land with them just like a warm, gentle breeze on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats to your blog, along one of the dialogues of life where curiosity and faith and support are in abundance; where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes and themselves. And they’ll follow your blog as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories and learned-again lessons will be so thick they’ll resonate with them longer than they ever fathomed. People will come. The one constant through all the years, Blogger, has been community. Commercialism as the remedy for the human condition has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But blogs will mark the time. The internet, this medium: it’s here to be a part of our future. Blogger, It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come blogger. People will most definitely come.”
Wow, all types of creative stuff can happen when I am not watching TV. Thanks again!
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Stepdaughters, actually. I married into them in a great package deal 6 years ago. Needless to say, I have no intention of having any more since I have no intention of having any additional wives. (My daughter–from scratch, as it were–will be 30 this month). So, no retirement for you, Christine! And I’ll say it again: send me your contact info so I can send you my books. I’ll sign them to your animals, if you’d like.
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Awww. Druids and Ninjas. What a combination.
Thank you for fleshing out the conference some more. The articles I’ve been reading, including yours, show the focus on relationships that the conference was all about. I love hearing what was talking about. I love even more hearing the context in which it was experienced.
About the blogger label – Sometimes I tell people I have a blog, usually I just say I have a website where I write. I guess I see myself as a self-published essayist more than anything.
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Got your CDs home and played ‘em for Cynthia and the dogs (nine of them). All loved “Four legs good, two legs bad” and demanded multiple plays. Fortunately I have never attempted to demand that Cynthia choose between me and the dogs – I like all the little ones. But I know how Cynthia would decide if I was ever stupid enough to lay down an ultimatum.
Kent
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Druids and pink nuns and ninjas OH MY!!
What fun this weekend was…so glad to meet and hang and thanks for calling me out on playing small for a sec…sometimes I get shy too! I listened to your CD today and laughed again at Four legs good Two legs bad…good stuff lady!
I look forward to continuing our dialogue and deepening the relationship…which is the biggest takeaway I’ve gotten from the SOB COn…getting e-mails today from all kinds of new friends is too cool!! Thanks for being another new friend:)
Kam
ps…blogger vs. publisher debate…I think it all depends on which side of the fence works for you…people need to play where they feel GOOD!
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I am fascinated by the blog question. I am an english teacher(one who specifically works with computers and writing), and the words always make me think.
But, I have to wonder if this is going to be a “he/she” or “they” question (huge grammar concern to avoid gender stereotyping for those who don’t know). Are we just going to talk about the naming involved with what we call those who choose to profess their wisdom in this format, or should we just let the world use the term that they have already become somewhat comfortable with?
This maybe the same type of concern that Meg is discussing because for some in our vast culture, the term “blog” is just as troublesome. At the same time, letting the users of the space dictate the labels they use for themselves has merit. I personally don’t have any problem with the word blog. And, there are lots of professions that use their “tool” in their title. Teachers, painters, lawn mowers. So, may its not such a bad thing.
On a completely unrelated note, I have started teaching use wikis. What do you call people who post there?
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Whiteshirts, – maybe ‘wikids’?….maybe not
I think Blogger is about as descriptive as writer, artist, inventor, doctor, or scientist – words that we use all the time and understand that they refer only to a genre of activities/professions. There are only 2 differences – a blog is a relatively new medium as an outlet for writing (this will solve itself as the word spreads – just as the word ‘novelist’ presumably spread at some point), and 2, it’s not a very pretty word. Blog. It sounds sort of heavy and one-dimensional to me – the exact opposite of what it should be.
Maybe you could add a prefix to the blogger description…..poet-blogger, business-blogger, personal-blogger, loving life-blogger
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@Tony Drat that girl! Now that I think of it the mutual blackmail will probably hold the status quo quite nicely.
I’m so glad we had the chance to laugh with y’all.
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Okay, before I respond to comments individually — I am reading these thinking that there are many folks who might think that SOBCon turned into a bit of a slam dance! I merely would like to clarify, for those people who are wondering, that most of the odd remarks above are about a dinner we had at an Indian restaurant where many laughs were shared about families, in-laws and blogs!
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Well, I’m sorry I missed that dinner where y’all had so much fun! But I’m sure glad I got to hear you perform, Christine, and to bring home your CDs. You really connected with your audience, and it was a pleasure to meet you.
I’ve been mulling over David’s comments about not calling ourselves bloggers as well, and I definitely see his point. I call myself a conversational writer because that’s what I was doing long before there was such a thing as a blog.
You impressed me as a storyteller. Sometimes you put music to your words, and sometimes you don’t. But you always paint pictures with your words, and they flow together to tell a story.
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bguy = web guy
like [ web log = blog ] [ web guy = bguy]
and my first name is brent – so bguy = double down
re: blogger vs. publisher
it’s ok to stick to the roots of things. “blog” is the Adam-word that started it all… don’t be ashamed of it… don’t go dressing up as druid (publisher) when you’re really a ninja (blogger) — (that’s just an analogy not a parallel).
blog is a short, easy-to-say word that carries it’s own immediate, distinct meaning. someone may not know what “blog” means, and you may have to explain it to them, but that’s better than trying to explain that as a “publisher” you are not a publisher of books, and THEN trying to explain to them what a web-based, chronologically-ordered, visitor-commentable diary is.
but if they (he & she) know the word “blog”, you get instant, monosyllabic communication…
(of course, there are a lot of Anime fans out there that will cringe, or even foam at the mouth, if you refer to what Anime used to be referred to as: Japanimation)
(ps: who wants to give me 25 cents for using monosyllabic in a sentence?)
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Christine, you were the star of the conference! What an amazing experience. You summed it up perfectly.
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Hey Christine. Somehow I just found your post (thanks Lorelle). It’s been flying under my radar. How, not sure???
It was really a honor to meet you. I loved your music (and now so does my wife). Soon, my three year-old and one year-old will be singing right along. So thank you. Whenever you perform around Detroit/Ann Arbor, drop us a line.
As for what we call ourselves…it’s really an interesting question, huh? The great thing is there are as many answers as there are questioners. What I feel is important is that we’re clear about what we do and use whatever tools we have to making doing what we do better/more effective. There’s a great conversation on this topic going on on my blog. If you’ve got time, please join in.
I do love when I meet people that make an impression on my heart. While we only got to talk briefly…your being, your presence certainly did. God speed to you.
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Christine,
Such a wonderful post and everyone has done it justice by their comments. Gosh I wish I felt healthy enough to write up all of my sentiments . . .
You inspire me. You inspired all of us.
Thank you.
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