BlogOrlando : September 25-27, 2008 - Orlando, FL

WordCamp Orlando - December 5, 2009

2009-06-11T14:37:16Z

As I tweeted this morning, I'm working with the folks from CNP_Studio to help organize a WordCamp in Orlando. Yes, we know the details are still slim, but we had to get the date announced for a number of scheduling reasons. More to come soon!

BlogOrlando 2009

2009-04-14T14:22:37Z

Cross posted from Hyku

It's the one questions I'm asked most frequently in the past few weeks, "BlogOrlando?" That's it, just one word. The folks asking assume I know what they mean. And I do. Sadly the news is not good.

After a great deal of consideration I have decided not to host a big, public BlogOrlando this year.

Why? A number of reasons:

1. I just can't make the time commitment this year. Work is busier than ever and I've done it three years now. The event consumes almost all my free time in September. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break and I know my family is as well. I've always had a great bunch of volunteers to help out, but still the majority of the work and stress is on me.

2. In some ways I think the event has run its course. When planning last year's event I started by saying, "I can't repeat the same sessions, and have similar speakers." In the end though a little bit of that happened.

As the topics mature you create a few different groups, namely those starting out, and those that are experienced. Eventually there needs to be two tracks, a beginner and an expert. Layer that on top of the already existing tracks for PR/Comms, Journalism, etc and you have quite the complex event. It's not just a simple get together of folks in a room chatting. The first year we had under a 100 folks, the past two we've been near 300, I would expect the same this year, since cost isn't a factor, the event has always been free :-)

3. Back to the roots. Last year I hosted a smaller event a few days before BlogOrlando. If you remember it was the original concept behind the event. I may still do something small, invite only. Think of it as a TED-style event in Orlando. I'll be mulling that over in the next few weeks.

4. I'm not as connected to Orlando as I used to be. My work has taken me all over the world now and I don't get to spend as much time in the downtown area. I mentioned this to a few folks last year; the fact the the guy behind BlogOrlando doesn't really work there anymore. Folks like Greg Pollack and Ryan Price have always been in touch with the local scene and their local events show that.

I've been debating about when to announce this, since I was hoping that thinking about it more would change my mind. However, as I said above, the question is being asked, and a few folks were even asking about travel plans.

It is the complete end? No. I may still hold a small private event this year, or may think about hosting an event in 2010. We'll see.

A few folks have asked if I would let somebody else run the event. I have mixed feelings about this. While there are a few folks that I know could run the event well, BlogOrlando has mostly been my baby and I'm not ready just yet to let it go. However I may change my mind.

Lastly a big thanks to all my friends and colleagues that took time out of their personal schedules and paid their own way to travel to Orlando these past three years. I like to think we put Orlando on the map a bit. Seeing something like this, makes me feel proud.

In the end we all learned from each other and made friendships and business connections that will last for a while. That's more valuable than any topic covered in a session.

Cross posted from Hyku, please comment there.

BlogOrlando 3 Recap

2008-10-01T02:09:13Z

Where to start? Perhaps late, late in the sense that the planning for this year's BlogOrlando started much later than previous events. I was even concerned that we couldn't pull it off. But thanks to some help from some great folks like Chris, Rob, Danny, Ryan and yes you Alex.....we did it. Our tracks grew from four to five, our registrations grew and so did the turnout. A big thanks to all our sponsors, especially Ideablob and Voce :-)

In the end 238 of us showed up at Rollins College this past Saturday to learn from each other. As my colleague Mike Manuel said, "Leave your brand at the door, bring your brain." What makes this event so different? Spike from Brains on Fire probably put is best:

I’ve never been to a free conference before. And the difference of engagement levels between a free conference and a fee-based one is night and day. I guess it might be because everybody that’s there WANTS to be there. They CHOSE to go. They CHOSE to give up a Saturday and engage other passionate people. I’m afraid most conferences I go to are full of people that have been sent there from their company. They’d rather be checking emails or anywhere else. But it’s part of their job description or a requirement. The result is sometimes a very low engagement level.

BlogOrlando was the exact opposite.

Thanks Spike. Also, a big thanks to all the session leaders. Each of you contributed something, and I hope many of you learned something from your audience as well.

Jake McKee kicked us off with a story about how LEGO learned to listen to its fans and became better for it. Yes it was a bit marketing/communication focused, but it's also part community, and well it's LEGO.....geeks love LEGO. Even the non-marketing types learned something. From there it was off to the breakout tracks. Just about every session I checked in on was packed.

Room size is always the big debate. Last year we had a few rooms that were packed to the gills, but sometimes those close quarters breed better, more lively discussions. While I like the increase in attendance, it's the smaller discussions that are sometimes the best. I never want to get away from this format. That's one of the reasons we split into five tracks, I wanted to keep the groups smaller.

It was also important to split tech into two sides, basic and advanced. If you keep having the same conversations year-after-year you end up alienating the veteran attendees, you need to give them something new. However, you still need the core stuff for the newbies. Striking that balance is the key.

Highlights for me were the sessions professionalism/identity sessions by Amber Rhea and Jake McKee. I also heard great things about Alex Hillman's session as well as Spike's session on WOM and Geno's session on movements. There was a reason I invited Geno and Spike, they're great guys who do great work. I hope everyone who attended their sessions agree.

Sadly I missed the Orlando Scene session, but thanks to Ted and Andrew from IZEA there are Ustream archives of that session as well as many others.

For most of the day I ran around making sure everything was running smoothly. Luckily we had no major wifi issues, thanks to Mike from Rollins IT, who many of you met. During my downtime I would check out the ongoing Twitter-stream and appreciated all the discussion and positive comments the event was receiving. Today looking over all the recaps, it's much of the same...thanks.

We ended the day with Erik Hersman. I picked Erik for some specific reasons, one he's from Orlando, but most importantly because the work he's doing spans so much of the discussions of the day. As I said when introducing him....most of us were at the event for different reason, pr/marketing, journalism, personal expressions, business, etc. A project like Ushahidi makes all our 'personal' and 'business' needs seem trite.

I hope at the end of the day everybody that attended learned something and made some new friends.

Will we be back next year? We'll see, give me a few weeks to rest and catch-up with my work-life and family-life.

Photos courtesy of Alex and Sean...thanks!

Wrap-Up Coming Soon; Your Thoughts?

2008-09-29T16:32:34Z

Thanks to everybody that made BlogOrlando what it was. I plan on posting some final thoughts from my perspective later tonight.

It's been great to watch the Twitter-stream and the photos roll in.

In the interim what were your thoughts/impressions? I'd love to hear from veterans and first-timers.

Final Pre-Conference Details

2008-09-25T00:50:22Z

(quick answers to quick questions)

We look forward to seeing you this upcoming weekend at BlogOrlando!

Friday Reception
The Friday reception kicks off at 6:30 PM at Slingapours in downtown Orlando. Click here for a map and parking instructions. They have a full bar, but as mentioned earlier, we don't have a sponsor for Friday night so you're on your own :-)

Saturday Main Event
We'll be at Rollins College bright and early Saturday morning. Registration opens at 8:00 AM and the conference starts at 8:30 AM. You'll be receiving a name badge and if you registered before the cut-off a BlogOrlando t-shirt. For directions and parking information click here. Parking in the garage is free, and street parking should be easier since it's not a school day.

Sessions and Tracks
There are two general sessions to open and close the event. In between we break into separate tracks. Each track will be in a room nearby. We'll remind you of the room numbers during the opening session. The only variance is the Tech track. The first tech track session is a joint session with Frank Gruber, after Frank's session we'll split into the Basic and Advanced tech tracks.

Conference Interaction
Remember this is a modified un-conference format. What this means is we have a set schedule and agenda and session leaders will have some basic notes/slides to kick-off the discussion, but from there it's up to you, the audience, to drive the discussion. Don't worry if the topic gets stale, the session leader should introduce a new topic. You are encouraged to ask questions early and often. Also please thank your session leaders. We do not pay any speaking fees, or travel costs, so all of these speakers have come on their own dime.

Wifi
Wifi will be available at the venue, we didn't have any issues last year, so keep your fingers crossed, however if you are an uber-geek and have EVDO that doesn't really matter does it :-)

Food & Lunch
Since we have almost no budget and don't charge admission we don't offer any food. What this means is eat breakfast before you come, or bring something to snack on. For lunch we break for an hour and a half at 11:55 AM. We're all on our own, but there are a number of local restaurants within walking distance or a short drive. John Rife created a map with the local options. We'll pick back up at 1:30 PM.

Post-Event Happy Hour
After the event we'll be heading back downtown for the happy hour at Finnhenry's. Things will kick off at 6:00 and end ??? Our primary sponsor Ideablob will be sponsoring the event.

Sunday at Disney's Animal Kingdom
If you're not completely spent on Sunday, some of us will be heading to Disney's Animal Kingdom on Sunday. Our local guide will be John Frost from The Disney Blog. We'll be meeting at 10am right after you enter the main gate.

You can also follow the event on Twitter @blogorlando or BlogOrlando.com

Thanks again and see you soon!

Session Speaker - Alex Rudloff

2008-09-24T22:11:32Z

Another local returning to BlogOrlando is Alex Rudloff of Emurse and AlexRudloff.com. He is a software engineer, entrepreneur, and technology enthusiast and we're glad to have him back.

Alex will be presenting the seminar "Scaling & Performance" in the Technical/How To Track - Advanced track.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speaker - Sarah Perez

2008-09-24T21:29:04Z

Joining us from Tampa, Florida is Sarah Perez of Sarah in Tampa. She is a contributing blogger for the websites Read Write Web and Microsoft’s Channel 10.

Sarah will be presenting the seminar "New, New Media" in the Journalism track.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Panel - The Orlando Scene

2008-09-24T12:32:21Z

What does Orlando offer in way of opportunities for developers, creatives, and other like-minded folks? A panel including Alex Rudloff, Ryan Price, and others will be hosting the panel "The Orlando Scene" in the Community track.

Last year we had a session called 'The Orlando Scene'. The concept was to bring together folks for different backgrounds to talk about things like co-working, start-ups, etc. It's a year later, so what's changed? We'll once again gather some of the local area leaders to talk over what's going on in Orlando.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speaker - Amber Rhea

2008-09-24T12:24:22Z

Joining us Atlanta, Georgia is Amber Rhea of Being Amber Rhea. Amber is a web developer, blogger, and co-founder of the Georgia Podcast Network.

Amber will be presenting the seminar "Professionalism 2.0" in the Community track.

What does "professionalism" mean in the context of blogging? Is it a matter of the topics you write about, the language you use, the amount of research you put into a typical post - or all or none of the above? Social media tools offer us the opportunity to express our full humanity instead of compartmentalizing aspects of who we are. To what degree do we need to adjust our pre-conceived notions about what's professional and what isn't?

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speaker - J.C. Hutchins

2008-09-24T12:20:57Z

One of the few session speakers who will actually travel north to join us is South Floridian J.C. Hutchins, author of 7th Son: the podcast novel trilogy.

J.C. will be presenting the seminar "From Podcast to Published Author" in the Creative track.

J.C. Hutchins, author of the popular "7th Son" podcast novel series, discusses how he used podcasting, social media and community-building to expose his free serialized audiobooks to more than 40,000 listeners, energize his fans, and score two book deals at St. Martin's Press. Both novels will be released next year.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speaker - Jason Seifer

2008-09-23T14:36:53Z

Orlando's Jason Seifer of Rails Envy is a blogger, podcaster, and developer among many other things.

Jason will be presenting the seminar "Beginning Audio Podcasting" in the Technical/How To - Basic track.

Have you ever wanted to put together an Audio podcast? In this talk we'll go over everything you need to get started, including what you need to buy and how to setup your equipment. We'll cover how to setup your recording environment to get good quality audio, and how to then take the audio and polish it using an audio editor. Lastly we'll show how to publish your podcast onto the Internet.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speakers - Chuck Welch & Tommy Duncan

2008-09-23T13:37:42Z

We welcome back to BlogOrlando Chuck Welch of Lakeland Local and Tommy Duncan of Sticks On Fire in Tampa. These two guys have been involved in hyperlocal online communities for several years now and have blazed some trails we can all learn from.

Chuck & Tommy will be presenting the seminar "Hyperlocal: It Ain't Chicken Dinner" in the Journalism track.

In their session, Tommy Duncan discusses the joys, trials, and tribulations of going Hyperlocal while Chuck Welch offers snide comments, helpful anecdotes, and general grousing. The pair promise to answer questions on community building, working with main stream media, data mapping, software, copyright issues, ethics, interviewing, and how not to get tarred and feathered. It's give and take. Bring your questions. By the end of the session everyone will be energized and ready to start thinking Hyperlocal or get double their money back!

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Your BlogOrlando Room Assignments

2008-09-23T12:48:33Z

This year we have a total of five rooms, the large Bush Auditorium and then four classrooms in the same building. Here are the room assignments for the tracks:

Bush Aud - General Sessions, Tech Opening, Tech Basics
Bush 129 - PR/Comm
Bush 162 - Media/Creative
Bush 207 - Tech Advanced
Bush 301 - Community

I'll announce these again during the opening of the event.

Session Panel - Traditional Media and the Web

2008-09-23T12:47:41Z

Ryan Price & Eric Marden of Bonnier Corp, Danny Sanchez of the Orlando Sentinel, and Ian Monroe of Orlando Weekly will be hosting a panel "Traditional Media and the Web" in the Journalism track.

"Old" Media has been under fire in recent years, as the internet continues to transform how we find, consume and interact with the media around us. This panel will bring together four developers and web gurus working on the web sites of leading local and national periodicals to lead a discussion about the latest "developments" from traditional media.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.

Session Speaker - Eric Marden

2008-09-23T12:27:42Z

Orlando local Eric Marden of Xentek is a freelance IT consultant who builds applications and knows all there is to know about Wordpress themes and CSS.

Eric will be presenting the seminar "Advanced WordPress Theming" in the Technical/How To Track - Advanced track.

Building a custom theme for WordPress can be hard. Sure you get full control over ever square inch of your markup, but there are lots of variables and little tricks you have to remember to implement in order for your theme to support all of the WordPress features. Enter K2, a fantastic theme framework that you can use to CSS your way to a beautiful custom theme while providing a clean upgrade path so you can keep your WordPress installation secure and up to date. This presentation will show you how you can create the blog design of your dreams, using a single style sheet, and will be off interest to technical and non-technical users alike.

You can view all of the session details to date at blogorlando.com/sessions.