Blogorlando Wrap-Up

I had an amazing time at Blogorlando this weekend. Having never been to an “unconference” before, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought that it would be more like roundtable discussions, but I was surprised how prepared and professional the presentations were.

The sessions I attended were great. Even when I ventured out of my niche (Mark’s Advanced WordPress, for example, was over my head…I think I’m a “medium”), I learned something I didn’t know before. At the very least, I was exposed to new ideas, like in Chris Thilk’s “Social Media and Entertainment” session where I learned a lot about movie blogging and the issues of that particular industry. However, I especially loved Frank Gruber (@somewhatfrank)’s session on “Shiny New Objects” because, well, I love shiny new objects. I tweeted some of those links. Another favorite was Etan Horowitz’s session on “Twitter in Journalism.” It was really interesting to see how professional journalists think about that medium and its usage. I liveblogged my notes from that on FriendFeed.

I myself gave a presentation called “New, New Media” where I discussed some of my favorite tools. I have to credit Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb.com for the introduction to some of these, especially the awesomeness that is Google CSEs. I now use my own personal CSE instead of bookmarking, a radical idea, I know.

I was a lot more nervous than I expected especially considering the projector crapped out on me and it was much more of a presentation-in-front-of-the-class session than I anticipated. But once I got through my initial anxiety, I think it worked out OK. That being said, having been afraid I bombed, it was really nice to log onto Twitter and see these tweets (below) saying otherwise. Thanks for the nice words, guys.

If anyone wants me to help them learn these tools even better, just drop me a line. I’m happy to give some pointers.

Google Custom Search Engines: www.google.com/cse

snackr: www.snackr.net

feedly: www.feedly.com

And thank you especially for this one!