I had a really interesting call today with a group we’re hoping to do some work with. At one point during the conversation, I stressed the point that “we’re about creating real communities that persist, not just relationships that can be monetized”. That might sound crazy since you would assume one couldn’t happen without the other, but it does.

There are quite a few players in the event technology business that ring the community bell - we’re certainly not the first. The more telling information, however, is really just what “passes” as “community”. It all depends on the circles you run with and how stringent you want your definition to be.

I would argue that simply aggregating a collection of people with seemingly similar interests and/or needs does not a community make. I’d also argue that simply generating “leads” fails to truly embrace the potential for monetizing communities.

As the conversation carried on, I stumbled upon another Gregism. I observed that the event industry, from my experience and research, really has heralded community as one of their cornerstones - but they’ve mostly bastardized the concept (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). They have indeed taken the points of view just mentioned, only now realizing just how much they could have had (as attendance and satisfaction level or decline). A good strategy must take both a short and long term view. For some, it very well might be too late to re-invent as other forces have already consumed the glue that once held the group together. For others, it’s a wonderfully promising time.

Fortunately, we’ve been finding more and more groups and individuals that share our vision and desire the same things. How’s that for an early Christmas present?

I’ve done more than my share of consulting with business large and small about the values, benefits, and pitfalls of blogging are. In some cases, I was brought in specifically to assist in the migration/creation process and other times I simply injected their viability since they were a natural mechanism.

Most recently, I’ve been talking, and now working, with people from the trade show/meeting and association industries. As many have noted, and I am sure I will affirm many times to come over the next few months, this is not an industry that tends to jump on the technology bandwagon.

A variety of people have recently hit on a number of the objections that I have encountered/countered and it seems like a great moment to highlight them now.

It Just Doesn’t Fit My Audience

Ironically enough, this is pretty close to the most true of them all, but loads of people that use this to reject blogging are probably wrong. When this excuse comes up, generally, they are making an informed guesstimate that 1) their audience doesn’t use “technology” a lot and 2) blogging is the safehave for teenagers and technophiles. Granted, we do have lots of those but…

In truth, all audiences, customer bases, and marketplaces are in flux. Newer, younger, more tech-savvy individuals are entering the marketplace and many many people from the previous generations are turning to it. As one person from the conference, who is now evaluating our products, explained to me, “Sure our members aren’t the most technologically advanced, but they all have grandkids and they’ve all got a computer sitting somewhere in their house.” I commended him on seeing that then, and I’m doing it again now.

Today, Dave Taylor posted an interview with Donna Tocci of Kryptonite Locks. It’s well worth the read. One of the nuggets Dave has goes like this:

Another important point. In the big picture the negative publicity that Kryptonite received in the blogosphere hasn’t adversely affected the company in the long term. Much of that is due to the savvy response of the Kryptonite team, but it’s also a mark of the limits of the influence of the blogosphere. We’re an influential bunch, but blogs haven’t completely obsoleted other forms of market communication by any means.

Source: The Intuitive Life Business Blog, “Debunking the myth of Krytonite Locks and the Blogosphere”

Dave’s right. However, managing the expectations and deliverables from the blog itself is key to measuring success or failure.

We Just Don’t Have The Staff

Well, well, well. In reality, this is a very salient point. It’s actually, what my conversations have found, what most people mean by the first excuse. When they evaluate the effectiveness, they are comparing the input to the output. Their expectations are quite high on the input side, which makes the output side seem smaller.

There are many, many misconceptions that I’ve heard. In reality, they’re closer to half truths. Here are just a few:

• You have to be a good writer (nice to have, but conversation is great regardless)
• You have to write a lot (not required, but good to be regular)
• You have to have real expertise (see Squidoo, everyone’s an expert, remember?

All that being said, it’s true that resources are indeed required. There are lots of ways to re-purpose the other collateral generated by your business into useful blog content. In some cases, simply reacting to the news you hear can be enough. In a recent podcast by FuelDog and , this is definitely identified as one of the largest cost centers when launching blogs for events. Give it a listen.

People Will Make Negative Comments About Us

And they can’t now? As the old saying goes, “Fight fire with fire.” Certainly I am not proposing that you make negative comments about them in return, but that you engage their comments in the same medium. Consumers, especially angy, dissatisfied ones, are even more empowered with a variety of outlets for voicing their frustrations (and other sentiments) with the world at large.

I’ve been fond of telling business folk that the customers that are on the edges, either the good or bad, are the ones that will always be the most vocal. I’m either super excited about the treatment I received or completely irate and need to make sure no one ever works with you again. If the service was mediocre, so will be my desire/willingness to spread word of it.

Toby Bloomberg, by way of Kevin Holland, has a great post explaining what she’s been encountering and her advice to the worried:

The #1 concern I’m hearing from organizations interested in exploring blogs to support marketing strategies is, “But what about the negative comments? How do we control people posting bad things about our brand or our company or our toilet paper?” Well…perhaps not TP but one never knows.

People. People. People. Marketing has changed. The world has changed. It changed while you were not looking. It changed when the internet and email made it easy for anyone to talk to the anyone in the world. Fifty years ago, my grandma’s front piazza (porch) was where her world congregated to kibbutz. Now even 80-year old divas are on-line and writing blogs.

[…]

Since we’re friends, I’ll let you in a little secret. Understanding that companies no longer control the message (influence yes. control no.) and that customers have more power than ever before in “helping sell your product”, you gain a huge advantage over your competition - those that are trying to swim upstream against the current. It’s an exciting, new world. Don’t be afraid to become apart of it.

Source: The Diva Marketing Blog, “5 Ways To Combat Negative Blog Comments”

There’s been some interesting discussion amongst the blogging event folks regarding the notion of “user-generated advertising”. It started last week when Brian Dear (of eventful.com) mentioned that BusinessWeek had picked up a phrase that he was loosely using (user-generated advertisers).

Brian goes on to define it define it as such:

The idea behind user-generated advertisers is this: everyone gets the power of user-generated content, but why stop at content? Why not help members of a local community to find those elusive local merchant advertisers every web company in the universe is seeking right now? The Holy Grail of advertising on the web is the local merchant — the local merchant who spends lots of money on coupons, classifieds, radio, tv, print — all the old 20th century solutions — everything but ads on the Net. And this just Won’t Do.

So enlist the public in finding these merchants, signing them up, helping them be successful. Give them a finder’s fee commission, and help usher in the great new age of ads on the web: from the local car dealer, pizza parlor, hair salon, hardware store, department store, grocery store, you name it. User-generated advertisers: the wave of the future.

Source: BrianStorms, “User-Generated Advertisers”

So, going on that, it’s in the arena of something like AdWords for local search - except by the people. Well, not exactly. I’ve done more than my share of selling in my time. I’ll tell you that, considering I can’t get the average user to fill in a simple form completely, without errors, and that the majority of people I know have a hard time talking to strangers and almost everyone I know has a problem asking for money (even when it’s owed them), that this simply won’t work.

Pete Caputa made a direct, but funny comment: “I think its called sponsorship. And generally, anyone that amasses a crowd of people can sell it. And if you have a history of being able to gather a crowd, sponsors solicit you.” More importantly, Pete goes on to discuss this a bit further:

From my experience, proactively selling sponsorship is difficult. It requires a dedicated salesperson. It is equivalent to selling offline advertising because it is difficult to measure effectiveness. We actually hired someone to sell sponsorship for about six months. We broke even and parted amicably. Ironically, now a lot of local people contact us about sponsorsing local events. Luckily, I don’t have to plan them. And passing on a sponsor to a customer usually covers the cost of our services. So, I definitely see business opportunity in aggregating events, understanding which events are attracting what audiences, and facilitating sponsorship sales. But, calling it “user generated” is a stretch.

Source: pc4media, “How To Monetize Participative [Amateur] Conferences”

I know Pete’s worked hard at selling this stuff. If you trust anyone’s opinion on the matter, it should be his.

Another buddy, Chris Heurer (of BrainJams), chimes in from a different angle, the organizer’s:

When user generated content, meets user generated conferences, meets user generated advertising, wonderful things can happen… and that is one of the keys to the success of BrainJams.

Source: Chris’ Insytes, “The Rise of Amateur Conferences”

I have a lot more to say about Chris’ other comments in that post, but I’ll be saving those for another day. For now, I’ll summarize my understanding as such. Though we’re getting increasing involvement from the attendee in the marketing and promotion, and occassionally investment, in events, there’s still a fine line between a supporter (donates) and an advertiser (buys). The traditional event business (and world) has established meanings for these terms and muddying the waters with the user-generated prefix, though fun, interesting, and certainly TwoDotOhNo-compliant, can certainly lead to all sorts of confusion.

P.S. I don’t think Brian was necessarily trying to coin a new phrase either

P.S.S. Thanks to Chris and Pete for their props and support.

I don’t know about you, but following up, on almost anything, is exhausting and time consuming. When I returned from the IAEM show last week, I came back with a fist full of business cards from all the interesting people I met. There’s more than 100 of them - I’ve spent the entire week taking my time to write them back, one at a time. I’ve barely made a dent.

Does it surprise anyone that somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of trade show leads NEVER get followed up properly? Does it surprise you that many of the responses I have gotten from the booths I visited are impersonal, boilerplate responses that often don’t even apply to me? It doesn’t surprise me. Heck, it doesn’t even bother me as much - at least they’re trying.

Two years ago when I was transitioning the focus of the system from dating to events, I made one critical observation. In the dating arena, the feature matrix we highlighted focused on privacy - we knew this mattered from some field research I did ;). However, when you move into the business arena, while the motivations map to the same core value, the needs do not. When we’re busy swapping cards in hallways, we’re more concerned with efficiency. I care more so about making sure I reach out to everyone I met. I don’t want to be a robot, but in some ways, it’s a better foundation than the current reigning model - do nothing.

I’m in the process of moving out of my apartment (sad indeed). I’ve started collecting all the business cards of people I’ve met into a shoebox. It’s brimming full. I glossed over lots of them. I can remember quite a few, but I don’t remember most. For me, this is a big problem.

Fortunately, this event served as a wake-up call. One of the original design goals of the syncPEOPLE system was to make it easier to exchange information. We’ve built in all the hooks already. Something in my gut tells me we need to put this out sooner than later - it’s just too important.

How do you manage the clutter? Are you bombarded with business cards from others? Will you help us test this new system out?

I’m sure most of you have attended an event of some sort, be it a user group, association meeting, conference or tradeshow. At these events, you’ve probably encountered a panel discussion on topic X or the latest Y. Did you ever wonder how those panelists got on there? Why they were there?

Panels provide a great means of communicating lots of information in a short period of time. It blends together several themes and thoughts and fortifies that with a wide collection of experts. In many ways, it’s the credibility of the panelists themselves that really drive the weight of the conversation.

Just this week, Rich Westerfield pointed to a great bit of data from the E-venting blog. It took a look at attendee satisfaction levels for panels (both moderated and roundtable).

When the session was a Panel Presentation (where speakers prepared individual or a collective presentation), the Session Score was almost always higher than the Speaker Average.

When the session was a Roundtable Discussion (where 3-5 speakers conversed without a presentation), the Session Score was almost always lower than the Speaker Average.

Source: E-venting, “Presentation vs. Discussion (or ‘Attendee Evaluation Analytics’)”

So we know that people get value from this. Naturally, the show is generating value as well. They’re able to market the panel, the panelists, and even collect some money from the attendees. But what about the panelists, should they pay?

This topic surfaced on Jeff Jarvis’ blog and has generated some conversation. Jeff’s point, half jokingly it seems, is such:

I was asked to be on another damned panel in February, this one for the Software & Information Industry Association’s Information Industry Summit and I just got notice from them that if I want to attend the whole two-day gabfest, they expect me to pay them and love doing it:

[…]

We as panelists come as their trained monkeys to give these conference organizers the only damned content they have and they expect us to pay for the bananas? Well, peel this!

Source: BuzzMachine, “Panelists, unite!” via “Panelists and payments”

There are any number of methods used in compensation, not limited to this list:

• Free / Discounted Registration
• Reimbursement for Travel / Lodging
• Networking
• Sponsorship

In the end, it mainly boils down to the value you create for the event, both at the individual level and overall. I’ve spoken on a number of different panels in a number of different industries. I’ve had my time paid for, my travel paid for, and everything in between. Personally, I value getting to meet new people and learning about another interesting industry - so I’m not too distressed about participating (Hugh from GapingVoid shares this sentiment).

Jeff’s case is especially frustrating since, as a panelist, you have to make all the same arrangements to be there for one hour as for one day. To somehow quarantine individuals off from the rest really seems to misunderstand the value created. Is it likely that attendees would have questions for the panelists? Is it likely the panelist has and is willing to contribute to many other conversations at the event? Is it likely treating someone as a consumer when they’re actually part of your staff bizarre? You bet it is!

I’d argue that all the levers need to be adjusted to provide great value to both parties. If the panelist is speaking to an industry that they are not part of and will likely have limited networking opportunity, the monetary lever seems to need to go up. If the panelist is gaining major mojo from the speaking opportunity and will likely build useful relationships, turn down the monetary lever.

Ultimately, for me, however, the real question is why are the conversations not valued. If there’s no value in having them and capturing them, why bother? If there is, why scrutinize it this way?

I am finally back and operational, though not 100%, from the IAEM Conference in Atlanta. I really don’t have anything more to say than WOW. It’s not a WOW because everyone was clamoring to buy our soon-to-be-released products. It’s not a WOW because everyone was interested in what I was saying either. It’s a WOW for a much more important reason.

For the past two years, I have been paying close attention and analyzing just how the trade show and event business works. Though I’ve never run my own show, I certainly have acquired a fairly detailed knowledge of the forces that are at work and the barriers that exist. One thing I’ve been quite sure about was that there would be serious resistence to what I was planning for the event industry - it’s never been accused of being innovative. To put that in context, consider this:

Conferences are about creating conversations. There are all sorts of conversations inside an event. Conversations between attendees and exhibitors. Conversations between attendees and attendees. There are even conversations between the organizer and the attendees (and exhibitors) cleverly disguised as exit surveys, marketing reports, and satisfaction studies.

For an industry that is so much involved in creating conversations, the tools have mostly not evolved between the paper survey and online brochureware.

We live in a world that is leveraging conversations into relationships. The conference world is not quite there yet. But don’t blame everyone!

It’s always best to use an example when painting with broad strokes. I’m fortunate to have one to talk about from the event. On the first day, I attended a day-long Open Space discussion titled Future Focus. I was new to the business and I knew we were forward thinking so it seemed like the ideal place to talk to people who might share that perspective. It’s funny how many ways you can interpret a word based on your perspective.

I sat in on a few different conversations while there. Almost everyone was not only interesting to meet, but had some interesting challenges. The problems that needed to be solved were all immediate ones - no problem there. The solutions, largely, seemed to leverage things that had been done in the past. I’m all for best practices, so that wasn’t so bad. I will even go so far to say that the ideas I had to contribute were ahead but not out of reach. What surprised me most, however, was the lack of many topics that were really looking forward - say two or five years from now. I wish I had been there early on in the day to raise some of these topics, but my flight got me in a little too late for that. Long story short, there was lots more that could be done.

For anyone that hasn’t attended an Open Space meeting, it ends with a discussion. In this case, we formed a circle once again and went in turn from one end to the next sharing our experience with both the format and the content. That’s when it happened. As the comments came out, they landed on gentlement seated diametrically opposed to me. He prefaced his comments by noting that he expected to be the only dissenter. They went something along the lines of this:

I’m disappointed with the output of today. I’ve been to Future Focus two times before which is what brought me here today. I feel that we did not talk about the future of the event industry. We did not dig deep enough into what we need to do to change. [everything sounds good so far] And sir, I don’t mean to pick on you directly, but “We have people here who have been in this industry for just one day. He has nothing to contribute.

Whoa! Did he just say what I think he said? Yes he did. And he was not just anyone. It just so happens that he sits at the helm of one of the Top 5 largest shows in the US. When I get under someone’s skin, I guess I do a good job. Ironically enough, earlier that day we were in a session together and I raised the notion of blogging as a conversation medium. I exchanged cards with him and let him know I could have him running in no time flat when he was ready.

Boy was I shocked.

I sat patiently, collecting my thoughts and preparing for my response. As it turned out, I was the LAST person to speak - I would have the final say, so to speak. As the voices continued, two attendees came to my defense and expressed their eagerness to learn from someone like me.

But now it’s my turn. Here’s what I said in response:

I’m last so I guess I should say something nice (laughter). I’d like to say that I am quite happy to be here today. I’m learning how to translate your world into the world that I come from. You want to know about the future of events. I am the future of events - maybe not specifically me, but someone like me. There are hundreds like me working to change this industry because we don’t think it works the way it should work. There are millions like me attending your events already.

You say you want new ideas but you don’t want to hear them. The future of events is not about a new technology, not some new gizmo or gadget. It’s a paradigm change, a new way of thinking. I’m here for you to help you understand that thinking.

You say you want to separate based on experience levels - keep the beginners away from the “experts”. There’s a very good reason that you don’t do this. Mixing the audience mandates that those more experienced succinctly describe things to those that don’t. The way to make change is to mix these opinions. You have to think outside of the box to succeed. The reason experts alone will never generate change is because they simply echo back the same thing to each other. No one has an any incentive to change.

(applause)

I was shaking inside more than out - but it happened. I’m so grateful it happened actually. I was planning on saying something simple, and honestly, quite unmemorable. It was this little comment that he made that opened the door for me to not only be passionate but also to prove it. I was the only person that spoke that received applause. I reckon most simply didn’t agree with his dealings, but I know there were many that really understood me.

It was at that very moment that I realized we were starting a revolution. We are attempting to change something that far too many people are accustomed to. We’re not participating in this industry because we think it’s a dead end, we don’t. We just want to have a conversation. We want to listen to you and expect that much in return.

Our strategy is quite simple - minimize the pain, highlight the opportunity. Over the next few days, my little speech became something of a mini-legend. Many who participated (about 50) came up to me at various points to thank me for saying it or to congratulate me for standing up. Interesting enough, another group became quite vocal advocates. I received mentions and introductions to many people across the landscape - people I might have randomly bumped into, but now, instead, heard about me from someone they already trusted - the best sort of introduction.

Our revolution is just starting now. We’ve opened our doors to anyone who wants to learn about it or participate. We’ve designed the products and services to fit INSIDE the existing infrastructure, not replace it. We’re working, simultaneously, to set a fire. We’re going to light up the landscape in new and interesting ways. Everyone will see the fire, some will continue to run and others will be engrossed.

Fires start small but grow fast - so will our revolution.

I’m sure some might thing we suffer from excessive hubris. Perhaps, they’re right. I prefer to think that we’re paying attention to the conversation. We’re reacting to what we hear people asking for. We see the serious trending in the business landscape and how conversations are now making an impact. We don’t accept that simply because it’s different, it’s wrong - not for a business founded on creating conversations.

This is the first in a lengthy series. If it’s interested you so far, tune in regularly. If it’s upset you, tell me why.

Last month, I mentioned that I would be attending our first industry event this month. I can finally talk about it. There’s an organization called the International Association for Exhibition Management (IAEM). A coule of months ago I became a member of this organization.

Tomorrow morning, I depart for Atlanta for their annual convention. It’s quite a bizarre thing. I’ve grown fond of referring to it as a recursive conference - a trade show for trade show people. I bet you didn’t know there was an association for associations either ;) I was only half surprised.

This event will be my first time talking to loads of people about what we’re doing and trying to help them see our world. I’ve spent the last two years researching his business from every possible angle. I’m beyond excited to now be able to take that the product we’ve generated to them.

If by some chance you’re reading this and plan on attending, please get in touch with me. If you’re in Atlanta, I’d love to hear from you as well. It’s been years since my last visit.

It’s been approximately 5 months now that I have been quietly hinting at the new company I founded. It gives me great pleasure to finally share with everyone who we are, what we’re doing, and how we’re going to make it happen. So let’s get to the explaining!

Our new company is named syncPEOPLE. Our tagline is simple: Connecting People, Passions & Pursuits. But it’s much more than some slick marketing slogan, it’s a mission that inspires all of our actions.

You might be wondering how we plan to achieve that mission. Well, that gets at what we’re focused on. We’re developing a new breed of event software, yep events (from trade shows to conferences to associations to clubs and everything in between). Here’s a snippet from the new site:

We build and maintain web-based communities for events of all sizes, from the biggest trade show to the smallest club.

Every event provides opportunities for new connections, we simplify and accelerate the process.

Our unique event management system will deliver measurable value and lasting results to event attendees, exhibitors and show management.

We probably comply with every buzzword that’s buzzing right now, but that’s not what we’re concerned with. We want to deliver the best solution possible and we’ll use whatever it takes. Sometimes, a fresh outlook is so much more than a new numerical designation.

I’ve written quite a bit more of the back story after the jump. I hope you’ll take the time to see how we ended up where we are and why we’re so passionate about it.

(more…)

Wow. What a day today has been. It’s been half tiring and half exciting. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been drilling down on the business proposition we’re making here and preparing for the arduous task of raising capital from total strangers.

Here’s some background. I’ve started no less than 6 different companies in the last 10 years. I’m always seen as the one person who doesn’t just get ideas but who will slave away at nights and appear with a working prototype in due time. Programming is the one skill that I’m most grateful for having as it lets me bring the things I dream about to life when the itch is just right.

In all these years, I’ve managed to live in my office, go days without food (generally because I forgot, not because I was broke) and never really have to seek any capital from the outside world. Survival is just something I’ve gotten used to in all this time (another thing I am grateful for). I remember back in the DOT BOMB days hearing about all the money that was being spent left and right - honestly I could never relate to just WHAT you do with that much cash - I was making great progress with so much less.

Bootstrapping is not a fancy word here or a badge of entitlement, it’s a way of life plain and simple. Which is what has made the last couple of months so unique. This is the first time where I’ve not only thought about raising capital but I’m also seriously pursuing it. There are so many other things that are required for going this route, but for me, the most interesting challenge is moving past the lifestyle mindset.

As a serial, parallel entrepreneur, I was more interested in seeing IF I could make some things happen and then if I could support myself and my team off of it. It was never a concern to build a BIG company, just one that kept our bellies full and money in the bank. For a long time, that’s been more than enough and I don’t regret it (much).

Now, however, I’m getting a bit more aggressive in my demands on my work. It’s not that I think my ideas need to work harder or better, it’s that I need to work less. I used to be able to pull 100+ hour weeks like it was nothing. I used to not have to worry about anyone. That’s all different. I’ve got a family to take care of and my body’s finally putting up a fight and saying “Slow the f*ck down, allstar”. It’s starting to feel like the time to listen.

Naturally, this doesn’t mean working less. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s moved on to working SMARTER. It’s an adage that is thrown around quite a bit, but the reality is it’s hard as heck to live it. For someone like myself, generally overflowing with ideas and innovations, to focus down at this level is really, well, remarkable (and that’s just from my vantage point).

So, back to the pitch. I was up all night re-working the very ugly Power Point I threw together with my notes in preparation for this first pitch today. I found this useful PDF over at the eVenturing site and I went through it and tried to do it their way. That didn’t work out too much. Even though Nyla assured me “They won’t care what it looks like”, dammit, I do. I don’t have it in me to do a bad presentation - I’d rather just talk in that case.

We met in Soho to do the first full-fledged pitch. It was actually meant to be a practice run, but apparently our VC friend didn’t know that so he evaluated on the full. He had some excellent advice for me and I will be getting the answers to his questions in the next week at our first industry event.

All I can say is wow. It was just hard to describe being able to describe to someone what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and everything else and have them understand it. I’m proud I got it. Zak was surprised I hadn’t practiced, but I guess I’ve been practicing this for months, maybe even my whole life.

I’ll be twice as good the next time, I know that much. I can’t wait to hear my 10th. Ahh well, a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving.

I was going to annouce the new company today, but I’m going to wait until Monday. Our blog just might be up by then, but regardless, the secret won’t be so secret come Monday. I hope you’re all still with me, the journey is just beginning.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Go kill some Turkey.

Sorry for the long lapse on the blog here. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, but mostly I’ve been fighting the flu or something and it’s managed to really chew up my precious time.

In the last week, I swept through Vegas for a wedding, San Francisco for a few meetings, and Provo for our second Coding Retreat (it’s awesome to see the code fly together).

This week, I’ve been home for something like 36 hours before I head West again. I’ll be attending the Internet Identity Workshop in Berkeley on Wednesday and Thursday where I will be talking about some of the things we’ve been working on as well as some old things like The Many Faces of Identity, and I might even give away some SparkCards. Friday and Saturday, I’ll be meeting a lot of new folks and hanging with some old ones at TagCamp. Since everyone is required to present something, I’ll be hopefully ready to demo something Chris Heuer and I snapped out last week.

I get back on Sunday afternoon, but the train has not stopped yet. I’m leaving on Tuesday, again, for Las Vegas. We’ve been retained by JD Powers to provide some Sparkcasting goodness for the International Automotive Roundtable which will take a look at Automotive Internet trends and futures. Talk about getting to meet some old friends - I’ll be back in touch with folks I haven’t seen in 4 or 5 years.

Of course, I’ll be home for a week, processing audio and working on the Secret Project for a week or so before heading to Boston for Corante’s Symposium on Social Architecture. That’s going to be a great event packed with super-smart people (I’m just tagging along ;)).

Once the symposium is all over, you can expect a re-birth for the Beercasting gang. We’ve been waiting for it to get cold again before we start up and it’s nearing the one year anniversary. Good times for all are guaranteed.

The month will end in Atlanta, but I can’t tell you all why just yet ;)

So in summary, it’s gonna be a very busy 6 weeks or so. I’ll try to post as often as possible, but I know it’s gonna be light for a short bit.