Posts tagged The Goodie Truck

What a day.  It was a long and early day but for once I sat in classrooms and learned useful information.  If you have never heard of Pod Camp it is an unconfernce for people interested in social media, blogging, podcasting, stuff like that.   I attended a day full of great sessions at Pod Camp Pittsburgh 5 at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.   There is another day of sessions tomorrow and they are free!  So head down even if you didn’t pre-register.   You can also watch the sessions live online at their website.  Today’s sessions are up at The Tech Buzz.

We started with the keynote address by Norm & Bill Peduto.

Bill had many videos to share but one stuck with me the rest of the day and had the most impact.  I am very interested in social media already.  I utilize what I can, when I can.  I was amazed by the facts in this video all about Social Media Revolution.   Company’s really need to watch it and see the impact social media really plays today.

The first session I attended was 10 Ways to Create Social Media That Matters with Justin Kownacki.

Not only was this session informative he is a really funny guy.  He easily engaged the audience with humor.  I had to stand in the back, it was hot, and I wasn’t leaving.  One of the things he shared with us was that there are 3 reasons to create.

#1 Educate

#2 Entertain

#3 Engage

My next session was Blogging 201: Finding Fodder 52 weeks a Year with Michelle of BurghBaby.com.

I started reading her blog some time ago and came out of lurker world and started commenting here and there and talking to her on twitter.  She is incredibly nice and keeps me wondering what her daughter did each day.  Her session helped understand that you need to know why you blog.  She gave many questions that a blogger should ask themselves such as; how often should you blog? is this topic ok? and should i have ads?

Lunch was provided to us after that session and yay I finally got to eat from The Goodie Truck!  I found out about them on Facebook or Twitter one day and thought it was such a neat concept I started following them.  They drive to local events and sell homemade treats such as cookies and brownies.   Sorry to my lunch mates who I dashed out on to get me something yummy!

After lunch I attended Friend Me? No, Friend You! – Creating Real Relationships with the internet with Justin Burdett

He talked about listening to people out there before blogging and figure out who your trying to reach.  Who is that one person you want to impress the most.

Then I went to Living Out Loud: Real Life Effects of Living Online by BitchBurgh

The room was packed.  So packed there was no where to sit, the room just wasn’t set up for more people than there were chairs for.  I went into the overflow room to watch the live feed and the audio wasn’t working well.  It got so bad that everyone left, including me.  It is unfortunate I missed out on it.  I love reading their blog.   From what I was there for they talked about expecting your readers not to always agree with you and pissing off your loved ones, which they have.  I write a blog where I do a bit of bitching so I really wanted to hear this session.

I wound up going to another room for that session since the audio wasn’t working.

I went to Memo From Your Blog’s Legal Department by Cris Hoel who is a lawyer.  He had some great info!  He shared many things to be careful about sharing and copyrights.

Things he said to stay away from:

1.  Accusing someone of criminal conduct.

2. Accuse someone of loathsome and communicable disease.

3. Direct effect on someones livelyhood.  It could affect ability to earn a living.

4. Don’t accuse a female of being un chased or a male he is impotent.  However you can accuse a male of being un chased or a female impotent LOL

A website he gave that has good information is the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The last session I attended was SWF Seeks… The Birth of a Blog: How I evolved from Lurker to Creator by Tara of Stylish White Female.

She talked about how she started on the internet on ICQ and the like, gave up Myspace and got to where she is today.  She talked about how our online converstations are very real and finding your social voice.  She was very informative.

My one big issue was I didn’t socialize much in person.  I shook Chachi’s hand on his way out a door.  I talk to him via Twitter and read his blog.  I also met a few people at lunch that I had a good conversation with. Part was I was into the presentations I was there for, the other is I am shy.  I mean hundreds of people where there I had never met.  I talk to many on Twitter through the week but I couldn’t just go up and say hi to them.  Ugh, WTF.  Once I know someone I don’t shut up, but I just can’t seem to always be that outgoing person around so many new people.  I also had made business cards.  I failed at giving them out.  I probably only gave out 5 of them the entire day.

I still had a great day and learned a lot.  It was organized better than most events I have attended and the Twitter was going insane with Pod Camp talk.  My Twitter friends who don’t live here or weren’t there were probably annoyed.  My feed was full of Pod Camp.  You can find all the Pod Camp talk with the hash tag #pcpgh5.  People tweeted about the sessions they were in, some one liners the presenter had said they thought were great.  They also had a live feed of the Twitter hash tag in one of the rooms.  Thank you Pod Camp Pittsburgh!

Now I have to decide if I can handle another day and what sessions I will attend if I go