Northern Voice 2010… Just A Beginning…

I just got back from the Northern Voice Conference. (On Twitter, hashtagged as #NV10)

I was going to say I just finished the Northern Voice Conference… but in truth, the Conference was just a beginning.

For those not familiar, it is billed as “a two-day, non-profit personal blogging and social media conference held at the UBC main campus, Vancouver, Canada on May 7-8, 2010.”

Although this was the sixth time it has been held, it was my first time there.

You can go to the Northern Voice website here…

Because of getting Bailey to the Vet, I arrived late, and missed the Keynote Speaker, (although I’ve been told that ALL the sessions were taped, and are available as Streaming Video) so my first session was “Blogging ABC’s” with Tris Hussey. When I got there, they were talking about geek stuff, but I understood what they were saying.  Tris does a great job of balancing communicating well to a lower level of user, and being able to talk at a very technical level when appropriate.

If I had been paying closer attention to the Creative Commons for Beginning Bloggers session, by Duncan McHugh, I would probably be better prepared to properly credit the photo below, which was taken by Sylvia Currie, and you can see this photo and others she took… but I was trying to get my Computer linked to the free UBC interweb wifi connection, (difficulties experienced were my own issue, and not reflective of the Connection) and so will have to go back and try to gather this info, when I have a chance.

Dave Olson and Monica Hamburg gave a great Multi-Media session on “Finding Your Online Voice“. Great insight into finding inspiration.  All Bloggers have run into the “What do I write about” and “How should I writer about it” questions. I (and other Crazy Cat people) found it funny, how on Day One, every session made a reference to Crazy Cat people.

Alexandre Brabant put on a revolutionary (to me) session on “The Nuts and Bolts of Search Engine Optimization” which talked about covering your basic keywords, but then going after the tail of the “serpent”, rather than confronting the head. (SEO wise)

After a quick cup of joe, Kimli Welsh put on a heartfelt and heartwarming talk on “Overcoming Social Anxiety, or How To Win Friends & Influence People in 140 Characters”. This flowed amazingly well into the next session, where Steffani Cameron (Smutty Steff) talked about “How To Screw Up Your Personal Blog” and going from 100 readers to 5,000 and back down again.  A wild ride, to be sure!!!

Finished off the day letting my Camera Geek run wild, at the “PhotoCamp” session. (Northern Voice Flickr Feed)

Day One, I met a ton of folks (in real life) who I had only “talked” with on Twitter.

I was also introduced to the Bieber Mask, (subject of an upcoming Blog Post,) came across some guys from Coast Hotels who were adapting and making their Business work with Social Media, had an altercation with a chicken, and had MANY side discussions with MANY Session Speakers, who were kind enough to give up their coffee, lunch and break times to answer questions that either fell “outside” the purview of their topic, or was too “me” specific to be asked in the session.  The Day ended in a flurry of departures, as the Canucks were SUPPOSED to be playing that evening, although very few of the actual #Canuck Players showed up… but that is another topic!!!

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Northern Voice Poster – photo by Sylvia Currie

For me, Day Two had a quicker kickoff, as Bailey didn’t play hide and seek… so I got to UBC in time to hear part of Chris Messina’s Keynote Address talking about the Open Web, and a great story about the introduction of Hashtags to Twitter.  Hashtags (aka the number sign, #) make Twitter content searchable, so terms such as #NV10, #Canucks or #BieberMask can be used and searched for, to find pertinent comments and content, amongst the various Twitter Streams.

With a reference to the Spike Lee film “Do The Right Thing”, Darren Barefoot talked about “Doing Good On The Web” both locally and globally, and the ways that we can impact and effect change through Social Media.

Lunch in the Atrium was nice, but a highlight was definitely the Cookies Session.  Not Interweb Cookies… the old fashioned “bake in an oven” kind.  Despite the cookies being low tech, there was still a LOT of browsing being done !!!

Alexandra Samuel suggested some tools and techniques to help us to “Cope With Social Media“. Lists for Twitter, Empty Inbox for E-mail, Hide Button for Facebook, plus many other valuable suggestions.

I went to the Fibre Arts session not because I’m a knitting wonk, but because I know people who are.  In the context of leveraging Social Media to share tools, techniques and projects… it was very interesting, and in particular I loved the info on Knit Bombing and Yarn Bombing (and the subsequent follow up question of the voyeuristic tendencies of the Bombers) and Subversive Cross Stitching.

The session I had been looking forward to all Conference, flew by next. Rebecca Coleman, Deb Pickman, Sara Genn and Rachael Chatoor talked about Art and Social Media.  For me, as a songwriter, I was aware of  http://rachaelpachel.blogspot.com/ (Rachael’s website / blog / vlog) and was interested to hear her take on the role of the Songwriter/Performer and how it had changed, as her audience is invited “behind the curtain”.  This was a topic that (IMHO) could have stretched out to three or four hours, or been further broken down, as folks in the various mediums of Arts: Theatre, Recording Artist, Painter all have different views on what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate access for their audience.  How much is too much?  Always a debate… but in the end, I think it was largely agreed that inviting an audience behind the screen doesn’t give away any Magic tricks, but may further involve and engage the audience.  How THAT is accomplished is STILL the trick.

The last Session of Day Two was Tod Maffin taking us through some Secrets From Radio to Awesome-ize Your Podcast.  I had never thought of doing a Podcast, and having a Recording Studio, and all the editing software already… I’m not sure why!  But now I have some ideas and suggestions to think about… and we’ll see.

The Nothern Voice Conference finished with a recurrence of Bieber Fever, various goodbyes to Friends who I’d just met, and Tweets of Joy exclaiming over #NV10!!!

On a bit of a reality check… As I said in the Northern Voice questionnaire, the Big Rooms were great, but the small rooms had issues with the standing room only crowd not being able to fit, and when not everyone is able to sit down, the session loses value.  Additionally, when folks are crowded out into the hallway, a soft-spoken presenter is tough to hear without a microphone.  Other than that, it was an amazing two days!!!

For those who were not able to attend, I hope this VERY link-heavy Post will give you a sense of what I enjoyed on my two days at Northern Voice.

For those who were there organizing or giving these talks… Thank you!!!

For those who, like me, were there to try to be human sponges and soak up as much goodness as we could in two days… Thanks for a fun, sharing, laughter-filled two days of learning!!!

I’ll see you around the Web!!!