Photo-A-Day #2016

Today was the day that I presented my session called Content You Care About and it went really well, but more about that later. I’m writing this up on Sunday night from a table at the airport trying to remember what happened on what day. It was a whole weeks worth of experiences packed into four short days. Today though, today flew by like nobody’s business.

I didn’t really stay out that long on Thursday night but I still wanted to take a little me time this morning and I wasn’t really interested in the keynote this morning so I sauntered down to the conference hall a little later on and went to the Sony Social Media Lounge and spent some time talking with Lisa Picarille. I’m really glad that I’ve gotten to know Lisa in the past couple of years because she is so smart and funny and fun to talk with. She has some great ideas and the time passed quickly as we talked before the Expo hall opened. Right before the expo hall opened I ran into Andrew Lock from Help! My Business Sucks. I met him back in June in Utah. He’s a rather quiet guy in real life. We talked for a little bit and I asked him about some podcasting tips. He said that he had a program that can help. It is called Start Your Own TV Show and it is $997.00! Well, sorry Andrew, love your stuff but that is steep especially after learning more about video from Steve Garfield later in the day.

I bounced around the exhibit hall for a bit and then picked up the Seagate drives to give away for my session later in the afternoon. I then rushed over to see Aaron Hockley and Kris Krug talk about photography tips for social media. Kris Krug is an amazing photographer and so is Aaron in his won right, they were definitely good people to have teach a session. I learned a lot from the session too.

I had wanted to run over to the Expo Hall and see Average Betty do her session in the BlogWorld Kitchen but I was unable to do that and hit up Steve Garfield’s Video Podcasting 101. This session was completely worth me attending because Steve had some fantastic information that he gave away for free. I learned much about video podcasting and also the key ingredient that I had been looking for and that is how to get my podcast up on iTunes. So look for that to actually be something you can subscribe to via iTunes soon. There is a small investment that I will need to make in the future and that it to get an external mic so that I can record much better sound. That will be well worth it though.

After during Steve’s Session I picked up his book Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business on my Kindle and after the session I asked him to sign it for me.

I was back in the expo hall and this time I was there to see and do as much as I could before my session. I poured a half gallon of milk and some fruit loops on Ted Murphy’s head for charity. Then posed for photos with him. Ted is a good sport. He was cold and smelled of milk but still a a class act every step of the way. It was great to also see the rest of the IZEA crew like Carrie and Ashley and Jamie. Great people who make working with them so much fun.

I ran around like crazy from the time I went into the expo hall till I realized that I had lost my badge and so I rushed to the conference office and got a new one. I realized that I wasn’t going to get anything to eat and prep for my presentation so I rushed up to the food court to buy something and rush back down to put it on the stage and smell it the entire time I did my presentation. Time management during BlogWorld Expo was non existent for me. But I made it to my presentation in a good 15 minutes to spare which was important because my presentation was not loaded on the laptop as it was supposed to be. I am very grateful that I made the presentation on Google Presentation and was able to grab it and pull it onto the laptop but this is a good lesson because I should have had it on a flash drive as a backup. Lesson for another time.

My session went pretty well despite being up against some really heavy hitters and the now open exhibit hall filled with so much cool swag. I had about 35 people who were so nice and attentive as I went through my slides and told them all about ways to use content to enhance their blogs. A few people left and some more came in. I can certainly understand that because there is just so much to see and do at BWE that it is hard to be there for all the presentations. I did have some very cool stuff to give away and I think that at least two of the people who won prizes were over the moon. I had two Kodak cameras an M590 ultra-slim one and a PlaySport waterproof camera. I had a few XShots too (one I gave away in Steve Garfield’s session) and also some of the Flipbacs that I’ve had since IZEAFest (they need to go on a 3.0 inch screen). I also was sponsored by Seagate and Seagate GoFlexMemories and so I had a few Seagate GoFlex Ultra-Portable drives to give away as well. One woman had her laptop and all her digital memories stolen including precious photos and more. She got a drive. Another woman had just recently lost her camera, she got the M590. Those were the only two prizes that I gave directly based on the experiences I heard I picked the rest of the winners randomly through their tweets. So I think that overall the session went very well. I hope that people left good reviews of it.

After my session I hopped over to the one being given by Jonathan Fields. Jonathan is a really nice guy and he had run into the same problem that I did, the session was not loaded on the laptop so he had to run and get his. We started late and that is so tough to have happen but he recovered well. His session was the Money Manifesto, how to create a kick ass manifesto. He did one for his book Career Renegade. It was a great one. The book is also a great one. I had it on Kindle and wanted him to sing my Kindle. In fact, the reason I even brought the thing was to have him sign it and did I bring a sharpie… Nope. Ugh, he was very cool though and said that he’d catch up with me in the morning and sign it, and I still couldn’t find one. Such a fail moment. I did, however, ask him if he would guest on Geek Dads Weekly, which he said yes! So once he’s done with the next book he’ll guest on the show.

I was beat so I went back to my room to drop a bunch of stuff off and get ready for the night ahead. I had the Photowalk at 6:00pm with Aaron Hockley and Kris Krug. Aaron showed but we didn’t see Kris. I was happy to meet face to face with Annabel Candy from Get In the Hot Spot. She did a great post about the photowalk and decided to attend, it was nice to meet her. I stuck with the group for the most part and then peeled off and walked to the Hard Rock Hotel where I caught up with everyone from Collective Bias. We were meeting there for drinks before we headed to dinner at Hofbräuhaus. This was a German Beer Hall what was huge and loud and fun. I got an enormous pretzel, some tasty pork and a spanking with a giant paddle. Two out of three weren’t bad. Apparently when you order a shot there they give you the shot but then you get a whack with the paddle. I don’t do shots but I took the hit for John Andrews of Collective Bias. I then took another because I said the 1st didn’t hurt, why can’t I keep my mouth shut. The second one, that one hurt, a little.

Dinner was great and then we walked back tot eh Hard Rock Hotel to catch cabs back to Mandalay Bay. We hung out there at a little hotel bar and talked for a while and then it was time for me to get some sleep. Long day. Day Two completed.