Photo-A-Day #1905
The Evolution of Women in Social Media… Great conference but why was I there? It was funny telling people that I was going to a conference and then telling them the titled of the conference. I got a lot of funny looks. Why was I going to go to Utah to spend the weekend with a couple hundred female bloggers? I’ll tell you why, and it wasn’t just because I was speaking. I went because I saw the potential to make some really strong personal connections with people who understand Social Media and what it means to be a blogger. I saw the opportunity to hear fresh new voices of courage and strength. I saw a hidden gem of a conference that was engaging, intimate and inspiring. That is why I attended Evo’10 and why I’ll be ready to sign up for Evo’11.
| The day started with a very cool keynote by two members of HARPO, Oprah’s company, Jon Sinclair and Andrea Wishom. We listened to them as we ate a delicious breakfast supplied by one of the conference sponsors, Quaker Oats. Jon and Andrea talked about how Oprah’s foray into Social Media came about. It was such a great keynote, but because of the altitude I was drinking so much water that I had to run and pee halfway through the keynote. I was sitting dead center in the middle of the room inches form the stage. Great. And the whole room was rapt with attention and very quietly hanging on the words. I was quiet and respectful as I left but still felt like a bull in a china shoppe. |
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After the keynote I went up tot he PBSKids.org room to talk with the women who came to represent PBSKids.org. By far, they had the best room for a guy like me. They had a half dozen Macs, plus iphones, iPod Touches and iPads. I got a private tour of PBSKid Island and also some of the downloadable apps. It was all really cool stuff and I am excited to play with Eva and show her these new offerings. The iPad games were awesome, I played the SuperWhy one and it was great!
I then visited the other suites of the additional sponsors, Avery Labels, Nu Skin and Scandinavian Child. Each room was nice and I talked with the reps, everyone was really nice too.
I went down for lunch and then to watch part of the session Bloggers, Brands and Agencies. I had to leave halfway through to go talk with the guys on our panel so that we could figure out what we were doing for out panel. We were winging it. Well, maybe not exactly winging it, we were going to go off the cuff for a bit, but we did settle into a great rhythm together.
Our session was very well attended and as I looked out into the crowd I saw many people with whom I had spoken over the past few days. That was very heartening. It immediately made me feel as if all the connections that I made during the weekend were so strong that people wanted to hear what we had to say. Troy, Greg and Adam were great co-panelists. We were funny, smart, engaging and authentic. Each of us blogs for a different reason and we come from different backgrounds and we’ve all blogged for differing lengths of time but we gelled pretty well. I had a bit of a choked up moment as I spoke about Eva and the Evabear adventures. I think the crowd really liked that because there was this great tweet from @Childhood – “Watching @BenSpark cry… @dada_rocks laugh at him… @telling_dad fling monkeys and @TroyPattee look on in amusement #EVOROCKS!” Seeing all the tweets about the session and then having people quoting me too like @DigitalKadi “@BenSpark “The more you give away, the more comes back to you.” SO TRUE! #EVOconf”
The session was a big success and I am still flying high over it.
After that session was the closing keynote. Brené Brown and Karen Walrond talked about authenticity and their discussion was frank, intimate, courageous and inspiring. I didn’t know Brené but I had sort of met Karen last night at the Spruce Dinner. Karen was taking portraits of people at the dinner and her way of engaging each person was something to see. She brought out such joy in each person and captured them at their very best. I want to shoot like that too. As far as the session went it was great. Loved it and both Brené and Karen have a new follower.
With the day’s activities ending I ran all my stuff back to the hotel room and came back up to get on the bus to the Park City Mountain Resort. I ended up getting a ride in the Buick test vehicle, a Buick Lacrosse. I learned even more about this great car and had a nice conversation. Much better than a bus ride if given the option. At the resort I headed in and got my photo taken with some cowboys. Had a delicious dinner and gave EvaBear a cowboy mustache. Then I went up the mountain to do the Alpine Slide with Scott, Brandie and Michelle. The slide was so much fun and I took a video of myself as I rode down with Evabear. I’ll be posting that as soon as I get faster bandwidth.
Heading back to the Hotel I caught up with @jenijen and @thejennui. We decided to go back to the hotel grab my car and go get a late night snack. That ended up being at Jean Louis for some French Onions Soup, steak and potato skins as well as a great conversation. I had a such a great day that I cannot get myself to bed till I get this all out of my head and upload all the Evabear photos. I haven’t gone through them and tagged all of them yet so hang on, they will be up as soon as I can get them up.
I cannot believe that you dared utter the words “French Onion Soup” on your blog! 😉
Allison,
I take my chances. LOL
Sounds like a fabulous session! Can’t wait for the Eva Bear photos.
Deborah,
I have so many photos of people with Evabear that need to go up. I will do that soon.
Are you sure you weren’t just there for the ladies Ben!! Sounds like a really informative conference. Look forward to hearing more insights you gained while there.
Great to met you in person. Great to laugh with you (not really at you). Looking forward to working with you in the future and overall just keeping in touch!
Adam,
It was also great to meet you in person. You have a wonderful family. It was nice to meet them too. I have some ideas for the Next Evo Conference. Some very cool Dad Specific things we could do which would of course be open to everyone.
Looks like I missed a great event, though maybe transcripts or videos might be available? Authenticity is the bread and butter of blogging, most people can smell the lack of it!
H
Helen,
I’m not sure when videos will be up but there may be some.
Great recap, Drew. You inspire me to do my own recap. Laura and I enjoyed meeting with you as well. Remember to bring Ibuprofen with you in those high altitude locations. Hope to see you again at Evo ’11.
Jocelyn
Thank you. Do the recap even if just for yourself so that you can remember the event. That is why I write them so I remember as best I can the people I’ve met along the way.
I won’t forget headache medicine again in the upper atmosphere of Park City. Thanks for helping me out.
Also, thanks for a great contest.
Drew, it was so great to hang out with you this weekend! I loved EVO — and, like you said, it was amazing connecting with such fantastic people! Like you, I’m ready for EVO 11! Until then, I’ll catch up with you here and on Twitter 🙂
Heather
@prTini
Heather,
It was also great to hang out with you as well. I would have liked to have seen your panel and I’m glad that you could do an additional session outside. I’m also very ready for Evo 11. I’m going to bring the family next time.
Thanks for this awesome recap post and pic! It was great to meet you in real life and to chat on Friday night. AND congrats on the Mac! 🙂
Rachel,
It was excellent meeting you. The conference was amazing and I cannot wait till Evo’11. I’ve got some cool ideas for another sponsored suite. I’d love to chat with you and Jyl. The conference was perfect down to the last detail. I was so impressed. Thank you also for that great conversation Friday night. I hope you liked the photos that I popped into the conference photo pool.
I hope that idea for a sponsored suite involves tissues! 🙂 If not, I’ll need to remember to keep some in my bag next year. And, I mean that in a good, inspirational way!
Heather
@prTini
Heather,
I know exactly what you mean. I kept wondering how great it would be to have a tissue sponsor because man, we needed them in a big, big way.
“I’ve got some cool ideas for another sponsored suite.” oh yeah, only if it involves working with us ;).
Loved meeting you and hearing Eva stories.
Jeannine,
Let’s talk about some ideas because I would certainly love to work with you and your team. I just ordered two iPads (I traded in my MacBook so both my wife and I could have iPads) and can’t wait to share the PBSKids.org apps with Eva. Next year, my wife and Eva will be attending the show as well.
It was fantastic to meet you and talk with you. I look forward to working with you on some fun projects here and on Read To Me, Dad.