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Blogging, Conferences, Technology

10 Essential Items for IZEAFest 2009

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This October I am attending IZEAFest 2009. I’ve been to many blogger conventions over the years (Blog World Expo, PostieCon, and IZEAFest) and I’ve come up with a list of essential items that you must have to go to one of these blogger conferences.

Did you know that you can Enter to win many of the prizes on this page. Enter BenSpark’s Ultimate IZEAFest 2009 Prize Pack Contest.

10. XShot – This simple gadget for your digital camera is the perfect accessory to have with you at a blog conference. I had the xshot 1st and gave it to some great bloggers. Ted Murphy has taken the use of this gadget to the next level though.

With an XShot you can make sure that you are in the photos with everyone. Being seen at blog conferences is very important. And being able to share photos of yourself with cool people like John Chow is fun.

XShot with John Chow

9. BluFrog Energy Drink – I’ve been drinking this stuff for the past month. I won a case from Martha Decker and also received one for Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs from Jeremy Kendall. BluFrog Energy Drink is pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve done my own trials with it and I can tell you it keeps you awake and alert during meetings and on those boring days. Of course IZEAFest will be anything but boring. But the nights will be long so you are gonna need a healthy pick me up.

Swag Table #3

8. Digital Camera – So many cool things happen at blogger conferences and you are going to make so many great friends. So what better accessory to go with the XShot than a digital camera to capture everything. My camera of choice for a quick shoot is the Canon Powershot Digital Elph. I have a Canon SD800is and there are many newer ones out now.

Canon cameras are fantastic. There is even a group that has hacked the camera to run some great scripts. I use one all the time called the Ultra Intervalometer. This allows me to set the camera to take pictures at a specific interval. I’ve used this in a few creative ways. Like attaching it to the shopping cart to take Eva to the store.

7. ZINK Paper – ZINK paper is some pretty fun stuff because you can use it in interesting ways. I use this product with a Polaroid Pogo, my Canon SD800is and my XShot to take pictures with people. Then I print the image out, remove the back of the ZINK paper and stick it to my business card. That way the person has both my business card and a photo of themselves with me. It makes the interaction so personal and gives you at least a minute or two to talk with that person while the image prints and you put it on the business card. I did this at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs and will be doing it again at Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II. This is how I use ZINK Paper.

6. Portable Hard Drive – A small portable hard drive is a perfect thing to have with you because you can take a ton of photos and a ton of video and never have to worry about running out of space. I have a Simple Tech 320GB hard drive that weighs so little and is so small.

You don’t want to run out of space when you get that great video interview with Missy Ward or Chris Pirillo.

5. Power – We’re all looking for a little power but in this case I’m talking about power for your gadgets. I’ve had an iGo for years and after 7 years it gave up the ghost, that was seven hard travel years. I was able to power three laptops, seven cell phones, and various other gadgets. When the iGo died I got a Targus that did the exact same thing, in fact I was able to use my iGo peripheral charger with the Targus. With these products you can power up in the car, at the wall socket and even on the plane.

4. Flip Mino HD – HD is where it is at. And the Flip is a perfect device to have with you at a blog conference, it is small, it fits in your pocket and powers up so quickly. I was watching the cake plow at IZEAFest last year and John Chow was able to scoop the video of Ted Murphy being slammed into the cake. I had a different video camera and it wasn’t fast enough to catch that moment. If you want to catch a moment you have to be ready all the time. And even if you capture a moment you want to make sure you get that moment posted quickly. The Flip Mino HD has all the software you need to edit and upload your movies.

3. Business Cards – Two years ago I made 250 free cards with VistaPrint. They were good but sort of random. I had printed out 100 of my photo-a-day photos and stuck them to the cards. Creative but didn’t get my message across. This past year I made Moo cards with two designs one with my hands everywhere and the other of a rubber ducky that looks like me. These cards made a visual impact on everyone who got them. This year I plan to do something similar but to incorporate the PoGo, ZINK Paper and XShot into the mix.

2. Netbook – Portability and battery life are the two biggest concerns when at a blog conference, you don’t want to be weighed down with a ton of stuff and you don’t want to lose power when you have that great tweet to post.

Allison owns a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 she is able to do so much more now online because she is portable. She’s even applied for a job with Ravelry, I hope she gets it.

1 – A Ticket to IZEAFest 2009 – This is pretty much the most important thing that you need for IZEAFest, you need a ticket. You can buy one at $229.00 which not only includes an incredible lineup of speakers including 2 full days of amazing speakers and events plus a blogger takeover day at SeaWorld!


So is that the definitive list? No, there are many other great tings to bring, why don’t you let me know what some of them are in the comments.

And look here for a contest where I will give away some IZEAFest tickets. Heck I’d love to give away this complete list to some lucky bloggers, but I need some sponsors to help me out. Contact me through the contact form and let me know if you are interested in being a sponsor. I already have sponsors for the PoGo and ZINK Paper, XShot, IZEAFest Ticket and Flip Mino HD.

Today’s assignment for Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to write a list post. I’d been toying with the idea of this list for a while and the assignment gave me the push I needed.

Family

A Job With Allison’s Name On It

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Rest and Relax

For the past two years I have heard more about knitting than ever in my entire life. That was because Allison started knitting two years ago. There is a yarn store down the street from us called Yarn it All and they were offering classes. Allison said one day, “I’m thinking about taking knitting classes” which meant that she was going to be taking knitting classes. We are very similar in that way, when we express that we are thinking about doing something that means that we’ve already thought about it and are going to do that something. So Allison started knitting. She picked it up right away. Her skills are amazing, I think. She’s made hats, socks, sweaters, blankets, prayer shawls, and baby blankets. She even made the entire family, including the cats, some Janye Cobb hats.

A BDH and a LDHA BDH and a LDHFurry "LDH"Furry "LDH"

Allison has taken her love for knitting everywhere. She knits in the car, on planes and she even knit all throughout IZEAFest 2008. She has also taken her love for knitting online. She is a member of the online community for knitters called Ravelry.

Ravelry has become a part of our lives, Allison has met interesting people through it, she has found great new patterns to knit as well. Ravelry is looking for a new member of their team, someone who will work 20 hours a week as a communication liaison between the community and Ravelry. I think that this job is perfect for Allison. We made a decision when Eva was born that I would work so Allison could spend time at home with Eva. Allison did have a full time job up until the day before Eva was born. She was an Office Manager for a Management Consulting Firm. In that role she was technical support, communications manager, travel agent and all around dynamo.

Heirloom Blanket

Allison staying home with Eva has worked out well and we would love to continue to keep things this way. However, in order to continue to do this we both need to pick up side things from time to time, I have blogging and Allison works about 9 hours a week for a friend of mine. This does leave her plenty of time to fulfill the 20 hours a week with Ravelry. I think the responsibility and challenge and fun of a job like that would be amazing for her. She loves people and community so a connection outside the home and talking with other adults is just the thing.

Allison has incredible writing skills and she loves to communicate with people. We go out places and she has found out life stories of at least 4 people while I barely can remember names. She genuinely cares about other people and making a connection and that is one thing that makes her perfect for this job. Her compassion and understanding make her a perfect person whose primary job is to communicate with an online community. Allison is also perfect for this because she has the technical skills needed for the job, she knows how to create blogs, use twitter, utterli, facebook, flickr and a host of other online resources. She is also extremely familiar and skilled with the Ravelry site and forums. When she doesn’t know something technical she learns about it and solves the problem.

Allison also recently bought herself a netbook so she is able to be both mobile and connected at all times. So this part time online job with Ravelry would be a perfect fit for Allison. She’s even taken renewed interest in her blog and will be posting much more often now.

So if Ravelry is looking for a skilled knitter who is a great communicator, problem solver and a compassionate hard worker then they should really consider Allison for this job.