Archive: IZEAFest
Last year I attended PostieCon and had a fantastic time meeting the IZEA Team at the event. I also had an awesome time meeting a bunch of great bloggers. Some have even become good friends since that time. I am really looking forward to seeing those friends again and looking forward to making some new ones.
At events such as IZEAFest 2008 what you put into the event is what you get out of it. And for an event such as this you need to do a little prep work so that you can network well and get the most bang for your buck. We are pretty decent networkers, online. What with all the IZEA Boards, memes, blogrolls and commenting going on, we know how to connect, online. But what about face to face. Here are some simple ideas for better networking.
1. Don't be intimidated.
So, you are going to be at an event where you could meet blogging superstars like Jeremy Schoemaker and Merlin Mann the keynote speakers. These guys are like everyone else but they are really good at blogging. You are a good blogger as well and you should go right on up and introduce yourself.
2. Do your research.
If you are going to talk with Jeremy Schoemaker John Chow, Neil Patel or Stephanie Agresta about Big Money blogging then you might want to know a thing or two about their blogs. Heck, you might even check out the moderator of that panel, ME. I'd recommend going to the IZEAFest Speakers page to learn more. If you are really ambitious then set up a feed category in your RSS feed reader called IZEAFest and then subscribe to each of the speaker's blogs.
3. Know what you want to get out of the event?
By planning ahead and doing your research you can get more out of your time at this event. Maybe you want to change your blog template or grow traffic or even make compelling videos. These are all sessions that will be offered at IZEAFest but unless you know what you would like to accomplish with your blog you may not get the most out of each session.
4. Gear
You are a blogger by gosh and as such you better have some way to blog about your experience at IZEAFest. So, you are going to need some basic gear, a digital camera would be a start. A digital camera that records video would be better. A computer would also be worth having, laptops work best in this situation. What about mobile blogging. Do you have a way to Phone it In? Okay, that is pretty good for techy hardware, but what about other things. How about something as simple as pen and paper. If you want to go all out then how about T-Shirts for your blog, maybe make up a dozen or so and give them out to people. I know that there are some folks who may have a penchant for wearing T-Shirts, especially on their blogs. If a T-Shirt isn't in your budget then how about Business Cards. You should at least have some blogger business cards to hand out. Be creative and make something memorable to bring with you.
5. Be Yourself
You put yourself out there on your blog each and every day so why not be that great person when you are offline. Just be yourself, get out and meet as many people as you can and try and learn as much as possible. But most of all have a really fun time because IZEAFest 2008 is going to be amazing.
See you there....
Oh yes the blogroll. I've visited a few blogs that have the "I'm going to IZEAFest" badge but I don't have a list of people who will be attending. I've created a blogroll of all the speakers and their blogs. I'd like to add your blog to this as well if you are coming to IZEAFest 2008. If you are attending IZEAFest 2008 leave a comment so I can add you to the blogroll. That way I can get to know your blogs and you can get to know the blogs of everyone who will be in attendance.
Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1170+ consecutive photos in 1170+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.
