South Converged
October 24th, 2007 by daveI’ve been to and returned from this year’s ConvergeSouth conference. As always, it was great to hang out in Greensboro with some fellow nerds. A lot of what I find as the value of that conference is that same thing as I like about our local meetups - just getting a little face time with people of similar interests and putting faces to names (and URLs.)
One outcome of the conference is that some of the fellow South Carolina bloggers are interested in hosting our own kind of conference in our area. These particular folks are from Charleston but have graciously admitted that it might make better sense to hold it in the Myrtle Beach area. Space is cheaper, the hotel rooms would be cheaper, etc. So here’s a question to the Grand Strand Blogger community - if we do this, are you in? Are you willing to come, to volunteer, to present, to raise money, to make signs, all the gazillion ticky little tasks that are involved in such an undertaking? We kind of identified April as a good time to hold a conference. It’s 6 months away from ConvergeSouth, it’s out of season and thus cheap and good probability of having nice weather when they might still be getting snow in Chicago and Pittsburgh.
The big questions really are:
Do we do this at all, yes or no?
If yes, do we start in 2008 (kind of soon for logistics) or 2009 (kind of late for excitement)?
There might very well be a reason to hold a meetup early-ish in November with an actual agenda and questions to be asked and answered around this. If we do go for April 2008, we really need to be cracking on that soon. So, look inside yourselves and find a true answer and respond here. Not being down is not a shame, and if that is your stance please don’t feel pressured into responding any other way. The worst case outcome is that a lot of people agree to go for the flow, we go for it and then only a few or one or no one is realistically able to do the work and the whole enterprise becomes a fiasco.
So, who is in?
October 24th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I am in and some of 803 Labs services as well. I say lets shoot for April. Hell if we wait till 2009 new technology may sweep it all away.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
[...] Fast forward to today, where I am freshly home from my second ConvergeSouth of the last three years. A big topic of conversation amongst myself and the rest of the South Carolina contingent was holding a conference around here. Even though most of the other people were from the Charleston area they agreed that holding it up here probably makes good sense because of the lower costs. At the same time, I now feel like I have a support group with the Grand Strand Bloggers. Over there I made a post asking my Grand Strand compatriots if they would like to be involved. Over here, I’m asking another question - would you be willing to come to such an event? Assume that it is being held approximately April-ish with free or very cheap attendance. [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Count me in. The more, the merrier, dudes!
October 30th, 2007 at 6:08 am
warren and i are in.
November 4th, 2007 at 10:14 am
[...] My proposal for a Myrtle Beach conference [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 6:56 am
I live in Charleston, but lived in Myrtle Beach for 12 years before coming here and my mother in law lives in Little River.
I think a conference is a great idea–get something going for 4/2008. I’d be willing to help.
November 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Hey, I drive up to House of Blues several times a year so I know it’s an easy drive from Charleston.
Sure, I’d like be part of an April Convergence in 2008. And ….maybe we could arrange a “Party Van?”
November 6th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Let me know what can do.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Count me in
November 6th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Happy to help in any way I can. I’m in.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
[...] What do all of these things have in common? They are all mostly or completely talking and little or no doing. This is why I have a vision in my head if/when we do something in Myrtle Beach to make the predominant focus on doing. Like Eric says of the Blogs and Dogs conference in Canada, if you came without a blog you left with one and a plan to use it. That’s what I want in Myrtle Beach. We don’t need any more impassioned but useless discussions about whether bloggers are journalists. Asked and answered and answered and answered and irrelevant even if not answered. [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
[...] A little while ago Dave posted a question concerning a convergence of all types of new media players in South Carolina. I was wondering if the few that are interested in making this happen would like to get together to discuss options for such an event. This is just a little impromptu meeting to try and get the ball rolling. [...]