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Photo of the photowalk by Tricia Ward McDonald (see her awesome photos over here).
Last week I got a message inviting me to fill a spot leading a photo walk at a local social media and blogging conference. My local photog friends know that I’m into doing more in person teaching so I was super appreciative they recommended me. I’ve had a number of these kinds of local opportunities lately and not only have they helped this introvert feel more comfortable in the role of leading/teaching, but have made me feel more at home in my own city.
So this one was for a conference called Northern Voice and my friends, it totally rocked. I had heard about it, but hadn’t jumped in and signed up in previous years.
It was outside of both my in-person social circles and my online community, so for an introvert like me, thats a whole lotta outside-the-comfort zone action going on. The great thing was, that once I got there I realized that it was the same case for so many of us and I felt totally at home there. I only wish it was a day longer!
One of the many things I so loved about the event was that I couldn’t tell who the speakers where and who the participants were, there just wasn’t a cliquishness or hierarchical energy to the event at all. I loved that.
Another big reason I loved it was the content of the workshops. To tell you the truth, I listen to a lot of online blogging/social-media/marketing tele-seminars and so often I’m disappointed by the kind of blogging advice people give in those seminars (a one-size-fits-all approach) but this event didn’t remotely disappoint in that way. Quite the opposite. I went to such a range of workshops and my notebook is filled up with the take-away inspirations from it…some definitely technical workshops and some super philosophical ones too…all of which I felt spoke to us in a really outside-the-box way, recognizing the wide diversity of reasons we might be involved in social media. I think no matter why you were there you would have ended up going away with so much.
So I wanted to share a bit about this in case you are want to keep watch on the conference for next year or in case you have been pondering going to an event in your part of the world that is outside of your usually bubble of online or in-person circles…go for it…it might be exactly what you are in need of!