conference Archives - Gnatty Savannah

It’s hard to recap a conference like BlogHer especially when you spent three days meeting new people, listening to panels, being inspired by speakers and learning new information. I was impressed and inspired by Janet Mock, Serena Williams and Amy Ziering.

Here are some of my random thoughts from #BlogHer17.

Ana Navarro is hilarious! CNN is being ridiculous if they don’t offer her a show of her own.
Serena Williams has a soft voice, but her words are powerful. It’s great that she is supporting Purple Purse which helps women escape domestic violence.
The lazy river at the Hilton Bonnet Creek is so much fun!
The butterscotch pudding with toffee on the side at La Luce is sinfully delicious.
Review your friend’s books on Amazon. It helps them with sales.
Empathy is not enough. Do something.

Takeaway:

I heard conversations among attendees and panelists that were so similar to conversations I had seven years ago at #BlogHer10. Is BlogHer not growing or is the same old conference model with speakers and panels in need of disruption? I would suggest more unstructured events like a bar camp where anyone can sign up to speak on a topic. In addition, I think there should have been pop-up bookstore selling books authored by speakers and attendees. Other than networking, there should have been an opportunity for attendees to sell their products (maybe an artisan market). Attending BlogHer or any other women’s conference should be a more quantifiable step forward because the time and money spent attending a conference is time and money away from family, career and projects that are just as important if not more.

Over the weekend, I went to GeekEnd. Recapping a three-day conference is harder than recapping a single season of Game of Thrones. There are few too many characters, and I wish could rewind to remember the best quotes.

It’s best for me to do this in reverse order starting from Saturday’s night after party and going back to Thursday.

The after party was fun. I had never heard of the band French Horn Rebellion which was kinda like Bastille or Capital Cities but with the french horn as the lead instrument. The music was very danceable but a little too “on the nose” of 80s music. They definitely can move the crowd.

All events were either at The Guild Hall or at Chromatic Dragon which around the corner. This was very convenient. It helped retained attendees, and you could easily go back and forth from one conference session to another.

The last panel I attended was the social media analysis bootcamp. Lindsey Johns of Flutter Media and Ashlee Perkins of Forge[X] gave the audience members and me great advice on using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I also learned about what types of Twitter post (ones with photos) get more attention. I was so inspired that I started tweeting more from my Gnatty Savannah twitter account.

The “What’s Beyond Email” was cathartic. It was a safe space to rant about everyone’s frustration with email. The panel which was moderated by Kevin Lawver, offered suggestions on how to make email less painful.

” Email is a giant bucket of sad” – Kevin

“Don’t use email for conversation” – Katheriin Liibert of Fleep

“Don’t place information in a place that’s hard to find.” Steve Ross of Oak. Works

“Use Slack or Chat Ops” Josh Nichols of GitHub

The founders of Selfie On A Stick are Bravo tv show waiting to happen. Jacqueline Verdier and Dominic Suszanski may be an overnight success story, but there have sharp business and promotional skills that any entrepreneur could employ.

If you don’t have any customers, you don’t have a business.” Jacqueline Verdier, CEO of Selfie on A Stick

The gift bag included a Tattly robot tattoo. I love Tattly temporary tattoos so this was a score.

At lunchtime, you could eatup and meetup. After meeting John from Urban Savannah and having a couple of sliders and hot dogs from Sly’s Sliders, I wandered back inside to hear Renay San Miguel of Georgia Public Broadcasting talk about the changing landscape of media. Basically, everyone is a publisher.

LittleBits, which is a startup that create DIY electronics for kids and adults held a workhop. Eric Sharpe is the Savannah Chapter Leader for littleBits.

Friday, I listened to the panel of start-ups and pivoting before I had to leave for work.

Thursday, I checked out The Pitch Circus which was like Shark Tank meets the New York Tech Meetup. Brian Bason, former CTO of Niche, has a new start-up Bark which won the Pitch Circus. Green Badger came in second place. Tommy Linstroth of Green Badger is a cloud-based Saas for the management of LEED construction projects.

I had a great time at GeekEnd meeting new people, learning new stuff and thinking about how I can use technology to solve problems.

PS. Check out the Storify of my tweets during GeekEnd.