Cross-posted at Hyku.

Wow, I can't believe I'm actually posting about BlogOrlando 2008, but then again it's almost April. Quite a few friends have asked, "Are you doing BlogOrlando again this year?" Yes. At least as of now I am :-)

Back in 2006 when I planned the first event, you may remember that the original concept for BlogOrlando was a bit different than the actual event:

The original concept/title for this event was: Josh is Tired of Traveling Outside of Orlando so Everybody Come Here Con or JTTOOECH-Con. I wanted to get some friends to the area to meet, but more importantly spend some down-time at the theme parks with their families.

That private gathering of friends soon expanded to a public event that eventually became the first edition of BlogOrlando. Then things expanded even more with the 2007 event with almost 300 people taking part.

For 2008 we're blending the old with the new. BlogOrlando will once again be held on a Friday in late September. The main event cost (FREE) and format will not change, and perhaps expand, but there is a twist.

Reaching back to the original concept, BlogOrlando will now feature a private invite-only event on Wednesday. Just an intimate gathering of colleagues, clients, industry leaders, etc. Perhaps a limit of 30-40 folks. The topics will focus more on things like future trends, etc. I dare say Davos-like. The catch is, if you're invited to the Wednesday event, you are required to lead a session at the Friday event.

Here is a tentative schedule:

Wednesday:
- Invite-Only Event

- Special Event/Fun Thing at Orlando Theme Park for Session Leaders

Thursday
- Special Event/Fun Thing at Orlando Theme Park for Session Leaders
- Official BlogOrlando Reception

Friday
- Main Event
- Friday Night Reception

Saturday
- BlogOrlando Day at Orlando Theme Park

More thoughts soon.....

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

From Leonard's blog post on SoCon08:

SoCon08, the Southeast’s top social media, social networking and Web 2.0, unconference.

Heh, I guess the 300 folks who signed up for BlogOrlando last year didn't get their money's worth :-)

Posted by Josh Hallett at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes as scary as it sounds, I've actually started to think about BlogOrlando 2008. I've shared some ideas with a few good friends and will soon announce the proposed format for next year's event. Stay tuned.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

What else is there to say, that a number of you have already said. On the whole I think the day went really well. Not being an 'official' event I didn't really keep track of who 'officially' showed up, and who didn't. We had 290 registered and I estimate that around 225 showed up at Rollins College.

This event could not have happened without the help of a number of friends. I thanked them previously, but I really can't say it enough. Without the group of friends and colleagues I have, we would have had no session leaders. I have said before that all the session planning for this year's event took place in one morning. I sat down at my computer and e-mailed/IM'd a number of friends. In the span of a few hours we had almost the entire session roster planned.

Could things have gone better? Sure. We had issues with room assignments, but we have to remember that we're holding an event on a college campus, so we need to work around the schedule of the institution. The signs and nametags needed to be present/up earlier. We had an initial wifi snafu, but that ironed out quickly.

I definitely need to have a bigger room for the technical track, sorry again about that.

Some folks asked about audio and video of the sessions. Sure I'd love to do it, but I alone just can't pull that together. Perhaps next year we can get a local university (cough, UCF) to donate some students and gear to tape the sessions.

I had thought about expanding the event to two days or at least a day-and-a-half, but I'm glad I didn't. One day is enough, and is all I can handle :-)

As in year's past, sometimes the best sessions are the smallest ones. I talked to a number of people that really enjoyed Alicia's session on separating your digital lives. It's the combination of a small room and group of folks that are really interested in the topic and are willing to share. I had concerns that the event might have been getting too big, that's why I created so many tracks. It was an attempt to get the groups smaller. I think in most cases this worked.

Unlike Chris Pirillo who thought that Twitter was a negative thing at Gnomedex, I thought Twitter worked well at BlogOrlando. Twitter ended up being instrumental in organizing and communicating with folks before, during and after the event. I even used Twitter as part of the giveaways.

This year we switched from dinners to more social events on Thursday and Friday. Yes, you do lose the close-knit feel of a group dinner, but when you have 100+ people coming you can't do a 'small' dinner. Most of the people I talked to had a blast at CityWalk on Thursday and then Slingapour's on Friday. The groups that wanted to go their own way and have dinner together were free to do so.

As with last year, the number of people who said they were coming to the social events and the number that showed up were almost 50%. No complaints here, it just meant more Universal $'s and drinks for those that did come :-)

What's the plan for next year? At this point I really don't know. I'd like to do it again, but this year's event took on a life of its own. I work for myself, so time spent organizing and running the event is lost billable time. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it, but it's draining. I've talked with a few folks at some organizations in Orlando who are willing to help out and that might be the trick...getting somebody else to handle much of the 'event prep' stuff.

During the event it was amazing to see the online discussion and the kudos coming in from friends around the US who all wished they were in Orlando....there is always next year.

What were your thoughts? What worked? What didn't? What would you like to see next year (if we do it again)?

Posted by Josh Hallett at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

There are so many people to thank for this year's event. I hope I don't forget anybody.

First off, big thanks to Chris Scott, Alex Rudloff, Danny Sanchez and John Rife for being the on-the-ground folks during (and leading up to) the main event. All their work behind-the-scenes in the weeks leading up to the event made everything go smoothly and made my job much easier.

This event of course would be nothing without the session leaders. They all gave up their own time to help the attendees learn more. Many of them also traveled from outside of Orlando (and Florida) to be here. Shel Israel, Tom Biro, Laurie Mayers, Jake McKee, Annie Heckenberger, Dave Coustan, David Parmet, Geoff Livingston, Chris Heuer, Benet Wilson, Mindy McAdams, Nik Willets, Danny Sanchez, Tommy Duncan, Chris Scott, Judson Collier, Jeremy Harrington, Mark Jaquith, Ryan Price, John Rife, Mark Trammell, Jim Johnson, Alicia Dorset, Connie Reece and Alex Rudloff.....the attendees say a big Thank You.

Hats off to Rollins College (Jennifer, Anne Marie, Katie) for providing the space and a big round of applause to Rochelle from Rollins IT for taking care of any wifi issues that popped up.

Billy, Andrea, Jill and Sara from Kennedy Space Center, thanks for the amazing tour for our session leaders and friends on Thursday.

Cindy Green from Universal Studios, thanks for the awesome time on Thursday night at Universal CityWalk. However a few key folks enjoyed themselves a bit too much if you know what I mean. I think Alex Rudloff will be sending your a personal thank you note :-)

Universal Studios also came through big with the Halloween Horror Nights tickets as well as the park passes. I know the folks that won them were seriously stoked.

Thanks to all the sponsors, Jennifer at the Orlando EDC, Susan at the Orlando CVB, Annie from GPTMC, Dan/Ted at PayPerPost, Chris from KUA, the whole gang at FPRA Orlando, Robert at ADS, Nick and crew at CNP_Studio for all the iPods we gave away.

Thanks to Chris Scott for organizing the happy hour at Slingapour's, although you guys didn't drink as much as I had budgeted :-)

A few personal notes:

Marijean, Mistie, Sherry and Geoff thanks for the live-blogging.

Nick, thanks for being the official BlogOrlando transportation coordinator and IT support.

Darby and Krisite, thanks for the registration help.

Betsy, thanks for coming down from Savannah, your enthusiasm really got to everybody, and sorry for poking fun at you.

Shel, you kicked things off with a home run.....Chris you batted clean-up and brought everything back home.

Joe thanks for making the trip from Canada, you gave BlogOrlando an international flair.

Constantin, some as Joe, thanks for coming.

John thanks for leading the session leaders around EPCOT on Saturday.

Alex H., thanks for making it down from Philly. Your insight into coworking and local initiatives really helped the Orlando Scene folks.

Alicia, watch out for snakes.

Everybody else that offered to help, thanks as well. I can't tell you how many people said, "Anything I can do to help?"

A wrap-up post looking at the event from a content/issues standpoint is coming later.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

I'm sitting at a Panera Bread the day after BlogOrlando, getting ready to head to EPCOT. I plan on posting a full wrap-up post in the next day or two. For now though, I need to go through all the posts and photos that were uploaded from the event.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Quite a few folks are live-blogging from the event:

- Laurie Mayers/Crisis Commuications: Standing PR
- Jake McKee/Customer Relationships with the Rabid Crowd Standing PR

Posted by Josh Hallett at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Guest post by Geoff Livingston

Our man from Silicon Valley Shel Israel keynoted BlogOrlando this morning at Rollins College. He took the stage after a phenomenal intro from BlogOrlando host and Hyku CEO Josh Hallett.

Shel starts up with "I'm a recovering publicist." Shel apologized for launching PowerPoint, as he said the primary tool of "Command and Control." He said that publicisists have been playing the audience (that is the attendees) for 60 years.

Paraphrasing Shel, social media -- or the revolution -- is about the power of conversations says Shel. He gave examples of the big box companies need to communicate en masse, leaving behind the common everyday Main Street conversation. As a result, a contentious relationship has developed. A cold war evolved over 60 years. Conversations could not scale en masse.

With the rise of the Internet that changed. Social media is a cult of generosity. Share everything you can with the world.

Social Media Has Global Impact

A result of his SAP surveys -- a project to determine the impact of social media globally -- Shel found that a great deal of impact is occurring:

.Many tools are available now available to people: Facebook, video blogs, regular blogs.

. Culture has great impact on a country by country basis. For example, Kenyans are more enthusiastic about social media than Germans.

. Countries like Ukraine, Czech Republic, the Easter block, Argentina are experiencing a burgeoning wave of social media. In particular these countries are enjoying waves of citizen journalism that are surpassing traditional media viewer ship.

. Blogging will no longer be exciting in ten years. It will be as common as email is today.

Cultures shape the nature of interaction in social networks. But wherever you are social media is extremely popular amongst younger audiences throughout the world. It's absolutely loved and growing in power. In Estonia, 98 percent of 25 year olds and younger are using social media.

The two percent have physical disabilities that prevent them from participating. Free broadband drives access, and people are voting online -- including the youth online via their social networks.

Another great social media moment Isaac Mao in China. The governments -- here and there -- don't get social media. They can't figure it out and are not able to monitor what folks are being said. Technology allows bloggers in controlled countries to move rapidly enough and avoid authoritative crack-downs.

There are 20 million bloggers in China. They meet-up, and gather. Hong Kong has a blogger meet-up, so will Shanghai. More than 1000 bloggers will gather during the Olympics at Beijing. They may change venues to avoid political issues.

"Social media is one of the tools that is changing freedom in China," said Shel.

Facebook and other networks are creating widespread diffusion of principles. People feel like they should be enabled to speek their point of view. The new generation -- as it rises -- will become the marketplace. Traditional acquisition will fall to the wayside. Social media will be needed to reach younger audiences.

Shel cites the Microsoft channel 9 experience with Robert Scoble as an example. The recruiting video they used humanized Microsoft (Read the book Naked Conversations if you want more on this and other great examples).

Take Aways

Moving forward, Shel says the biggest barrier is language. Right now Google Translate doesn't cut it.

The Long Trail (play off of Chris Anderson) from Silicon Valley's excitement to widespread diffusion. The time is getting shorter and shorter. Shel says we're a year and a half away from widespread excitement about video throughout the enterprise.

It's a tricky time for PR pros. Old school PR is still needed. The traditional role of PR. Participation within blogging though will make your social network is what will really distinguish your company. Over the long term by participating, by communications, by talking you and your company can become recognized.

Posted by Geoff Livingston at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Big thanks to Billy, Andrea, Jill and Sara from Delaware North Corporation for hosting the BlogOrlando session leaders at Kennedy Space Center today.

I'll be uploading my photos in a few days, but for now you can look at some from Chris and Judson.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Rife has put together a map of the local restaurant options for lunch during BlogOrlando. Each of the pins on the map is clickable. The yellow house is where we'll be for BlogOrlando.

View Larger Map

Posted by Josh Hallett at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BlogOrlando kicks off on Thursday night at 6:30 PM at Universal CityWalk. For directions to Universal and parking info check out the official CityWalk site. We'll be meeting up by the big Universal Globe which is near the entrance to Universal Studios Florida (you walk thru CityWalk to get there).

View Larger Map

I'll be there handing out the passes to registered folks till around 7:30 then I need to grab some food and head to Blue Man Group at 8pm. If you need anything e-mail me or call me 863-258-7338.

Image from A-Mon's photostream.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finally have the word from Rollins Collge on Wifi. There is no advanced registration required. At the event when you first open your laptop/browser you'll be prompted to create a guest account. When prompted for event you'll select BlogOrlando. Somebody from Rollins IT will be available in the morning to assist with any issues that might arise.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you that don't know this yet, you can follow BlogOrlando via Twitter at: http://twitter.com/blogorlando If you use (or sign-up for) Twitter you can get updates sent directly to your phone via SMS.

What type of updates? Things like reminders about room locations, directions etc. Or other random stuff that usually appears on Twitter.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, I just closed registration for BlogOrlando. We hit the capacity for our venue (280), so I didn't want to take anymore registrations. Yes there will be some no-shows, but I can't take the chance.

It's hard to imagine that last year we had 90 folks attend :-)

Posted by Josh Hallett at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

How do you get to Rollins College and specifically the parking garage? Click here for a PDF with driving directions. Once you get to the parking garage you'll cross Fairbanks to get to Rollins College. We'll have some signs up to help you along the way. Here's a rough map of the layout below:

Once the event is over we'll be heading to Slingapour's in downtown Orlando, here's a map:

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're hoping to get word on Monday from Rollins College about the wifi registration. As soon as we know we'll post something. Hang tight.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have a new session that we're going to squeeze into the schedule, it will be on web standards, lead by Mark Trammell. Here are the deets:

Overview:
Using Web Standards To Get The Word Out - Using current and emerging Web standards can amplify your message by applying proper structure and meaning. Topics will include microformats and progressive enhancement.

Bio:
Mark Trammell has been chasing function and usability as a standard for Web design since 1995. Currently, Mark is the Web Standards Evangelist at PayPal. Previously, he directed the Web development, strategy and policy of the University of Florida. In his tenure at UF, Mark led a widely acclaimed standards-based rebuilding of the university Web presence.

Mark frequently lectures on Web standards and is coauthor of Professional CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I stopped by BarCamp Orlando for a little bit today. Photos from the event are here.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're attending and/or blogging and/or uploading photos from BlogOrlando please use the following tags:

BlogOrlando
BlogOrlando07

Also there is a Flickr group for BlogOrlando. It was created last year, but will still work for this year :-)

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've confirmed our Friday Happy Hour location and other details. Starting at 6PM after BlogOrlando we'll gather at Slingapours in downtown Orlando, part of the Wall Street Plaza complex.

The printed schedule at BlogOrlando will contain a map on how to get to the Happy Hour, but here is a copy below. Registered BlogOrlando attendees will receive a drink ticket, after that you're on your own :-)

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BlogOrlando session leader David Parmet has posted some introductory notes for his, Business Blogging, the Next Steps session:

I’ve been telling clients, audiences and anyone who will listen that companies don’t have to blog, they don’t have to have a podcast or a blogging policy. They have to have a social media strategy. They have to understand that the conversation is happening all around them, with or without them and they can join it or ignore it.

So next week I’ll be covering what I think are the ‘next steps’ for companies to take. Or the first steps as the case may be. That includes the obvious choices, exploring the full range of social media tools - everything from podcasts and videoblogs to Facebook and Twitter - as well as determining if a blog even makes sense for your organization.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've had a slight change in plan for Thursday night thanks to our friends at Universal Studios Orlando. The Thursday before BlogOrlando, we'll be gathering at Universal CityWalk at 6:30 PM (or around then) for a night out. Universal Studios will be providing Party Passes to each BlogOrlando registrant. The Party Passes provide free cover to any of the clubs. In addition, we'll each be receiving $10 in Universal Dollars. The $10 is good for food and drinks at any Universal Citywalk restaurant or bar. BlogOrlando attendees can also receive 20% off Blue Man Group tickets if they want!!

We need to provide Universal with accurate counts, so every attendee will be receiving an e-mail for them to confirm their attendance and let us know if you plan to go to the Blue Man Group. Check your e-mail boxes.

We'll be posting the details on where we plan to meet, etc, very shortly. In advance though, be thinking of what you're hungry for. The food and drink options include:

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.™
Jimmy Buffett’s® Margaritaville®
Bob Marley - A Tribute to FreedomSM
Hard Rock Cafe®
Emeril's® Restaurant Orlando
Pat O'Brien's®
NBA City
Latin Quarter™
PastamoréSM
CityJazz®

Originally we have planned to meet at a local restaurant and grab some dinner and drinks, but that becomes a problem with almost 100 people. Remember this event is free, so we really don't have the budget to do one of those standard conference dinners which usually cost event planners $20-$30 per person. It's also hard to carry on a conversation with 100 people at once. With the Citywalk event we can buddy up as we want and then stay as long as we want, but not too late since the main BlogOrlando event starts bright and early the next morning.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Session leader Jeremy Harrington has posted his overview of his 'Design on a Dime' session. Here's the intro:

The plan is to discuss blog and social media design, in particular helping people understand design expense and finding some cool resources to spruce up their projects when time, budgets or size don’t allow for outside design assistance.

So what expenses am I talking about. Simply put - Money, Effort, Time and Quality. We all have to evaluate and weigh each of these with any product and determine where we have a resource deficit and where we may have an abundance. The reality is that many projects, particularly direct-revenue generating sites should involve professional designers at some level. These projects usually require an investment to offset all four of the long-term expenses mentioned above. However lots of other projects may not need this kind of attention. Those are the projects I’d like to concentrate on in my talk.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I always wanted to run an event where I could close registration :-) With that said, I'm going to be closing registration for the event on Friday the 21st Monday the 24th. It's not that we can't handle more people, it's just that a number of things need to be done next week and I can't focus my attention on registration.

So spread the word, if your friends want to attend, they need to register soon.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Continuing our series of session leaders posting some initial information online, Chris Scott has posted some notes on Blogging Basics. Chris says he plans to cover:

What makes a blog a blog?
- Posts/Entries
- Comments
- RSS feeds
- Trackbacks

Starting a blog
- Free hosts
- Paid hosts
- Wordpress on your current site

Do’s and Don’ts
- Linking
- Commenting
- etc. …

Don't see something you want to know about? Go leave Chris a comment.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Geoff Livingston has posted an overview of his session, Participation is Marketing, over at his blog. If you plan on attending Geoff's session please check it out.

The current Participation is Marketing theory (Chris Heuer) acknowledges that 20th century mass communications enabled companies to dictate messages, control the market, and use media to ensure brand message. With a fractured, traditional media marketplace and new social media channels, message control is dead. In the words of Jay Rosen, audiences are gone and communities are arising.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mindy McAdams, the session leader for the "What We're Teaching in J-School" session has posted her initial thoughts on her blog. If you plan on attending her session, head over there and introduce yourself. Start the conversation!

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Universal Studios in Orlando have provided BlogOrlando with some great giveaways. We'll be drawing for these prized during the opening and closing sessions during the event. The prizes are:

20 Universal Studios Orlando Passes (these are good for any visit)
10 Halloween Horror Nights tickets for Saturday, Sept 29th.

Obviously the catch with the Halloween Horror Nights tickets is that you must use them on the Saturday after BlogOrlando, but come on...the tickets are free!.

I'll need to figure out how to break these up for the giveaways. Perhaps we'll do a few in the morning then the rest at the end of the day. You must be present to win :-)

More news in conjunction with Universal on Monday :-)

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are a number of sessions in the four tracks for BlogOrlando. Why so many tracks and so many sessions? Well it's hard to create a single topic that will interest 200+ people. By offering a number of session we can hopefully keep the audiences smaller.

One thing I learned last year and at events like BlogPhiladelphia, sometimes the smaller the group the better. With small groups you often get good discussion. That's what we're hoping for.

With that said, what session are you most looking forward to?

Posted by Josh Hallett at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Update: Wait, hold that thought.......another update coming soon.

Thanks to everybody that has sent me their MAC addresses for wireless, however there has been a change in plan. To register for Wifi on campus you will need to call the Rollins Help Desk at 407-628-6363 and request 1-week access for BlogOrlando.

The Help Desk is open from 8:30am till 5:00pm M-F EST.

Posted by Josh Hallett at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)