Blog Carolinas

Following BarCampRDU last year, Nathan Gilliatt began thinking about putting together some type of similar event, but with less of a tech focus and more of a business/marketing focus. To make a long story short, he started developing Blog Carolinas, modeled after Josh Hallett’s Blog Orlando. Thanks Nathan, for getting this off the ground.

Last week, Nathan and I agreed that I would take the lead responsibility for moving this event forward.

The theme of this event will be, how the new tools of community are changing the landscape for organizations. To that end, the term “Blog” in the event title refers to blog as a metaphor for all community based tools. This event will also embody the ideals it proposes to present. The planning and logistics will be handled by the community, affectionately known as FoBC (Friends of Blog Carolinas). The event itself will be more focused on conversation than presentation. I do plan to have “experts” in attendance and leading sessions, but their role will not be to teach per se, but to facilitate a conversation.

The intended audience for this event is not “the choir” (though we do need the choir there to lead the singing). The intended audience are those that are working in organizations, large and small, and have read the articles in WSJ, BusinessWeek, NYT, etc., and are curious about what this stuff is all about. So once we get the details set, please talk to your friends that keep asking you about social media, blogs, FB, MySpace, etc. (I am presuming that if you are reading this, you might already a member of the choir.)

New activity to date:

• New discussions in the Blog Carolinas Facebook group.
• New Twitter account, @blogcarolinas, for keeping up with the ongoing activity.

Next Steps:

• First of all we need to confirm a venue and date for the event. My preference is a location in the RDU area, but if the perfect venue pops up anywhere in NC/SC we will take a good hard look at it. I would like to find some place that can handle about 200 people, including one large room for plenary sessions, at least 4 other rooms for breakout track sessions, and a common social space suitable for dispensing lunch and snacks. Access to open WiFi will be a VERY, VERY nice thing to have. Oh yeah, the space needs to be free (or sponsored). If anyone has ANY ideas, let me know.
• Sponsorships will be gladly accepted. We are not trying to make money here, just cover the expenses. So if you, or someone you know would like to cover the cost of lunch, coffee, snacks, supplies, etc., please let me know.
• A draft agenda is in the works. Once it is in a reasonable format, I will post here and in the FB group, looking for comments.
• On line presence is already underway, but we can make it a little better. Nathan reserved a domain name “blogcarolinas.Net?, .Org?, .Com?”, and it would be nice to have a single destination. My skill set is not up to snuff here, so volunteers are happily accepted. A logo would be nice too, if there are any designers out here.

So it looks like we are off and running. Come and join the fun.