Those who didn’t get to make it to the event and don’t know what it was about, please see my earlier post wherein I explain what the night was all about.
This post is to discuss the night itself, link in with the videos of the night for those who want to share in the awesome that was listening to the panel and MC discussing blogging, and also link up some of the folks I met on the night.
24Moons -- The Venue
The venue was awesome -- partly due to the fact that it was just awesome and partly due to the fact that I very rarely visit venues like that (I don’t go to clubs or bars or anything…not really my scene).
To get there, you had to find yourself a park (not easy at 5:30pm on a weekday…damn 1hr parking zones…) and get to AC/DC Lane. Once you hit the end of the little alley / lane, the entrance is slightly off to the left.
The doorman was checking folks in using an iPad (a totally awesome use for it!) and checked me off the list -- I’m in!
Up 3 flights of stairs (or 1.5 -- I can never remember if a flight is up-around-and-back-the-same-direction, you know: up 10 steps, slight platform as you turn around and 10 more steps? anyway…) and you’re in the club!
Ambient lighting and noise greets you as you walk in to find some people already relaxing in groups spread about, some tech-guys setting up lighting and recording equipment for the videos that were uploaded to YouTube and a bar around the corner the further you get in.
I found myself a seat near the wall and settled in for the wait while others arrived. There was a girl sitting near me typing up something on an iPad -- that’s my first two sightings in the wild -- and I was intensely jealous but hid it well, I think.
Shortly after I arrived a guy and girl sat at a table near me and he said something to me -- Now, my hearing isn’t really good when there’s ambient noise; I can hear everything else except what the person right in front of me is saying -- so I moved closer to him and we started talking.
These was my first two connections: @martinhurley and @jadecraven. Both were really nice folks who were really awesome to talk to and brought a lot of interesting conversation to the table. Jade was also mentioned by one of the panellists as he answered a question and I was a little surprised and thought it was awesome that someone who is quite successful in what she does and quite well known is sitting at our table and chatting away -- first reminder that everyone is a person, no matter their reputation or chosen field. (Not that I needed a reminder, it’s just always a breath of fresh air when I deal often with folks who think they’re bigger / better than they really are or deserve to be…)
The Panellists & MC
As I mentioned in my earlier post, the three panellists and MC were:
- Darren Rowse AKA @problogger -- http://www.problogger.net
- Duncan Riley AKA @duncanriley -- http://www.inquisitr.com
- Pip Lincolne AKA @meetmeatmikes -- http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com
- and the MC = Yvonne Adelle AKA @IdeasCulture -- http://ideasculture.com
I’ll leave it to you to read my earlier post or to follow through to their own Twitter profiles / websites to get more info on them. Needless to say, these guys have quite a number of years’ worth of stuff for to you acquaint yourself with, so happy reading :)
The Format -- How The Night Was Run
As you’ll see in the videos that I’ll link below, the general format was a Q & A session, whereby Yvonne would ask the panel a question, (often a multi-faceted one), and they would then get the chance to explore their answers.
There was no real time limit on their answers, which was great and allowed for some really interesting discussion points being explored quite thoroughly.
As well as including a bunch of pre-decided questions, Yvonne had arranged a Twitter hash tag to be used for the night through which people at the event or people who couldn’t make it could pose questions to the panel -- Yvonne was checking the stream throughout the night and found several questions worth asking and so passed them on for the panel to answer.
That was a wonderful way to involve the audience and extended online audience too -- to catch all of the tips, questions and general discussion that occurred surrounding the hash tag mentioned above, go here. (The tag is #SMCMelb) You can still tweet with the tag and join the conversation stream!
The Videos -- Social Media Club Melbourne on YouTube
I’ve included the first video below, but you should be able to access the other seven from within the video using the “related videos” button. Otherwise, just click the video screen while it’s playing and it should take you through to the YouTube page where the rest will easily be found.
If you’d prefer to just go straight to YouTube to watch them, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/SMCMelb.
After It Was Over…
After the Q & A had finished, we all got a chance to relax, have a drink and a bit of a chat with all the various people at the club.
Not realising the time and thinking it was a little later than it was, I headed over to chat to Darren and to buy his book off him. While I was waiting to get to talk to him and grab his book, I was approached by @cait and we got to chatting about what we each do -- it was really cool and she taught me a great rule that I will remember to live by when next I go out:
Do not let yourself leave without introducing and swapping business cards / details / etc. with five complete strangers…
It doesn’t have to be a total detail swap, just so long as you meet and talk to five separate people you’ve not met before. That’s a really cool rule and I believe why she came up to me.
While we were talking, I told her about my plans with proofreading and how I plan to offer the proofreading service tailored especially towards bloggers -- she thought it was great and called Darren (@problogger) over and told him of my idea, to which he agreed would be a good idea.
I was stoked -- I really didn’t go into the night with any great expectations, however I came away with some really great experiences.
Talking to the three folks from the panel and Yvonne as well afterwards was a treat, and spending the evening with some quality folks at my table was great.
I’ll definitely be doing more of this networking and ‘socialising’ thing!
If you have any questions about the night, feel free to comment below and I’ll get back to you when I can.
Other write-ups:
From Jade Craven: A Day In The Life Of A Sneezer
From Brent Hodgson: 3 Top Pro-Bloggers on How To Increase Blog Traffic
