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All posts for “conference”
VizThink in Review
Posted by: leelefever on January 30, 2008- 4:00pm
Categories: conference, event, newfriends, Speaking, visualthinking
Text and bullet points - they are dead, or at least used inappropriately. That was one of the overwhelming messages from VizThink, a two day conference on Visual Thinking. We agree.
This was the first (of hopefully many) conferences on visual thinking put on by VizThink, the brainchild of Dave Gray of Xplane. It brought together people from around the world who focus in communicating with pictures. More info on the wiki.For example, on the first morning we sat down with three pediatric ER... Continue Reading
Visual Thinking Resources
We're headed to a conference called VizThink in a few days. It's a conference on Visual Thinking. It wasn't clear to us when we got started, but our videos are examples of visual thinking and I've been keeping an eye out for related resources.
One resource that I'm excited about is a forthcoming book by Dan Roam called The Back of the Napkin, which is all about solving problems and selling ideas with pictures. It comes out on March 13th and I'm looking forward to meeting Dan at VizThink... Continue Reading
Discovering the RSS Explanation Problem
Posted by: leelefever on January 22, 2008- 4:00pm
Categories: conference, Explanation, explanationproblems, rss
I remember the exact moment when it first became apparent to me that there was such a thing as an explanation problem. I was at a small conference on Silicon Valley in early 2004. There was a CEO of a start up there and during his talk, he mentioned RSS. Someone raised their hand and asked the question "What is RSS?"
This CEO's responses to the question, and I'm not kidding, was "RSS is an XML-based content syndication format." As you might expect, this was met with a look of bewilderment.... Continue Reading
VizThink Conference - Jan. 27-29, San Francisco
VizThink is a conference about visual thinking. We'll be there leading a yet-to-named session that will focus on our story and the role of video and simplicity in communicating ideas with clarity.
Since we started making videos, I had been meaning to talk to Dave Gray, the chairman of Xplane, author of the Communication Nation blog and the person who got VizThink off the ground.
We had a great chat recently and I learned more about VizThink, which is not just a conference, but a... Continue Reading
New Friends (and some old ones) from Gnomedex
Posted by: leelefever on August 12, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: conference, event, gnomedex, newfriends, seattle
I had high expectations for Gnomedex - a conference run by Chris Pirillo in Seattle. The only other one I went to was in 2005 and it was an amazing experience. There was this feeling of changing the world - people were hyped up and it was palpable.
Unfortunately, this time around, I didn't feel the same. I didn't leave the event with an uplifted feeling - if anything, I left a bit of cynicism.
As expected though, I met a raft load of interesting people so it was worth the effort by far... Continue Reading
Off to the Online Community Unconference
Posted by: leelefever on June 4, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: community, conference, event, Speaking, travel, unconference
I'm heading down to the Silicon Valley for the Online Community Unconference put on by my friends at Forum One. If you're unfamiliar with an unconference, check out this wikipedia entry. Basically it's a great way to get people together without all the baggage (and costs) of a "conference."
I've signed up to lead a session on "New Community Planning" as I often find myself in the position to help plan a community-oriented sites. I'm not leading it because I have the answers - I'm... Continue Reading
I thought I was a decent speaker, really, I did. That was until I spent 4 hours with a speaking coach who essentially made me realize all things that should work together to make a speaker and presentation great. This is me last week at WebVisions:
I have a long way to go, and it's hard work, but I consider my time with a coach well-spent. I've called that time "boot camp" because I felt like I my speaking was broken down and rebuilt. Here are some of the major points that came up for me... Continue Reading
This was my second WebVisions - a conference focused on "the future of the Web" that has happened in Portland, Oregon for the last seven years. I enjoy Webvisions and was honored to speak there this year. My talk was about how blogs, communities and mobile devices are changing the travel experience. Of course, it was all based on stories from our trip last year.
The conference attracts a lot of designers and developers, along with business people working to get an understanding of the... Continue Reading
We're still reeling a bit from back-to-back conferences in two places that don't cater well to sleep or overall health: South-by-Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas and Community 2.0 in Las Vegas. Conferences are a fire hose and six solid days is just too much to document. This entry is focused on some of the people and talks that mattered most to us.
One of my favorite sessions of SXSW was called "People-Powered Products" with Derek Powazek of 8020 Publishing (makers of JPG Magazine), Heather... Continue Reading
We've made it to Austin safely and ready for our first South-by-Southwest experience. Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones and meeting old friends that I've never actually met in person. This should be a few days of fun.
We're both so bummed that we're going to miss the SXNW party that is sponsored by our good friends at Blue Flavor in Seattle as well as Bryght and Rain City Studios in Vancouver, BC. We are leaving Austin on Monday for the Community 2.0 conference. That... Continue Reading