SOBCon 07: The Brat Pack of Conferences

Look.  The rules have changed.  Anyone can blog.  Anyone can have a voice.  But having a voice and being heard are two different things.  You have a blog—but is it "remarkable"?  Is it breaking through the clutter?  You want to take it to the next level.  You want to break through. You want conversations to convert into relationships.  You want to bring your business or brand closer to the people who matter.

SOBCon 07 is happening in Chicago on May 11-12 and I'm speaking at it.  It's the brainchild of Successful Blogger Liz Strauss and a few of her friends.  Here's how it's billed:

Overview
An evening and a day of community, strategy, and information about the art, technology, and science of relationship blogging for 250 experienced bloggers.

Purpose
We will demonstrate to 250 bloggers how to take their existing blogs to the next level through interactive presentations on publishing, design and branding, tools, analytics, social networking, marketing, and coaching, from the perspectives of the blogger and the audience.

Attendees
Attendees are bloggers with a serious intent to improve their blogs. Seating is limited to 250 sold seats, plus guests.

You'll learn the secrets of success from professionals who have made their blogs "remarkable".  Liz Strauss has dubbed us the Brat Pack of the blogging world.  We're not Seth, Scoble, Steve, Sierra, Searls or any other big time bloggers with an "S" in their name.  OK, fine we do have Sansone, Strauss and Starbucker—cut me some slack will ya?  :)

Point is, we made our own rules—and blogged by them.  Here's who's speaking:

• Phil Gerbyshak, Make It Great! - Relationship Geek + Author
• Liz Strauss, Successful-Blog - SOB and BAD Blogger
• David Armano, Logic+Emotion
• Terry Starbucker, Ramblings from a Glass Half Full; Rodney Rumford, PodBlaze; Ben Yoskovitz, Instigator Blog
• Mike Sansone, Converstations & Iowa Marketing Bloggers
• Chris Cree of SuccessCREEations, Moderating - Blogging Tools Panel with Scott Rafer from MyBlogLog, Janice Myint from Technorati, and Diego Orjuela from Evoca
• Wendy Piersall, eMomsAtHome

Now here's where it gets pretty cool.  On Friday night there will be an open mic and live performance by singer/songwriter Christine Kane and Rumor has it that Sansone is bringing the likes of Mike Wagner and Drew McLellen among others.  I'll FINALLY get to meet some of you.

And here's a shout out to my friends in the Design & User Experience worlds who only go to AIGA and IA conferences.  Get out of your sandbox and mix it up with people who don't do what you do.  I come across plenty of design/UX blogs out there that seem "dead".  No signs of life. Nada. Skip the AIGA event and try something different for a change.  Find out how developing relationships both inside and outside your discipline can help amplify the contributions you make to your profession. 

If we only talk to our peers, then it's like talking to ourselves.  And talking to ourselves is a one way conversation.

Comments

[Paul McEnany]

F'n sweet. Hopefully I can go!

But, when is Oprah speaking?

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Thanks for spreading the word (and for teasing about it earlier). AWESOME event this is going to be. Who needs Oprah when we've got David Armano and Liz Strauss!

[mindblob]

Hey David,

Brilliant! I like the idea of sharing your own recipes. There are indeed more than marketing theories, straight "gimmy ROI" and rational "how to's" to share. I'm sure you'll spread the spirit behind all this.

The good thing about a box of chocolates is that... even if you don't know what you're gonna get, it is still filled with chocolates.

[CK]

This is wonderful (you "brat!"). Great way to bring bloggers together to focus on being even better bloggers ;-). Thanks for the teasin' fun.

[Drew McLellan]

David,

I suspect we will have more fun and learn even more than we anticipate.

And as you say -- it will be good to put names/voices with blog voices.

Drew

[Greg Verdino]

Sounds like a very cool event where lots of great insights, tips and tricks will be shared. Congrats on earning your place on the stage - you deserve it. G

[Bob Glaza]

Remarkable build-up you gang of knowledge seekers! And its even a weekend. Now I need to save some greenbacks! Open mic - hmmmm? I wonder how my guitar would travel...

[Aldana]

Nice event! too bad I live like 12hrs away, else I'd go...

Anyway, totally out of topic but I just read in your twitter that you're thinking about product placement trough it? how about this, I use twitter to feature all sorts of things, movie openings, tv shows, books, CDs, DVDs, etc. I use twitter's custom badge with a minor modification so it shows my last 10 updates.

Aldana

[David Armano]

First off guys, thanks for all the excitement around the event. I think it will be great and I know I'll come out of it inspired. Plus, it just sounds like a party!

Aldana, I tell ya I'm looking over at my twitter right now and I just noticed that I mentioned Heroes. It's hard to twitter without including specifics. Makes me wonder if advertisers will try to exploit this somehow.

[Aldana]

David, as you said it is really hard to not mention stuff when you twitter. After all advertising is meant for us to have/think of/desire those things and mentioning them is a natural consecuence I think.

Aldana

[Hilary Marsh]

Hey, I'm going to try to make it! I think I've underestimated blogging for far too long.

[Paylasonline]

David,

I suspect we will have more fun and learn even more than we anticipate.

And as you say -- it will be good to put names/voices with blog voices.

Drew