Wilson’s 7 Thoughts from Gnomedex

Thursday, August 28th, 2008
by Lamarr Wilson

I’ve written 3 summary posts on my experience at Gnomedex, so this post is a quick wrap up of things I learned while attending the conference.  And yes, I only had 7 thoughts. Hey, I’m tired!  This list is more for me than anyone else, but feel free to read, after all, it is on the ‘net and you are on my blog, and you must be interested somewhat, so…yeah.

1. My photography sucks.
I have so much to learn.  I took triple number of pictures that I actually ended up posting on Flickr.  I tried to take them where I wouldn’t have to do much editing to them in Photoshop, or any at all.  I wasn’t going to bring my DSLR originally and was only going to bring my point and shoot, but my friend Royal said that the only way to learn it was to get out in the field and use it.  He was right.  I was forced to use settings and adjust things I never had to before, and in the end, I took some decent shots.  I still need more training…

2. Don’t be a business card dbag.
While at the pre-registration party, I was talking with a few guys, and an unnamed individual rushed up to our table.  “Sorry, I have to run to get on the live feed, here’s my card.”  He proceeded to drop business cards on our table and scurried away.  We all looked at each other and was like…”yeah….anyway…”.  I carried business cards there, but only gave one out when asked for one, and that’s how it should be.  Don’t let your first impression be a negative one.  When I got home with all of my business cards, guess which one I threw out immediately?

3. Follow up with people…immediately
Isn’t it true that when you go to events, pass out cards, exchange contact information, that 9/10 you never talk to that person again?  We’ve all done it, and although it’s commonplace, it doesn’t mean it’s a best practice.  Each night after I received someone’s card, I emailed them similar to this: “Hi this is Lamarr Wilson.  We met today at ______________ and talked about ____________.  I really enjoyed our conversation and just wanted to follow up with you and thank you for your time with me.”  This way, they remember me because I mentioned specifics: where we were located, what we talked about, etc.  Every time I did this, people were very thankful and I am still in contact with them now, either thru email or Twitter.  Mark Bao suggested something similar in #10 of his things learned, and I wholeheartedly agree.  Just as he ended his post, just “do it.”

4. Don’t be standoffish, it’s lame.
The vast majority of people there were very friendly and welcoming. But in every group, there will always be clicks and standoffish people, people who feel more comfortable talking to people they know vs. those they don’t.  Hey, get over it! Make a new friend!  When I came out of my hotel on Friday morning, I was faced with a choice.  I could either speak to the Rosenfelds (jwire4 and his dad) who were in front waiting for a cab, or I could ignore them and go my own way. I chose the former, and it made my conference experience so much better.  Others at the party or during breaks walked right up to me and introduced themselves, and that meant a lot to me.  So be nice people, you never know who you will meet and what you can share together.

5. Twitter is King.
Chris sent a Twitter during the conference that stated that he was contemplating banning devices from future conferences because he felt people weren’t paying attention.  Couldn’t be further from the truth.  Having my laptop in front of me caused me to pay MORE attention.  I was looking up links the presenters were giving, I was writing notes in OneNote, and the best part, I was interacting with the audience.  Everyone was tagging their tweets with #gnomedex so that we could go to the search site and read everyone’s thoughts live.  It was great to read in real time what people thought of the presenter, or they remarked on some cool point he/she said, or even provided reference links.  Some presenters even twittered right after their presentation for thoughts/opinions, and even added info they left out.  I never felt so integrated into a discussion before, and Twitter made that possible. Twitter is King.

6. The controversial subject…RACE.

I spoke to Chris prior to me coming, and I mentioned that I was concerned about the lack of minorities in social media and tech.  I referenced Revision3, ZiffDavis, and even his own conference, Gnomedex.  I wondered if it was just because there aren’t enough minorities interested in tech and media.  I never once thought the field was a “closed door” to certain people; I’m just curious on why there is a gap on the net in this regard.  The majority of my friends/family don’t understand what I do, don’t Twitter (don’t even know what a “Twitter” is), don’t really do anything with tech on a social media level besides MySpace or Facebook, and it’s quite lonely at times, so I seek friends now that are like minded.  I don’t have an exact answer, I just ponder the subject at times.

7. I learned that I’m an idiot.

Some presentations were well over my head; all I heard, was “Hello, my name is __________.”  However, that is a great challenge for me.  That means that I need to start prioritizing my reading and tech education.  I read hundreds of feeds a day, but I rarely stop at just one and really meditate on the subject and research it, and I need to start doing that.  Open Source is one example. I understand the concept in general, but not the details and where it’s trying to go.  So I’m glad I went to Gnomedex because it forced me to realize that I don’t really know that much.  I was in the room with developers, business CEO’s, even freakin’ cyborg engineers.  I was way out of my league with a lot of stuff, but I now know what I need to focus on and learn.  I’ve learned a lot over the years, and that knowledge helps me to be a good consultant, but I can be so much better, and now I know what I have to do…  stop being an idiot.

So that’s it from my experience at Gnomedex, I hope all 2 of you that read my blog enjoyed it, and feel free to comment (You know, right below this page. Yeah, right there.).

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