DSC_0066.JPG, originally uploaded by david parmet.

The amount of information exchange, engaging conversation, and all around fun that was had in the last 3 days was incredible. BlogPhiladelphia has met and exceeded my expectaions, and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

Muchos thankos to Annie and the whole crew @ GPTMC for their support, and showing the world, and reminding Philadelphians, what it’s really about.

There are a bazillion photos in flickr groups (and quickly growing), be sure to add yours if you attended. I’ve got a few personal favorites, for sure.
Also, don’t forget to put any videos on Viddler, and check out their video coverage as well. It was so great to hang out with Rob and Colin again…they’re good people, for sure.

I’ve got a lot of wrap up and communications to follow through on in the next couple of weeks. I haven’t felt this kind of energy since Austin, and that’s not to say that what we do every day with Independents Hall isn’t exciting (its amazing) but conference energy is something totally different. And I think that we showed everyone that IndyHall can do the party thing, too, since we were at Triumph playing quarters until almost closing time.

Just because BlogPhiladelphia07 is over doesn’t mean we’re done. In fact, we’ve just begun. Stay tuned.

Tags: blogphiladelphia, annie heckenberger, gptmc, photos, video, blogging, wrapup, independents hall

the last 2 months have WHIZZED by. I remember on May 1st when Brian Oberkirch emailed me and said,

“Alex: I thought you might want to tell some of your pals about this.”

By “this”, he meant a social media “unconference” being organized by GPTMC.

I immediately tracked down the organizer, Annie Heckenberger, and offered my assistance in any capacity. Next thing I knew, I was attending planning sessions, discussion how to make the event greener, planning a social event…oh man, what did I get myself into?

Now, 2 months and change later..we’ve got well over 200 attendees signed up, some incredible social media leaders slated to be in attendance and leading/presenting, and some awesome night events.

For those of you playing along (that is, planning on being in attendance), some notes:

The schedule, it’s all here :-):
http://blogphiladelphia.net/schedule/

The open grid thing: I’ll be giving a presentation after lunch about how this will go down, and why we’re doing it. If you’re interested in leading or presenting during an open grid portion and havent talked to me already, email me at this domain (no www or dotcom) at gmail.com. Make sure you catch my intro though, it will be good.

Social Events:

Tonight @ P’unk Avenue for a pre-event warm up with out of town guests.

Thursday Night at Triumph Brewery, 2nd and Chestnut for the big throwdown. We’re doing a microsponsorship of the bar tab. How does that work?

Triumph is donating pass around appetizers, but running a cash bar. So to maximize the “having fun” factor of a cash bar, we’re going to be allowing ANYONE to sponsor a bar tab as big or small as they like. This tab will be applied for the group when the previous tab runs out…and if all goes well, nobody should end up paying for their OWN drink for the whole night. It’s the equivalent of “a round for the bar on me!” As a thank you, we’ll send out your or your business name over Twitter, immortalizing your contribution on the interweb!

To kick things off, Independents Hall will be throwing in a $500 tab. Interested in joining us for the first couple of rounds? Find me at the event!

Also, I won’t be liveblogging or anything like that. I’ll send out twitter updates when things get interesting, most likely, but want to make sure my focus is on the event and making sure that I and everyone else gets the most out of this awesome venue for exchange.

MANY MANY thanks to Annie and her team at GPTMC for ALL of their hard work on this event, and for listening to my purist, grassroots banter :-). I’m so excited for this event and can’t wait to see how it leads Philadelphia to the next level.

SEE EVERYONE THIS WEEKEND!

Tags: blogphiladelphia, philadelphia, unconference, events, GPTMC

Photo Credit: seanbonner on flickr

I’ve mentioned BlogPhiladelphia in my blog more than once, in my recent videoblog, and it was the primary focus of my last appearance on PhillyTip. But with the exception of the last one, I haven’t done a very good job of explaining what BlogPhiladelphia actually is.

Since I started working with Annie (who totally rocks, by the way) on this project, I’ve managed to swing the format into a hybrid format of “Unconference” presenter/breakout session format and Open Grid Sessions, not unlike the hybrid barcamp event Web2.Open. The reason? I (and Annie, of course) see this as a platform for generating awareness in Philly about what is going on in the realm of social media, blogging, collaboration, and all of those juicy things you may have noticed that I get myself wrapped up in. This means that YOU.

Do you live in Philly and do something related to social media, web marketing, innovation, creativity, or any of the above? BlogPhiladelphia could be an opportunity for you to show the world that you’re here and you’re doing awesome stuff.

On the flip side, if you aren’t from Philly, this is going to be the weekend to come check us out.

Already on the roster for presentations and session leaders are:
Josh Hallet, founder, BlogOrlando, hyku.com/blog
David Parmet, public relations expert, parmet.net/pr
Joey Sweeney, CEO, Philebrity Brands, (philebrity.com and philebrity.tv)
Maura Johnston, associate editor, idolator.com
Howard Greenstein, Social Media Consultant and co-founder Social Media Club, www.howardgreenstein.com
Dave Coustan, Blog Master at EarthLink, http://blogs.earthlink.net
Alicia Dorset, blog editor, fastlane.gmblogs.com
oh yeah…and me!

Alex Hillman, Web developer and founder, independentshall.org
Also, from the press release:

To make this informational conference as accessible as possible for bloggers and non-bloggers alike, there will be no fee to attend. Participants are only required to cover travel and accommodations. For information on registration; details on sessions, panels, panelists and attendees; links to recommended hotel packages and Amtrak discounts; and details on Philadelphia attractions, visit www.blogphiladelphia.net.

So really, you have no excuse. Block off the dates, set up a place to stay if you’re traveling in, and register now.

Technorati Tags: alicia dorset, barcamp, blogphiladelphia, coworking, dave coustan, david parmet, gptmc, howard greenstein, joey sweeny, josh hallet, maura johnston, philadelphia, unconference, uwishunu

a number of people have pointed me to Blog Philadelphia in the last 24 hours, but the credit goes to Brian Oberkirch for kicking off the conversation between me and conference organizer Annie Heckenberger.

From the website:

This two-day “unconference” will be open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. There will be a few panels featuring leading tech pioneers spanning a wide spectrum of technology platforms and social media experience. We also plan to bring together a good cross-section of experts to lead break-out sessions covering various areas of social media: avatars, blogging/vlogging, mobile/sms technologies, online & mobile social networks, podcasting, PR in the world of CGM, virtual communities, community-edited news sites, social bookmarking, and of course, where and how marketing fits into all of this.

By partnering the resources of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation and Philadelphia “stuff to do” blog UWISHUNU, this looks like it will be an incredible inaugural event to really kick things off for Philly. Plus, Annie is excited about Independents Hall and using some of our ideas and resources, as well as cross promoting events.

The event, which is taking place July 12 and 13, is totally free and sounds like a fantastic time. Hopefully this will be one of the events that really helps define this new culture that I’m working on creating here in Philly! I’m stoked to take my barcamp experience to an event like this, hopefully we can pull off something on the caliber of what Whurley put together for Barcamp Austin.

In other news, we’re kicking off a developer-based QA group tomorrow night with some folks that participated in the last few Juntos, and then this friday the coworking group is hosting a Jelly at a location still to be finalized. If you’re interested in participating in either, drop me a line ASAP.

Tags: blogphiladelphia, Annie Heckenberger, unconference, Junto, Barcamp, Jelly, coworking

Ok, so maybe this game wont make it to the shelves of your local toys-r-us, but I definitely see the fun and positive results that can come out of organizing a game called “Half Baked”. Recently executed at CitizenSummit, this game involves the mashing of seemingly unrelated words (which reminds me of some of these fun tools), and in a matter of minutes a small team turns the new pseudo-word into a business model, complete with revenue model, marketing tactics, tagline, and logo. And like many board games, I’m pretty sure that this one gets better with a couple of drinks, too.

From Dave McClure’s blog:

Act 1: start by having people yell out ~50 random words.

Act 2: split into 5 teams, each chooses 2 words + “.com”

Act 3: each team has ~10 min to prep their BlankBlank.com biz plan

(biz plan = product idea, revenue model, marketing plan, logo, tagline)

Act 4: each team does a 5 minute pitch on their product to a VC

Act 5: vote on who did the best job, then celebrate the insanity :)

Check out the winning pitch:

Is it a good fit for CreativeCamp? We’ll give it a shot, cuz it looks like a LOT of fun.

Tags: games, half baked, marketing, barcamp, citizen agency, creativecamp, Dave McClure

I’m admittedly not a big fan of recruiting agencies/head hunters. I was pleasantly surprised when I met MaryHelen Votral and the CM Access crew back in September at Creative Camp and saw a completely different kind of recruitment process.

CM Access is definitely an agency that “gets it”. The understand the value of relationships in the business world, and instead of being focused on meeting quotas they work with employers and talent to find matches that will work for the long term. Relationship building and the shared value of networking play a key part in barcamp events, so having these guys backing up the event was a perfect fit.

MaryHelen clued me in to the launch of the CMAccess blog a couple of days ago, which should be another tipoff that they “get it”. Utilizing technology in an effective manner to spread a message and provoke both thought and involvement…right on!

I’m looking forward to CreativeCamp v2 on December 2nd.

Tags: cmaccess, barcamp, blogging, recruiters

i wrote about philly pride almost a month ago, and apparently I’m not the only one experiencing it. this recent wired article talks about the power and success behind barcamp and the collaborative format. They talk about BarCampNYC2, held just a couple of weekends ago. Making a cameo in the article were philly locals Jason Coleman and his fiancé Kim Wallmeier, young entrepreneurs from my hood and masterminds behind WineLog.net! As you might imagine, I have every intention of contacting them about their experiences at BarcampNYC2, and to talk about a full scale BarCampPhilly.

This quote stood out:
"Coleman and Wallmeier rarely get to mingle with so many tech entrepreneurs in their hometown of Philadelphia, so BarCamp was a chance to bounce ideas around with a like-minded audience."

THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE! Collaboration is the key! The Philadelphia indie community shall unite! WHO’S WITH ME!?!

my lack of posts for the last couple of weeks is the fault of a)my employer and b)my university. things are leveling out, so real posts are coming soon. In the mean time:

• working with CM Access on CreativeCamp v2.0 for December 2nd
• ive got a designer working on my website. phase two is on its way. (phase one was the arrival of business cards)
• as i mentioned, school is in full swing. and sucks. I’m stuck in classes that are nothing more than busy work, and as you might notice from my lack of post, i barely have time for REAL work…so busy work is tough to pencil in. luckily, some reasonable people at drexel are actually listening to my issues with the program (which will be outlined a post to come)
• happy cog philadelphia, eh? thats bound to stir up the local industry

all of these topics will be expanded in the near future. promise promise promise.

Thanks to William Wingo, a participant at CreativeCamp 2006, there’s now a video of me telling the history of my relationship with Chris and Tara

. Unfortunately, unless he simply didnt post it, the bulk of my presentation on coworking cuts off right as I finish kissing the Citizen Agents’ asses.

Also, since I wasn’t warmed up, my level of “uhs” and “ums” was unusually high. Very uncharacteristic of my speaking. :-(

also, hipcast has the strangest embed code i’ve seen yet. some weirdo iframe.

ive been thinking about something that was mentioned at this past weekend’s CreativeCamp. One of the attendants was telling me about how he recently returned to Philly and noticed an attitude issue. He said something to the effect of, “I thought New York was stuck up, and really Philly is just bad, maybe even worse. And really, he’s right. Its not so much of the NYC/”We’re better than you” attitude, its the Philadelphia/”We’re Philly and we don’t need or want your help”.

So that, to me, screams pride. Surely, Philadelphians are some of the most proud people in the country. I mean, look at our sports fans. Notoriously some of the most violent, verbal, and aggressive sports fans in the country…and not like they’ve earned it, right? Whens the last time one of this fine city’s sports teams won a sports championship? I digress, and refuse to speak about something that I admittedly know absolutely nothing about (sports).

So this pride that we have, is it what’s hurting us? Philadelphia is the home to many, many incredibley smart and talented people from every industry on the planet. But so few of those people reached their success alone. Most of them, like so many other successful individuals, leaned on the shoulders of peers and mentors. They overcame their pride, and did the hardest thing in the world for a proud person: they asked for help.

This is where I see an opportunity for coworking to break down a huge barrior in our local industry. We shouldnt have to worry about being “not New York”. A venue like coworking not only enables, but encourages collaboration. Working as a team to produce that which couldnt exist as individuals. I don’t know about you, but that’s something that I can’t wait to be a part of.

swallow your pride, philly independents. dare to be great, with us. the founders of this country did it, thats enough inspiration for me.