Enmeshed in Toronto

I’ve been remiss about blogging, ironically, because I’ve been busy spending two days at the mesh conference in Toronto. I have to hand it to organizers Stuart MacDonald, Mark Evans, Mathew Ingram, Mike McDerment and Rob Hyndman. In nine weeks, they organized, publicized and ran (pretty much flawlessly) a Web 2.0-themed conference for more than 350 people.

You can read all about the conference, including participants’ reactions, on the conference wiki, so I won’t re-hash it here.

Just a few of my own observations:

• The conference brought together a wonderfully eclectic mix of people from Canada and the U.S. – Web developers and other geeks, marketers, business owners, PR professionals and other communicators, journalists and students.
  
• Some of the conversations during lunch and other breaks were just as interesting as the sessions. Where else could you break bread with a prominent CBC journalist, Internet startup guy and a fellow from the Library of Congress – all at the same time?
  
• I really enjoyed seeing Steve Rubel in the flesh. He sounds just like he reads – bright, funny and unassuming.
  
• Bloggers and blogging evangelists sometimes forget that the rest of the world is not as enamored of this communications medium as they are. The biggest laugh of the two days occured when Jim Coudal said, “Hey, it’s just people writing. Did everyone get this excited when the PENCIL was invented?” Sort of puts things in perspective, eh?
  
• Personally, I had a lot of fun meeting in person some folks I had known only online or on the phone until now – corporate-blogging guru Debbie Weil and PR pros David Jones, Joseph Thornley and Terry Fallis. It was a great pleasure reconnecting with my email buddy Judy Gombita, communications manager for the Certified General Accountants of Ontario. She and I first met at Ryerson University's Magazine Journalism program a few eons ago. I contacted her last year after hearing her name mentioned on the For Immediate Release podcast. Talk about "social" media!

Now I have to think about what I will tell my clients about mesh. Most of them are not yet Web 2.0-savvy. But that’s OK. We can explore this new world together.

Technorati tag:mesh06

Comments

[Rob Hyndman]

Donna - (blush).

We do appreciate the kind words and are very happy you enjoyed mesh. Feel free to lob any comments you have back at us, or pop by the wiki at meshconference.com and leave 'em there.

Thanks again for coming to mesh!

[Joseph Thornley]

Donna,
It was great to finally connect in person. The great thing about blogging and podcasts is that we develop a connection with people - and when we actually meet, it's like reuniting with an old friend.