Very excited, after years of hearing good things about it, to be attending BlogHer this year in San Francisco. I’ll be in town July 17-23. For a woman in social media, this conference is a big deal. It’s arguably the equivalent of SXSW for networking, empowerment, community and inspiration among all manner of women in social media.

Unfortunately PodCamp Boston is that same weekend.

PodCamps are among the most inspiring, fun and community-focused tech events I’ve ever attended. If you can go to one, you should. Though I can’t attend, I’m paying for “my” registration, to support the event and letting the organizers put that to use as they choose. Are you in Boston July 19-20? Register here.

It’s incredibly difficult for event planners to pick the best dates to suit venue, budget and attendees. That PodCamp organizers did not schedule to avoid conflict with BlogHer is a bummer, but really not that big of a deal. What made me sad was PodCamp’s response to the scheduling conflict.

When the PodCamp date was announced, I and other female PodCamp fans immediately pointed out the conflict. The response was a bit abrupt, but not unreasonable. PodCamp did not want to schedule in the fall or close to the Podcasting and New Media Expo, and the BlogHer dates had not been checked. Fair enough. But.

Once known, the conflict was not shared with other PodCamp organizers. There was no discussion or group decision made by the organizers to go ahead despite it. That sent a poor message. It implied that the organizer doesn’t “get” BlogHer’s significance or consider it important enough to merit discussion. PodCamp also never acknowledged publicly that while unfortunate, the choice had to be made not to avoid the conflict.

In our world of transparency, conversation and consensus-building, it’s important to at least listen to the concerns, decide as an organizing body, and acknowledge that a choice had to be made. An organization can address concerns like this quite easily if it chooses to. You can mention it in your blog and explain why. You can creatively embrace the conflict by encouraging remote collaboration during both events. BlogHer has a big Second Life component, why not reach out to that?

When I brought my concerns about this conflict up privately with the organizers many weeks ago, and mentioned I would blog it at some point, there was a second opportunity to creatively engage with the scheduling conflict. While my concerns were taken seriously and discussed fairly, there was still no public acknowledgement of the conflict. There was still no creative effort at outreach.

PodCamp is an awesome organization. I have close personal affection for all of the organizers, and adore what they have done for women (and men of course) in social media. They are an exemplary crew. But, gosh…

I post because I hope this can be discussed productively. I empathize with the organizing stress my friends are under. But it would be uncool of me not to raise this point merely because of my personal feelings about the team.

What are your thoughts? Does a scheduling conflict with the biggest women’s social media conference merit some public comment or creative outreach on the part of the organizers?

View from the conference venue
in Ouchy: Image via WikipediaI gave a talk this morning in Lausanne at Stephanie Booth’s Going Solo conference for freelancers.

Stowe Boyd live-twittered the talk. Suw Charman-Anderson blogged amazingly complete notes, and Urs Gattiker wrote this post about the principles covered. Jaap Stronks is liveblogging the entire day using CoverItLive.

The slide deck is below:

| View | Upload your own

Big thank you to Stephanie and all of the attendees. We had a really enjoyable discussion (see Suw’s post for detailed notes on the Q & A also.)

(If you would like to follow these folks on Twitter: Stephanie is @stephtara, Stowe is @stoweboyd, Suw is @suw, Urs is @commetrics, Jaap is @Jaapstronks.)

UPDATE: Video of the presentation itself is already live. Wow, conference video guy! Thanks.

I am lecturing twice today at Bentley College in Waltham, MA for Professor Mark Frydenberg’s IT101 course: Introduction to Information Technology. Mark is extraordinary in the degree to which he incorporates, teaches and uses web 2.0 tools (wikis, blogging, popfly mashups) in his class.

The morning class was delightful and of course, we live streamed the entire thing on Qik.com/pistachio

I told my Twitter followers to follow this link to remain abreast of the students’ conversations and remarks via Twitter during the class. It is just a www.tweetscan.com search for “pistachio” so that everyone can follow all of the replies together and see the students’ individual introductions. It kept us all on the same page. Fun.

Next class is in a few minutes, I’ll return later to embed the video… Follow us live (if chat doesn’t work, there is probably just a time lag on the upload) at www.Qik.com/pistachio.

Watching Bentley Professor Mark Frydenberg demo what his Web 2.0 students have been doing with Popfly was a highlight of Tech Tuesday for me this evening. As we chatted later, he told me he’d assigned a Twitter project, but wanted more assignment ideas.

This Twitter experiment and blog post are *my* answer. In the comments, what is YOURS?

I asked Twitter…
Discussing with @checkmark what assignments he could give his students to help them “GET” Twitter. What do you think?

You answered…
chelpixie @checkmark connect with @hrheingold re: assignments to help students understand twitter. Community founder + Stanford instuctor

steketee i would say it is web based IM with controls and ease of finding like-minded people. (twitter)

Peter West suggestion for @checkmark - for a given topic, find knowledgeable people on Twitter & report back on related emerging trends

jpblogger Using the CA fire scenario as an example … how could twitter connect people in a crisis?

Dean Terry also twitter games can be interesting @amyguth & others have talked about a six degrees of separation. Location focus is possible

Rick Wolff There’s no “getting” Twitter. You just get on and ignore the feelings of foolishness, and suddenly one day, it makes sense.

Dean Terry we use twitter in our Emerging Media program. Have students do a class where they only communicate or write stories via twitter

Scott Monty Have them use www.twitterlocal.net and follow people w/in a certain geographical radius, asking locality-based questions

jer@nyquil.org : I’ve been using it a year and I don’t think _I_ even “get” Twitter.

Community, duh, equals people with things in Common. Those things in common are what Hugh McLeod at Gapingvoid has been calling social objects.

Apple’s lack of “social media” efforts have been widely criticized, BUT. Who has arguably the strongest cult, err, community following of any technology company going? Oh yeah. Right.

They did it by creating things people feel so passionate about that the community arose on its own.

If your company is smart enough to value community, what can you learn from this?

Community sin #1 Community without love. iPod is a social object because people have a passionate relationship to it. How does your company stir passion?

OK, stop laughing. Your work matters to someone. There’s a headache you solve or you wouldn’t make money. Take waste management. Passionless. Yawn. Except, someone SURE cares when there’s the lack of it. And the person whose job it is to take care of personal and commercial trash disposal sure as hell cares when the service sucks.

Community sin #2 Trying too hard. I won’t even bother to google for examples, surely you’ll have plenty in the comments. Picture yourself standing in the middle of the playground at recess yelling “hey guys! let’s make an M&M Mars community!” FAIL. Instead, try “hey guys! who wants some M&M’s?”

Communiy sin #3 Community as destination (and to benefit the company only) instead of as means to something mutually interesting. Be useful. Be convenient. People have enough obligations in the circles they currently frequent. Don’t build another damned place for them to go. Build stuff that fits and goes wherever they already are.

The bottom line is that someone already cares or you wouldn’t be in business. That’s your community. Serve them well.

What are your “Community Building” pet peeves? How would you guide a company trying to generate real business value through community?

Next week 2,000 marketers at SAP will convene to learn and share marketing innovations. The Marketing Community Kickoff Meeting will feature:

• Seth Godin
• Ze Frank
• Dennis Howlett
• Zoli Erdos
• Ross Mayfield
• David Armano
• David Meerman Scott
• Laura “Pistachio” Fitton

www.Unisfair.com’s virtual environment will 2,000 SAP marketers for the Marketing Community Kickoff

I’m ecstatic to be in such good company, sharing my ideas about how to communicate and present more effectively. Blogging, answering questions and digging in to share ideas with the other bloggers and interact with the SAP community has already been fun and inspiring.

How SAP is running the event is exciting too. All internal blogging and discussions are on Clearspace collaborative software, and attendees will “meet” in the Unisfair virtual environment, from wherever in the world they work. I love how the event both models and teaches new ways of communication, collaboration and marketing. Can’t wait to see how it goes.

Have you seen Alltop?

I LOVE. LOVE. this interface for blasting through a lot of headlines & summaries fast. I wish my RSS reader could do this. Way to go, Electric Pulp.

Alltop has nine category sites: Celebrities, Egos, Fashion, Gaming, Mac, Oddities, Politics, Science and Sports.

Each site displays:

• Array of popular sources.
• Last 5 posts from each.
• Summaries on hover.

The look is sexy. I love the translucent static color bar that brands the site and houses the (minimalist) administrative links for the page.

Is this a future for RSS that will make sense and catch on “outside of the fishbowl?”

I also appreciate that “Egos” makes a point of promoting women’s voices. I noticed right away since Lena, Jeremiah and Geoff recently highlighted the topic. Thumbs up!

(Via Guy Kawasaki)

Full disclosure: Guy is a friend and gave me a sneak preview of this last month. Nice feeling, but that’s not why I’m raving about it.

Nice tidbit from The Tipping Point, Sesame Street researchers noticed how closely attention was tied to comprehension. Whenever the program got confusing, contentious or *flashy just for flashy’s sake, attention wandered. When the children understood what was going on, they paid rapt attention.

Now, anyone who had to read long, difficult academic papers in college (or any point in their lives) won’t find this the least bit surprising.

I say over and over to clients. You’re not “spoon feeding” information because they’re dumb, you’re packaging and framing it so that it’s easy to parse. Especially important when you consider keeping in mind the zillions of things battling for your listener’s attention.

*Anyone mesmerized by slide transitions, animations, fonts, effects & colors in PowerPoint should softly whisper this point over and over to themselves while editing a slide deck.

TED | Talks | Isabel Allende: Tales of passion (video)

PLEASE watch this for two reasons:

1) Most of all, just, wow. Listen and reflect on the power of stories, the strength of passion and the need to change the world. Listening to this called me to action on the Nine Million children living as refugees worldwide. It made me dream about what I want my life to become and what most matters to me to DO. Meanwhile, here’s more on the NineMillion:

• Nine-Million on MS Spaces.Live
• Media Resources

2) Because we learn to communicate well by listening and watching. “This is how you do it” folks, this talk (and any number of TED talks) is a gold standard to learn from.

(Via Chris Brogan.)

Make your team more influential and successful in 2008 by improving how they present their ideas. Providing tools, experiences and motivation to communicate more effectively will get more business accomplished. Here are 10 basic things you can do to keep this resolution and help your team.

1. Begin at the beginning:
Better explain each project in the first place. No presentation exists to BE a presentation, they exist to get business done. Always define the audience and objectives in concrete, actionable terms when the project first gets assigned.

2. Tell mom:
Have employees explain ideas, and even whole presentations, to a layperson (a parent, child, spouse…) This works even if, especially if, the laypeople don’t understand the subject. Inability to explain the significance of an idea is a sign of fuzzy thinking. At a minimum have them articulate - to a layperson - who the presentation is for and what needs to be achieved.

3. What not to say:
Presenter writes down “everything they know” about the topic and then sets this aside for as long as practical. Coming back to it fresh, they cross off everything the audience doesn’t HAVE to know. Next, put at least 1/3 of what’s left into another format (email, handout, Q&A) that will do a better job conveying the information in the way it needs to be applied to accomplish the goal.

4. Work it out:
Like good athletes, effective communicators get lots of practice. Sing karaoke, go to toastmasters, volunteer to speak at community events, talk to yourself in the shower. For more frequent practice, apply the “audience + results” framework anytime you have an idea to convey. master the skills you need for effectiveness.

5. If you build it:
Create a space in your work area where presentations can be practiced. Include gear, videocamera, etc.

6. Listen up:
Listening well is CRITICAL to speaking well. Foster listening skills by having your group discuss/report on presentations they see. Share great presentation videos from You Tube or the TED Talks, and look at what works well when presenting. Encourage your team to look for good and bad examples of presentations “in the wild.”

7. Batting practice:
Encourage your team to practice routine mini-presentations in front of each other at least weekly. They’ll establish workable rapport and good habits for when something high stakes comes up and rehearsing with a team really matters. Bonus: team meetings get way more concise and enjoyable when everyone’s conscious of presenting their best.

8. Put your money where their mouth is:
Walk the walk by providing time and resources for team members to improve their communications skills. Invest in training and coaching that gives them tools and support to continue to improve.

9. Read. Share. Read:
Seek out books and blogs about making ideas stick and spread. Tipping Point, Made to Stick and even Dale Carnegie’s classics will stimulate their thinking. Check out our website for more resources.

10. Stick to your guns:
Need help sticking to this resolution? Calculate the cost of the next unproductive meeting or PowerPoint you’re stuck in. A rough cost per participant/per hour is (salary x 1.7)/2000. If you make $75,000, your supervisor is paid $100,000 and 3 of your team at $50,000 each join you for a weekly 2 hour meeting, you’re spending $23,000 a year just on that meeting. Lost opportunities cost you even more.