What Worked? What Hurt? What’s Next

During the Iowa caucus portion of the SOBCon event, we asked three questions:

  1. What worked: What have you done in your blogging that worked well?
  2. What hurt: What did you do (or miss) that hurt most?
  3. What’s next: What needs to be implemented or found to help your efforts reach the next effort?

We got some great answers (and will share that mid-week). What are your answers?

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  • http://www.businessblogwire.com/2007/05/sobcon_brain_dump_thoughts_on.html BusinessBlogWire

    SOBCon Brain Dump: Thoughts On Better Blogging

    My thoughts (blended with what the speakers and others are saying) as I listen and participate at SOBCon (updating this post throughout the day):Gitr (sitting next to me) has excellent notes on Phil Gerbyshaks session. And Liz Strausss …

  • http://www.kentblumberg.com Kent Blumberg

    What worked for me this weekend? Meeting, hugging and hanging out with most of my web publishing heroes.
    What hurt? 1) Karin H wasn’t able to make it from the UK. 2) I had to leave far too soon.
    What’s next? 1)Better stuff from me as a result of all the ideas I heard. 2)SOBCon08!
    Kent

  • http://carpefactum.typepad.com Timothy Johnson

    I have to echo Kent… the presentations were all amazing, but it was the face-to-face (and hug-to-hug) contact that made this a magical weekend.
    There were also many bloggers who were missed, and it was SO HARD to say good bye.
    My to do list just grew exponentially with respect to my blog. Good thing that you’re just a Panera run away, Mike!!

  • http://www.DirectorTom.com Thomas Clifford

    Hi Mike,
    What worked? The magic of selflessness. Our humanity is in full swing.
    What hurt? I’d love to have had more time…to connect with others and to dig deeper into our personal stories.
    What’s next? More conversations and better design.
    Thanks for rockin’ my world!
    P.S. I’m your “Blogger Buddy” :)

  • http://www.troyworman.com Troy Worman

    If Kent, Timothy, and Thomas aren’t going to answer the question properly, I’m not either. :) > [<-- kind resembles Sansone, eh?]
    What worked: What have you done in your blogging that worked well? Networking. I’ve been very lucky, but I’ve put in some time, too.
    What hurt: What did you do (or miss) that hurt most? Too many interests, lack of focus, lack of consistency of purpose.
    What’s next: What needs to be implemented or found to help your efforts reach the next effort? I don’t know. I’m going to need some time to think about this one.
    Re. SOBCON…
    What worked: What didn’t work? Armano’s presentation was a very cool highlight.
    What hurt: Holding the event on Mother’s Day week-end. [I'm sure there were good reasons]. But… This makes it impossible for me to rant against another for not attending.
    What’s next: The Glad Club! Stay tuned.

  • http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com Robyn McMaster

    Hi Mike, I don’t like to think of it so much as an effort, but as an adventure. That really stirs my juices more. :-)

  • http://www.maryschmidt.com Mary Schmidt

    Ironic isn’t it that a bunch of blogger geeks most wanted more personal interaction. As a friend asked when I told him I was leaving for SOBCon, “But why do you need to meet in person?” Of course, it’s because we’re people and blogging is a great way to start a conversation, but live and in person really develops the relationship. Nuthin’ like eyeball-to-eyeball, arm-waving discussion.
    As for what work, what didn’t session – the most frustrating thing was breaking into three groups: Businesses with blogs; personal logs; and blogs as a business. The best ones, in my not so humble opinion, are usually a mix of the three.
    (P.S. I’m now suffering from a case of “Iowa envy” I wanta be a member of your gang.)

  • http://makeitgreat.com Phil Gerbyshak

    Interesting questions Mike, and ones that we can think about in all facets of our life. I’ll try to focus on the amazing SOBCon conference experience.
    What worked? Location was very convenient for me, and the rooms were very conducive to good sound quality. Our sound guy was also on the money and very good. That worked well.
    What hurt? Not enough breakout sessions. Looking back on the day, I’d love to see 4 lead conversationalists to anchor the day, but sprinkled throughout, I’d like there to be more breakouts that are facilitated, but only loosely, with no pressure to “stick around” and you can have time to move from group to group.
    Also, I’d like more structured networking space, so you can real-time collaborate with the folks you met, just little closets for 2-4 people with a white board and a laptop would have been great.
    What’s next? I expect we’ll have a SOBCon08, and I will definitely be there. On the relationship level, I expect I’ll get to know everyone even better the next year, and come to SOBCon super-charged with more passion and more love and more enthusiasm. And I expect we just might see a formal working arrangement between at least a few of the participants.
    And I, like Mary, am thinking of uprooting my family and moving to Des Moines. You all are amazing! WOW!

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