I Quit for LIJIT...

Chicks Who Click--West Coast Edition

I'm excited that Lijit is going to be a sponsor for this weekend's Chicks Who Click conference, taking place in San Jose. This will be the third one I've attended and probably the one I'm most excited for. After hearing much talk about this "valley" where startups succeed without even trying, I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself. 

Judging by the list of speakers, it's obvious that the big female guns will be represented. (And I'm not just referring to our biceps, okay?) I'm speaking on a panel about women in tech startups, along with my friend Emily from Foodzie and there are a few other companies participating that you may have heard of as well. The name YouTube ring a bell? No? What about Facebook? Yep, they'll be there too.

And don't get me started trying to describe the awesomesauce that is Aubrey Sabala, who I briefly met at BlogHer in 07 or the amazingness of Adriana Gascoigne, the founder of Girls in Tech and someone I've been wanting to meet for ages.

Gah. I'm going to be such a fangirl this weekend.

Let's not forget that I also get to see an Ignite buddy, former Boulderite and fellow bacon lover Rick Bakas, who is making sure that the wine flows like water all weekend long. I'm thanking you in advance Rick.

And, I'm proud to announce that after almost three years of blogging, I *finally* wrote a guest post. (I know, I know...I'm a bad blogger.) It's over on the Chicks Who Click blog and is all about the very topic of the panel I'll be on: Women in Tech Startups. Check it out and let me know what you think.

If you're in the area, you should join us. If this Chicks Who Click conference is anything like the other two, it's going to be a wonderful day of learning, laughing and networking.

[One last thing...I have to do a long run on Sunday morning and would appreciate any recommendations for good running trails in the area. My hotel is in downtown Palo Alto and I figure there must be somewhere to run around there, right? Famous last words.]

Chicks Who Click--Kansas City Style

Back in January, I was asked to take part in the first ever Chicks Who Click. It was a one-day conference happening a block from my office in downtown Boulder. I wrote about the event on the Lijit company blog and mentioned some of the many amazing women I met that day. It turned out to be a fantastic event and it was definitely a no-brainer for Lijit to be involved.

Flash forward two months. I receive an email from Denise, the mastermind behind the conference, telling me that Chicks Who Click is going on the road. And? They want me to join. A traveling road show of hands-on learning and the opportunity to meet even more cool chicks? Count me in. The tagline of the conference contains three of my favorite words starting with C...create, connect, & collaborate. (Fortunately, my other favorite word, chocolate, will also be available courtesy of Denise, who knows that everything is better with chocolate.)

In two weeks, I'll be heading to Kansas City to speak at the second Chicks Who Click. There are two main reasons I'm excited for this trip. First of all, the ladies are to die for. From Celeste Lindell, who I met at BlogHer 07, and Zena Weist, the pocket-sized social media nymph, to the Queen of them all, Erin Kotecki Vest, I can't wait to (re)connect with so many friends. And let's not forget that one of my writing heroes, Rita Arens, is going to be there as well. (I'm going to try not to salivate on her, but no promises, Rita.) Just like the first CWC, this conference will be chock full of inspiring women who will be sharing their knowledge and teaching me many things.

The second reason I'm excited? The food. I've never been to Kansas City but have heard many tales of the tempting BBQ to be found there. As a big fan of trying local cuisine, the above pic makes my mouth water. For those counting, that's the second reference to my saliva in this post, which might be a new record for me.

(And I almost forgot...I was recently interviewed for the Chicks who Click blog, and should you really not have anything better to do, you can check out my answers and see that I am really serious about this BBQ thing.)

If you're interested in attending this Chicks Who Click, you best get on it. Early-bird pricing ends today. Register here and leave a comment on this post to let me know that you're going. I guarantee* that it will be worth the time and money spent.

*This is not a legally binding guarantee, but a very truthful testimonial.

[photo credit: monkeysort ]

Help an old broad out

(And this time, I don't mean me or my mother!)

Working for Lijit, I come into contact with LOTS o' bloggers. One of my favorites is Colleen Wainwright, the Communicatrix. She installed our widget after a pitch I sent her (in February of last year, no less) and she has remained near the top of the list since then. Besides being the first blogger we featured on our old homepage, she also holds the honor of being my first blog crush, which was only reinforced when I met her at SXSW.

Colleen needs some help. She's trying to land the job as Southwest's new blogger and I can't think of anyone better for the job. Watch for yourself...

Vote for Colleen here. She's funny and will do wonderful things for Southwest. Besides, if she gets the gig, it'll keep her off the streets. And you don't want an old broad out roaming the streets, right? Especially one with a blog...

Oh what a difference a year makes...

Last year at this time, I was reeling from all that I had learned at BlogHer07. Now, I'm attempting to recover from BlogHer08. Looking back, I realized that, after last weekend, I had been to three different BlogHer events in the course of a year. And boy, how things have changed.

BlogHer 07:

I really knew no one who was going except for Gwen Bell, a designer I had met in Boulder, and we had only spoken once. There was an extra bed in my hotel room and I offered it to her. (She paid me back by being a great Lijit evangelist!) I went in to the conference with my entire schedule planned out and I knew every session I was going to attend. Camera in hand, I took tons of pictures, handed out business cards with my blog's URL handwritten on the back and brought only sensible, comfy shoes. I met tons of people, blogged from the event, and was overwhelmed by the community I had found. There was a lot of opportunity over the course of the weekend for me to perfect my pitch, which means that I found out quickly what worked...and what didn't.

BlogHer Business 08:

This trip marked my first time to New York City by myself and my first opportunity to participate on a BlogHer panel. I spoke about being the public face of technology company and how my involvement was helping to humanize our brand. This conference blew me away in terms of its business focus. I was amazed by the other attendees and loved that I could pick the brains of smart women who were in the same boat. We discussed blogger outreach, PR tactics, and different ways of measuring the ROI of social media. There were lots of case studies presented of big companies who were getting it right and I felt humbled to be in the company of so many successful women.

BlogHer 08:

This year, I went into the conference with a less-planned, more free-flow approach. (Oh, and a dude.) My Lijit pitch has gotten much better and I knew there were going to be bloggers in attendance who were already using Lijit, which is very different from last year's conference. Besides being mentioned on two panels as an effective blogging tool, when I told people where I worked, they had heard of us! Success! I went into the weekend knowing that it was all about the interaction. Building new relationships, strengthening old ones and thanking people for using our widget. I was much more comfortable this year, except for the fact that I chose the cute shoes over the comfy ones. Another difference? Wearing the right shoes can actually lead to talking to the right people. Good (and somewhat painful) lesson to learn.

SXSW Highlights...

Now that I've had a few days to catch up on sleep, I feel that I'm better able to write about the experience I just had in Austin at a little conference known as South by Southwest Interactive. Most people are familiar with the music and film portions of SXSW, but if you're a tech geek, then the Interactive portion of the conference is like Disneyland. But better because there's free booze everywhere. After some reflection, I present my favorite moments from South by (which is what all the cool kids call it):

• The Unicorn

He joined Andrew Hyde's panel about half way through and stole the show. Afterwards, the Unicorn was running around giving everyone high-fives. When I put my hand up in the air to receive, he refused to slap my hand. Ouch. Let me just say that getting dissed by a nonexistent, magical creature doesn't make it hurt any less.

• Bowling for Geeks

It's always fun bowling with your CEO but even better when you're talking trash and throwing strikes. Besides the neon balls, the best part of bowling was when the entire alley got Rick rolled by the guy playing the music videos. Only a bunch of geeks would truly appreciate that!

• Seeing Lijit publishers in action

Everywhere I looked at SXSW, I saw familiar names and URLs. Having the chance to thank users and speak with them firsthand about what they want from Lijit was priceless. I went to a session on building community and one of the speakers, Jake McKee, the Community Guy, was proudly wearing a Lijit t-shirt. Bestill my beating evangelistic heart!

• Blog Network Camp

Lijit was one of the sponsors for this event and there was a great turnout for it. I always get a kick watching Todd, our CEO, give a demo because it re-energizes me and makes me remember why I started working for the company in the first place. Mainly because he's very persuasive and we have a kick-ass search service. The response from the bloggers at the event was positive and we're looking forward to seeing how we can make network search even better!

• How to piss off a blogger

I attended this discussion on blogger relations and was pleased to find out that I don't do any of the things we listed as ways to piss off bloggers. I'm self-taught and it's taken me a year, but I feel that I'm finally in the position to lead one of these panels. As I've always said, if you treat a blogger like you'd like to be treated, you're probably doing the right thing. To read more about what we came up with, check out the post written by the session moderator.

• Hanging in da Bloghaus

This was the place to be to meet anyone who is anyone in the blogging world. Interviews were going on left and right, blog posts were frantically typed, free beer was consumed...and all with the energy and enthusiasm of a frat house. The Bloghaus is where I made the most connections, met the most Twitter friends and rubbed shoulders with the most A-listers. A very dangerous place for someone who freaks out around (very) minor celebrities!

• Cathedral of Junk

There was a Flickr meetup in South Austin in the backyard of a gentleman who has constructed a 20-foot high shrine completely out of junk. How could you say no to seeing that? It was awesome to meet some of the Flickr employees, hang with other geeky photo-types and get away from the convention center for a bit. Did I mention that you can climb the stairs in this temple of junk? And that the Austin City Council has been out to check it (at the request of some neighbors) and has found that the Cathedral of Junk meets all of the city's building codes?

• Learning more about the CEO

Trips like these allow me to see Todd dressed up as a pirate (for a panel he rocked, btw) and present me with the opportunity to learn that we have the same size feet. (No need to mention that I have humongous feet. It's common knowledge.) Good to know that if necessary, I will be able to fill the shoes of the CEO perfectly. Yarrrr....

• The people

Duh. Everywhere you went, there was potential for inspiration and connection. Something about the mellow Austin mood must have rubbed off, because I had no problem walking up to anyone (regardless of their page views) and starting a conversation. It was such an electric energy, matching avatars to faces and meeting new friends. You hear people say it all the time in the online world, but honestly, it really is all about the people. I'm just glad I got to experience it myself in a backdrop as cool as SXSW.

What about the parties, you ask? Well, they were good, but I didn't have my camera on me and I ended up shouting to be heard in those venues. The parties were indeed a good time (especially the one that we helped to sponsor!) but for someone who doesn't like staying out late, they just seemed to drain me of my mornings, my voice and my energy.

That's my wrap-up of what went down at SXSW. If you went, I'd love to hear the stories and pictures that you have to share. And if I promised you a t-shirt and didn't have the right size, shoot me an email and I'll be sure to amend that situation.

(Last photo courtesy of Gwen Bell)

Slices of South Dakota

My dad just turned 60 and wanted to celebrate with an old-fashioned family road trip to South Dakota. Thankfully, we had two cars on this adventure instead of back in the day when we squished everyone into the Dodge Caravan mini-van. We did all the touristy stuff (including eating lots of biscuits and gravy), spotted quite a few Harleys, Corvettes and R.V.'s, and generally had a good time in the blistering heat.

 

[Just to clarify and not piss off the geography buffs in my readership....Devil's Tower is not in South Dakota, but is extremely close and located in the upper NE corner of Wyoming.] Oh yeah, one last thing...if you're ever in Deadwood and desperate for a birthday gift for your father, don't hesitate to walk up to a cowboy and offer him good money for his belt buckle. It really is a win-win.