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On Authenticity

Incidentally, this isnt the first time (nor will it be the last) that I've written on authenticity. I wrote a chapter about it in More Space. Get your sneak peak here. Or, hell, got an hour? You can hear me read my own stuff. Just like having me in your living room, without the hacking cough.

The word "authenticity" hasn't become worn out yet; it's still like all things 2.0, in it's cool period but misused. Everyone wants to BE authentic, but they don't want to make the effort. They want to start blogs and open to the customer, but they don't want to reveal anything worth reading. They want to rise above the rest, but not take risks. Being with these people is like being out to dinner with your husband's boss and colleagues. Everyone is charming and careful. Interaction becomes obligatory and, when no one is looking, avoided.

I was talking to someone today who is trying to promote his new blog for high-level business executives. "We want it to be a place where they share, but no one wants to be on the record," he says. It seems we want to be loved, in business and in life, without being known.

The Kindness of Crowds...and why you should fly Jet Blue

Greetings from Typhoid Mary. My wastebasket is full of toilet tissue glued into little balls with spudum adhesive. Still, the show must go on.

I caught my cold in NYC last week--the only negative to come from that trip. During the time that I lived in NYC, I developed an attitude of independence. No one was going to kindly wait for me to look for change while buying my bagel, or give me the space to orient myself on the street. Things keep moving, and you learn to prepare--have your change ready in advance; keep walking, even if you don't know where you are going, to maintain the flow of traffic. I don't expect handouts in that city that kicked my butt. But then, I don't think I gave off any vibes that said, "help a girl out?" either.

This time the city struck me as, well, INVITING, helpful, full of generous people. If I hadn't known I was there for BlogOn I would have assumed I'd stepped into a musical, the rock-opera version of Mary Tyler Moore. "Looks like we'll make it after awwwwwwwwllllllll!"

Like mother like blogger

No it's not a typo--it's my mother! Joy Des Jardins is featured on Lipsticking blog. Read what she has to say about blogging and raising four perfect children

BlogOn Responds

As a few of you may have gathered. I enjoyed BlogOn tremendously but was a bit put out by the demos that peppered the content. I assumed they were sponsors, but Mike Sigal kindly set me straight on this:

....A couple of points of clarification:

The Social Media Innovators were selected by Chris (who has 20 years experience as a technology analyst and is pretty well know for her selectivity and acumen from DEMO) from over 50 applicants because she believed they represented important enabling technology for corporations who want to employ social media. They are not sponsors, but they are charged fees to cover their booths, signage and a couple of passes...essentially our costs of putting a spotlight on them. And in point of fact, several companies that we felt were good choices for Innovators but didn't have any funding were given partial or complete scholarships. (Conversely, some companies we originally selected who did have pretty significant resources but didn't feel participating was worth the booth costs were not invited to display...although several of those attended). Of the companies who had stage demos, some did indeed pay, but that was not part of the criteria for a stage presentation. The only sponsor t hat had a presentation was Technorati, who essentially bought lunch.

As for why the demonstrations on stage, our hope was that a mix of telling (panels) and showing (product demonstrations) would do a better job of helping those corporate folks understand the issues than presentations alone...and we much prefer showing real emerging products than having consultants give best practice presentations. Also, a bit of 'demonstration theatre' usually helps break up the day. I suppose that the fact that those individuals who have more experience with social media don't get the same benefit from the demos is another reason for multiple tracks.

I appreciate Mike's response to this. BlogHer had to determine at what point vendor content was useful, and I'm glad to know that Mike and Chris Shipley did the same. I'm not a big fan of "demonstration theater"--I tend to get a bit bored, even when I like the product, but for those without attention deficit disorder I imagine it could have been much more useful.

Thanks for the note, Mike.

We Interrupt this Commercial to Bring you BlogOn

I wasn't put out by Seth Godin's Squidoo pitch--even though it was one--because there was significant information that accompanied it and he was open to taking questions about his product and his content. What I found considerably more encroaching were the 10-15 minute informercials that prefaced sessions at BlogOn. As someone who had to scrape together funds for BlogHer '05, I GET the importance of sponsors, but this approach struck me as far too intrusive, for several reasons.

Notes from Blog On: First Impressions; Squidoodling

The song Copacabana is still playing in my head as I write this wrap-up. I can appreciate the kitchy humor, considering this year's BlogOn was at the Copacaba Club in New York, but I must admit a growing annoyance at the continued, fairly loud reprisals heard at 8:30 a.m. while buttering my bagel. "Copaaaaaaaah CaBANaaaaaaaah!"

Elisa and I contemplated taking the subway, but we were both in heels and thought to hell with it; let's live like we've got expense accounts.

"Thirty Fourth and Eleventh," Elisa told the driver. I wasn't aware there was an 11th avenue in New York, and I lived there for nearly six years. I wondered if BlogOn was going to take place on a yacht somewhere off the West Side. The cab dropped us off in front of a pink building that looked abandoned. Nobody was hanging out near the entrance to enjoy the sunshine or have a smoke. A man in a tuxedo ushered us in.

The Relationship Chronicles: Pondering THE QUESTION

I'm feeling a little cruddy from an exorbitant amount of time on my butt. I was at a wedding in Yosemite this weekend and had to drive back hungover to the Bay area super early to make my flight to NYC. Bless b-friend for his ability to go 90 MPH at just the right times.

The wedding was GAWGEOUS, as expected. A few sprinkles, a little nipply, but Yosemite is still amazing at this time of the year. The challenging part of the weekend was figuring out what to pack. The wedding wasn't casual, which added to the challenge. It's hard to look elegant in Yosemite. B-friend and I caught a few stares as we headed out of Curry Village--he in a pinstriped suit, and me in a sheer dress holding her boobs close, wearing hiking boots until I could change into my heels in the car.

This is our sixth wedding this year, and, unless there are any additional last-minute surprises, the last one of 2005. All of the weddings had their charms, all of them made me cry at least once, one got cancelled, one included their adorable little boy, one took place at a campground in Big Sur, one was in Puerto Rico (sadly I got sick and couldn't go to that one), one had a kick-ass ice cream sundae buffet and belly dancing. Two brides wore white; one wore red; one wore orange, one wore champagne.

Clearly all of them were quite different, though all of the ones b-friend and I were able to attend together were very similar for one reason--the Question. The question every unmarried couple who's in their late 20s or 30s and been together at least a year hears at a wedding: So, when is YOUR day?

Heading to BlogOn

I'm on the plane, heading to NYC for BlogOn. I'll be sure to provide the blow-by-blow once I have a single minute to blog. I'm not like other blog conference roadies. I bring a computer but I never blog during sessions. I find that I process better by writing things down. I realize that makes me a Luddite with this crowd, but so be it.

Fortunately my BlogOn Buddy, Elisa Camahort, doesn't blog at conferences either. That's how we met each other, before BlogHer, back in January. We were at The New Communications Forum Blog University in Napa, back in January. We were the only two without laptops. Again, I had mine, but I don't turn it on in sessions. It doesn't make me the girl with the breaking story, but at least I can gather my thoughts and report who was wearing what and other critical takeaways in a much less pressured setting.

I suspect you'll hear from me again, after BlogOn--chock-full of interesting stuff.

The Relationship Chronicles: Thoughts from the Grateful Sex

Thanks for the wonderful responses to my post last week, Why Do People Bail?  I'm amused by what Ronni first noticed, that the responses were more from the victims of bailers than from bailers themselves. B-friend?... B-friend? Do you care to defend your people?

I had one of those faboo weekends--which included my first day in I don't know how long when I DID NOT WORK. We celebrated the birthday of a friend in her late 50s with a Crone Ceremony (hope that's the proper name), celebrating her wisdom and light. I'm putting that on my list of cool stuff I want to do when I'm in my 50s, next to own villa in Chianti and hire a personal masseuse. There was an altar in the middle of the room for objects representing my friend's past. I loved how women of all ages were in the room and equally moved by the stories. Women in collective appreciation is powerful, mascara-removing stuff.

B-friend came with me to the party, though the men had to be somewhere else during the Crone Ceremony. He was struck by the gifts that were collecting on the table.

"I thought we weren't supposed to bring any gifts," he said. That's true, but this was a woman-run show, meaning gifts are going to creep in. We women like to do that--give things.

Presenting...More Space

I've been living in "Almost There" mode since BlogHer. The book proposal is almost there. That project I'm working on is almost there. That article? You get the point.

So it's particularly gratifying to see one of my projects there! Introducing More Space: Nine Antidotes to Complacency in Business, written by moi and eight other co-conspirators, including Lisa Haneberg from Management Craft, Rob May from Businesspundit, Johnnie Moore from johnniemoore.com, Robert Paterson from PEI’s Future, Evelyn Rodriguez from Crossroad Dispatches, Curt Rosengren from Occupational Adventure, and Jeremy Wright from Ensight.org. We each take on a different aspect of business: Passion, Authenticity, Productivity, Change, Community, Simplicity, Innovation and Perspective, as they apply in the new business sphere. Office Life For Dummies this ain't.

I have to thank the brain and driving force behind this project, Todd Sattersten, and his wife, Amy. I don't know many other people who would say, "Hmmm, we're about to have our second child. Why don't we publish a book while we're at it?" More Space is their second baby this year.

Please check it out at 800CEOREAD, and stop into the blog to read about the book, the authors, and to download audiocasts of the chapters. Some freak read mine.