LOUDER

My BarCamp Cedar Valley Recap

My wife and I road-tripped to the UNI Campus in Cedar Falls this past weekend for BarCamp Cedar Valley. I really enjoyed myself. The audience was my favorite part — there were a lot of energetic, open-minded, and educated people asking good questions and enhancing every presentation with their participation.

Structurally, the event was nearly identical to the Des Moines BarCamp I attended in December. Three tracks (techies, creatives, entrepreneurs), seven speaking slots per track, and only a few spots were left untaken by the end of the day.

Emboldened by my DSM BarCamp experience I marched straight in and was the first sign-up of the day, snagging a 10am slot in the creatives track. I labeled my talk “Getting Started with Markdown”. It was essentially a live demonstration of my writing set-up on OSX using the Markdown text-to-HTML conversion tool in TextMate, with Marked for previewing. It seemed to go over well, and based on discussion throughout the day and on Twitter, I know I convinced at least a few writers in the audience to give Markdown a try.

I put my name down again later in the day for the final speaking spot in the entrepreneurs track. I called it “Don’t Be Sheepish About Your Job Search”. I talked about how I used social tools like Twitter and Storify to share my own job search story and generate leads. Reflecting on what I shared, a better title might have been “Job Hunting for Introverts”.

I felt better about my Markdown presentation than the job search presentation. It was a better fit for the track, and the crowd was larger and more energetic in the AM. I’m still glad I did both, and love how the BarCamp unconference model allows an opportunity to try out new stuff without much pressure.

Cat snagged a mid-day spot in the creatives track as well. She presented “Blogging 201” and shared tips, tricks, and tools she’s learned from being the Managing Editor of Offbeat Home.

I bounced between all three tracks throughout the day. Thoughts from a group conversation about diversity in technology and a presentation about networking and relationship building as a consultant are still bouncing around in my head after the fact.

I stole a little time from our busy weekend to buzz through Cedar Falls’ downtown area before heading home. Wow. It was a remarkably lively area on a late Saturday afternoon. Very cool-looking shops and restaurants. I was particularly impressed with the visual aesthetic of the downtown — nearly every shop, sign, building, and storefront was beautifully designed. I hope to get a chance to visit again with more time to explore the area.

All in all, BarCamp CV was A++, would BarCamp again. I’m very grateful to the organizers and sponsors that made the event possible and the welcoming attitude everyone showed a couple of conference crashers from Des Moines. Hope I can make the next one.

2012 Information Architecture Summit Schedule

I’m excited to be attending and humbled and terrified to be speaking at the upcoming 2012 Information Architecture Summit. The Summit is a week of programming aimed at people who design, plan and build things like websites and software applications. Folks at the Summit have job titles like User Experience Director/Designer/Manger, Business Analyst, Content Strategist, User Researcher, and, of course, Information Architect. If those mean nothing to you, try try this description: it’s for technology people who love sketches, whiteboards, diagrams, surveys, charts, wireframes, process, research and other stuff that makes technology strategy work easier and more successful.

The event is being held at the end of March in New Orleans. Organizers recently released the full schedule, and thoughts about the event have loomed large in my mind this week.

I’ll be debuting a solo presentation I call “Communicating Change”. It’s scheduled for 2:30 on Saturday in the “Exploring and Thinking” track. I’m sandwiched between Veronica Erb’s session on Sketchnoting and my e-pals Adam Connor and Aaaron Irizarry’s session on The Art of Critique, which I had a chance to chat with them about on The Flyover Effect. I couldn’t be happier with my spot on the schedule.

Here’s my session overview:

Communicating Change

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

Q: What did the developer say to the users in the changelog?

A: Minor bug fixes and enhancements.

Whoops, sorry, that’s not a joke. It is unfortunately common, though. Far too often, changes in software and websites are communicated to users with a cavalier attitude — if it all.

In this session, you’ll learn why it’s important to communicate clearly about change, why we often don’t, and how to do it better. We’ll explore examples of industry best and worst practices, from the rollout of #NewNewTwitter to the bizarre PR backpedaling of the Netflix/Qwikster saga.

BONUS: Be prepared for a lightning round of comically-curt changelog text collected from apps and sites across the web. No brand is safe.

As stoked as I am about all this, that jerk Impostor Syndrome has been creeping around the edges of my brain and trying to bum me out. I think I’ll cover that more in another post, but for now I’ll say I’ve been doing my best to remember I wasn’t selected to be an end-all/be-all expert, but rather just to give the most thorough, professional and interesting presentation I’m capable of. There are a lot of really neat people who organize and attend the IA Summit, and I’m not embarrassed to admit I want to impress them and make them happy with their selection.

My flight is booked and I landed an adorable little spot near the conference site through AirBNB. If I’ll see you in NOLA this March, say hey! I’m getting in on Tuesday of the conference week and have Wednesday free for exploring the city a bit and getting oriented. Would love to make some new friends and meet more of you lovely internet people in real life.

Upcoming Panel at Drake’s Journalism Days

I’ve been invited to speak on a panel called “The Cutting Edge” at Drake University’s Journalism Days event this week. The panel is described thusly:

Panel of professionals discuss exciting careers in media, moderated by SJMC multimedia instructor Chris Snider.

It will be held on Wednesday, November 9 at 7pm in Meredith Hall (the black steel and glass building adjacent to the gated pay lot off University Avenue) on Drake’s campus.

I’ve received official word this particular panel is open to the public, so if you’re in the Des Moines area, interested in media, startups, and technology, and can stand the sound of my voice, consider attending.

Chris, the moderator, has been kind enough to invite myself and my coworker Amanda Morrow to his web design class in the Journalism department twice now to share thoughts about applying a Journalism degree to work in technology and the startup scene. I documented what we shared on the most recent visit in a post on Brick by Brick, the BitMethod blog. Depending on how the conversation flows, I imagine I’ll be offering up much of the same sentiments in a different context.