OK, I have been overwhelmed by the response to floating this idea. I was honestly wondering if I would be able to get 20 or 30 people to drive up from Charleston and Columbia in order to make it worth pursuing. I had no idea people would be willing to come from RTP, Nashville, New Jersey, Detroit or Seattle. Yowza. This pretty much says that yes it should and will happen. I’m seeing the same dynamic Ed Cone referred to, where it became obvious very quickly (like, in less then 24 hours) that many more people are willing to show up than I would have dreamed.
I got a suggestion via email that I set up a wiki and let the participants more or less self-organize and set up the programming. That way I can just think about when, where and how it happens. I like that idea. Ed suggests keeping the program general and letting the room find its own way. My only desire is that I’d like to make sure there is room to talk about podcasting and also the southern perspective in blogosphere (if there is or can be one – there’s the first question.) A lot of folks have been saying they are willing to come from near and far, but my hope is that we can take advantage of the southern nature of the venue and many of the participants. I know that the event in Stanford wasn’t about the “Silicon Valley” perspective, but then that’s more or less the defacto default perspective anyway. Here off the beaten track we need to work harder to get noticed.
Thanks, all for the feedback and input. If you are interested in coming, please still leave a comment to that original post. I had no idea I was starting an avalanche when I rolled that snowball but it sure is cool.
