You guys know I’m very critical of conferences.  So when I say that Stamats put on one of the best conferences I’ve attended in my professional career, I hope that really means something.  It was awesome.  A ton of great speakers and great conversation.  I’d bet all the money in my pockets that more than a few people had “ah ha!” moments.   Here are some of my key takeaways: 

The dichotomy of not only generations but also experience level was profound.  I think it was probably pretty representative of the higher ed web world at large - a small contingent of content creators (usually the younger folk), a lot of people who “get it” but are still overwhelmed with everything and a medium group of people somewhere in between.  Someone (and I think it might have been Matt but correct me if I’m wrong) made the point that each of these groups had a very different experience of the conference - those who were really engaged with each other over twitter experienced much more than those who didn’t have an account. 

Attending conferences in person is still extremely relevant. I recently participate in the <head> conference, which was basically two and a half days worth of webinars.  Sure, a ton of information was available, but I was less than enthralled. It just wasn’t engaging!  Sure, I could have chatted and such but frankly, i don’t just care about asking a speaker questions when i go do a conference - the best part is sitting around drinking a beer and talking to the other speakers and attendees in a casual setting:

That was us on the first night in Brad’s room livestreaming on ustream, taking questions from people who came to watch us from Twitter.  You can’t tell from this picture, but there were like a dozen people in the room hanging out that night just chatting it up (here they were all out on the balcony smoking real cuban cigars!).  Stuff like this proceeded for the next few nights - THIS is why conferences are worthwhile.  Presentations are great, but moments like this are where you get the really good stuff.  That’s why its important for you to be engaged with the community BEFORE you come to the conference - anyone who was on Twitter that night was certainly invited to come down and hang with us.  Your homework: Get on Twitter and follow all these people (listed in no particular order): 

 

Those are the people that made the conference experience so awesome for me (not to be confused with a full list of kick ass people to follow!)

Be nice to your content creators.  Seriously.  I’m not just saying that because I am one! This conference was the number one trending topic on Twitter and Stamats got that for the bargain price of $0. They didn’t pay us to do that.  Hell, they didn’t even ASK us to do that. We just did it because its what we do.  When we go to events, we blog and tweet the hell out of them. How much buzz do that create for Stamats? How much buzz could you create for your company/institution if you got a bunch of people like us to blog and tweet the hell out of it?  I know I’m the ROI girl and love concrete numbers, but I’ll also admit the value of buzz without needing any convincing. 

Not all web celebrities are bastards.  Some are.  Not Chris Brogan.  He’s a cool guy and I really enjoyed hanging out with him (and hearing him speak, of course.  But again, the hanging out part is better). 

Don’t think you need to do everything you heard.  A lot of times when we do presentations or write on blogs, we’re talking about an ideal.  But I’ll be the first to say that the ideal I see in my head is near impossible to achieve when you live in the constricting world of higher education. It just doesn’t happen (except maybe in Brad’s world).  Don’t be overwhelmed.  Just take one thing at a time and work on it until you do it well.  Then tackle the next thing. And the next.  There’s always going to be something new to play with so keep your eye out for emerging technologies that you can integrate into your programs.  New, cool stuff pops up every day.  

Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Be original.  

 

I think most of the people who presented at Stamats would readily admit that they literally make this stuff up as they go.  There really aren’t many playbooks to follow with technology because, relatively speaking, it’s still very new.  Too often in higher ed, we resort to just following the lead of what other schools are doing.  Don’t be afraid to make up your own strategy as you go.  You might hit on something really effective.

Airports are the best places to shop…and if you’re going to be at the Tampa airport for the next few days, Wilson Leather is having a massive sale.  My new bag may actually have been the highlight of the entire conference. It’s so pretty!

 

More evidence for engaging in the community: So moments after this picture was taken, I got an email from JetBlue telling me my flight was cancelled.  I ran down to customer service to raise hell, but in the meantime JetBlue was paging me in the terminal.  Donna, who I met at the conference, happened to be on the same flight as me and was already waiting.  She had been following Rachel on Twitter, and so she knew that we were hanging out together at the airport together.  She then called Rachel to let her know that I had to get my butt to the terminal to get on that flight!  Thank goodness for technology (both email and Twitter in this case) or I might still be in Florida!