My next Ignite Phoenix presentation will be better

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Ignite Phoenix the Third was last night. And by all accounts, it was far and above the best event so far. The Tempe Center for the Arts was a great venue. A packed venue that quickly setup video screens outside the room for those who couldn't get in. 300+ extremely appreciative people. Wait, don't forget the beer and wine. That tends to help!

And yet, I walked away disappointed. Not in any of the things I mentioned above. Not in the organizers who did a fabulous job as usual. And not at my fellow presenters, some of which knocked it out of the park.

No, my disappointment comes as I reflect upon my own presentation. I screwed up. In three ways:

• Overconfidence: I spoke on a topic I'm well-versed in. I spent at least four hours assembling my 20 slides. I rehearsed it several times until I had the timing pat. I did all of that over a week ago. And then I didn't look at the presentation again until it started showing on the big screen.
  
  I've heard it said that airline pilots work the hardest at takeoff and landing -- the plane pretty much flies itself in between those points. Turns out it's the same for me and presenting. Once I got rolling, it went pretty well. Even the ending was OK (since the Ignite format doesn't leave a lot of room for long "In conclusion..." slides). But I totally boffed the opening. Which threw me off for the rest of the presentation.
  
  Had I spent 60 seconds flipping through the slides an hour before I went on, I would have nailed it. But I didn't. Cocksure doesn't go far enough to describe me at times.
  
  
• No outside editor: Simple mistakes get made. It's easy for our eyes to overlook them, especially when they are the same eyes that are connected to the brain that made the mistake in the first place. In my case, I had a unit of measurement wrong. The number that came from the calculations was right, but a transposing error threw the whole thing off. Sometimes these tiny mistakes crash presentations. Sometimes satellites. In hindsight, I should have sent the whole presentation -- a whopping five minutes -- to Phil Plait for vetting. He helped me with some of the math anyhow, and I'm sure he would have caught my gaff in an instant.
  
  
• No notes: I'm not much of a note-taking person. I craft my slides in such a way that they contain clues about what I want to say. And since I'm good at memorizing my points, it hasn't been much of an issue in the past. But the two prior errors caused me to be a bit flustered as I progressed, compounding errors. I forgot words. I transposed names. I started shooting from the hip. Granted, I've got decent aim from there. But it would have been better to have an anchor to draw me back in.

But don't get the impression that I bombed. I doubt I'll be banned from future talks. Everyone in the audience seemed to appreciate what I had to say. And all in all, the intent of my talk was successfully conveyed to the audience. Though I'm sure at least one person caught an error and wrote me off on principle. I say this because I do this.

The good news: I can fix it in post. I'll get some time to record myself giving the talk here in my own domain. Where I won't screw up. And that's the one I'll post for you.

Social Media Triage LIVE on Ustream.tv - Alpha launch

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For months now I've been talking about Social Media Triage. It's all about quick and actionable tactics -- course corrections, if you will -- for your current social and new media efforts. Hey, sometimes an outside eye helps. And lords know I've made enough mistakes in this field over time.

I've decided to try and use the power of live internet video to help me get this out to the greater world. Yes, a full 1.5 hour session of SMT does cost money, but the live video I do weekly (?) will be free. I might as well eat my own dog poo, since I preach that giving away free content can and does lead to sales. So here I go!

Right now, this is VERY much an alpha project. I did something similar last weekend specifically to Podiobooks.com authors and producers. It'll be for an hour, so come on over and ask questions.

Please note that this is specifically designed for newbies, for folks who need help. I do not want to see my social and new media buddies show up and turn this into yet another social event. You're welcome to hang out in the wings and offer up your $0.02, but please understand the intent. I won't take offense if I don't see a pile of friends in there.

There are several ways you can RSPV and get more info:

• Upcoming
  
• Facebook event
  
• Facebook group
  
• Current Ustream.tv channel (subject to change)

So come on over and pick my brain for an hour this coming Saturday. After that... we'll see!

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Prepping for Big Distance at Ignite 3

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My talk on Big Distance has been selected by the fine folks at Ignite Phoenix 3! So now I know what I'm doing the evening of February 25th. Oh, and the weekends leading up to that, as I still need to finish the talk. It's called "Big Distance", and it's in a similar style as my Big Time talk from the first Ignite Phoenix.

If you can't make the event (live or on uStream), I'll post the slides when I'm done.

But if you want a preview, the scarily-talented George Hrab has just released a video of a new song, FAR. Both his song and my talk are in the same spirit. My talk will go into more details. But his has a snappy beat. And uses the phrase "uber-far".

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What does #evfn stand for?

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The next time someone asks "What does #evfn stand for?", please direct them to the link behind that query.

Or you could just tell them it stands for East Valley Friday nights. But sending the link above is much funnier. Here's the description that I use on Upcoming, Yelp, Facebook and anywhere else I can think to spread it:

#evfn is a weekly social gathering organized primarily over Twitter. It stands for East Valley Friday Nights and yes, you are invited.

Remember the agenda: no agenda. Have fun. Meet people. Party on!

So if you're in any of the "east valley" cities of the greater Phoenix area or are planning on being in town any Friday night, rest assured that we'll be having an #evfn from 6:00 - 8:00. We're averaging about 40 people as of late, so it's becoming a bit of a challenge to find establishments that can handle us. But we're doing OK and we have a few "go-to" places that are happy to take the huge influx of cash we give them once a week.

There's a Flickr group set up so you can see some images of prior events. Anyone and everyone can contribute photos here, so load 'em up!

Want to stay informed? The best way is to sign up for our Upcoming group. That's the "official" place to RSVP. If your account is properly configured, you'll get an email when the venue is set.

And since this event is primarily organized via Twitter, you can search for #evfn to find the conversation. I suggest following a few links and checking the date. Would hate to see you wind up at where we were in the past!

See you at an #evfn soon!

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I'm on The Scotch Cast

In a recent trip to chilly Cleveland, I was invited by the boys at The Scotch Cast to guest on their show. Being an avid fan of single malt scotch, I humbly obliged.

Humble being the key word. These boys know their scotch. I show -- in this incredibly long 57 minute podcast episode -- that I have much to learn. But they are patient teachers and put out a well thought out show. Next time I'm forced to freeze my buns off in Cleveland, I hope to be back on the show!

Drink well!

CareerCamp dates announced

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Douglas E. Welch is smarter than me. It's that simple. He's also nicer than me and generally more helpful and caring. I strive to be like him. I fall terribly short. I'm grateful that he's allowed me to be the point-man for New Media Interchange Phoenix. And someday I hope to follow through on my plans. It's a good thing we're friends, or I'd have to have him wiped out for making me look bad.

But Douglas isn't stopping with his current accolades. He's just announced CareerCamp:

CareerCamp Online is an unconference in the style of BarCamp, PodCamp and other “camp-like” unconferences. All attendees are highly encouraged to also give a presentation and, at the very least, participate in the conversation.

CareerCamp Online seeks to provide the best and most current career information possible , especially in light of the economic downturn and the large number of layoffs.

Since career problems effect everyone regardless of geographic boundaries, I decided to opt for an online version of CareerCamp so that as many people as possible could participate.

I'm signing up now. You should to. If you're not familiar with the "camp" conferences, they are legion. Read his post for more info. And come join us. :)

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Google shuts down six services you probably don't use

Image by evo_terra via FlickrGoogle is shutting down some services. When you catch your breath, read on to find out why I don't really care.

• Dodgeball - I'm using Brightkite. Think of it as "location-based Twitter". The user base is no where as large as Twitter. And it will never replace Twitter. But it's a neat tool that has led me to meet at least ONE interesting person in real life.
  
• Google Catalog Search - There's not much need to search online catalogs. Any company with a catalog has figured out how to put together an ecommerce website by now (hello, 2009). And if you want to search multiple, you'll use comparison shopping engines. Though these leave a lot to be desired. But so do most ecommerce websites.
  
• Google Mashup Editor - Nifty and cool for developers. Unknowable for the rest of us. Plus the mashups that came out simply added to the aggregation problem. We need better filters, not ways to combine and create more.
  
• Google Notebook - I used this for a while, but now I have Evernote. Which was coded by God. Or at least a minor-deity.
  
• Jaiku - Surprised it took that long. Hi, Twitter.
  
• Google Video - This really isn't "killing" as much it is putting the YouTube purchase in full play. No need for two identical services owned by the same company.

The disappearance of these tools will be -- and in fact is -- a non issue for most. As you can see, their are better tools that exist in the same niche as each. Smart move on Google's part to recognize that fact. It's a big internet.

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