This week I took a trek up to Raleigh, NC to attend BlogCarolinas, a social media event for individuals in the
Triangle. I had contacted the organizer, Lee White, and offered my services with the SEO session. I also was eager to meet Andy Beal and hear him speak. The event was free, supported by local sponsors.
As I boarded my plane in Miami I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference. I knew that the Triangle area had a ton of tech companies and thus would foster a great deal of social media, but how many people would attend.
I was shocked Friday morning.
Not only did the turn out go past my expectations, but the level of knowledge in the group was quite impressive.
In my opinion the Triangle offers a social media community that rivals San Fran, New York, or Seattle.
Quick proof of this could be seen from the presence of Beal (a resident of the area), social media superman Wayne Sutton(twitter @waynesutton, mashup madman Ryan Boyles, and citizen journalist maven Ginny Skal (twitter @ginnyskal).
BlogCarolinas was half traditional interactive conference structure, half unconference. The talented atendees were easily able to lead sessions, including a heated debate about twitter (I missed the fun since I was doing site clinics for people in the learning lab.)
Being from SoFla, an area that feels completely segemented as far as social media and search goes, I was pretty jealous of the community the Triangle residents had created. They are easily able to accomplish almost any projects they want due to a superior contact network.
Grrrrrrr.
The folks in NC should take pride, and covet what the community they have built. Hopefully they also realize the potential they have in this community, and in the next five years we can say that one of the biggest Web innovations during that time came out of the Triangle.
Hey Dave, thanks for the shout out. I posted my super raw live-blog notes from your SEO session here. Enjoyed it.
You’re very kind. Thanks for making the trek all the way from Miami. It’s cool to hear an outside perspective on the Triangle, reminds me that it is a rad place to be doing what we’re doing. I don’t want to start taking that for granted. Best.
Yes yes, I must echo Ginny. Props for coming up from FL to join our little gathering. It was very very good to have you with us.
Glad you enjoyed the event and sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet.
Hey my new FL friend, same as Ginny thanks for making the trip and the kind words. You’re a SEO super hero too!
I too hope that soon the Triangle will have some big web projects annouced soon.
Chat with you online
Wayne
It was great to finally meet in person. Great job with leading the SEO discussion!
Dave: Good to meet you and chat over lunch. I agree it was an awesome time.
Dave
Thanks for the good words. Glad you made it up for the event. We’ll see you next time…
Lee
Good to meet you in person at lunch, Dave! We do have a great community here, which I think sometimes we take a little for granted… or maybe it’s just modesty, that we figure everyone else must be doing as well or better, and don’t realize what a great community we’re making. Nice to get a different perspective on what we’re building here. It’s still very much a work in progress. :)
–Diane “torka”
Sad I missed all this, we will have to catch up next time!
I will echo your comments. Great conference and a deep well of solid professionals in the triangle. Sorry I did not get to meet you personally, maybe next time.
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