Seattle MindCamp

Yesterday was the start of the Seattle MindCamp 1.0, conceived and organized by Andru Edwards (of Gear Live). The concept is fairly provacative ... what would happen if you took 150 "thought leaders", stuck them together in an office building, and let them talk with each other about whatever they might want to talk about? I was fully expecting this to be a giant dork fest, and didn't plan on spending overnight at what some of the media were calling a "nerd sleepover".

However, I decided that if I was going to spend the time at such an event, I was going to make the most of it. I came out of my anti-social shell, introduced myself to random people, and started having some very interesting conversations.

I talked to Todd Bishop (of the Seattle PI) on several occasions, about journalism, RSS, video games, and the like. I got to sit with Robert Scoble and argue about whether RSS was promoting groupthink, and picked his brain on how to get my boss to start blogging (his answer: talk him into letting you do it for him). One question I started to ask before Chris Pirillo coaxed him into going for sushi was, "Do you ever find that all of the influential people you talk to seem to be so narrowly focused on one message, that it's all they ever talk about?" Maybe he'll see this and post an answer to his blog. I also met Chris' lovely fiancee Ponzi. I can see why he likes her ... she's a really cool chick! She also introduced me to Brian Livingston of Windows Secrets. This happened all day, as we told people about what we do, and they introduced us to others with similar drives. The one guy I regret never getting to talk to was Phillip Torrone ... that guy intimidates me. He's wicked smart and can do things with a gadget that I can't even fathom. He's fearless!

Something I've been wanting to do for a while was to lead a discussion about the next-generation of video games. So I walked over to this wall that had a matrix of rooms and timeslots, and tossed my subject on it. I fully expected a "Who's this guy and why should I listen to him talk about video games" response. Instead, I had become come to the discussion looking to me as an authority, and while I had no agenda planned, it gave us the opportunity to just take the discussion whereever it happened to go. Suddenly, an hour had passed, so we took the conversation out into the main room and just kept going!

Other people used the wall as a way to gather information. Jamie Steven of Speakeasy.net posted a topic about Corporate Blogging which I attended, and he just wanted to talk to people about if they were doing it, what the pitfalls might be, if people had lost jobs because of it, etc. The discussion was riveting, and we even convinced a company that manufactures electric cars to start blogging to get themselves some attention.

In the end, I wish I could have stayed, but family obligations had to drag me away. It was a fantastic event (despite the lack of a broadband connection, which nary one of 150 geeks could get to work reliably), and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one! Congratulations, Andru!

Update: Posted my Flickr photo set from MindCamp 1.0!