Photos Courtesy of Jeremiah Owyang 

Stupid Towel Holder. That and a myriad of reasons held us up this morning as we rushed out the door late to the first session. Not my fault people. We got here just as Charlene Li finished up.

So I didn’t really discuss the purpose or goals of why my coworker and I are coming. Aside from the work we are doing on several fronts, theres alot I have been looking forward to from the conference. Heres a few… 

1. I really want to be a massive sponge and soak up as much as possible. Although I have kept up with Social Media and the new web for several years, I have recently been involved in putting myself out there and trying to add my part to the great social conversation going on now.

2. Meeting some of the people I have been keeping up with and truly learning from would be great. I wont name anyone here, but my focus is on the researchers and strategists working with non-2.0 companies to help them come online.

3. Experience an industry event and how the players interact with each other. Through all the bickering I see on the web and disagreements, it will be interesting to see how these people interact with each other in person. Through the deeply different perspectives, a conversation forms. Its time to see the live version.

4. Along that same thread, I want to see how companies that are competitors interact and speak about each other. Its a whole new dynamic, competitors talking to each other and sharing information. To be honest it makes me uncomfortable to see myspace and facebook talk one after the other like I have seen so far. Tons of discussion around how great Facebook is, but how does Myspace feel about that. Are they thinking “we need to do all that?” Or do they see their user base as different and have accepted the techno elite will stick with Facebook?

Those are my personal focuses aside from the ones for Work. Then again, its all Personal, and its all work. I’m gonna have to get use to that.