This has been a Lovely Life List kind of week. I was in Toronto (cross the Canadian border, check!) to give a keynote speech (check!) at BlogPodium, Canada’s first and only design conference series for bloggers. The event was created by Jennifer Flores and Lindsay Stephenson and focused on the business of blogging.
I’m shy and awkward in social situations, but I actually like public speaking. Giving the keynote at BlogPodium felt a lot like the online video courses I’ve been teaching for Alt Summit. I prepared in the same way, by structuring my talk around the presentation I created, and the hour-long format was the same. The big difference, obviously, was in being able to see my audience.
It was good though! You know, except for the part where I tried to leave the stage with the little remote for advancing the slide presentations. I was nervously fiddling with it throughout my speech, and I walked off with it. I only got a few feet away before I realized it, hence my expression in the photo below. (See the remote in my hands?)
The panel after me consisted of Cheryl Kozoriz, Laura Muirhead, Lindsay Stephenson, and Cheryl Dovey, and moderated by Leigh-Ann Allaire Perrault. They spoke further about the business of blogging, and touched on the differences between American and Canadian bloggers.
Toronto has an amazing blogging community (I wish we had something like it in Chicago), and I had a great time meeting and spending time with so many Canadian design bloggers. Thank you, BlogPodium, for having me!
