Phoenix – Page 2 – Brian Shaler

October 28, 2009October 28, 2009

Geek Week AZ: Cross-Promotion

One of the goals of Geek Week AZ was to get event organizers to work together to benefit each others’ events. The result is more exposure and more attendees for everyone!

If you ask someone if they’re willing to cross-promote, they’ll surely say yes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always translate to action.

I decided to see which event sites were linking to other events going on during Geek Week AZ. I was looking for a score of 7, which would count as all of the “major” GWAZ events. There are at least 10 “extra credit” events (smaller ones that occur monthly or weekly, but occur during GWAZ).

Ignite Phoenix: Nov 3
Events linked: 0
Honorable mention for linking to Social Media Club Phoenix and PodCamp AZ, but the links are buried on the site in 2 blogs posts that are over a year old.

TEDxPhoenix: Nov 6
Events linked: 6 – AZ Entrepreneurship Conference, Desert Code Camp, Ignite Phoenix, PodCamp AZ, SustainaBIL, and WordCamp Phoenix
Disclaimer: I’m an adviser for TEDxPhoenix.

Desert Code Camp: Nov 7
Events linked: 0
(Note: The organizers of this event are doing a great job of putting together another great DCC, and I’ve even talked to Joe about cross-promoting on the site. He’s totally on-board, but he just recently obtained access to the site from its previous webmaster. This is not intended to “shame” DCC, but perhaps serve as a reminder and maybe even a sense of urgency?)

SustainaBIL: Nov 8
Events linked: 9 – AZ Entrepreneurship Conference, AZIMA, Desert Code Camp, Developer Ignite, Ignite Phoenix, WordCamp Phoenix, PodCamp AZ, Social Media Club Phoenix, and TEDxPhoenix
Disclaimer: I’m the lead organizer for this event, so of course I’m going to be cross-promoting!

Developer Ignite: Nov 11
Events linked: 1 – Ignite Phoenix

AZ Entrepreneurship Conference: Nov 12
Events linked: 3 – Ignite Phoenix, Social Media Club Phoenix, and PodCamp AZ
Honorable mention for linking to TiE AZ which has an event the week before GWAZ. Unfortunately, they linked to a broken version of the site that hasn’t been updated since 2006.

WordCamp Phoenix: Nov 13
Events linked: 0
UPDATE 10/28: Honorable mention for linking to AZ Entrepreneurship Conference and PodCamp AZ in a blog post (there are currently only 4 posts, so it’s relatively easy to stumble upon!).

PodCamp AZ: Nov 14-15
Events linked: 2 – AZEC09 and WordCamp Phoenix
UPDATE 10/28: An awesome email went out today, promoting and linking to Ignite Phoenix, TEDxPhoenix, SustainaBIL, Creative Connect, Gangplank Hacknight, AZEC09, Social Media Club Phoenix, and WordCamp Phoenix.
Disclaimer: I’m a helper / committee member.

All of the events listed here are doing a GREAT job putting together their events. I’m confident each one of them is going to rock! However, I think almost all of them could do a better job of supporting each other.

October 25, 2009October 25, 2009

Phoenix BIL Conference: SustainaBIL

SustainaBIL: November 8, 2009 11am-7pm

For some background on this most excellent adventure..

First there was TED. It’s an expensive and exclusive (invite-only) conference that brings together some of the most amazing people with some of the most spectacular stories. While initially TED was about [T]echnology, [E]ntertainment, and [D]esign, it grew to become an event all about Ideas Worth Spreading.

Enter BIL. A group of people around the country (maybe even around the world), made the observation that anyone can have and share big ideas. You don’t NEED a speaker line-up of best-selling authors, world-renowned performers, and the like to have ideas worth spreading. Also, anyone who wants to learn and share should be able to become involved. For people who know the history of BarCamp, BIL is to TED as BarCamp is to Foo Camp. (Also, ~~Keanu Reeves Fans~~ people who have seen Keanu Reeves’ movies might notice another layer of meta humor)

Hit the road, Jack. TED moved and BIL moved with it. But why stop there? Why only have BILs where there are TEDs? Don’t people everywhere have ideas worth spreading? BIL began to spread to the UK, to Santa Cruz (CA), and to San Diego. “Why not have one in Phoenix?” I thought. Turns out, one of the people behind the formation of BIL, Todd Huffman, was based in Phoenix!

Pick a flavor. With TEDMED and BIL:PIL taking on a single theme, healthcare, Todd suggested the Phoenix BIL conference take on a theme. With the amount of alternative energy, biofuel, and sustainable technology around Arizona, we decided on having a sustainability-themed BIL.

And finally, the announcement of SustainaBIL! SustainaBIL is bringing together people who are doing interesting things in the sustainability world to share their big ideas. The event will be a broad stroke at sustainability: energy, recycling, green tech, etc. Ideas will be around what individuals can do as well as small businesses or institutions.

I encourage you to check it out. The event is free (but donations are encouraged) and you can find sign up links at SustainaBIL.com.

July 19, 2009

You Are an Ambassador of Your Community

I tend to focus on Phoenix tech a lot. Hopefully, people outside of Phoenix who read what I write take the principles and apply them to their own localities and industries.

Curious to see what someone would find if they searched for “phoenix tech community,” I ran the search through Google, Yahoo, and Bing. I think we in Phoenix make a lot of noise from time to time, and we have so much going on that word occasionally reaches people across the country and even around the world. I wondered what outsiders would see, but also what locals would find if they set out to find their city’s tech community.

Astonishingly, this blog was at the top of the results — first on Google and Yahoo, but on Bing, it was second to a blog post about one of my blog posts.

What, am I bragging? Hell no.

I realized that there is room for improvement on my part. My blog post, “The Phoenix Tech Community,” was a good article, in my opinion. However, it is NOT what I would consider a good landing page for the tech community.

When someone searches for “phoenix tech community,” I want them to discover that there is a ton of stuff going on in Phoenix. They should be exposed to Phoenix events and meet-ups, Phoenix blogs, and Phoenix co-working spaces, and more.

I’m taking too long to get back to the title of this post, and it’s getting to be about time to wrap it up.

The pages people will find when they’re looking for the phoenix tech community weren’t deliberately written to be someone’s first impression. I became, without knowing, an ambassador for the community. Also without knowing, I wasn’t doing a great job with this ambassadorship.

It’s one more thing to keep in mind with my (and your) blog posts. You can become an ambassador of your community, simply by mentioning it. Try to be a good one.

July 18, 2009

Some Updates

I’ve been super busy recently (as always). I’m not going to be able to apologize for being a bad blogger, because I’m not a blogger. I’m a guy who writes code for a living, travels whenever possible, and tries to be active in the Phoenix tech community. Nowhere in there do I define myself as a blogger!

But on the topic of bloggers and blogging…

I happen to subscribe to about 200 Phoenix-based blogs (in part thanks to ReadPhoenix.com). I like to know what’s going on in Phoenix, and there’s no one source for that. There’s simply too much going on. I doubt many people would try to stick the fire hose of information into their mouths like I do.

When the topic came up about having a panel on blogging at a future Social Media Club Phoenix meeting, I skimmed through my RSS subscriptions and picked out a few of my favorites. Here are the bloggers I recommended:

Blogs with micro-communities:
The Wood Whisperer – Marc Spagnuolo
Arizona Coffee – Chris Tingom

Blogging techniques:
The Closet Entrepreneur – Tomas Carrillo
Convince and Convert – Jason Baer
Stealthmode – Francine Hardaway

Blogging about a product:
Method ~ of ~ Failed – Tim Heuer (Microsoft Silverlight evangelist)

PR & News:
Valley PR Blog – Run by a group.
Heat City – Nick Martin