At SocComm1, for the first time ever in my life, I realized how powerful experiencing a conference can be. SocComm really catapulted me into my entrepreneurship and use of twitter to build my community, my passions and a learning space. Just one day of intense talks, thinking and connections left lasting lessons on me – here and here.
Jeff Pulver is doing it again. He has a super conference called The 140 Character Conference, where he is bringing together the best of folk and having them talk around the most interesting of topics – all centered around twitter. For as real and intense twitter can be, I can only fathom how intense, immense and powerful this conference can be for someone as steeped into twitter as I am.
Of course, the conference is in New York and unaffordable for me. So here I am, applying for a scholarship for the #140conf. Wish me luck, and if you think I so deserve, so not forget to put a tweet out in my favor -
@jeffpulver I recommend @thinkmaya for #140conf because ……
And if you can make it to the conference, PLEASE go. Jeff Pulver knows how to do conferences.
And yes, I have a feeling I will see you there. I hope!
HERE GOES -
My relationship with twitter:
It is now 6 months since I started working on my own startup – Memetales – a children’s picture book bazaar. From the very first day, through the power of twitter, I have built a passionate community of writers and illustrators eagerly collaborating around children’s picture books. Thus began my intense fascination with twitter. While it seems like a numbers game from the outside, twitter has made is possible for me to create a community with passion and engagement. With the help of twitter, the everyday learning and real time feedback from the community, my startup has evolved from a simple book bazaar into a potential web 2.0 publishing platform for content centric experiences, marketing and learning. As I see the stories in the publishing space emerge on a daily basis, I learn, respond and plan for the new emerging space and work on how I want my company to evolve the space. Twitter is paving the way for disruptive technologies and ideas in the publishing space and it is incredibly fascinating and enriching to be a part of this journey.
Why would I like to be at 140conf?
Learning is perhaps the single most important thing for me in my life. I learn a LOT through twitter. But having been at SocCom1 and experiencing the power of real time learning and real time connecting, packed up into a short time, around intense and sensitive subjects, to me, is an intellectual experience with few parallels. 140conf has evolved into an amazing two days including a number of spaces I play in (news, book publishing, social good, user experiences, moms, digital, PR). Participating in this conference is not only key for me as an entrepreneur but also as a volunteer educator of Social Media at local colleges and as the Director of Education(volunteer) of the Social Media Club, Seattle and as Board Member of MomItForward (#gno on twitter). Being a parent of two little children, time is precious. Working on startup by myself, while putting in years of my own hard earned money makes money incredibly precious. While I would like to be at this conference VERY much, the registration+flight+stay+nanny makes 140conf completely unaffordable. A scholarship, which I would appreciate immensely, would really put the conference in my reach.
Why would you want me at SocComm?
For my passion. As simple as that I think. My passion and my ability to learn and share. Real lessons and real discoveries. I do think I have (from my years spent at getting 2 masters – tech and business) the ability to pick up things super fast and apply them to various fields at various points on the time scale. Twitter has been immensely valuable in my own venture – I will be able to communicate and share my experiences and examine changes and the WHYs. I am not shy about participating and am most energized by an intellectual conversation. And yes, I am willing to volunteer and help with anything you might need with respect to the conference as well – such as live stream the event, live blog it etc.
SO once again, if you are on twitter, here is something you can do for me -
@jeffpulver I recommend @thinkmaya for #140conf because ……
Thanks a LOT!