ASAE 2008 Here I come!

As I am tearing my hair out trying to get all my [stuff] together and finish all my association work and get everything ready for our YAP party and get my nails done and launch my own business and pack and everything else before I head off to San Diego, I thought I would pause for a moment and, as promised, give you another wee round up of things you need to know as you get ready to head west (or south, if you are already west).

Here's my original schedule post.

Here's a few others' - Jeff, Elizabeth, Jamie. You'll notice there's a wee bit of repetition, as we're all bloggers and therefore all going to blogger-related stuff!!

The most important addition to this is the Blogger Unconference - just a bunch of us hanging out again for the benefit of those bloggers who are actually presenting during the time slot of the main bloggercon.

Here's Lindy's nice post for first timers. My main advice - find me and Lindy (it should be pretty easy, we are joined at the hip, permanently attached to our cellphones, and usually giggling in the back of the room about something). So find us, and we will take you under our collective YAP Hostess wings and introduce you to everyone. And don't worry about imposing on us - that is what we are all about! You're never alone when you're a YAPstar.

Follow the Twitter backchannel, and join the TextMob. Confused about the difference? The Twitter channel will give you the scoop on behind the scenes stuff, but you can't really converse with it or with everyone on it as a group (you can of course talk to any individual from the group that you choose to follow). It's best for reading online (including on your phone browser). The TextMob is for those who want individual messages on their mobile phone and who want to send messages to the whole group also - it will mostly be about meetups or chatter about a session that's great or one that sucks - it can get pretty hectic so choose this option wisely - and definitely make sure you have an unlimited text plan on your phone. Learned that the hard way in Chicago last year!

These are all ideas for making this annual meeting the best ever. There's hundreds more things to do, parties to go to, sessions to participate in, etc. But really, I think the most important part of a conference like this is what happens in the unscheduled times, in random hallway meetings, in conversations with the people you sit next to at lunch that you find some unexpected connection with. I found friends for life in Chicago last year, I hope you will too.

I plan to blog a lot while I am there, but of course you never know, and I may instead be off the radar. If that's the case, I'll be back next week.

Go forth and be social! I'll see you there!