Oh Brother! (said with a grin!)
August 30, 2008
[there are a LOT of links in this post - I added them purposely because they take you to good content; click them now if you will...or come back another time to click them]
I've been back from my trip to NYC for several days now. I was there as part of a small blogger panel to sit at a roundtable on small business. We were facilitated by none other than Steve Strauss, Mr. All Biz, himself.
The trip was uneventful. Driving to NYC was far easier than I'd ever imagined and I think we may do it, again. Parking isn't fun, of course, but even that was a minor inconvenince compared to sitting and sitting and sitting, at the airport.
At the roundtable, we did two things - we talked about how small business is doing in a "down economy," and we talked about Brother printers. Brother, the company that makes printers, was one of the sponsors. I knew that going in and had no problem with it. (ok, I admit it...I'm a fan. Always have been. Have at least one Brother printer in my office.)
I may have to write more than one post, over time, about the roundtable and all of the bloggers who were there. They were all outstanding, but none better than our facilitator, Steve Strauss, who was and is very charming and approachable. (gave him a copy of Lee Thayer's Leadership book...wonder what he thinks of it)
Steve writes a column at USA Today called "Ask an Expert," for those who are not aware of him. A recent column touted blogs as a "fad" but really positioned the act of blogging as something small business should consider. I like the way Steve wrote about blogging in that column.
At the event, we each had our own opinion (we are bloggers, after all) about the economy, and how small business is dealing with it. Bob Phibbs has a post up on one part of our discussion (should gas station owners blog?) That started with Gene Marks who said his clients, many of whom are gas station owners, don't need to blog. Hmmm...what do you think? Yes or no?
Jay Heyman of Porte Advertising showed off his book, All You Need is a Good Idea, which sounds like a good read to me. He has a blog of the same title.
Carmina Perez of Mogulette, was delightful. I am becoming an eager reader of her blog. And, Peter Piazza was both warm and welcoming, as well as informative. He writes for About.com, on printers and scanners.
All in all, the conversation was lively. We didn't solve the world's problems, but we shared some essential insights - and I got to meet some truly outstanding bloggers. I hope you'll visit them all and see what they have to offer. It's valuable content for small business owners - like you and me .
Oh yeah, and check out the Brother printer. Open admission: Brother gave all of us a label maker. Very kewl! And, Steve Strauss gave us a copy of his book! I promise to interview him when I'm done with it. The Small Business Bible, 2nd Edition - is chock full of content I'll be sharing...likely while I read.
Tomorrow, just to get you ready...I'll have my interview with Jenny Cisney of Kodak's 1000 Words Blog, about her trip to China to attend the Olympics. Very interesting and exciting (I'm sure you all know that Kodak was a sponsor, right? Wait till you see these pictures!)
TTFN!
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