I attended the Blogging for Business panel hosted by the Alliance of Technology and Women because our friend Tara Hunt was on the panel and invited Julia and I, as well as our friend Vera. Alliance of Technology and Women seems like an amazing organization! It was a welcoming environment with a lot of amazing people.
Of course, Factoryjoe was there, and participating.
It was an awesome session with a very diverse group of speakers, though my expectations were for less a presentation and more of a panel discussion.
Tara was amazing. She told her stories — no slides. She is a savvy person who is very generous with sharing her understanding.
There is a place in my heart for a marketer.
Robin Stavisky and Paul Rosenfeld presented something that was digestible by conventional business leaders, though Paul seems fun 
Then Tara challenged the participants and audience’s comfort zone. Her approach is advocating our peers’ perspectives and really interacting with her community. “Unmarketing”, she jokes.
Then John Earnhardt gave his shpeal. It felt like he tried to feed us Cisco PR crap from stock Cisco slides. Maybe, he spoke to the "policy makers" in the audience. To paraphrase his response to a question, "these numbers aren’t actually from the blog, it is the whole newsroom website."
Lasting through John’s presentation was well worth it. Britt told her stories — also, no slides. She seems like an amazing participant in making the world a better place. She has at least one new subscriber to her blog
technorati tags: blogging, business, blogging for business, tara hunt, britt bravo
So glad you came. I thought Tara (and Britt) was a breath of fresh air too. And I was touched by her gutsyness. I realized (after the fact) that I didn’t provide enough time for real discussion. I will do it differently next time. Best, Robin