The Beauty of Face-to-Face: What I learned in NYC at Blogger Social '08

Last Saturday I found myself walking into a room full of 80 elegant bloggers—most of whom I knew by their written wisdom, several with whom I had exchanged multiple e-mails, but only a few of whom I had actually met in person.

The only word that I can use to describe the experience? SURREAL. Like, imagine knowing someone’s thoughts and ideas inside and out, but only really recognizing them by their smiling business photo. There are SO many little things that cannot come through written words or photos, or even video chat. Like, for example, the way someone shifts their weight when they talk to you. The way someone holds a glass. These seem like little trifles, but they all come together to define a person in a way that an avatar never can.

Anyway, the weekend was such an overwhelmingly different experience… and I really didn’t know how to approach "the recap" blog post. But then I read David Reich’s synopsis of the weekend and decided to take a page from his playbook. So I’m going to list ten quick and fun little tidbits I learned this weekend, and then tag 5 of my socialite buddies to do the same.

1.    Last weekend was the first time that Age of Conversation creators/editors Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton had ever met face-to-face.
2.    CK is just as lovely in person as she comes across in every blog post and photo she posts. She also wears jewelry over gloves, a fashion daring fashion choice that I find ever so chic.
3.    When you are in a foreign place and don’t know all the menu options, take a tip from Luc Debaisieux and just google image them. That’s how he decided against the Eggs Benedict.
4.    C.B. Whittemore can make you feel like a zillion dollars with one smile. She was the first to recognize me at the door, which instantly eased all of my nervous energy.
5.    A Singelringen is a Swedish ring for singles (I’m write a separate blog post with more details), and Linda Sherman wears two of them on her hands. I suppose they cancel each other out, because she’s got an amazingly cool husband, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Brunch.
6.    Back in undergrad, Jennifer Berk’s team won the MIT Mystery Hunt puzzlehunt contest. Yeah, it’s a really big deal.
7.    Last weekend was the first time that Arun Rajagopol had ever been to the United States, though he’s moving to Houston soon. I’m trying to convince him to settle in Austin instead though.
8.    Both of David Reich’s children went to school in Boston, and they now have very different and equally unique professions.
9.    Shashi Bellamkonda speaks something like 7 languages, and totally baffled my Soviet boyfriend when he broke out into fluent Russian. 
10.    Todd Andrlik is tall. Like, really, really tall. And has a glowing smile.

Now,
Kristin Gorski,
Toby Bloomberg,
Matt Dickman,
Cam Beck,
and Mario Vellandi,
what jewels of face-to-face goodness did you take away from last weekend's adventure in NYC?

P.S. These photos are courtesy of Matt Dickman and Lori Magno, and were taken from the Blogger Social Flickr pool.

Comments

[David Reich]

Ryan, your description of meeting bloggers we've never met or spoken with before is spot on.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other people learned over the weekend.

By the way, my daughter is a midwife in Maine (on hiatus while she raises our 2-1/2 year old grandson) and son Michael directs music videos in L.A., for groups like The Shins, The 88 and Brazilian Girls. (He'd love to do more corporate videos, so call me (his #1 agent) if you have a gig.)

See you soon, I hope, Ryan.

[C.B. Whittemore]

Ryan, how could anyone NOT smile at you? You not only looked ravishing in your perfect cocktail dress, but you exude as much energy in person as you do on your blog! I really enjoyed meeting you and can't wait to meet up again soon.

[Mario Vellandi]

Hi Ryan,
It was a pleasure meeting with you; the entire experience was indeed very surreal. I wish I could have made Sunday brunch, but was out late Sat. then with others at David's house. We all definitely could have benefited from more time to speak, but such is life - Now to clean up the reader/blogroll /network, so that the personal relationships (new & previous) are held precious, while cutting weak ties with limited value in the social following/network. Time is a dear asset; this last weekend made for some fantastic re-perceiving on our place in this new 'social' space and how we can best use that time to connect with people that are genuine and matter to us.

[Linda Sherman]

Hey Gorgeous,
I love this blog post.
I was so glad I came to Blogger Social and very happy that I chose the Sunday Brunch that you kindly organized for my Sunday activity.
Here is Ray's photo from the brunch. We apologize that Jennifer Berk's image doesn't do her justice. I look like I haven't slept in 3 days - cause I haven't! But it was worth it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3197/2399381599_b13140fa7f_o.jpg

[Toby]

Major lesson .. did not spend time with you!

[Drew McLellan]

Ryan,

I'm so glad that you were able to join in the fun! I would have loved to be at your brunch, but as you know, I had to scoot back to Des Moines at 6 am on Sunday.

It was surreal and yet perfectly natural at the same time, wasn't it? What an amazing weekend with some remarkable, good people!

Drew

[CK]

I learned that you are not only MORE beautiful in person (your skin is to be marveled at!) but that you are such a very, very "real" person...I was instantly comfortable with you.

And thank heavens for that. I dig real ;-).

[Cam Beck]

It looks like you got some of the same things out of it that I did. I'll be glad to play along. :)

[Kristin Gorski (KG)]

Hi Ryan -- I'm still working on my post about BS08! I found the gathering very powerful and inspiring. As I emailed to a friend, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around all of it, it was that big for me in so many ways -- I'll post soon! :)