If you all haven’t heard about the big arse interactive festival we threw over the weekend, I implore you to check out some recaps of the festival!  Here is quick view of the festival from my humble POV.

• Friday: I had the honor of moderating a panel called “The Small Business and Social Media.”  My first foray into panel moderation, so I have to thank everyone who went/saw/conquered and the panelists (Marianne Richmond, David Gray, Matt Homann, Madalyn Sklar, and last – but not certainly least – Ben Vierck) for making the panel work-it-superstar-catwalk style.  We talked about stretching the marketing dollar using social media, building an online profile, and a whole bucket of stuff.
  • I also worked with Gregg and Joel getting tents in order (more about that later), received a few “OMG, send help!” calls (one turned out to be just a ploy to get me to share a drink the the very funny group of people who were on my panel), and eventually ended making an early evening phone call to the owner of a parking lot to have them kindly ask the tow truck that had my beloved Disco Stu (my beloved Cavalier) all ready to make a journey to the tow yard (for a good laugh at the pics check out Gregg’s inter:PLAY pictures here).  After a defcon-5 scream and a pleading for his release, I am happy to say I learned a good lesson about “Don’t Park Here After Dark” signs, but still got to drive home.
• Saturday: I had the honor of moderating the “CSS for the Rest of Us” panel.  Craig Mayhem and John Judy made that panel interesting, fun, and I learned a couple of new things (like: have you heard about the firebug pulg-in?). 
• Saturday: I so thrilled I almost peed my pants when I got to speak on the panel “If You Build It, Will They Come? Branding Yourself Online,” with two distinctive gentlemen (Bill Streeter and David Gray) and our distinctive moderator (Marianne Richmond).  We waxed poetic about building a brand, employing multi-sensory branding online, what a brand is, and it was fantastic.  I loved it, loved it, loved it, and now I am all thinking about branding and marketing again.
  • For those of you who know how accident prone I am, you won’t be surprised to hear that while running towards the police I incurred a bloody (double-entendre intended) accident when I swan-dived onto the concrete by way of a sound cable.  Long story short: the blogger’s lounge got set up, the ticket was avoided, and three gigantic tents were hauled down and alley with the help of the ever amazing Tam and Courtney Watson – it was a hard fought success, but we emerged victorious. 
  • We had some awesome burgers from Blueberry Hill, drank some pretty strong drinks, and I learned that Kim is not only a whiz at IP, but she must be the best momma-nurse ever.  She got me some ice and 7-Up and it was as good as tomato soup and grilled cheese when you have a horrible cold.

What an awesome first go at organizing something like this for St. Louis.  Loving hearing the feedback and the forehead slap of those who missed it.