Vloggercon-tentment

with the first ever Video Blogger convention. Around 80 people came out and soaked up the five sessions. This was a technical, artistic, business, and social networking feast. I stuck my head deep in the trough and inhaled.

People from both coasts and parts in between, Europe, and Latin America came. Collegehumor.com was there, represented by Jakob Lodwick, the youngest videoblogger in the world, Dillon Verdi, was there with her dad, Michael, my friend Yury (Magic Bike) Gitman was there. Documentarians Jeff Galusha, and Chuck (Blogumentary) Olsen were there. Shawn (Interactive Telejournalism) Van Every was there, "Bionic Dan" Melinger was there, Rocketboom.com was there, Ephrat (The Bit Goes on) Seidenberg was there, my former Rabbi's nephew, Josh Kinberg, was there, Jay Dedman of MNN was there, as were a bunch of community television folks from Lowell, Massechussetts. Then there was the youth politician guy from Norway. Representing the Bay Area tech heads were guys from feedster.com and yahoo. A woman from Time Out New York was busy taking notes and chatting people up. And these are just a few of the folks I met or saw in action. Of course, the heart and soul of the convention were the many people from the Yahoo Vlogging group who showed snippets of their work and were heavily represented by panels.

Those not able to be there in person were able to log onto the stream, which had around 60 viewers at one point. The sessions included talking about the technical tools and challenges of vlogging, the financial aspects of vlogging, and the artistic possibilities of the medium. I loved all the bits that were screened, from Steve Garfield's reality clip of him eating oatmeal with his wife (sounds ho-hum but was was touching and funny), to the remixed Sesame Street video in which three women spliced in clips of themselves to rhythmically accompany the soundtrack. All awesome.

Jay Dedman ran the conference with authority, forcing everyone to stick to the schedule and take breaks. Thank you. Tons of people pitched in to help with food, technical stuff, and general conventioneering.

Afterwards, I helped pack up tech gear and headed out into the blizzard to eat and absorb old media (words) at Barnes and Noble. Once they kicked us out of there we trundled down to the Collegehumor.com pleasure dome in Tribeca where Jakob hosted a relaxed but fun after party. Played some pool, had a few drinks, and got my schmooze on. I screwed up my courage and shook hands with Dillon Verdi mumbling that I liked her blog. Somehow that intimidated me more than when I introduced myself to Ed Koch a few weeks ago. All these people who only knew each other through video blogging were saying things like: "You're so big," or "That guy is so much shorter than he looks on his vlog." Very funny.

Anyway, I feel honored to have been a speck of sand on the beach of this event. I learned tons, met a bunch of cool cats, and saw some old friends and comrades. Congratulations to the Vlogging group that made this event happen. Take a bow. You deserve it.

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