I’ve been to a lot of conferences in my life at this point. As in, a lot. My friend Donald Brinkman (@brinkmanship) at Microsoft Research in Seattle keeps a collection of his conference badges hanging in his office, all clustered together like some strange bundle of obscure herbs in a rustic kitchen. Me, I have an old Apple Store bag in my closet stuffed with them. Either way, the symbolism is the same: each one of those little plastic name badges represents another event, in another place, in another year, with another group of (usually awesome) people, and, hopefully, another talk or presentation given. It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.
When I was first invited to participate in WyrdCon (@wyrdcon) 4 (held Sept. 12-15, 2013 in Orange County, south of LA) by my friends Angelique Toschi (@AngeliqueToschi) and Lauren Scime (@LaurenScime), I unhappily had to decline because WyrdCon was in LA and I was then in Seattle, still toiling away in the pixel mines at Microsoft. I should have known better. As we all know by now, the universe was determined to have me at WyrdCon, and so it engineered my departure from both Microsoft and Seattle and my family’s relocation to Los Angeles – as well as a hiccup in the best-laid panel plans by the always-lovely Alison Norrington (@storycentral) – all so I could appear at WyrdCon.
As it turns out, one should always trust the universe. WyrdCon 4 was one of the best convention/conference experiences I’ve ever had.
I should know this by now. I should absolutely know this. I always have so much fun at little conferences (like Readercon back in Boston, circa 2007-2009), because you can actually get to know people, not just do a quick exchanging of business cards as you’re being rushed out of a room so the next group can take the stage. Smaller cons are all about the people, and man, does WyrdCon draw a great bunch of people. Not only did I get to hang out with the aforementioned Lauren, Angelique and Alison, but I also got to:
- hang with my friends Sara Thacher (@thacher) from Disney Imagineering, game designer Mike Minadeo (@MikeMinadeo), transmedia masters Steve Peters (@vpisteve) and Jeff Gomez (@Jeff_Gomez), and that puckish rapscallion of a strategist+analyst Esther Lim (@geekgrl)
- meet wonderful new friends like professional storyteller True Thomas (aka Robert Seutter) and Lindsea K. Wilbur (@lindseak) from the Institute for the Future (@iftf)
- create a freaking cardboard dragon spaceship with a roomful of wonderful folks, led by my partner in crime at the Annenberg Innovation Lab Erin Reilly (@ebreilly)
- hear presentations by both Blizzard Entertainment and the guys behind Defiance, in an intimate small room instead of a cavernous ballroom so there was real, honest-to-goodness conversation happening
- perhaps most mind-blowingly of all, geek out with Jim Butcher (@longshotauthor, creator of The Dresden Files), one of my favorite authors on the planet right now
Long story short, the signal-to-noise ratio at WyrdCon was off the charts. If I have anything to say about it, WyrdCon will be an annual thing for me, at least as long as I’m in LA. It should be for you, too.
Come! Let us be weird (wyrd?) together – WyrdCon 5 will be held on Memorial Day weekend (May 22nd – 26th), 2014 at the Westin by LAX. See you there?
(For more pictures of the event, check out my Flickr photoset.)