The 2010 Author Pow Wow

It's been a whirlwind couple of days so far this week, but the 2010 Author Pow Wow wrapped up yesterday. My one sentence review? It's amazing how much people can help each other when they come together. Filled with authors, speakers, publishers, publicists, editors, media, consultants, social media experts, and more, the Pow Wow is a focused concentration on all the issues one faces when they consider connecting their idea with the world. As you can imagine, it's a lot to take in. The first day started off with Steve Shapiro's Personality Poker, which was a perfect way to get everyone to understand their best skills, other people's skills, and how to work with people you like the least. It was also the closest a business conference can get to a back alley poker game... Panels on social media, publishing, sales, and speaking turned into lively full-room discussions, questions, experience-sharing, and group insight that equated simply to pure magic. Each day was capped with talks by individuals who have some incredible ideas about business, people, and how we can and do work together. Knowledge was shared. Lives were changed. Here's me introducing the first one, Chris Guillebeau. Chris talked about how he never took a traditional career path, worked in Africa, started a blog, developed digital products, wrote a book, and went on a 63 city book tour. And he described it all in the most straightforward, simple, yet smart way you could imagine. As one attendee mentioned out loud at the end of his talk, "he's the real deal." And then there was Sally Hogshead, who helped everyone identify their fascination triggers. If that sounds light, imagine how I felt when I discovered my boss' triggers were "Power / Lust." Similar to Steve's opening session, Sally helped the group recognize their personality qualities in order to help them create stronger personal brands. By the end of the day, groups of people began discussing new strategies for their social media presence based on this newly acquired knowledge. She also got Jack Covert to drink a shot of Jaegermeister... Thanks again to everyone involved. It was a truly exciting and educational week. For those of you that missed out, we'll be doing it again soon. Stay tuned!