I decided not to attend Mesh Day 2 because I need to pump out another 50-pages for my manuscript. I was going to use Day 2 to hold an unconference, sort of a Podcamp Mesh, as there were a number of questions unanswered from my workshop on podcasting. Next time…

Day 1 was fabulous. First, I just love MaRS, the place where Mesh was held. The entire building is so futuristic. On the outside, the building looks historic. On the inside, it was fully restored. I believe it’s a research facility and it’s just gorgeous inside.

I picked up my tag, my speaker’s gift (a red pair of men’s briefs) then plopped myself down in the front row. A guy sat beside me and immediately pulled out his Blackberry. He was heads down working away on his Blackberry from the time he sat down until the presentations began.

So, I wrote that dude off as someone I could network with. However, I wasn’t alone for too long. I caught up with Donna Papacosta, Maggie Fox, Rohan J, Ben Lucier, Mark Kuznicki, Bryce Johnson, Sheila, all before the welcome and keynotes happened.

I sat through the 2 keynotes and attended 2 workshops. Mike Arrington was my highlight. He was just so funny. He’s the Simon Cowell of Silicon Valley, brutally honest and controversial. One quote sticks out. He asked the audience how was the wi-fi. People gave their thumbs up. Arrington then said:

“People judge a conference by how good the wi-fi works.”

Actually, there was something else that Arrington said that sticks out. Someone asked him why did he hire Heather (don’t remember her last name) as the new CEO of Techcruch. He replied by saying that Heather is smart and brilliant. That she brings a sense of calm to the place and evens out his emotional, erratic behaviour. It’s interesting to hear a man say he’s the emotional one 🙂

he next keynote was with Austin Hill and Tom Williams. I liked Austin Hill for 2 reasons:

1. He had some classic quotes (one which I’m using in my book), and;
2. Despite being around so much money, he’s just a simple guy.

Hill said something that made me think alot about podcasting. He said that when people collaborate online, they gather around a particular issue and become activists. The way I wrote it doesn’t sound as profound as when Hill said it, but I’m going off of memory. I’d have to listen to the recording to get what he said word-for-word.

I think this is the part of Web 2.0 we often miss. We talk about users as evangelists, as groups and as customers. But very rarely do I hear people online referred to as activists.

At lunch, I caught up with my client, George Tsiolas. It was nice to hang out with George and chat about non-business stuff. He gave me some valuable advice about how to shorten my sales cycle. I’m going to implement it and see how things change because of it. Thanks George for the tip.

After lunch, I attended the Blogging 101 workshop led by Jeremy Wright, as well as the Wiki 101 workshop led by David Crowe. In the Blogging 101 workshop, I tried to rattle Jeremy with a question about monetization. He didn’t even blink, but attendees seemed to like my question as I had quite a number of them approaching me afterwards to ask what my blog URL is.

Now, here’s a highlight from my session on podcasting. I asked for a volunteer to help write down some suggestions from the audience. Guess who stepped up to the plate? John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. I didn’t even realize it was him until he gave me his card afterwards. That was so cool since I love his brand and I follow his blog all the time. You just never know who you’ll meet at conferences. I want to thank Bryce for lending me his camera and to Caroline of TVOntario Kids for working it while I led the workshop. And it was fabulous seeing Connie Crosby who was volunteering at Mesh in lieu of a missed vacation.

By the end of the Day 1, I was beat. I sat in the unconference area with Michael (I’ll get his last name) and we chatted for about an hour. Shortly before 7pm, I left for home. It was a fabulous, yet exhausting day. Hats off to the Mesh guys – Mathew, Mark, Stuart, Mike & Rob – for a swell event.