thoughtsignals

Well, big news to me, at least. I’ve changed jobs. I left The Business Journal a couple of weeks ago and joined RLF Communications as a senior account executive. I just finished up my first week on the job.

In the newspaper world a shift like this, going from journalism to public relations, is usually called “moving to the dark side.” In fact, as a going-away gift, my Business Journal colleagues got me a little Darth Vader figure.

If you’re wondering, though, I left what was a pretty good job as a newspaper reporter because RLF, and this position, will provide me with new challenges. I’ll have more opportunities to put what I’m learning in business school to use and more opportunities to more deeply explore online media.

Speaking of online media, I’ll be at ConvergeSouth today. Come over and say ‘Hi’ if you see me.

You can read how Robert Scoble and Maryam Scoble saw us at ConvergeSouth yesterday. Here’s an interesting snippet from Robert’s post, about meeting Elizabeth Edwards:

Edwards was a real thrill to meet. She stayed in our session, which was most gracious, and then gave Maryam a nice interview, which I taped. After the camera was off we asked her if John was really going to run for President and she said that unless something bad happens that’s the way it’s headed.

There’s lots of wrap-up posts and comments on the conference available via Technorati.

Since my earlier post (written at 11:27 a.m. but not posted ’til 11:41 a.m.; guess I don’t need to say when I actually write these things), I’ve also met these folks, who I hadn’t met before: Fec Stench, Diane Davis, David Allen, Billy Ingram, Mathew Gross and others whose names I’ve forgotten (I’m very sorry; if you know who you are, please feel free to leave comments).
What struck me most about this whole event (this is the second conference of this type) is how smart the conversations can be when you get folks together in a room. Everybody gets smarter when they’re talking together.

That said, I left the afternoon session on “NORGS” (please find another term; this is an abominable abuse of the English language :-)) feeling that the surface had barely been scratched. I also felt there wasn’t really enough time for the journalists and nonjournalists in the room to meet together on some kind of common intellectual ground. It just seemed like the group never got far enough into the issues so that the newspaper people could see where some folks, particular the blogger/activists in the room, were coming from, and those folks never quite understood what the newspaper folks face. If everybody left the conference wanting more, though, that’s a good thing.

I could be wrong; I’m open to alternative interpretations. Anyone care to comment?

It’s 11:27 a.m., I’m sitting in the Robert and Maryam Scoble session on “10 ways to a killer blog.” Nice thing about these sorts of meetings is I get to catch up with people I don’t see (especially in the real world) very often.

So far, I’ve had a chance to catch up, at least briefly, with Ed Cone, Anton Zuiker, Herb and Susan Everett, Mark Binker, Jon Ham (my boss from the late ’90s when I was at The Herald-Sun), Lex Alexander (am I forgetting anyone?). I also got a chance to meet Sue Polinsky, who I’ve talked to on the phone several times but had never met in person.

I’m also following Robert and Maryam’s tip No. 4: “Link to other blogs.”