Paul Ryburn's Journal

Yesterday was day two of the Geekend conference in Savannah. Having been to five small presentations and heard two keynote speeches, I can tell you it has absolutely been worth the money. Just two marketing tips I got from one of the event’s sponsors – not even an official presenter – may turn out to be worth what my company paid to send me.

I won’t bore you by recapping all the techie details, but I’ll share a few interesting things I heard yesterday.

I got to hear a presentation by a representative of Change.org, a site where people can band together online to take social action. He told a story of an author who got censored by his publisher, Scholastic, after he submitted a story about a fourth-grader who has two mommies. They refused to publish the book, saying that’s not the image they want to project of their company. People got on Change.org and created such a protest that not only did Scholastic apologize and publish the book, but they also promised never to censor an author again.

The same presenter told us about trying to make an overseas long-distance relationship with his girlfriend work using Skype and a site called “YouPorn.” To avoid this blog being blocked by a lot of online content filters, I’m not going to link to YouPorn, but you can look it up if it sounds interesting to you.

I learned that while unloading a truck for a charity event, Paula Deen got hit with a ham in the face. “It was a ham-tastrophe,” she Facebooked.

Cell carriers are looking for creative ways to hide their towers. AT&T paid a church $12,000 a year to install a cell tower in its steeple. They also paid the church’s electric bill.

I attended a panel comparing Drupal, WordPress, and a commercial CMS called ExpressionEngine. Dammit, I forgot to brag to people that WordPress.com and Matt Mullenweg sponsored my BBQ team. That’s some serious geek cred right there, and I failed to capitalize on it.

Our keynote speaker was the Chief Digital Architect for NBC Universal. He told us the story of how their current Fan It site came into being. I had no idea TV had become so interactive. Fans of The Office can become “employees” of Dunder Mifflin and complete tasks for the company. Fans of The Biggest Loser can take the same challenges as the contestants, and keep an online food journal and weight loss blog. Fans can earn points which can be cashed in for real-life goodies like T-shirts. Very cool. NBC recognized in 2006 that the Web was evolving, and they better evolve with it.

I decided to skip last night’s official after party, and tour Downtown Savannah on my own. I had dinner at an Irish pub, where the guy sitting next to me at the bar called me “ma’am” by mistake because of my long hair, then bought me a beer to apologize. Long hair pays off sometimes. Then I walked south to a dive bar called Pinkie Master’s, where I had several cans of PBR and ended up chatting with a cute nurse. I meant to walk back north to check out a dance club I found on Google Maps, but I was having such a good time at Pinkie’s that I decided to stay there. Pinkie’s is about the size of my living room and kitchen combined. Apparently a lot of politicians go there. They have an autographed photo of Jimmy Carter. If you go there, bring cash, because they don’t take credit cards.

About to head back for day three. Tonight’s keynote speaker is the founder of TwitPic, the site that lets you post photos to Twitter. He’ll discuss how it started as a weekend project that he never expected to amount to much. When he exceeded his wildest expectations, he quickly had to learn how to run and scale a rapidly growing company. After the keynote, there’s an after-party at SEED Eco Lounge, an environmentally friendly nightclub. (I’d link to them but I’m getting a “Warning: this site may harm your computer” message from Google.) The club seats about 27 and there are 600 Geekenders, so they’re blocking off Montgomery Street for a huge block party.

Heading out… as always, you can follow @paulryburn on Twitter to keep up with my activities today.

So this morning between presentations at Geekend, I was talking to one of the other attendees. I do so much note-taking and Facebooking and tweeting during the seminar that I had to bring my charger. I knew the iPhone battery wouldn’t last half a day.

The guy I was speaking to then showed me something very cool – his iPhone case, which he bought from Mophie, is a backup battery. It looks like just your average black metal case, but when you switch it on, it powers the phone. He said he’s dropped his phone numerous times too, and not a scratch on it.

I hate cases. They make the phone more bulky. I’ve survived 18 months without a case, but I gotta tell you, I like that one. It’s something I would consider buying.

Time to get back to the conference. We’re on lunch break until 1:30 and they’re offering free Segway rides.

The South Main Association will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday, November 9 in the new Muse location just south of the Arcade on South Main. This month there won’t be a speaker as usual; rather, the proposed board for 2011 will be presented. Social at 6, meeting at 6:30. There will be a cash bar, and Marcy Siebert will provide complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

The Center for Southern Folklore will hold an open house Saturday, November 20 from 1 to 5 PM. If you’ve never been to the Center, it is one of Memphis’ treasures. It’s a place to learn about and buy regional art and music. On the 20th they’ll have arts and gifts for sale, and there may be surprise appearances by our regional artists. 2010 Memphis Music & Heritage Fest T-shirts, featuring Jim Dickinson, will be on sale at the open house. There will be light snacks and beverages too.

Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Another excellent point Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, made last night in his presentation, as he explained how something becomes viral:

“People don’t spread mediocre.

People spread awesome.”

The Geekend conference kicked off last night with a presentation by Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. The main point of his talk was that everything you do is marketing – every interaction involving any person or thing that represents your brand. He had a lot of good ideas about engaging your audience in conversation. I furiously tried to keep up with him on the Notes app on my iPhone. Today I’m bringing pen and paper.

He said one thing at the end that I’ve found to be true. Once he was done talking about engaging people, even people who constructively disagree with you, he talked about trolls. He showed the Twitter comment below.

The tweet reads, “Am I the only one who finds @unmarketing to be an annoying, blabber mouthed, self prophetic ass?” Now, this is not a constructive comment. This is a troll. How do you respond to them?

The answer, Stratten said, is that you don’t, and I couldn’t agree more. Who wins if Stratten were to reply to this? The troll does. Stratten has 44,000 followers; this troll had 37. By responding, Stratten wouldn’t gain anything, and the troll would pick up a bunch of new followers. Sometimes you just have to let things that are said about you go, to avoid wasting mental and psychic energy and being dragged down to the troll’s level.

So anyway, after the keynote speech there was an after-party at The Distillery, a bar with 100 different beers near the conference:

They had an extensive list of beers they serve – 21 on tap and another 80 in bottles – but there are some beers they refuse to serve. See pic below.

However, they do sell this:

My kind of bar.

Here’s one more pic, me posing with the robots which are Geekend’s mascots. I’m determined to be the person at the conference who wears the loudest shirts.

And here’s what I’ll be doing today:

Keynote speaker tonight should be really good – the chief digital architect from NBC Universal. This conference is just loaded with talent.

About time to get down there. For the first time in a long time, I actually ate breakfast this morning. I had two turkey sausage patties, a banana, and three cups of orange juice. Now I’m drinking a Mountain Dew as I type this.

Possibly more posts later today, if I find time.

So, I stepped off the plane in Savannah, walked through the gate, and about 3 seconds later, everyone in the waiting area broke out into applause. I had no idea I had so many fans in Savannah.

Just kidding.

The person behind me was a soldier in full camo, and everyone applauded to say “thank you.” Very, very classy. There were about 15 soldiers on my flight.

Got here safe and sound… of course Delta was 30 minutes late into Atlanta, making run through Hartsfield Airport to make my connection. Should’ve known to bring my running shoes, but I didn’t. I wore sandals. Delta being Delta, the connecting flight to Savannah was 30 minutes late too, so it’s all good.

Got checked in, went over to the center and got my pass for the conference. Nothing to do until 6. I guess I’ll walk a few blocks north where there are several pubs and grab some lunch. And, of course, a beer.

All right. Catching up on 97 unread e-mails. Let’s see what’s in there… gonna make this quick.

Peabody Corner Bar is the Memphis Groupon for today. $30 worth of grub for $15. They have a new Cheese Board on the menu, if you’re into trying different kinds of cheeses.

Hmmm… everything else in the inbox can wait, because it’s not time sensitive and I really need to go eat. May post again, depending on time.

Getting ready for a fun-filled weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, my blogging schedule will be anywhere from erratic to non-existent between tomorrow and Sunday. I do plan on tweeting quite a bit from my @paulryburn account, so you can follow me there. If I get a chance to blog I will, but may not have time.

I’ve been asked to mention that the Memphis Farmers Market Harvest Dinner is this Sunday. Details here.

All right… all packed… MacBook is ready to go to Savannah… netbook is staying with a friend… told my apartment management I’ll be gone and they’re having security watch the place… printed out my event ticket and flight info. I think it’s time for a beer!

I had to come Downtown for lunch to run a few errands in preparation for my trip tomorrow. I had to eat too, so I stopped at Lunchbox Eats. Today I got the Graduation Burger, not your typical burger. It’s a meatloaf sandwich on white toast, topped with mashed potatoes, pepper jack cheese and Tabasco onions. I added a size of mac & cheese. Here’s a pic of the inside of the sandwich:

After lunch I stopped by Shelton Clothiers to pick up a couple of shirts I bought Saturday… I needed to have them altered slightly, and the added trip back was enough to steal the mayorship of Shelton on Foursquare.

While eating, I got a direct message from Yuri at Union Street Bath House. He said he had a T-shirt for me, and asked if I could stop by the building. So I did, and a friend of his gave me the shirt. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Yuri, as his mother has fallen ill, and he is busy making plans to get to her. Thanks for the shirt and I hope she feels better soon.

Waiting to put a load of laundry in the dryer, then back to work… conference call and last-minute trip planning this afternoon.

If you’re not familiar with the 5 Spot on G.E. Patterson, you should be. You’d never expect the room behind dive bar Earnestine & Hazel’s to be a place to get a fine dinner, but that’s exactly what it is.

It’s open Friday and Saturday nights. The menu changes every night; the chef buys whatever he feels like cooking, and when he runs out, he’s out. For this reason it’s advisable not to go there for a late 9 PM dinner. Here’s a recent menu that was posted on the window.

Click the menu to see it at a larger size.

I’ve never heard of any of my friends having a bad meal there. It’s a great spot to take a date for dinner.

Hmmm… how about this for a Downtown date itinerary: Dinner at 8 at 5 Spot, then a trip to E&H to see the upstairs and to have a drink at Nate’s bar. Then a trolley ride north for a drink at the Silly Goose or Automatic Slim’s or the Peabody lobby, then dancing at Paula & Raiford’s or Rehab Disco, then a late-night breakfast at Cockadoos. That offers several options and is bound to impress, and never once do you have set foot on Beale Street.