Just as the literal cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom, so too is the romance of another Portland Conference Season, its Spring! To the casual observer, many of the conferences, un-conferences and day long learning excursions that many like myself will attend will go unnoticed and uncelebrated. For my ilk and I, however, this is a time of year (the next 6 months) that brings a certain ambiance to the marketing world that can only be described as “blogging/tweeting fodder.” I say this as many of us will be paying, in some cases, a total sum of several thousand dollars to attend these many conferences, with some individual events costing $500 or more! It is there for no mistake that those in attendance would want to remember the event as best as possible, so we blog and tweet until we cannot anymore.

From blog posts that try to predict the new insights that the traveling industry spokesperson will try to sell us, like so much cheap oil. Or perhaps the incessant tweets during the actual speech, where it seems more information of value is shared behind the scenes. Either platform that is used, there is one commonality – getting a grip on the ever changing reality of marketing and media!

I am no different. I will be blogging and tweeting until my thumbs fall off, however, this year I do it all with a purpose. A mission different that previous years. This year, I am planning on attending 75% of all Portland based conferences. By doing so, I will enable myself to create a picture of a picture, so to speak. I will creating links between different frames of mind, from SEO to Social Media to Digital Futurism, I will be creating a modern image of how Portland views journalism, at least from the pulpit of PowerPoint.

While there are many conferences that I am looking forward to attending, the one that I am most excited about is Digital Journalism 2010, which is the brain candy of Abraham Hyatt. I am excited fro this conference for many reasons, but two in particular.

1. I will be leading a session or two, making this conference an opportunity to demonstrate my “research” and experience.
2. I will witness a sort of culmination of elements that I hope will bring about the grand conclusion to my many theories.

All in all, I am excited about this year. I feel like I have a different goal than to just be herded through the roundup of different panels and presentations. This year, I will write about writing. Woot!

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