On the recent episode of Media Hacks, Julien Smith spoke with Mitch Joel about building your community. It’s a great podcast which I highly suggest you check out.

During the thirty minute conversation Julien said, “You have to build it (community) before you actually need it. If you don’t need it, now is the perfect time.” He was bang on the money with this point.

We often get complacent when we’re in a good place. When everything is lovely, we don’t want to think about things getting bad. The truth is that things will get bad, for everybody. You’re not alone. So plan for the bad before it gets bad, so it’s not as bad. Get me?

The point to this is that you need to be building your community now. Strengthen the network you have. Get out there and be social, tis’ the season to.

What are you doing to build and strengthen your relationships?

Photo on Flickr by: Bryan Person

Please tag your photos with BCN09.

Many people asked me why I wasn’t going to Blog World Expo in Las Vegas this weekend. I would have loved to be there, but how could I possibly miss a rocking event right in my own town? Yesterday was the third BarCamp Nashville and it was bigger and better than ever.

I raise a toast to the organizers: Chuck Bryant, Scot Justice, Lucas Hendrickson, Kate O’Neill, Brad Blackman, Eric Chuff Shuff, Tom Cheredar, Andrew Duthie, Julia Corrigan, Doris Palomino, Darren Crawford, Winston Hearn, Scott Peave, Marissa Benchea, Heidi Short, Dan Cotton and Jessica Murray.

I understand that 600 people had registered for BCN09 and there were 75 registrations at the door. The Cadillac Ranch was jam packed with people in every nook and cranny, it was the perfect venue. Check out the pictures to truly get feel of the place.

It was fantastic reconnecting with old friends I hadn’t seen in ages and making so many new ones. Thanks to CentreSource and the Tennessean for the beers .

Roderick summarized it so well on his blog post, BarCamp Nashville ’09:

The takeaway of the day: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s all about relationships. Guess what? It’s (still) all about relationships. To create and nurture relationships you have to be yourself. These manufactured, overly-polished online personas are easy to see through. It’s like the guy whose hand you’re shaking while he’s looking at the next person he’s trying to get to. FAIL! Be present. Be engaged. Be yourself. You don’t have to be charming, just be sincere.

My only regret was not seeing enough sessions, there were so many incredible ones to choose from that I couldn’t attend them all. On top of this I often got caught between sessions in conversations outside of the session rooms, that however is never a regret.

I’m so excited about what’s next for Nashville technology community. I think Marcus Whitney hit the nail on the head that we need to keep bringing more talent to this town, so that we’ll continue growing and we’ll all be better off. Chris Ennis had a great presentation where he encouraged people interested in starting something to do so. Just do it people!

Thanks again to everyone involved, you all truly rock!

What time is it? It’s Twestival time! Following a very successful worldwide Twestival in February, we’re excited to announce Nashville’s Twestival v2.0: Twestival Local! We’re going to go through this Q&A style, and if you don’t see an A for your Q, drop it in the comments and we’ll fill in the blanks. Without further ado…

Q. Huh? What is Twestival?
A. Because we’re lazy, we ganked this from the Twestival site:

A Twestival or Twitter-Festival is a global series of events organized by volunteers around the world under short timescales, which bring people offline for a great cause.  Twestival is run 100% by volunteers and independently from any not-for-profit; although the organizing teams do work closely to outline an achievable and measurable fundraising target.  Twestival also sets out to identify key skills of volunteers and match these with the needs of the cause; particularly communications strategy, tech integration and social media training.  Twestival Local takes place in cities around the world : 10-13 September 2009.

Q. Didn’t we just have a Twestival? Why are we having another one so soon?
A. Because it’s fun, it’s for a good cause, and we could all stand to get offline a little more often.

Q. Who/What/Where/When/Why?
A. Let’s break it down.

• Who? Anyone with a Twitter account. If you don’t have a Twitter account, we might let you pretend.
• What? Twestival Nashville. Weren’t you listening?
• Where? Our gracious hosts from February’s Twestival have stepped up and offered to host us again, at the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar in downtown Nashville! They’ll be providing us with free food, great drink specials and some entertainment for the evening.
• When? Thursday, September 10 at 6pm. Yeah, we know, there’s a Titans game. We’ll do our best to have that on at the Twestival. Did you really want to park downtown on a Friday or Saturday night?
• Why? We already covered that.

Q. Last time, Twestival raised money to benefit Charity:Water. Who is the beneficiary of Twestival this time around?
A. A lot of the feedback from February’s Twestival was focused on the beneficiary of the event. While Charity:Water is a worthy organization, we were sort of bummed that we couldn’t partner with one of the not-for-profit organizations in our own community. Enter Twestival Local, designed to give people like us exactly what we asked for. Each city holding a Twestival this September will choose a local beneficiary, and partner with them to meet a specific goal, of both short term and long term nature.

Q. No, really. Who is the beneficiary of Nashville’s Twestival, and how were they chosen?
A. And we thought you wouldn’t notice… We’re excited to announce that we will be partnering with The Boys & Girls Club of Middle Tennessee and the Great Nashville Duck Race this year! This year marks the second annual Great Nashville Duck Race put on by the Boys & Girls Club, and we chose them as the beneficiary for several reasons.

1. They have an existing event. Rather than go plowing ahead with our own ideas (brilliant though they may be), we wanted to support an organization that is already in the community making things happen.
2. Double whammy! When you adopt a rubber duck in the Great Nashville Duck Race, not only will you get a raffle ticket for some great prizes at Twestival Nashville, but you’ll be entered to win some even greater prizes at the actual Duck Race on September 19. We’re talking ten thousand buckaroos, folks.
3. Rubber ducks. Thousands of rubber ducks in the Cumberland River. Need we say more?
4. If we adopt 500 ducks, the Boys & Girls Club of Middle Tennessee will be able to provide 100 kids in our community with club memberships. 100 kids! Help us meet this goal.

Q. AWESOME! How can I help?
A. We’d love to have you as a volunteer at Twestival Nashville. Grab this form, fill it out and hit submit. We’ll be in touch.

Q. How do I buy my tickets?
A. “Tickets” are a loose word this time around. Adopt a rubber duck for $5 (or two… or six), show up, and we’ll let you in. For each duck you adopt, you will receive one raffle ticket. Adopt ten ducks, get ten raffle tickets. We’d say this would make your chances of snagging a door prize or two pretty good. We will also have duck adoption papers available at the door, and will accept cash, check and credit card. If you hate rubber ducks and good causes, we’ll still welcome you with open arms,  but you won’t get a raffle ticket.

TO ADOPT ONLINE:

• Visit the Great Nashville Duck Race website.
• DON’T click on the giant link that says “CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A DUCK,” no matter how tempting it may look.
• Instead, click on “Get Involved,” the last link in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Or click here.
• Fill out the info. Click the little link that says “Register.”
• Find a spot that says “Join The Fun,” expand the menu, and select “Join a team.”
• Select “Independent” as your option, then select “Twestival Nashville” as your team. Hit “Join.”
• Log out. Just do it.
• NOW you can click that giant link that says “CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A DUCK.” Go ahead, it’s okay!
• From there, you should be able to figure it out. Select Twestival Nashville as your team name, select your name from the drop down menu, and adopt some ducks!

Q. Why was that so complicated?
A. We don’t really know. Again, you can adopt the ducks at the door by cash, check or credit, but we’d love to have you adopt ahead of time to make the process at the door easier.

Q. What sort of awesome things can I win with my raffle ticket?
A. Who knows? We don’t! At least, we don’t know yet. We’ll know by September 10. But last time, attendees won all sorts of gift certificates, Preds tickets, iPhone accessories, t-shirts and gift baskets.

Q. Where can I find ongoing updates, press materials, badges and buttons to put on my site, and all things Twestival Nashville?
A. Glad you asked! You can find all of these things and more at TwestivalNashville.com, and follow @twestivalnash on Twitter to stay in the loop!

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