I started, deleted, and restarted writing this post about a dozen times by now. So, here you have it, ether take this version, or wait for no other…
Last weekend I spent in Greece. Attending my first ever blogging and social media event – Greek Blogger Camp 2007, I traveled to Ios island, one of those many Greek spots in the Mediterranean sea.
I don’t travel all that much, so I enjoyed my car drive to the airport, flight to Athens, bus to the port, ferry to the island, and bus to the hotel. Athens looks amazing from the night sky. It’s like the sea of lights with a well-defined border of the sea line, which they have brightly lit for as long as I could see. Greek bus drivers are known to be crazy nuts, but they actually aren’t so bad. At least not after what I’ve seen in Malta. The high speed ferry was very cool. Huge and fast – not something you see every day. It’s all fun.
Anyway, back to the event. To be honest I didn’t expect much of it. There were few organization problems that I could spot even before going there. And it was the first event of this kind. And all that. But. I’m glad I went, because it turned so much better than I expected. It was very very good.
The conference itself was more of a social event, rather than a technological one. It wasn’t about the technology. It was about blogging and interacting and building web sites. Technology-wise these things are easy and simple these days. Texts, audio (voice), video, and pictures can be exchange with no troubles at all. But it’s all about what one has to say, to who he can say, and how to express it in the best way.
So, there was plenty of discussions, both in the conference hall and in the bar by the pool. About 40 people participated altogether, which was about the right number for everybody to have a chance to talk to everybody else. I met some really cool and smart people along the way. Learned a few more things about the region, about bloggers, and even about myself.
There were many technical people too – programmers, designers. We showed to each things that we do. It was nice to see some of their work. And it was nice to see their positive reactions to some of my own work on WordPress.
Speaking of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg himself was present at the conference. And I had a chance to talk to him on several occasions. He is really a nice guy. Loves talking, easy going, and all that.
Another famous guy who attended the event was Steve Smith of oderedlist.com . I had a chance to talk to him to. Also a nice guy, with a few bright ideas in his head.
One of the things I hoped to get from the conference is some of that “American spirit”. It’s not a secret that there is plenty of technological buzz happening now in the USA. With few people from over there attending the conference I wanted to get some of that mood for myself, as well as get a bit closer to what is hot over there now. I’m glad to say that it worked out for me and I got what I wanted. Lots of stuff to research and think over. Some new ideas in my head too.
Overall, for me the event was a success and I am really glad I didn’t miss it, like all the rest. It was well organized and handled, had nice atmosphere, great locations, cool people, and was very affordable in terms of both time and money. I’m sure I’ll be attending the next one too, if there will ever be one.
Thanks to all who made it happen, to all who attended, and to all who blogged, photographed, and recorded it on video. The magic tag for Technorati, Flickr, YouTube, and the rest of the social world is “gbc07”. My own photos from the event are on Flickr in this set.