Going Solo

First, my apologies for the silence these last days — I was bitten by a cat (it’s not as benign as it sounds).

Second, I’m happy to let you know that Going Solo finally has a newsletter. Feel free to sign up. We won’t sell your e-mail address or share it (even if we’re begged to!) and we’ll keep the traffic low. You can sign up by visiting the newsletter page on Google Groups or by sending a mail to going-solo-news-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Even if you don’t have a Gmail address, you can easily create a Google Groups account with your regular e-mail address, and then join the Going Solo News group to subscribe to the newsletter.

I’m currently rediscovering the power of e-mail — a long post to write about that once my typing comfort is back.

Join the Going Solo network | Add a Going Solo trip

As you probably noticed, I’ve started introducing our partners and sponsors here so that you can get to know them if you don’t already.

Now, who hasn’t heard of Dopplr? Dopplr allows you to keep track of who is going to be where amongst your contacts — essential, you’ll agree, in today’s increasingly nomadic world (a theme will touch upon throughout the sessions — or should I call them lectures? — at Going Solo).

I’ve long been a fan of Dopplr. It allows me to see who I might be bumping into during my travels (even if they don’t live where I’m going — they could be travelling too!), and who of my long-distance friends might be travelling to my area.

And when I go to a conference, of course… Dopplr tells me immediately which of my “fellow travelers” are going to be in the same town.

So, Dopplr and Going Solo are happy to offer you two fun features to help you connect and stay in touch with the great people you’ll meet in less than a month at the conference:

• First, if you don’t have a Dopplr account yet, follow this special sign-up link. It will allow you to sign up to Dopplr (free, zero risks, many benefits) and automatically make you join the Going Solo network. Joining the network will make it easier for you to find follow travellers who are also part of the Going Solo network. If you already have an account, follow the link too — it will simply add you to the network. The people you may know page is now updated to include people from the network. (Also, don’t let anyone know we told you, but this hidden page shows you people in your networks.)
• Second, to add a trip related to Going Solo to Dopplr, use this smart add Going Solo trip link. It makes things a tad easier to you, and displays a tiny Going Solo icon next to your trip. Shiny!

We hope Dopplr will help you stay connected with your professional and personal network when everybody is travelling!

A year ago I was in London, and dropped by at the Blogging 4 Business conference. I was hanging out in the lobby when some guy stopped by me as he was rushing out, introduced himself, and told me I wouldn’t know him but he was a fan of Fresh Lime Soda, before running off. Quite an experience!

A couple of weeks ago, I sent an e-mail to Alex Bellinger, who does SmallBizPod, the UK’s first small business podcast. I’d been advised to check out SmallBizPod as a possible media partner for Going Solo. Alex got back to me straight away, and he reminded me that we’d already met: turns out he was “the guy” in the Blogging 4 Business story!

Anecdotes aside, I’m really happy to introduce SmallBizPod as a Going Solo media partner. Alex will be doing a series of interviews of the speakers early this week for the next episode of his podcast. Looking forward to hearing it!

Alex’s podcast features interviews of entrepreneurs and other topics of interest for small business owners and soloists. Here’s what he has to say about SmallBizPod:

Back in March 2005, I became one of only a handful of people in the UK to start podcasting. Looking around for a subject I realised there were no British-based podcasts on business. Since I’d just set up my own business and had spent many years focusing on the small business sector, a podcast on entrepreneurship seemed like a good way to go. SmallBizPod was born. It’s now listened to by thousands of people from all over the world.

It’s funny how the importance of certain things is not obvious right at the start, and suddenly it hits you and you wonder why you didn’t realize it earlier.

It was clear to me from the start, when I started imagining Going Solo, that the programme would be built in such a way as to cover a range of topics I thought were relevant. What I didn’t realize is that this is quite different from having a conference/event “theme” and hunting for speakers who have something to say around that theme.

I’ve many times tried to express that although Going Solo is not a workshop or a training session, it is training-like, but I never quite seemed to find a way to explain this clearly. I wanted to say “yes, it’s a conference, but the aim is for people to learn stuff they can use when they walk out.” I think I’ve nailed it now, though: Going Solo is educational more than inspirational.

Most conferences I go to fall in the “inspirational” category. Of course, I learn things there, but mainly, I am inspired, or lifted (if the conference is LIFT). When I planned my Open Stage speech to present Going Solo to the audience at LIFT (watch the video), I wanted it to be inspirational. It’s not a video that teaches you anything, but that inspires you to attend Going Solo (and it did indeed inspire people!)

Even if the conference theme is more technical, and the sessions actually teach you stuff, most often it is a series of related sessions grouped together around a given theme. Reboot is a perfect example of how a theme is used to collect all sorts of contributions.

Not so for Going Solo. Putting together the programme for Going Solo feels much more like being in charge of defining the teaching programme for an academic year (only it’s a day, thank goodness, not a year). At the end of the day, I want the programme to have covered this, that and that. I try to organize the content into sessions, and then I talk with my speakers to see who can cover what.

I’m realizing now that this is the difficult bit — and as a speaker myself, I should have thought of this before. “Speaker topics” do not necessarily match “Steph-defined sessions” — which means I need to go back and reshuffle my sessions (perfectly doable, but it’s more work) to avoid overlaps and important topics slipping through the cracks.

Has anybody had similar experiences? And for any people reading who speak at conferences, if you agree on a topic with the chair and you’re asked to make sure your talk covers aspects x, y and z of the topic, does it make you feel micro-managed? Or is it something that happens regularly?

Understanding all this is helping me a lot in the process of finalizing the programme. I hope we’ll soon have the final session descriptions (I should probably call them “lectures”, because that’s closer to what they are) and speaker bios on the site, as well as the agenda. I know it’s important for people who are still not certain if they want to come or not, because the programme/agenda gives you a clear idea of what you’re paying for.

Yes, quite a few people have been asking if it was still possible to register. It is — there are still seats left (the exact number is of course national security top secret information and will not be communicated even under torture).

You should not wait too long though, because organizing travel and accommodation is more fun if you do it in advance (unless you enjoy stress and sleeping under bridges… we have a bunch of those in Lausanne) — and also because we’ll have to close online registration a week or two before the event so that we can give final numbers to the hotel for food.

With a month to go until the conference (it’s the 16th today!), how about starting to get in touch with the follow soloists you’ll be meeting there in the flesh? Or learning a bit more about the speakers and the staff?

Most conferences nowadays provide a social network for their attendees — it makes perfect sense. We’ve chosen Crowdvine for the Going Solo social network, firstly because it’s really neat, and second because chances are you may already have an account and contacts on Crowdvine (if you’ve been to FOWA or Web2.0Expo Berlin, for example).

So, if you’re attending Going Solo, head over to Crowdvine to meet your fellow attendees.

And if you’re not attending Going Solo… what? Head over to registration right away, and don’t forget to bring a friend!

Looking forward to connecting with you on Crowdvine.

Imran pointed me this morning to this article on Salon, titled What every freelancer should know, by Catherine Price. Cathering is a freelance writer, and the article is well worth the read (I could definitely take some of her advice right now).

I could never be happy in a traditional job. I hate fluorescent lights. I detest working in groups. While I can get interested in just about anything, nothing interests me enough for it to be a full-time career. Also — and, to me, this is no small thing — the smell of office carpet makes me existentially depressed.

So I became a freelancer — thus joining the growing armada of the self-employed who sit at the same cafe table every day and thrust their business cards in your face during casual conversation. For the most part, it is a satisfying existence, a life of freedom and flexibility and almost no personal connection to “the office.” Then there are days when the clock slips past noon, but I haven’t been outside, I haven’t spoken to another human being, and I start to wonder if I’m going to wake up one morning when I’m 70 and regret never having owned a pantsuit.

Read the rest while I go and swap my dressing-gown for proper clothes and have some breakfast.

You might remember that quite a few weeks ago, I mentioned I wanted to set up a referral programme. Well, unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated to implement than I thought so at first.

Still, I wanted to find a way to give something back to those of you who sign up with a friend or two, specially now that the Early Bird deadline is past. So… introducing the “Bring a Friend” discount scheme:

• sign up at the same time as 1 friend: you both get 10% off
• sign up at the same time as 2 friends: you all get 15% off

Of course, if you are somebody with lots of freelance friends, or are feeling like a superconnector, you can bring more friends, and we’ll reward you all accordingly (5% additional off per extra person, for a maximum group size of 5 people: 25% off!)

Here’s how it works:

• decide to come to Going Solo
• convince a friend or two (or more!) to come with you
• e-mail steph at going-solo dot net with the names of the people who are coming
• I’ll e-mail you back with a discount code
• each person registers within 48 hours with the discount code
• you’re happy bunnies, because you’ll be attending Going Solo together, and got a discount!

Now, how do you find a friend to come with you? Because we like you — and also because it’s in our interest! — here are some tips you may find handy:

• tell the people you know about Going Solo, even if they aren’t freelancers: they might have friends who are!
• remind your freelance friends they will walk out of Going Solo with things in their heads which will help them be more successful and earn more money (that’s the point, isn’t it?)
• write a blog post inviting interested readers or passers-by to get in touch with you so you all benefit from the discount
• point people to the great sessions and extraordinary speakers who will be there on the 16th
• plan to stay in Lausanne for the week-end with your friends — how about a day off by the beautiful lake?
• use the Going Solo poster to print Moo cards and distribute them everywhere you go (that’s what I do!)
• if all else fails, you might want to consider blackmail or coercion — but we here at Going Solo will deny ever having suggested anything like that.

I’m looking forward to receiving the first e-mails from smart people who want to take advantage of this discount!

Many voices have been asking for more information on the speakers and the sessions. Well, here we go:

• Speaker bios for our confirmed speakers
• Session descriptions and speakers

Bear in mind that there is more than a month left until the event, and that many things are likely to change (not least the descriptions, bios, and summaries, which I wrote up pretty quickly tonight for the most part). I’ll update those two pages (and the main programme page which will shortly be home to the agenda) regularly to reflect the state of things.

Waiting for your feedback!

Things are moving pretty fast here at Going Solo. With 6 weeks left until the big day, everything is starting to feel very real! We’ve put up a page with presentation of the conference for interested sponsors (Lily is currently talking with a bunch of interested companies, which is fun!), and I’m currently working hard on the programme, so that I can publish more information about the agenda, speakers, and precise sessions by the end of the week-end.

Keep your eyes open!