Going Solo

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.

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!

Here’s something I’ve been waiting to be able to announce for a few weeks now: I’m excited to let you know that Going Solo is now open to discussing sponsorship opportunities.

If your company is interested in taking advantage of the unique marketing opportunity offered by the Going Solo conference, contact Lily Yacobi at lily@going-solo.net. Lily is managing sponsor relations for Going Solo, and will present you the variety of sponsorship opportunities we are providing. We’re waiting to hear from you!

Last Thursday, I went over to the Seesmic offices for lunch and ended up being the CEO Loïc Le Meur and his partner Vinvin’s guest in their daily show, Seesmic du Jour. I got a chance to briefly present Going Solo before rambling on about GTD. Here’s the video:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=5MwGxSFLeLU]

Going Solo also got a mention on Loïc’s blog (in French too). I’d like to insist on the fact that if I was typing on Loïc’s keyboard, it was because he started out by asking me to dictate — typing directly seemed less painful 😉

I’d like to draw to your attention two events which are being organized by friends of mine, and which will both take place in October.

The first is SHiFT, which will take place in Lisbon, October 15-17. It’s organized by Pedro Custodio and the other members of the SHiFT association. I attended the first edition in 2006 and really liked it — a human-sized conference as I prefer them.

The second is Singularity, which will be like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It’s the first large-scale online conference and it will take place everywhere (!), October 24-26th. It’s organized by Aral Balkan, whom I met at LIFT08 (and then again at BlogTalk and SXSW — seems we’re on the same conference circuit). I’ll be speaking at Singularity.

Cross-posted to Climb to the Stars.

When I came up with the pricing scheme for Going Solo, my expectation was that most people coming to the conference would take advantage of the Earlier or Early Bird prices.

My initial estimation was that 1 month of Early Bird price was more than enough to get the word out — only I left out of my calculations that I would spend three of those four weeks travelling and conferencing. As a result, I’ve hardly done any Going Solo promotion during that time, and as promotion rests largely on my shoulders, well, Going Solo hasn’t been promoted much.

So, good news for everybody: I’m extending the Early Bird deadline until the end of the month of March, which means that I get relieved of trying to cram a month’s worth of promoting the conference in the space of two days, and more people will have a chance to hear about it and register for the cheaper fee. Yay!

I’ve been drowning in conference-land (BlogTalk, SXSW) for the last 10 days or so — before I have more interesting things to say, though (like a more precise outline of the programme, and announcing some sponsors), let me remind you that the deadline for early bird registration (register here) ends in a few days: March 16th.

If you haven’t yet blogged about Going Solo, told all your friends about it, added a badge to your site, now would be a good time to do it!