Going Solo

Finally! As I mentioned, the logo/branding/design aspect of Going Solo is proving more of a headache than I anticipated. I really really wanted to have it all sorted out for LIFT08, but that’s unfortunately not going to happen.

However, we do have something for you. We’ve been asked for stuff to show off on blogs wishing to promote Going Solo (which we’re very happy about), so we went and created some. Thanks to Carlos, who did all the hard work on the first version of these badges while I complained that it should be “more like this” and “a little like that”, and to Steph who came up with what you see below. There are two widths (180px and 150px) to accommodate various styles of sidebars, and also in compact form if you prefer something smaller.

Please hotlink to these images by copy-pasting the code provided.

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-180px.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-150px.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-180px-wide.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

<a href="http://going-solo.net/"><img src='http://climbtothestars.org/files/going-solo/going-solo-badge-150px-square.gif' alt='Going Solo conference for freelancers, May 16th, Lausanne (Switzerland).' /></a>

Carlos is also responsible for putting together the image file that graces the back of the Going Solo Moo cards that I’ll be carrying around with me at LIFT. Come and ask me for one when you see me!

A little while ago, I shouted out “it’s an event site!” because, frankly, it wasn’t really obvious that this was indeed an event site.

I’ve added a few more pages which should help dissolve any lingering doubts:

• Registration, which will soon lead you to our first partner’s service, Expectnation, where you will be able to register for the conference (plan: opening of ticket sales at the beginning of LIFT08, and very special pricing while the conference lasts)
• Programme, to give you a handy place to keep up with new topics, new speakers, and things taking shape
• Practical, with information on the venue, getting to Lausanne, accommodation, and all that kind of stuff
• Support Going Solo, because without you, Going Solo will be way too solo (this is where you head to get nifty sidebar badges to help us promote the event!)

We’ll soon have a Partners page with information about sponsorships and partnerships as well as a presentation of our existing partners. (And wondering, just this second: is there a difference between a “partner” and a “sponsor”?)

Things always take longer than expected. In this case, it wasn’t actually finding the venue (which was done in 4 days from start to finish), but sitting down in front of this computer long enough to blog about. (Well, I’ve been sitting many long hours in front of this computer, dealing with things like budgets, designers, partners, and registration — just not blogging.)

So, the venue? We’ll be holding Going Solo in the conference halls of the hotel Albatros-Navigation, right by the lake in Ouchy. The main conference hall has a whole side made of windows overlooking the lake (very pretty sunsets from there, I can tell you, though it’s not really relevant to the conference). We’ll be able to fit 150 people in it, and add a small stage so that the speakers are slightly higher than the ground.

The secondary hall, just below the main one, is a little smaller: I’m planning to set it up as a break-out room with drinks and snacks for breaks, bean bags (if you have any to lend us, let me know), pedestals for our partners, and (fingers crossed) a screen/beamer to allow people to keep an eye on what’s going on in the main room.

We even have a third smaller room, a “carnotzet” — we’re still thinking about how to use it. If you have suggestions, you’re welcome to make them.

Here we go, with the promised post. I swear I’ve been wanting to write this “tomorrow” for a few weeks now, but something always gets in the way. It’s late and I have a mighty cold, but as I promised, here I am, typing away on my chubby MacBook rather late at night (my MacBook looks chubby now because the MacBook Air has just been announced… and it’d make any laptop look overweight).

When I decided to set foot in the event business, I pretty soon had a whole bunch of ideas for conference topics. As a first, I picked the one that seemed the most exciting to me: a conference about freelancing.

As a freelancer, I’ve learnt — sometimes the hard way — that it’s not sufficient to know how to “do stuff” well to be successful in business. I think many of us freelancers are in the business because we have a passion for which there is a demand (ie, people are ready to pay for this stuff!), and we often struggle with the “business” side of being self-employed.

Going Solo is a chance to learn how to do things like set your rates, make yourself known, close deals, find clients or let them find you, explain what you do to the world, find a life-work balance, or deal with administrivia in the networked world we web people work in.

I know that the best value people usually get out of conferences is the networking and the contacts, more than the actual content of the talks. I’ve had the impression, however, that this is starting to be used as an excuse for poor content, “false advertising” of talk topics, and lousy speakers. I want none of that. Of course, I want you to come to Going Solo and meet great people, chat with colleagues, enjoy the coffee with friends, and code in the bean-bags (I want bean-bags in the lounge — anybody got any?) But I also want the content to be rich, coherent, and well-presented. After all, that is primarily what you’re paying for.

Here is an initial outline of the topics I think are important. (This doesn’t mean that these are talk titles — this is stuff I want the various talks to cover.) I’d really like to hear you if you think I’m missing stuff out or including things that are irrelevant. This is for you, after all.

• skills a freelancer needs (doing the work, marketing and networking, contracts and cash flow)
• fixing prices, closing deals, negotiating contracts (the hardcore businessy stuff)
• what kind of work freelancers in the 2.0 world do (some jobs are more suitable for soloists than others)
• marketing and taking care of one’s social capital (blogging… and being a good online citizen)
• tools of the trade (what software/tools/methods can assist you as a freelancer?)
• coworking and staying in touch with “colleagues” (compensating for “working alone” — we remain social animals)
• challenges in making a passion into a job, dealing with the blurring of the life/work distinction
• international clients, travel, different laws and tax rules, accounting
• soloist or small business?
• adapting to different kinds of clients (in particular, how do you deal with big corporations that you approach or who have approached you)

As you can see, there is plenty in there to keep us busy for a day!

I’m happy to announce that Suw Charman, Stowe Boyd, and Martin Roell (all three great speakers and good friends) have accepted my invitation to come and share their experience as soloists and help you benefit from what they have learned over the years. We’re still in the process of determining the exact topics they will cover in their talks, but I already wanted to let you know that they would be here in Lausanne on the 16th.

As we will have more than three speakers (four if you count me, as I’ll probably grab the microphone to say a few words ;-)), I’m open to suggestions. If you know good speakers who could cover part of the program I’m outlining above, do let me know. I’m particularly interested in bringing in people from outside my immediate network — and for that I need you.

I hope you find this first draft of the programme as exciting as I do, and I’m looking forward to reading your feedback.

Cross-posted on Climb to the Stars.

Here we are. I’ve finally imported the blog posts I initially wrote on CTTS into this blog and the Going Far one. It wasn’t too difficult to decide which post went where.

I still need to clean up, add some static content, fool with the sidebar, polish the design once the logo arrives — but at least the site is there, with its own personal URL, and you can feel free to link to it. Actually, please link to it. Announce Going Solo on your blog. We’ll have badges you can display in your posts or sidebars shortly.

So, here we go. As I mentioned in my last post, things are shaping up enough for me to start talking about them, even though a lot is still “floating”.

I’m taking the plunge into the event business. The first one I’m organising is Going Solo, a one-day conference in the beautiful and easily accessible city of Lausanne in Switzerland, which also happens to be my home town. It will take place early May.

Going Solo will fill a gap in the current conference offerings: it’s an event for freelancers of the web industry (soloists, hence the name) and very small businesses — from all over Europe.

Being a freelancer myself, I’ve come to realise quite a while ago that there is more to freelancing than “knowing cool stuff” and having people around willing to pay for it. How do you fix your prices? Close deals? Find clients, or better, help them find you? Collaborate with others, whether soloists themselves, or employees in a huge company? Deal with taxes, contracts, accounting, and all the rest of the boring administrative stuff? Achieve that delicate “work/life balance”, when you’re one of the lucky ones who turned a passion into a job?

Going Solo will address all these issues (and others), providing those attending with valuable insights and tools which will help them become better at what they are doing in the business world. (Sounds almost like a press release, doesn’t it? I’m practising for the sponsor offerings… shhh.)

In simple words: this is the kind of event I would have wanted to attend two years ago when I was struggling with the idea of becoming freelance. It’s the kind of event I would have liked to attend a year ago when things took off and I started realising how complicated all this “business” stuff was. And it’s also the kind of event I want to attend today, having faced the ups and downs of freelancing in the fast-moving world of new media, in the early stages of starting a company, and wondering what “holidays” means now that my everyday life is split between “hang out online”, “travel to foreign cities”, and “talk about exciting stuff with people”.

Where-when-what-how-why?

I’ll follow up later with a little insight into what’s going on. Be warned, though: you’re going to be following some thought processes here, and might be faced with decisions-in-the-making and not-sure-what-I’ll-do-yets. I welcome all feedback.

This was originally posted on Climb to the Stars. View comments on the original post.