Going Solo

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!

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.

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”?)