Dad 2.0 Summit Offers Blogging Community Bonds
Probably the biggest event in dad blogging this year — the Dad 2.0 Summit – kicks off today in Austin with meet-and-greet festivities before the conference finds the high gear on Friday and Saturday.
Babble is well represented with panelists and speakers, including yours truly, so make sure to stop and say hi while you’re there. But while I am excited to be on a panel with some great writers, I’m really excited about something else.
Simply being there.
It’s been said over and over this year that 2012 is the “year of the dad” in terms of fathers gaining more of a foothold in the marketing/business/web 2.0 realm. And while that’s well and good, blogging, for me, has always been largely about finding a community of people to connect with. As a new stay-at-home dad so many years ago, I turned to the blogging world and found online connections that turned into great real world friendships, friendships that remain to this very day.
That’s why I see conferences like these as incredibly important and why I’m so particularly excited to go to this one.
Yes, you get to learn a thing or two during the keynotes or panel sessions and yes, you may open the doors to a few new business ventures — that’s always a plus — but I find the real value comes from connecting face-to-face with writers I’ve only chit-chatted with online in comments or Facebook statuses (stati?).
How about you? Have you been to a similar dad conference and what do you think is the most valuable part of them? And please, do stop by and say hi if you’re in Austin this weekend.
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