So this lovely Saturday, Scott and I headed down to the KRON-4 studios by invitation, there to meet up with about 100 or so of our fellow Bay Area Bloggers. Apparently KRON is trying to get a handle on this 'new' (at least to them) medium of communication and community.
There were snacks, free t-shirts, and a few short speeches by KRON staff about how great it was that we were there and what great things KRON would like to do to support the local blogger community, but the main focus was for bloggers to network with each other.
Anil Dash from SixApart was there, as was Craig from CraigsList, and Chris Nolan of Politics From Left To Right (one of my blogrolled sites). I also saw some of the local blog-related businesses represented, if the Technorati, Blogger, and Feedster t-shirts some folks were wearing was evidence. There were a bunch of local food bloggers and a broad range of other folks, from gay bloggers to photobloggers. I even ran into a former co-worker from Critical Path.
It was fun, but I found the event very stressful and ended up getting very snippy at Scott. I realized why on the drive home. Watching the food bloggers chat with each other and Chris, Anil, and Craig comfortably schmoozing, I felt like I'd felt all through high school -- I was sitting on the sidelines watching the cool kids all interact effortlessly while I struggled to make friends at all.
Despite making great gains over the years against my innate shyness, it is really hard for me to network, especially in a room full of people I don't know. Opening my mouth to talk to a new person is a big effort, and when the other person is someone who I perceive to be more accomplished than me, I'm often too intimidated to say anything at all. I get frustrated that I feel this way, which today led to me being short with the one person in the room that I could talk to without feeling scared.
Anyway, despite it all, I did get to tell someone whose work I enjoy that I like her blog, so that's a small victory. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to tell Craig "thank you" for Craigslist.
UPDATE: KRON's coverage of the event is online now.
Comments (4)
You may want to check out the book "Never Eat Alone". Some nice tutorials on working a room and becoming comfortable with mingling.
Posted by Phil Wolff | June 11, 2005 4:37 PM
Well, this blog post isn't shy. It's brutally and beautifully honest.
I'm sure glad that you weren't feeling shy when I met you at Aliza Sherman's NYC Webgrrls way back when. What a friend I would've lost.
Warmly,
kt
Posted by Katie Lipka | June 11, 2005 8:46 PM
cool, I'm not the only one that felt out of place and I'm shy too didn't know a soul there, kept thinking to myself, what am I doing here? It was nice meeting you today :)
Posted by Julie | June 11, 2005 9:33 PM
For what it's worth, I think these kinds of social situations are hard for almost *everybody*. I still see times when me, or Ben and Mena, or other folks who've been to a lot of blogging events, get overwhelmed by all the new faces and just kind of clam up in the corner.
But the only thing that helps is practice... the more you get out there and run into other people at Meetups or events like the KRON one, or even by organizing get-togethers, the more comfortable you get. I've been lucky enough to get to go to a lot of blogger events, so I see some familiar faces when I go out, and that makes things less intimidating.
There's a photobloggers' event at the Apple store next Tuesday. I won't be able to make it, but I've been to a bunch of events like that in New York, and they turn out to be pretty fun. Might be worth your time to check out.
Posted by Anil | June 12, 2005 12:13 PM