The problem is with popularity contests with regard to any kind of web-based voting app. For a quick background, this year we have developed a session voting application that lets anyone log-in via Twitter and submit & vote for other sessions. The point has been brought up that it will just devolve into a popularity contest where people can get their followers to juice up their session votes.

First, I want to say that the voting process on the site is only part of the selection process. Sessions that have a lot of votes will have a good chance of making it into the conference. However, Blog Indiana will also have a vote as to which sessions get included. Blog Indiana has the final decision over which sessions make it in. Though, the session votes definitely are used to help us decide.

Part of the reason for this new process is that every year we have about 20-30 potentially great sessions that get submitted to us that we are unable to fit into the schedule. Shawn & I do a pretty good job (IMHO) of selecting sessions from the pool. However, I always wonder if we missed a few gems that people would have really loved. Our idea to help this problem was to take a very closed process and open it wide for all to see.

All of our potential sessions for BIN2010 are posted on sessions.blogindiana.com. Our chief goal is to use the community to help us bring great session topics to the top and help us make sure the ones people want to see make it in the conference.

I sincerely welcome comments about this process and how it can be improved in the future. Shawn and I both take year-after-year improvement of our events very seriously. Thanks!

I am generally a modest person. However, I have to declare that Blog Indiana 2008 was a success. I still haven’t taken the time to dig through the boxes of stuff we crammed into my truck as we rushed to clean up and exit the building before it closed on Sunday. Though, I’m pretty sure we topped 160 attendees total by the time the weekend was over. We had an article in the Indianapolis Star on Saturday that drove a good number of people to register at the door on Saturday and Sunday (something we had originally planned not to do, but glad we did!).

The Good

By far, my absolute favorite aspect of the entire weekend was getting to meet and talk with so many of you. Even though I spent a fair amount of time running around the place making sure everything was running smoothly, the personal interactions and random conversations with local (and not so local) bloggers was so much fun. Meeting so many people I only know on Twitter and through blogs was interesting and strangely comforting.

Seeing the hard work that Shawn and I put in to creating a conference that, from face to face conversations and the majority of our received surveys, was well received and enjoyed by the attendees was a dream come true. We’ve never put on a conference before and we had to make some decisions without really knowing what was best. It looks like most of them worked out and most people seemed to get a lot out of the event.

It is also worth pointing out that I learned a great deal about how much of any of my success in life is because of the never ending support of my wife. She is the reason I am able to push myself to do the things I want to do in life. Her only complaint with this conference was that I didn’t let her take some of the stress off of my shoulders sooner. She was invaluable in the weeks leading up to the conference and was a life saver the days of. She is new to blogging, so feel free to stop by her site and leave a comment!

The Bad

The only truly “bad” part of the entire weekend was wireless internet issues. Sure, some sessions were better than others, we forgot to check for random marathons occuring in the city, and Shawn & I probably figit too much on stage. But, the wifi was really bad. So, I’ll take this moment to apologize. I’m usually the first person to roll my eyes and say “How hard is it to get WIFI right, people?!” at any conference that screws it up. And, while I won’t go into the reasons why we had so much trouble here, I will say that wifi WILL work at any future event we put together. Top of my list. I might still figit a little on stage, but, by God, we’ll have working wifi next time.

The Future

The survey results we’ve received so far have been outstanding. Not just in that people really enjoyed the conference, but we are getting great feedback on how to improve. Believe me when I say that we are reading every single survey and will be compiling a list of every idea and suggestion.

So what is next? Let’s just say there is a lot of wind in our sails right now and we’ll be getting to work on our plans for next year this month. I’d love to drop hints, but we still haven’t formally met to discuss the future. We do have some big ideas that I think you’ll be interested in.

With that said, if you have an interest in lending your talents to help us in planning, generating ideas, speaking, or sponsoring the next conference, don’t hesitate to drop me an email at noah (at) blogindiana (dot) com.

Photos (see many more at the Flickr Photo pool and Photrade Group)