Tweetstock V - Part 2: Not Chris Farias

My last post went a little off track. I can't help it, when a man smells like candy, and spreads glitter and awesome I am easily led astray. Ok so a well timed ball of tinfoil being thrown can lead me astray, I'm easily distracted, not the point.

So, Tweetstock 5, what's up with that? Well, it's a group of people coming together to inspire more people to come together through the use of social media and, well, just being social in general. Getting out into your community and making things happen.

I got a PRIMO seat in the couch row. Tweetstock 4 may have been short seats but Tweetstock 5 made up for it with giant comfy leather couches in the front row, where I happened to be sitting. The only downfall of the venue? Being in the basement of a mall almost completely cut off my network connection leaving me...

UNABLE TO TWEET! I won't lie, if I hadn't been in a room full of 3-D tweeters this might have caused me some serious withdraw issues. So I took out my ipod and rapid blogged in tweet length thoughts into my notepad. This left me with an odd jumble of quotes and random thoughts like:

"Yes I did just admit to getting lost between tweetstock 4 and the tweetstock 4 after party"

"Youre not tweeting Kevins a douch right?"

"Oh just FYI... I met AND hugged @kitestring. He smells like chocolate and awesome!"

"Real humans joke about balls"

"What's the point of social media if you arnt social?"

And then the one that stuck with me, "Nobody really knows what they're doing".

Yeah that last one really did stick with me. From

Josh Bean, founder and executive director of the Brantford Arts Block with a laundry list of resume building awesomeness. Part I loved the most about Josh? He actually was just a guy with an idea. I loved that he wasn't one of those guys who "always knew it was going to work" or "everything went exactly as I thought it would all the time". He was just a guy, standing in a store front, asking the world to love music and the arts.

It pretty much came up and smacked me in the face. Nobody really knows what they're doing. Nobody. I was sitting in a room full of people who lived a life of trial and error, just like me. Just because I may not know what Im doing right now, each and every single person in that room at one point was me. Successful, just starting out, young, old, social, anti social, self employed, married, uneducated... None of that matters, none of it, because nobody really knows what they're doing. Weird thing to be inspired by I know, but I totally was. For the first time I looked around and saw the playing field as a flat even surface. For the first time I felt like an equal. A nice surprise to have a moment like that out of the blue.

I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the evening. Amanda Kinnard, Marc LaFerriere, David Yoon, Deb Lowther and the rest of the speakers brought intelligence, humour and humanity to a form of media that often can seem cold and disconnected.

Bringing the social media community into the streets of our cities and neighbourhoods. Making it tangible and useful for everyone. No longer just geeks and techies and computer nerds in basements, we are using social media to become innovators and propel us into a better, more connected future.

What I was looking forward to the most was hearing my friend, Jason Dykstra, speak. I know Jay as an easy-going, smart, beer lovin' Dad with a soft spot for plaid. I always knew he was a mediator, but I honestly just didn't see it. I didn't get that, you didn't need to be in conflict to understand conflict. Reality is, I'm pretty much walking conflict. I'm super easy to misinterpret and not everyone gets me (luckily I also have natural charm and smile and laugh easily at myself), but Jay has always come across as laid back and the last person to throw himself into the middle of a fight. What I didn't realise was that he wasn't just breaking up fights, he was solving puzzles. He was taking conflicts, breaking them down to their basic elements and reconstructing the pieces in a way that made them work. Rather then taking two puzzles and trying to shove them together into one picture, he takes the pieces and creates a new image. Yeah, I was blown away by Jason and seriously proud to have been the front row fan that yelled out " I LOVE YOU JASON!" before he even spoke.

Oh man, I feel like I've rambled again and I havn't even gotten to the rest of my tweeple who make my days fun and my nights entertaining. Yup... theres gonna have to be a part 3. I'm ok with it.