Get to Know ExpressionEngine, My Favorite Blogging Software

Hey, if you’re in Vancouver this September, consider coming to the EE Roadshow on 9/26. This is a half-day conference that will introduce you to one of my most indispensable tools for blogging and web design—ExpressionEngine. Here’s all the pertinent info from the Web site http://www.eeroadshow.com/:

The EE Roadshow is an event for ExpressionEngine users and developers. It is part training, part brainstorming, part networking and all wonderful.

• If you’ve ever wondered how to make ExpressionEngine work better for you in your job, this is the event for you.
• If you’ve ever wondered how the other developers make EE jump through hoops and roll over, this is your event.
• And if you also happen to wonder what EE developers look like in person, well, don’t miss this.

ExpressionEngine’s online community is friendly and productive and supportive, one of the best on the Internet. The EE Roadshow is our way of bringing ExpressionEngine users and developers together in a real-world way.

The Details
Friday, September 26th
Vancouver, BC
1-5 p.m. (then stay for the part-ee!)
$50 per person

That gives plenty of time for you out-of-town folks to arrive, and gives the folks in town a great way get out of the office early.

Other training events can cost hundreds of dollars. Our low price: $50. That’s just the price of one cup of $50 coffee!

Check out the eeRoadshow sessions. We are covering everything from basic EE setup to developing your own custom module. And there’ll be special guests from EllisLab (the folks behind ExpressionEngine), as well as interesting prizes.

About EE Roadshow

The first ever EE Roadshow is brought to you by Boxcar Marketing, Venn Communications and Hop Studios, three passionate EE development companies who want to help bring ExpressionEngine to every Web site in the world.

The Art of Business Podcast Is Up!

The The Art of Business podcast we were talking about is up!  If you are not doing anything at the moment, why not give it a listen!  We talk about the book, how we write and read blogs, and a bunch of other great blogging information.

Thanks to Rebecca for taking the time to talk with us.  But that is not all, she also sat down and wrote up a summary of the interview over on The Next Stage - a blog about artists and live performance.

Learning How to Live Blog

I read a great post by Jonathan McGee on The Chatroll Blog that I wanted to share with you. Jonathan put together a terrific list of tips of people who want to do live blogging, and do it well.

Live blogging is the practice of blogging while attending an event, so that people who aren’t there can keep track of what is happening. You see a lot of live blogging at conferences (especially technical ones) and when you see a really good live blogger doing it it’s almost as good as listening to a podcast of the event after the fact.

My favorite thing about live blogging is when the person doing the blogging interjects their personal opinions as little asides to the notes he or she takes during a talk or lecture. I really love those little extra tidbits about what is happening in the room, or what the audience reaction is to controversial points.

A good live blogger definitely needs to be a quick typist and a good listener, but it’s different from just transcribing an event—there’s a certain amount of synthesizing information so you hit the highlights without getting bogged down in unneeded detail. And a really good live blogger tracks down any materials used during the presentation (like PowerPoint slides), and links up Web sites that come up during the talk.

I think Jonathan’s first tip is the best, though: ”Tip #1: Know your audience (a.k.a. Do you really need to live blog the event?)” Just because you can live blog an event doesn’t mean you need to or even should!

Read Jonathan’s complete post here.

Have you ever live blogged something? Do you have any tips to share?