OtherThanThat

“Cathy, do you ever sit still?”

I get this question a lot. Mostly from people who track me on Twitter or Facebook and note the seemingly perpetual motion with which I live my life. Okay, so it’s not seemingly … it’s actual. The truth, though, is that while I certainly travel in spates, those in between times I’m generally tucked in happily at home.

That said, I have been asked several times of late where folks might find me – speaking gigs, conferences I’m attending, that sort of thing. There is a section of my site where a more formal calendar will soon be placed, but in the mean time I thought it might be useful to give a little recap of my recent activities and project forward a bit to spots where sightings are likely.

It’s been a busy Fall …

On September 13 I gave a keynote workshop at the annual WITI Summit. It was the longest solo talk I’ve given in some time, but the real highlight was getting to introduce Dr. Ruth Westheimer (yes that Dr. Ruth) who spoke immediately after me.

On September 15 I moderated an hour-long panel discussion for the WomenWhoTech Telesummit. The topic – female ferocity as a business asset. My panelists – TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde, Intel Senior Fellow Genevieve Bell and BlogHer COO Elisa Camahort.

Just to make sure I didn’t rest at all that week, on September 16 I delivered a keynote address to the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Marketing Association. The topic – the critical role that storytelling plays in developing a corporate social media strategy. Immediately after the keynote I moderated a panel discussion, diving more deeply into the nuts and bolts of building a solid social media program. There are two things I loved about that panel. First, the speakers represented three of the biggest names in technology – Cisco, HP and Intel. Second, all three speakers were women!

The last week of September brought TechCrunch Disrupt (September 27 – 29). It was nice to just sit and listen to other folks talk.

No sooner had the dust settled from Disrupt then I was on the road for LA and the 140 Conference being held there (October 4-5). Conference producer Jeff Pulver kindly proffered me two spots on stage at this event – a fireside chat with talented actress Traci Dinwiddie and a solo talk, well, a rant really, about separating ego from story in social media. Since Jeff posted all the conference videos online, I’ve embedded them both at the bottom of this post.

Next up on the docket, BlogWorld Expo (Las Vegas, October 14-16). Initially slated for one panel, I ended up moderating three sessions over the course of the three day event. One conversation centered around, you guessed it, where storytelling fits into corporate social media use, how to make the story human and some examples of how that’s done well. Oh, and we talked about building a solid social media policy too. was thrilled to be joined for that session by Deb Schultz of Altimeter Group and two of the key players behind the success of Kodak’s social media program – Tom Hoehn and Jennifer Cisney. Panel number two focused on how to manage a blog with multiple authors, and the panelists should all know as they came from Southwest Airlines, Mashable and Social Media Examiner. Finally, with what little voice I had left, I moderated a local food blogger panel from the TechMunch LIVE stage on the show floor.

Home from Vegas, a bit of rest, and then I packed up Truman and headed for Santa Cruz for something that has become one of my favorite events of the year – Nokia’s IdeasCamp. Equal parts unconference, Maker Faire and playtime for grown-ups, this gathering pulls together just shy of 200 of the most creative folks from Nokia, partner companies as well as a ragtag bunch of creatives who have one connection to the company or another.

But wait … there’s more … capping off October was an amazing fireside chat keynote interview at FailCON with one of my favorite people in Silicon Valley – Jay Adelson. The former CEO of Digg joined me on stage for what was certainly one of the most refreshingly honest Monday morning quarterback sessions on his career to-date.

Last but certainly not least is the most recent outing – my trip to LA for the Totally Fabulous Females Second Annual “Main Event” on November 3. This year’s gathering included the first annual Totally Fabulous Females Woman of the Year award. It was thrilled to be nominated. It was even more thrilling to take home the award!

Coming up on the horizon are the following:
Dealmaker Media’s Under the Radar – November 12 – Mountain View, CA
Web 2.0 Summit – November 15-17 – San Francisco, CA
Amplify – November 18 – San Francisco, CA
TWITRCON – November 18 – San Francisco, CA
TEDWomen – December 7-8 – Washington, DC

A Wondrous Journey: Social Media Powering the Path to Character – A Conversation with Traci Dinwiddie

Who Are You and Why Should Anyone Care? … A Rant on Ego and Social Media