JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

I was excited to see Darren Barefoot’s post announcing Northern Voice 2006! Mark your calendars for February 10 and 11 and plan to head to Vancouver, B.C. for the second year of an excellent blogging conference. This year it’s an expanded edition, featuring a day of Moose Camp, in the style of Bar and Foo, on Friday. Sounds fun! Registration is open now and closes February 6.

The 2006 site itself is nifty, featuring a blue moose mascot and quotes from a number of NV ’05 blog posts, including ones Ted and I wrote. Kris Krug has captured many of them on his blog. Last year our whole family enjoyed Northern Voice (as evidenced by the quotes from our posts) and I hope we can be there again this year!

NV is also soliciting for speakers. If you’re interested at all, I would recommend applying! It would be a little stretch to say that Northern Voice has made me what I am today. However it was the organizers of Northern Voice who took a chance and selected me to be a speaker. They encouraged me to discuss public versus private and family blogging. From this mix of concepts, my “Making Masks” talk emerged, a presentation which had its own little tour this summer, including Gnomedex. Through it all, I’ve grown as a person, explored a variety of ideas and most of all, enjoyed excellent conversations with many people across different communities and experiences. The dialogue in the room at Northern Voice after I finished my talk was fun and intense, one of my favorite groups. I’ve often wished I had had more time to pursue everyone’s ideas: I’ve often wished I had had an additional hour there for discussion. The dialogue though has continued in relationships with other bloggers that have lasted through the year. Northern Voice is a wonderful opportunity for speakers.

And, as Richard and others pointed out, around 40% of attendees at Northern Voice ’05 were women (am I the first woman to post? – no Nancy White at least beat me by a few hours tonight..and it looks like she beat me to updating The Speakers Wiki Speaking Opportunities page too – thanks Nancy!). Darren noted in Richard’s comments that NV is more focussed on the social and cultural aspects of blogging rather than technical ones. It’s a fun atmosphere!

Thanks to the Northern Voice organizers for getting it together again for another year!