In a last minute change of plans, I had the good fortune to attend the Web 2.0 Expo as part of the Lithium booth team on Thursday morning! It was actually my first time in the Lithium booth on the expo floor and it was definitely exciting. Web 2.0 is a great conference, with a good mix of industries, sizes, and needs. I talked with large, global corporations, mom n' pop shops, and everything in between - from high-technology to media, manufacturing to retail, as well as government and non-profit organizations. If there were any lingering questions about whether Web 2.0 has hit the mainstream, I think that can be safely put to rest.

I had an absolute blast in the trenches, barking for the Lithium roadshow to all comers. There's still quite a few folks out there trying to make sense of what is increasingly a complicated mix of technologies and services, and there was more than one overwhelmed person I saw asking "Yeah, but - what's in it for me?" I hope I gave them some good solutions!

Sadly, due to the "last minute" part I didn't have much time to spend in the panels and sessions this go around. But hopefully those of you that attended were able to see our own Neil Beam, Manjeera Patnaikuni and Michael Wu making the rounds (two of whom have appeared previously on this blog).

A special treat: here's a wonderful interview on Lithium with my boss, Iain Grant, that aired on KRON 4 news Sunday:

Courtesy of KRON4 News:  2009 Web 2.0 Expo Coverage

Were you there? Let me know what you thought, particularly about what I missed on the upper floors!

Thanks to jaycross for posting the pic of the Lithium booth on Flickr (and for using Creative Commons licensing)!

I'm getting ready for Halloween and voting day, with Defrag 2008 sandwiched in between like the sweet creamy goodness of a double-stuff Oreo™ cookie! Yum!

True to its name, Defrag takes many disparate yet related subjects and attempts to assemble it in useful ways (as you can see by the agenda). If anyone recalls the old Connections TV series by James Burke, many of the truly transcendent changes in our history occur not along straight lines but in the intersections between disciplines. I'm really looking forward to what new insights and connections we'll be making this year!

If you're planning to attend too, let me know!

Photo by mihoda