I sometimes tell people that a few years ago (shortly after I realized that I had more than 300 publications to my credit) I realized that I had transitioned from being a lawyer who occasionally wrote articles to being a writer who sometimes practices law. I started this blog shortly after that.
I say that because part of my answer is that I did write about the blawger dinner. It was the post about Johnny Carson. That probably shows me thinking more like a writer than thinking like a lawyer.
I’ve been thinking about writing about both events in more detail, but I’ve also noticed that not many of the other participants have written about them either.
The reason for that may be that both events, in their own ways, were both great fun and profound at the same time. I suspect that some people at these events will in the future point to them as pivotal events. There is a lot to process.
The story I tell about the blawger dinner is this one. I sat at the table with Neil “TechnoLawyer” Squillante on my right and Marty “The Trademark Blog” Schwimmer on my left. Although I have known both of them for several years, that evening was the first time I met either of them in person. In fact, we haven’t even talked very often on the phone.
I will tell you that I felt that I was with two of my very best friends and we had the kinds of conversations you would expect to have only with your best friend from high school or college. Anyone watching us would have assumed that we had been friends for many years. In the most compelling way I’ve ever seen, I learned that the Internet is about “connection.”
However, I had amazing conversations with other people at the dinner and could tell that similar things were happening around the table. In a group of bloggers these days, I’m consistently struck with the realization of what a creative, bright group of people you have and whether there are ways that you can work together.
Whether at Blogwalk Chicago or the LegalTech blogger events, you begin the feel the energy and the movement toward generation 2.0 of blogging, which will be forms of collaboration among bloggers.
The Blogger lunch was also great, in a somewhat different way, because of the mix of bloggers and non-bloggers. It’s interesting how there is a kind of instant bond among bloggers and a way that other bloggers can jump into a conversation with a non-blogger and make the same points as you want to make, often in a better way. It’s not quite like finishing your sentences, but it’s similar.
At the lunch, I also had a long conversation with American Lawyer Media’s Stacey Artandi that really helped me rethink and redefine the whole “monetization of blogs” issue. Stacey is someone I’d like to see blogging.
Now, go back and read the Johnny Carson post and see if you don’t think it was about the blawger dinner after all.