If you read my last three posts about the 140 Characters Conference, you’ve seen my initial reactions and thank-you’s from the event. After a few days of simmering, It occurs to me that I learned more about specific people than I did about the real-time web. I’ll admit I spent more time tending to the panelists I’d invited than actually watching the programming, but that was out of necessity. I felt like I’d gotten them into this thing, I better make sure they had a good time (even though Jeff Pulver always makes his events fun). Here’s what I learned about the people I spent my time with:
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That’s me, Amanda Palmer, Jeff Pulver, Andy Dixon, and Keith Spiro doing an impromptu version of Sesame Street at the 140 Characters Conference.

To say the least, the 140 Characters Conference was fun. I got to lead the Music panel and I was fortunate enough to convince Ariel Hyatt, Amanda Palmer, and Ted Cohen to join me. I’m so glad Jeff Pulver invited me to moderate this panel, I never thought I’d get all three names at the top of my list to sit at the table. I felt like a little fish in a very big pond, given that they’ve all dealt with major labels and real established acts in the past and I’m still working my ass off just to bring you all some tunes on a monthly basis. Still, I think each of us managed to provide some insight into the real-time web that your average corporate marketing type wouldn’t really have seen.

Honestly, though, what makes social media events like this fun aren’t really the events. It’s the socializing. Getting to talk about indie music promotion with Ariel is always a highlight. Hearing stories of touring with Van Halen and Prince and the like from Ted Cohen never gets old. And Amanda Palmer? Yeah, she’s as groovy as I anticipated. Busiest woman I’ve ever seen, though, she’s literally the CEO of her own company just like me. Her business is significantly larger, though, so I can see why she needs caffeine. What we talked about on stage mirrored what was happening backstage: Talk to people online, Don’t just promote shit, actually converse. If you’re not interacting with your fans as a human being, you’re not interacting with your fans.

And speaking of interacting with your fans, the most unexpected surprise for me was meeting Derrick, one of my VIP’s, for the first time. He’d been a VIP member since day one, but I never thought I’d actually get to meet him. Why? He lives in frickin’ Singapore. Right now he’s in the Boston area, though, and was attending the 140 Characters conference. I don’t think he knew I was going to be there, but I’m damn glad he showed up. I don’t know if many of you know how cool it feels to meet someone who’s a big supporter even though you’ve never seen them and never played a show in their country. It takes a real fan to take part in something like Matthew Ebel dot net without knowing if you’ll ever actually get to SEE the artist you’re supporting, so I considered it a stone-cold honor to bump into Derrick.

The dinner afterwards sealed the day perfectly. NY Times best-selling author Julien Smith sponsored this indie rocker’s meal that night, and man am I grateful. I got to spend the final hours of the day talking with friends like CC Chapman, Chris Penn, Chel Pixie (who organized the dinner), Jeffrey Sass and his aspiring-rock-star son, and more. These kind of people create a notable change in conversation every time I’m around them. I’m usually among folks who create or manage technology- networking, storage, programming, etc. -but the people I ate dinner with are a different kind of cutting edge. They don’t make the tools, they use them in ways nobody else imagines. It’s refreshing to hear from people who are paving new roads using the toys that my other friends are crafting. It’s a hell of a perspective and I’m thankful for the opportunity to see all sides of the picture.

So here’s to the con-goers at 140 Characters. I hope to see you all next year!

Two days before leaving for the 140 Characters Conference I hiked into the woods of New Hampshire with two of my best friends. We didn’t have smart phones, laptops, or iPads, just dry goods and supplies to keep us alive and warm. I’m not sure what it is about the primitive nature of backpacking that makes me happy. Perhaps it’s the lack of networking that acts as an internal Reset Button. Maybe it’s the fact that I get to play with a different kind of technology (aluminum camp saws, Whisperlite stoves, titanium sporks).

Cut to Monday night in Manhattan, NY. My world grew from a population of three to the City that Never Sleeps. My survival tools change from flint rods and ceramic filters to business cards and CD’s. I hiked seven miles in snow over the weekend, but in NYC I’ll hail a cab to go 10 blocks. I wasn’t struck with a sense that one wilderness is better than the other, just that they are different. Honestly, though, the cabbies of New York City scare me more than the bears of New Hampshire.

I learned two things from my experience last week. One is that we rely on others for wildly varying reasons. Aaron and Brad kept me from freezing to death in the middle of the woods. C.C., Lynette, and Jeff kept me from looking like a nobody in a sea of important somebodies.

I mentioned recently how often I need to thank the people around me. Part of it is simply the nature of running a business as a one-man operation, but in my case I think I’m just surrounded by extraordinarily generous people.

The other thing that I discovered is how adaptable we are. To retrieve and sterilize your own drinking water one day and present the future of technology with major-label execs the next is quite the paradigm shift. It’s enough to make me wonder what else we’re capable of when we step out of our comfortable living rooms and into the scary world of bears and cabbies.