I’m boarding a plane to Liverpool on Wednesday, June 10 to attend the b.Tween conference, a media convergence confab with people from across Europe (although I think primarily in the United Kingdom).
Here’s how all this came about. Within reason.
I’d stopped drinking in May 2008 (long story, it’s a good one. Some other time.) which meant my life had taken on some calming changes. But they aren’t necessarily easy changes just because they make me feel good. Addiction sucks that way.
And I was worried about my sobriety because South by Southwest Interactive, a yearly conference in Austin with 11,000 or so geeky chic fantastic people, was approaching. I’ve been for 15 years or so. It’s my favorite time of year. But there is drinking. Lots of drinking. I decided the best way to avoid all that was to hop on the message boards and help people out who needed a hand.
Give a little back.
Turns out when you are kind to people, they are much more likely to enjoy your company than if you’re simply a raging drunken bastard. (side note: I did not know this until May 2008.)
Somehow I got connected with a score of folks from England: Fiona, Tim, Michael, Aleks (I knew her already). We hit it off. I helped them around. Through the course of the event, Katz told me she was involved with b.Tween and thought it might be good to have some international flavor.
She asked if I’d come. I said yes (because the next time someone asks you if you’re a god…you. say. yes.) and EuroTrip 2009 was born.
From there shenanigans ensued. I met some folks who I will be interviewing for Dungeons + Dreamers, Second Edition. I got in touch with John, which led to Germany, which led to Prague, which led to Budapest.
I like to refer to my new sober life as: My life as Press. I keep doing things for folks, and they tell two people and so on and so on and so on. At times I feel a bit like Bill Murray at the end of Scrooged. But I digress.
The point is next Wednesday starts the actual reason for EuroTrip 2009. A chance to connect with some really smart folks involved in media and technology. A chance to catch up with some new old friends from SXSW. A chance to get some writing down in the cafes of Hyde Park, London.
Oh, and I’ll be catching up with a former NKU graduate student, Katie, who is doing her own version of EuroTrip 2009 with her boyfriend. We are meeting for lunch on June 13.
That makes 4 countries and 3 friend meet-ups. Plus John lives in the fourth country. That’s not a bad way to hang.
