May 12, Chicago: My Workshop with Heidi Miller!

Ok, here's something I've been working on that I'm very excited about. On Saturday, May 12, I'll be teaming up with the Podcasting Princess herself, Heidi Miller, to offer a special one-day workshop: Creating Passionate Communities with Blogs and Podcasting. Attendees will get a fun, practical jump start toward using the Internet to support your work -- and your bottom line. 

Is this workshop for you? Quite possibly.

• Do you love your business, organization, or project -- but hate doing traditional marketing or outreach?
• Do you love connecting with people who might want to buy your products or services, support your efforts, or just spread the word about what you're doing -- but hate creating ads and press releases?
• Even more importantly, do the people you need to reach tend to tune out traditional advertising and marketing? Also, do they like being heard?

Register now to get the early bird discount rate. (Right Conversation readers, enter the code RC01 to receive an extra $25 discount.)

Here's what our workshop will cover...

You'll learn how to use two basic tools of conversational media to connect with your customers, supporters, stakeholders, the media, and other key communities. These tools -- weblogs ("blogs") and podcasts (kind of like radio, but online) -- are free or cheap, and surprisingly easy and fun to use.

Blogs and podcasts let you maintain engaging public conversations with your core communities. They also make you easy to find, and they increase your influence online and elsewhere.

Best of all, these tools are fun -- which means they make it easier to share your passion for what you do.

Amy Gahran is a longtime blogger, journalist, and consultant who specializes in helping people learn how to understand and use online and conversational media. Heidi Miller, the "podcasting princess," is a well-known podcaster and has a gift for making technology simple and fun.

We'll show you:

• How to join the public conversation through existing blogs and podcasts. (Why start your community from scratch?)
• How to create your own weblog and plan what you'll say there, so you'll be able to keep it up and make it work without burning out.
• How to attract and engage the people you most need to reach.
• How to create a podcast -- conversations are so much easier when you sound like a real person. Yes, we'll actually produce a real podcast in the workshop, so bring your voice and your creativity!
• How to use your blog to support and complement your podcast.
• How to get people to participate in your blog or podcast -- this grows your community in a way that search engines love
• How to handle common problems and pitfalls, including nasty comments and time management
• How to have lots of fun doing all this! (OK, maybe that should be on the top of this list...)

By the end of the day, you'll have the skills, mindset, and resources to get started -- and even a little experience too!

All you need to know how to do is get on the online and access the Web. We'll show you the rest.

Questions? E-mail Amy Gahran or Heidi Miller

TELL US WHAT YOU WANT

We've just started a special online forum where you can tell us what you'd like out of this kind of workshop. This is important, because we intend to take this workshop on the road. If you'd like us to offer this workshop in your city, make sure you let us know in this forum, and tell us what you'd want.

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD

Right now, we're publicizing this workshop every cost-effective way we can think of in the Chicago area. If you have a suggestion for a publication, blog, or group that might be interested in this workshop, please e-mail us or post to our workshop forum. If you recommend someone who signs up, you'll get a special discount.

Hope to see you there!