It's All About Community

Sharing more from the CREATESouth conference that I attended this weekend...

I went to the conference not knowing what to expect. It was laid back, which was good. Everyone that I talked with was not only interesting, but also interested in others. I met some great people, and I'm really looking forward to next year!

We had two keynote speakers in the morning. First was Tiffany Trent, an author of young adult fiction. She spoke about creativity. Since I'm a kinesethetic learner, I loved the exercise that she gave us. She passed out sea shells and asked us to picture ourselves as a shell on the beach. What makes us unique from all of the other shells out there?

Tiffany reminded us that we need to practice our creativity every day, even if it's only fifteen minutes. What are you willing to give up in order to have those fifteen minutes?

Our second keynote was Tee Morris, who was very entertaining! He spoke about putting the "social" back in social media. Tee had a lot of great one-line thoughts that I tweeted as he spoke. (I'm so glad I was able to find an outlet for my laptop!) One of my favorites was: Tweet unto others as you would have them tweet unto you. Reminding us that Twitter and other social media need to be about making connections and forming community.
It struck me that that was (and still is!) the original purpose of this blog. I chose the name "Not a DIY Life" because I am a firm believer that this is not a Do-It-Yourself life. We need each other, and we need God. The reason that I share about my faith, my family, and my parenting exploits is to reach out and connect with others. Case in point: my post last week on not giving my toddler juice. Quite a few other parents agreed with my reasons in that post. It was great to hear from other parents and feel affirmed in my parenting!

Back to the conference. After a wonderful BBQ lunch, we could choose different tracks to follow. I was torn between taking the writing track or the community track. I know that good writing is important to building a community for my blog, but I also wanted to hear more about the community aspect too. I ultimately chose the community track, and I'm so glad I did!

Key thoughts from the afternoon:

Technology is. It is neither good nor bad. How are we going to use it?

Humor is central to the human experience.

Thinking on your feet makes you a better communicator.

Everything ties back to community; building connections and sharing humor.

Social means interactions; how are you going to connect with those around (in real life and online)?

There was so much more, but I'll stop here for now. It was a great day and a wonderful conference. If you live within driving distance of Myrtle Beach, I would highly recommend attending next year!