This is just to admit my shame – I’ve yet to put finger to keyboard and write of my Kinnernet experiences. I have much to tell, and many posts in the next couple of weeks will spin off things that happened and were said/heard there.

TheMarker’s “Comvention” followed up without a break, nearly as hectic, mainly due to people “asking to borrow my brain for a couple of minutes” (always good fun).

So this entire trip had nearly zero-downtime, and now I’m back at my desk (and so-called life) catching up etc. I promise to get around to it soon. If you want to make sure you don’t miss it – subscribe by RSS or mail from the right hand column. This is a low(ish) traffic blog, so it shouldn’t cause you too much trouble.

“BRB”

Watch the Kinnernet and Kinnernet2006 tags on flickr for pictures. I’ve also put some favs on my own flickr.

In two weeks time, I’m heading out to Israel to take part in Kinnernet. This will be a very short visit and I’m doing it specifically for this special event.
For the third time, Yossi Vardi, of Mirabilis (ICQ) fame, with the help of some sponsors is gathering ~150 “net and technology – addicts, nerds ,geeks , thought leaders, and other creative people ,in order to give like-minded individuals the opportunity to gather informally and discuss topics and concepts that are of interest to them.” (no media & VCs allowed).
The rules of engagement are open-source-anti-con = the attendees are the agenda etc.
It’s always a challenge to decide what you want to talk about when you’re about to meet such a great bunch of people and can choose whatever you want to speak about. I have a lot of subjects I’m passionate about and want to share, so after much thought I narrowed them to three (which was still too much, especially since this is the biggest kinnernet so far):

1. The dynamics of the Israeli blogosphere and what causes it to be different (and I suspect some things there are true for blogs in small markets in general).
2. A critical look at the limits of blogging. I feel that often, the evangelists of blogging are so busy preaching, that some issues are neglected. This is an opportunity for the choir to sit together for a critique/reality check.
3. A marketing workshop for geeks – looking at the connection between product, brand and experience. To a certain degree, Web based applications ARE communication. I wanted to suggest a framework for figuring out what the brand is about / what’s the story of the product, using it to focus the product, user experience and marketing efforts.

Having to choose one subject I had no idea what to do. Eventually, I realised I should choose the one with the maximum combination between my contribution, and what the attendees can give me, since giving & receiving is what this event’s format is about. So I chose number 2. The other two will probably be introduced gradually in this blog.

And yes – I plan to blog aboout Kinnernet. Watch this space.