In the next few weeks there are a few things going on that you really need to know about and act on now so you can get as much awesomeness as I expect to! So going chronologically you need to know about Show Me the Blog St. Louis #SMBSTL and Smalltown 140. Let me tell you why you need to know about these two events and why you should get to registering RIGHT NOW! Yes, I’m making an impassioned plea for two events I’m passionate about.

Show Me the Blog St. Louis

You may remember I moved to St. Louis just over a year ago. When I made the decision to make the big change of moving, one of the things I thought about was how important it would be to get out and meet people who I don’t work with (I love the folks at work, but diversity is the spice of life right?). Blogging seems an obvious connection!

I had already thought about needing to meet folks I had talked to in #BlogChat — namely two awesome St. Louis bloggers Robyn Wright (@RobynsWorld) and Todd Jordan (@tojosan). And when I saw folks tweeting about Show Me the Blog (using the hashtag #SMBSTL), I decided this was the kind of event I could meet some folks with a similar passion of blogging. so got a

Wow! Did I meet some awesome people! (and someone took that photo of me) I also learned a lot more about blogging! And there are some sessions on other social media components as they connect to blogging too. It was during Show Me The Blog that I really started contemplating moving to self-hosted. I also got a great feeling for the types of bloggers who were in town!

This year, Show Me The Blog will be held in my new hometown of U City, October 19 – 20. Here are some of the awesome folks you can meet and topics you can learn about this year at Show Me the Blog:

•  The conference’s founder Danyelle Little (aka The Cubicle Chick) absolutely rocks! She’s a blogger and freelancer who calls St. Louis home and is working hard to have it all. And she always has a smile to go with it! She writes about juggling being a mother of two while working and being active socially.
• Kristi Bonney of Live and Love Out Loud.com — Unleashing the Power of Photography in Blogging and Social Media: Photography Tips for Social Media User
• Lakesha Brown, Web Designer/Blogger, XD Web Solutions & Uncommon Chick — Confessions of a Conference Junkie: Essential Networking Tips for Online & Offline
• Bonnie Brueggeman of Glam Kitten’s Litter Box — Fashion Blogging with Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and More
• Nile Flores of Blondish.net — Getting Down & Dirty With WordPress SEO
• Terrence Gaines of BrothaTech.com — Why Go Mobile?: Tips & Techniques to Mobilize Your Site For Greater Reach
• Lamar Tyler, New Media Strategist &BlackandMarriedWithKids.com — Creating Big Time Web Video With a Small Time Budge
• Kim Wolterman, Author and Publisher — Beyond the Blog: Tips for Turning Your Blog Into a Book

And I am going to get to talk about “How to Deal With Your Critics” because as most people know, as you open yourself up to blogging and other social media, you have the potential to draw critics. I’ve worked with a number of controversial topics throughout my career in public relations (I’m currently working at Monsanto Company) and I know how bad it can feel to have someone take an unfair swipe at a blog post because they have a different opinion.

All of that should be enough to make you think you need to know more about getting registered RIGHT NOW! If you need another minute or two to think about it, look at the full two-day schedule and that should tip you over the edge. Let me know if you have questions!

• When:  October 19-20, 2012
• Where: Moonrise Hotel, University City, MO (St. Louis)
• How Much:  $125 for both days, $75 for one

State of Now Smalltown

If you live in a small town or like me have a special place in your heart for small towns, the State of Now Small Town in Hutchison, Kansas on November 8 is the event for you. I went for the first time last year and I have to say, it was life-changing. It is a very different conference from Show Me the Blog so no need to pick between the two! It is  one of the State of Now / 140 conferences I have attended previously (several are linked at the end of this post). This conference is all about connecting people who love small towns and who have or want ideas on how to make small towns even better than they already are.

It’s been about a year since my first State of Now — my first one was actually the Small Town conference, since then I’ve participated in one about Iowa, one focused on agriculture and one that cast a wide net and was held in NY. But I think the Small town conference remains near and dear to my heart for a couple of  reasons that tie together. The focus lets you get to something that everyone shares at the event — celebrating small towns and / or making them even more awesome than they already are. At the same time, there are so many pieces that come together in a small town… so in a day of presentations, you have the chance to think about all areas of small town life — agriculture, education, business, charity, etc.!

Keeping presentations to 10 minutes means a lot of people get to share their story. That gives you lots of ideas to take back to your small town, business, etc. And I have to tell you, with folks like  Becky McCray (@BeckyMcCray) from Hopeton, Oklahoma hosting (and she’s talking about whether small towns have a future), you can guarantee you will be encouraged to join in the conversation. In fact, last year during lunch, I got to meet some incredible folks from Wichita. And it was meeting people in Hutchison and the conversations over the past month that have given me LOTS of ideas.

Here are some of the people and presentations I’m looking forward to visiting with this year, looking first at agriculturally related talks:

• How one tweet turned into hope during the drought Carrie Mess (@DairyCarrie) – Johnson Creek, Wisconsin
• The Beauty of Small Ag Carin Zinter (@CarinZinter) – Sunderland, Massachusetts and Lance Chastain (@CHFarm) – Andover, Kansas
• I’m farming and I grow it Greg Peterson (@gregpeterson33) – Assaria, Kansas

And this year I decided to put together a panel with some of the awesome women I have gotten to know through social media. We will be “Looking into the faceless ‘Big Ag'” with Debbie Lyons-Blythe (@DebbieLB) – 30 miles from WalMart, in the Flint Hills, Kansas, Jodi Oleen (@JodiOleen) – Kansas and Carrie Mess (@DairyCarrie) – Johnson Creek, Wisconsin and me coming from St. Louis, Missouri!

There are lots of presentations that aren’t about agriculture that also sound amazing! Check these out:

• Serendipitous Opportunities – Taking the Leap While Keeping a Sense of Self Naomi Shapiro (@superdumb) – Wichita, Kansas and Shellie Couch (@Taegus) – Hutchinson, Kansas
• Coming Full Circle Mary Klaebel (@mklaebel) – Eunice, Louisiana
• Bringing the World to Your Small Town Deb Brown (@debworks) – Hampton, Iowa and Leslie McLellan (@LeslieMcLellan) – Lake Arrowhead, California
• It’s not about the trees…. Dave Quinn (@DaveQuinn247) – Bastrop, Texas
• Social Media to Kill the Cultural Stigma Brian Allen (@kstatemediablog) – Washington, Kansas
• Lost in Alaska, Found on the Internet Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman) – Tok, Alaska
• Incubating Tomorrow’s Great Minds Nick Barron (@nbarron) – Washington, D.C.
• Another Glorious Day in Suck City: How Facebook and blogging help my family cope with my father’s terminal illness Lanna Lee Maheux (@lannalee) – Westbook, Maine

Related Posts:

• The Friends & Faces of my #140conf Small Town Experience
• Impacts from #140conf Small Town 2011 Already Starting
• Travel Can Be the Best Teacher – New York Next! #140conf 
• Looking Forward to an April Trip to Iowa for #140conf!
• Cotton, Kansas, & Coca-Cola: Results of Sharing My Passions