Starting tomorrow evening I’m enthused, intrigued and delighted to be covering the PUSH Conference right here in my backyard in Minneapolis. I’ve known of it for its life thus far, but circumstances have never aligned so attending it hasn’t been an option in the past. The stars aligned now so I’ll be there.

"The PUSH Conference is designed for business leaders, policymakers, brand and R&D executives as well as venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, artists and others charged with shaping the future and leading the marketplace of ideas.  Founder Cecily Sommers notes “The PUSH conference brings together leading thinkers from across many multi-cultural and global disciplines to dissect and analyze change. PUSH offers a first-look at the people, ideas and technology transforming our world.”

If you read my blog frequently you may have come across one of my favorite phrases: pushing against the membrane of the future (like in this post which describes what I mean fully). My hope is to be surrounded by audience members pushing against that membrane in their own way and listening to conversation starters who’ve been pushing at it for some time in a given spot…and all indications are that this is precisely what I’ll find.

Howard Rheingold, the author, tech visionary and speaker at last year’s conference said, "PUSH
is absolutely the best conference ever!  l speak at a lot of these
things, and there’s a heart and soul at PUSH that is rare and special,
and really stands out." Big praise from someone who is all over the world at thought leading events.

So stay tuned and I’ll be bringing you recaps and perspectives of this conference as I attempt to capture the zeitgeist of these two and a half days.

Plenty of other blogger recaps out there (just search Technorati for Web 2.0 Expo) but I just had a few personal observations of my own that I’d like to add to the perspective and the conversation surrounding this event which is just getting started:

1) There are A LOT of people here. I’m stunned with how well attended it is and CMP/O’Reilly’s execution which is absolutely first-class. Moscone West is a great hall for this venue, the Expo signage is huge and clear, the people are nice and they’re bending over backwards to make sure it runs smoothly. A few hiccups on registration and audio in one session, but minor stuff.

2) I’m learning. In one session I attended (while I flitted around to try to catch the gist of several of them) which was Stowe Boyd’s workshop on "Building Social Applications" (presentation here) there were several *hundred* people in the audience. Not that I’m some sort of know-it-all, but I usually don’t get a whole lot out of conference sessions — nor do I have the patience for sitting for hours waiting for a jewel or two to appear — but I came away with at least 10 ideas from Stowe’s session. A record for me.

I’ve been in casual conversations with Stowe before and I’m interested in another since I beg to differ with him on one point in his workshop. Maybe this is nitpicking, but when he was comparing the push for personal productivity (like all the buzz about David Allen’s Getting things Done system) vs. the multiple streams of communication many are now involved in (IM, SMS, Twitter) he was characterizing this as a good thing and said, "Personal productivity is less important than network productivity". I agree…to a point.

When I have Skype, iChat (for a few folks I videoIM with), Adium and Twitter all running — as well as Techmeme, Tailrank and other trackers open — I’m simply interrupt-driven. If I didn’t have stuff to focus on and also being ADD the interruptions make it tough to get back on track…I’d think this was cool. But when do people have time to contemplate? To think? To consider? To visualize possiblities? I submit that turning it off or minimizing the river of information and interruptions is necessary and creating guardrails around brain-time is critical.

3) The people that are here. I’ve already met a half dozen people whose blogs I read faithfully (and two who read mine!) and the hallway conversations are, as always, one of the best parts.

Many in the tech cognoscenti seem to think the Web 2.0 meme has run out of gas and we should be on to the next one be it Web 3.0 or some other moniker. I submit that the tip of the iceberg is just poking out of the water and there’s alot to learn, to see and to build. This Expo is taking the message to the next level of leaders and doers and I’m eager for the next few days to unfold.

I’m sitting on a panel right now with Graeme Thickins (Tech~Surf~Blog), Rich Scorza (The Keel Group) and Aaron Fulkerson (MindTouch) at the MHTA Spring Conference and thought I’d post from a presenter’s point of view. This post was made using my Palm Treo 700p and Typepad’s mobile software that lets me blog from wherever I have a cell connection.

Governor Tim Pawlenty spoke this morning and my panel is focused on Next Generation Web. Engaged audience and it really pleases me that so many in Minnesota care about our state and high technology.

Gotta go…my colleague is finishing up and we’re heading into Q&A time…

After buying my Nikon D70 last summer and taking it on our Alaskan cruise — snapping over 700 pictures — I was lamenting to a friend that I was bummed only a dozen or so pictures were ones I was proud of taking.

Eric spent some time easing my mind by describing the experiences he’d had (after years of photography and an analytical mind that understands the nuances of the camera) and that this low number was not atypical. In fact, photographers often take hundreds of photographs to get a single one.

Next, I gained understanding of the 2 or 3 “golden hours” of light best for landscape or outdoor photography (right after dawn and before sunset). Otherwise, the temperature of the light was too high and the dynamic range of the photo was minimized (i.e., they look like crap and marginally interesting). Shadows and the warmth of the golden hour light were best.

So tonight I’m headed up north to Eric’s lake home. He, his friend and I are going to have a photography fest over the weekend. Taking pictures, geeking out over our respective cameras, having fun and understanding how to improve as a photographer are the goals.

Minimal postings this weekend…