21 Thoughts on Killer Tribes

I was back at work yesterday, but I’m still processing everything from the weekend.

So much to unpack, but here’s my initial 21 thoughts from Killer Tribes…

1. I was worried that having the meetup at a coffee joint instead of a beer joint would stifle interaction. Was dead wrong about that. You could barely hear yourself talk above the sound of folks talking and laughing. (But yeah, next time I should have name tags.)

2. I slept fine the night before the conference. It was the night after that I had trouble. Once my head hit the pillow on Saturday night I started processing everything that had happened that day. Took me at least 2 hours to fall asleep.

3. During my Q&A with Derek Webb I was worried that we were losing folks because of how in-depth we were getting with some of our topics. But then all I heard about for the next 24 hours was how amazing Derek was. Kind of wish we would have gone an extra 20 minutes. Maybe I can find a reason to have Derek back again.

(thanks to @melissahillier for the photo)

4. Crosspoint Church was an amazing group to work with from start to finish.

5. Sarah Mae threw out her talk the night before and then went out and killed it on stage. At just 20 minutes she might have provided the most punch per minute, but ALL of the presenters were amazing. Thank you to all of you for delivering like I knew you would.

6. Got to see a little bit more of Nashville this trip and loved it. Ate lunch at an amazing taco place near Vanderbilt, had rooftop sushi downtown, and drank 3 glasses of water at a speakeasy in East Nashville. (I told the bartender I was the “designated driver” so I didn’t feel bad about not ordering a drink and he looked at me like I was wearing a cat around my neck. Then I tipped him 7 bucks for all the waters).

7. Conversation I had with Bart, clerk at the Hampton Inn on Thursday Night:

Bart: Do you need a wake-up call?

Me: If you’re talking about tomorrow morning, no. If you’re talking about life in general, maybe.

Bart: [no response]

8. The weather could not have been better. Sunny and near 80 all weekend (when it was in the 50s at home).

9. Kyle from The Baker Experience Group and Katie from No More Dirty Work were invaluable to me in pulling off the conference. Both are local to Nashville, so look them up if you need help with your project. (and while we’re here Chris from Disciple Media was a huge help as well….oh and Rob and Sharideth and the other volunteers I am not naming because there are too many, thanks so much everyone!)

10. There were almost 1500 tweets shot off on Saturday with the #killertribes hashtag. I’ve got them all saved for posterity’s sake. (and so I can pick a winner to the contest we held during the 3rd session.)

11. Loved having Erica there with me all weekend. She was right there when I needed her and doing her own thing when I was running around pretending to be important. Those of you who met her got a glimpse at how lucky I am to be her man.

12. Almost wore an identical MendMark shirt to the meetup as Tyler Tarver. And considering how studly he looked in his, it would have been an epic fail for my fragile ego.

13. Had a blast with the Stanton’s (the great Tyler and Amy, that is) on Sunday. Nothing like hanging with friends and having no agenda at all to unwind the day after an event. (This is us just minutes after the event ended, which explains my goofy grin.)

14. Eurasia Coffee did an outstanding job keeping people caffeinated. Ryan, Janae, and the rest of the team were easy to work with and brewed some great coffee for us. Loved having them there.

15. Watched a bunch of drunk 45-year olds get kicked out of a Hooters on Sunday night and proceed to scream at and flip off the waitresses from outside the store. One woman was grabbing herself as she cussed out the waitress. I’ve never felt more mature in all my life.

16. The blooper reel from all of our promo videos went over really well. You’ll see that here on the blog soon.

17. Tripp and Tyler were the perfect emcees for the event, so thankful that they could be a part. Daddy-O pulled me aside during the first break and told me that incorporating humor into the event was a great move and that it’s what most conferences are missing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Oh, and that video of Tripp and Rev. Run that we played after Daddy-O? That was a total audible at the line of scrimmage. They got the idea during his talk and made it happen.)

18. Speaking of cool conversations with speakers, Mark Hughes told me at one point that what we were doing at Killer Tribes was the future of marketing in the digital world. He said that he sits in rooms with Fortune 500 marketers all the time and they just don’t get it like we get it. That was pretty great to hear.

19. Hard not to beat yourself up for the things you didn’t think of, but all you can do is chalk it up to a lesson learned and use it to make the next one even better. I’ve got a list of improvements already, and I’m sure it will grow the more I reflect on the event.

20. So will there be a Killer Tribes 2013? If I have anything to do with it there will be.

21. One last thought: The more projects I execute, the more I learn about what I enjoy/don’t enjoy and what I’m good at/am not so good at. It’s a fascinating discovery process, and one that will hopefully serve me well as I transition into the second half of my career (whenever and wherever that happens).

Keep challenging yourself and trying new things, you never know what it will lead to!

—

If you were there, I hope you had a great time…

If you weren’t, I hope you’ll be able to come out to the next one…

(and now back to the cubicle.)