… but long from forgotten. I need a t-shirt that says, “I went to Gnomedex 8.0 and all I got was 7 t-shirts… and about 50 amazing experiences.”

Photo by Robert Scoble, I’m near the center in pink.

Starting Wednesday night it was a mashup of meeting wonderful new people from all over the world, and spending time with some of the quality Seattleites that make me so happy to call this place home, despite the current summer downpour.

The talks were quite interesting and not exactly what I was expecting. It was more like TED than I thought it would be, and less technical. Probably my favourite talk was Eve Maler’s talk on feed-based Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). The ability to manage one’s own data in a dynamic and powerful way is something that’s certainly due, Eve had some great thoughts on how it might be accomplished.

There were many touching moments too, emphasizing the theme of “human circuitry”. Beth Kanter challenged us to use social media for good, and we raised enough money to send a Cambodian women to college in 90 minutes. Scott Maxwell, the Mars Rover Driver Team Lead, showed us the view of Earth from Mars. Turns out, Earth is tiny! But, he said, we should not look at it and say, “we’re insignificant” - we should look at it and say, “our problems are insignificant - and we have so much to explore and discover yet.”  Jon Malkin showed us innovative research on a “Vocal Joystick” that would assist those with limited motor skills by allowing them to command a computer or a robot with sounds. Seeing technology add to the human experience in such powerful ways was very moving.

And speaking of moving, another highlight was dancing on stage with Matt Harding: a truly silly but wonderful experience.

I took only about 45 pictures (one seen below), but there’s well over 1,500 up in the Flickr pool. Wow.

New friends: Steve Spalding, Duncan Riley, and Eric Rice at the Edgewater.

It makes me feel like I’m twelve years old, but I can’t help but have that magical mix of excitement for all that I’ve just experienced and the deep sadness that “camp” is over. The community was definitely the shining star of the event - everyone added to the conversation in such a genuine way. I miss my Gnomedex friends already, but at least I can say, we’ll always have Twitter. At least until the Fail Whale strikes again.

~ Cassie

P.S. Yes, there was a presentation on the history of the Lolcat. Yes, I made myself look very silly on YouTube (again) and got 10,000 views (yikes). And yes, we started that ridiculous rumor about the Adobe Yahoo acquisition. Epic.

Thanks to the awesome Mr. Chris Pirillo, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Seattle Startup Weekend, I’m going to the Gnomedex 8.0 conference here in rainy Seattle later this month.

My roommate brought a shirt to my attention that I should wear to Gnomedex (mostly because she’s convinced I’m going to a convention that’s literally all about gnomes), and we found a couple of other priceless punny tshirt gems:

“Gnomeland Security”
“To Gnome is to love me”
“Hanging with my Gnomies”

Puns aside, I’m really excited from Gnomedex. I believe I know at least two others going: Andrew Hyde and Bruce Henry, if you are attending please let me know.

Update! Marina Martin is going! Yay!

Because it’s two hours from Seattle and twenty degrees hotter than Seattle was when you left. Because you drive down the street and see ginormous dot-com king companies lining the street, one after another. Because the party you throw in Atheron gets on ValleyWag. Because of all the good memories there.

But most of all, because stuff like this can be found on the street and end up in your Flickr friend’s photostream:

If can haz
Originally uploaded by Jamison

Sidenote:  I’m traveling right now, but in Spokane, Washington, not in the valley.  Just being in the hotel room here kind of reminded me of my last trip to San Francisco.  I’ll be back in Seattle on Saturday evening.