Northern Voice Dinner 2009 and Last Minute Notes

This weekend the UBC Forestry Sciences building will be filled with a sold-out crowd of 300 social media enthusiasts. Canada’s largest personal blogging conference, Northern Voice, will kick off tomorrow morning with two special keynotes, a main conference track as well as an unconference track. On Saturday there will be another keynote and several panels, including two of mine.

Tonight everyone is gathering at Frederico’s for the official conference dinner (which is also sold-out) but it will be Bollwitt-less. Last year John was under the weather and I went to the dinner without him. To say that I was missing him / thinking of him all night long would be an understatement. This year after going strong for the last few weeks with his day job (which often spills into the night when there’s a Canucks game) on top of our work for sixty4media, John is feeling under the weather yet again. This time, I’m staying in with him; making some dinner, steeping some tea, and covering him with our super awesome Iowa fleece blankets.

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

We’re not boycotting (but some others are due to certain sponsorship) we’re simply taking time out for ourselves, which just really needs to happen tonight otherwise we’ll both run entirely into the ground.

Conferences, dinners, and networking events are important — especially to folks like us whose entire business is based on such things — however taking care of yourself, and the person you love most, must come first.

I look forward to seeing the pictures pop up on Flickr (tagged: northernvoice09) and I’ll post a few here when they start rolling in. I hope everyone has a fantastic time tonight and I’ll see you bright and early at UBC for the morning address and keynotes.

Tips for the morning: How to get there, bring your own lanyard, child care is provided, there is an iCal-friendly Northern Voice schedule, the conference hashtag is #northernvoice09.