The IA Summit, an annual gathering of Information Architecture specialists, ended on a high note with Whitney Hess's closing plenary. Taking Whitney's advice before she gave it, the past 12 months I've gotten involved with several different communities, namely the awesome Drupal community. It was my first IA Summit so I guess that makes me a Newbie. There were things I would have done differently, both at this conference and others in the past:
networking
The value of face-to-face networking
Until recently, I never realized just how valuable networking could be. In the past, shyness has prevented me from making the most of face-to-face encounters with people who could become valuable friends, colleagues, clients or mentors.
Now that I'm the new kid in town (again!), I wanted to approach things differently. Guess what? It's true that making an effort to meet people at networking events, gatherings and conferences really makes a difference. The most successful people already know this...
Why not just pursue social networking?
