Blogging Lebanon-Bloggers United!

Better Late Than Never!! I was supposed to post this last week, but due to my internet connection problems, it was delayed. Anyway, enjoy it!!

As the blogging community becomes larger, the best way to react is to spread the word even further, and to wake up those who are still oblivious to this activity!

When I first started my blog, I was posting the links to the articles I was writing on Facebook, and I got alot of comments from my “Facebook” friends! (most of them are uninterested in Twitter and blogging). Most of their comments were “what is that thing”, “why do you write in a blog”, “what do you write”, and last but not least,(and certainly the best comment!), “are u always in the mood to write in your blog!”.
The blogging convention that occurred Friday December 4 in AUB, West Hall, called Blogging Lebanon, answered all these questions, and many more. It took place between 3 P.M till 8 P.M, and included many speakers who were active in social media, giving presentations about how to maintain a blog, the best blogging formats, samples of blogs, and how to benefit from your blog, whether professional or personal.

Before this event, I used to know a couple of the speakers via their blogs and twitter, but it was even more interesting meeting them and putting a face to all the “thoughts” and “tweets”! What was even better was hearing their advice, since they are much more experienced than I am, and they gave me alot of insight on how to fix up my own blog and how to mange my time and update it and so on. Also, it was nice hearing how some of them started their own blogs, which was not that different as how I started! (all of us had to start from somewhere, and most of it was because of curiosity!)

The crowd at blogging lebanon!

As usual, it was an interesting event, where I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it but ended up liking and  it. However, the only annoying thing about it was the fact that it was too long (come on…it was almost more than 5 hours!) 🙂

“Blogger of the Week”….visits us!!

On Wednesday the 24th, I arrived to LAU social class, almost running, thinking I was late, only to find out that our instructor was! And we had a pleasant surprise already waiting for us: @mich1mich! (That’s her twitter name; her actual name is Micheline).
We had a brief, warm chat with her before the class started, and she was able to engage us right even before her prepared lecture. She is indeed a sweet person, and she confessed that she was also shy.

@mich1mich answering a question addressed to her!

We also found out that in the previous LAU Social class, she was the “star student”, because she followed the class regularly and up close, of course with the help of twitter and the students’ blogs and works. Our instructor also confessed that the best student last semester at least skipped the class once. However, @mich1mich did not skip following the class at least once!! Also, she was announced blogger of the week!

We got to find out alot about her, and she began telling us about her journey (specifically on the professional level), and how she got introduced to social media, twitter, and blogging. She also told us the story behind her blog, Mich Cafe: Micheline loves saying hello on twitter, and she also invites people to have a drink of coffee or tea. Therefore, she was encouraged to start up a blog and name it Mich Cafe! (an interesting story).

LAU Social class...busy taking pics of @mich1mich and tweeting!

Her visit was a cheerful and inspiring one, reminding us once again that there is a will and a way if you want something or change. Throughout the conversation, I realized once more how social media can help us, even in the little things that we do daily. It was a little reminder of how I shouldn’t neglect my blog because I’m busy…on the contrary, I should use it in times when I’m especially busy (since I’ll be having more to say!).
It was great having her in class, and we really want to thank her for her time, especially now that she is in Lebanon for her vacation!

Octavia Nasr’s Visit…!

“Curiosity killed the cat”!
Literally, this is what happens when you need to ask something important, but can’t! That was because former CNN journalist, Octavia Nasr, upon her entrance into the lecture she was going to give in LAU, warned us not to!
Due to the CNN controversy that she stirred and that she was fired because of, on Tuesday November 9, we thought that we would get some answers about this issue. However, the lecture took another turn: one about social media.

If someone doesn’t know her, just by observing her they would realize that she has unconditional love for social media, particularly for one thing: twitter!! The way she talks about it, the way she keeps on checking her phone for tweets (she said she was a blackberry person by the way!), and the way she loves meeting and associating with people via twitter, shows all of this!
Her positive attitude, vibrant tone, and constant jokes made the lecture a whole lot more fun than I actually expected. She didn’t give us a moral lesson or lecture, but rather, tried to clarify the way we think about the “new” social media, like blogs, twitter, flickr, facebook…etc…

Octavia Nasr, talking with someone from the audience, with a big smile!

As part of the LAU Social class, i understand the importance of the “new” social media, and I fell in love with it recently (i mean ever since i took this class!). So having Octavia Nasr on that day speaking about this topic, I could somehow relate to what she was saying (if she came a couple of weeks earlier, I guarantee you I would have been alienated!). She made me realize, as I’m sure she made others realize too, that we need to evolve. Old things or means (traditional media) are going to remain ofcourse, and they will be forever respected, but we need change in order to bring change. And her speech also encouraged for the removal of barriers or “red lines”, saying that these would only limit us even further, and push us apart.
**For all those reading this post and are interested for the whole live coverage of the lecture, link to http://www.lausocial.com/Live.html

I loved her conference, and I loved the way she made us realize how important we could be, since “every person can impact this world”, quoted from her! I hope I could meet up with her again someday, in a less formal setting. Maybe then, I could ask her all the questions that I wanted to, but hesitated!!