I slept 16 hours. Whew. Jet lag does weird things.
But I feel great. Heard I missed a bit of snow. It’s sunny here in Newport.
I need to comment on something. My cell phone is on my blog. You can call it anytime. But I probably won’t be using it here in Europe so if you leave a message I won’t get it until December 13. Email is better. Leaving a comment in my blog is best.
Anyway, the last few phone calls I’ve gotten the people who’ve called me have a tough time talking to me. One guy said talking to me is like talking to Bill Gates. Now I read this on Digi’s blog. I’m very honored, but that tells me my hype has way gone over the top. I haven’t done anything special. I haven’t cured cancer. I haven’t invented anything. I haven’t built a product. I don’t have the power to change your life the way a billionaire could. I haven’t written a line of code. I just write everyday about what I’m seeing and feeling.
But, since Digi asked what he should say to me at the London geek dinner, here’s some tips for holding a conversation at a blogger dinner.
1) Have a business card with your URL on it. I take these home. I keep them in a bin. When I get home I’ll go through and visit all the blogs on them. If you have a little bit of info about who you are on the card that helps too.
2) Have you built some software? Bring your computer and show it off! We all love discovering new things. I still remember the conference where Stewart Butterfield was so excited by what he had done that he HAD to show it to me. What did he do? Flickr. That was about two years ago. Now he’s a millionaire and is working at Yahoo.
3) Are you using software in a unique way? Tell us how you’re using software. Last time I was in London several members of the BBC told me how they are using software to share the news with the world.
4) Do you have a productivity tip? Have you found a technique that makes your computer use more productive? For instance, I might show you how I use Flock to blog now by dragging and dropping entries onto its top bar. Buzz Bruggeman keeps showing me new things he’s learned from his users on how to use ActiveWords. Jeremy Wright always tells me new tips he’s learned whenever we meet each other. It’s helped him stick out in my mind as someone who’s always looking to do things better.
5) Do you hate computers? I love to hear constructive criticism of our products. Why? That helps me tell people back at Microsoft what we could do to make things better. In fact, I might even ask you to write me an email so that I can forward that to the right team.
6) Tell me about yourself. What are your dreams? What do you do? I haven’t found someone with a boring job yet. My brother-in-law drives a bus and passing through town you can see he has made that job interesting. Lots of people recognized him and said hi. Why is that? He’s a good storyteller and he is interested in the people in Newport.
7) While in Toronto the group there took Maryam and I out on the town and gave us a tour. We both really appreciated that. I love seeing the sights through the eyes of the locals. Feel free to kidnap us for an evening and take us on a tour. 
Introduce us to someone who’s a little shy. I always hate learning there was someone at dinner who wanted to meet me but didn’t want to “impose” or felt I was too busy talking with someone else. I try to get around and mix it up, but at some dinners there simply are too many people. If there’s someone I simply must meet, please do introduce us. You know my favorite Memeorandum, right? Well, Gabe, the guy who developed it, is one of those quiet people who you’d never know if someone didn’t point him out.
Anyway, today we’ll be in Newport. Tomorrow we’ll get to Cardiff (anyone wanna meet for dinner there?) Sunday we’ll see if we can get to Bristol. (Those are all suggestions from my readers).
