A few whippersnaPR moments
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006My blog posts have been lagging lately and I have many topics I want to catch up on, but, alas, work calls….work,work,work. The joys of being at the bottom of the pecking order 
However, I must take a quick minute to recount my most frustrating and typical whippersnaPR moment of the year. Last night, Josh convinced me to join him at a “celebration for political bloggers” hosted by the Harvard Berkman Center. Initially, I had some reservations about going; I don’t tend to blog about politics. But, I figured, hell, I have a degree in political science and I can find an excuse to “celebrate” almost anything! So, I went. I had no idea I would run into such big names! (here’s more on the attendees from Josh)
The first, and more positive whippersnaPR moment of the evening, was getting to chat with Steve Garfield. I happened to casually mention that I’m noticing a trend in companies wanting to build the next MySpace or YouTube and I sparked his interest! Hurray for the whippersnaPR! We had a great conversation about how “citizen journalism” can really effect viral marketing and I hope we get to continue that conversation in the future.
I’m still kicking myself over the second moment of the evening. This is a perfect example of the downside to being a complete whippersnaPR. Last night, I met David Weinberger. I was a little late to jump on the band wagon, but most of the people who’ve ever had to work with me know I’m a huge fan of the Cluetrain Manifesto. My thesis advisors can definitely attest to that; they were constantly yelling at me that I was quoting too heavily from the manifesto. Despite this pathetic, whippersnapr-ish fandom of Cluetrain, I failed to recognize who David Weinberger is! aurgh!!!
All night, I kept saying, “who is that guy? I know I should know him. I know I’m a fan, but I can’t remember why.” Luckily, I got the chance to chat with him at all… but I never got the opportunity to say something profound and entertaining and completely whippersnapr-ish. At least I didn’t make a fool of myself fawning over him all night!
Anyway…today, I’m having a typical, “I’m such an idiot,” Napoleon Dynamite moment…
