Russ Steele
Ellen and I went to the the first Sac Connect Mixer held at the Revolution Winery, which is only a half a block from the Sac Bee Building in 21st Street in Sacramento. We had spent the day in Sacramento with some appointments and shopping at Fry’s and REI and then topped off our day in Sacramento with the Sac Connect Mixer.
When we arrived a bit early we were welcomed by Sean McMahon, who from our conversation is the technical guru who keeps San Connect glued together. He used to work in Grass Valley, before joining the Sac Connect team. Ellen also had a long conversation with Kevin McCarthy, who used to work at The Union, and about 2 years ago jointed the Sac Bee Staff. He still lives in Nevada City, and commutes to the city.
There were 50 some people attending the mixer with about 40 of the Sac Connect Partners and about 10 member of the San Bee Management Team. Ellen and I were surprised how open and frank the Sac Bee Staff was. We discussed the many of the problems facing newspapers and the challenges ahead with Gary Strong, Senior Vice President, Finance, and one of the Marketing team.
Also, I had a long conversation with Tom Negrete, who recruited me to Sac Connect, about where Sac Connect was headed and his goal for doubling the number of blogging partners and installing some new tools for aggregating content. I also had great conversation with W.R. Chandler who posts at the Buckhorn Road blog about blogging on political issues. He recently live blogged one of the Governor’s press conferences.
Ellen and I also chatted with Paris Tompkin, Sue at Sue’s Dog Blog and Jerry Kennedy who writes the Motivation 101 blog. Interesting people with very different blogging motivation and goals.
One of the insights garnered from my conversation with Tom Negrete is that Nevada County blogs are the most active participants in Sac Connect, with a lot of interactive readers who use the Sac Connect site to jump between Nevada County blogs. I must admit, I am one of those jumper. According Tom, the next Sac Connect Mixer might be in Nevada County, especially if he can recruit some more active Nevada County sites. I am sending him suggestions.
We tasted the Revolution Zinfandel, and found it most satisfying, and when we opened our goody bag after we got home, it contained a complementary bottle of the Revolution Zin. A very nice reward for participating in the San Connect Mixer.
