10 Ways to be LAME-O at Blogworld

I am freshly back from Blogworld 2010. I attended two sessions. Mostly, I hung out in the hallways, in the new media lounge and in the expo and talked to people. For me, that is where the magic happens. It’s also where great people watching happens. And boy-howdy, was there stuff to watch.

It seems from the behavoir I observed, that some people came to BWE determined to be totally lame. Either that or their mother didn’t teach them any manners. Or they forgot the ones she did teach them.

So, in case you would like to emulate these oh-so-charming folks, I thought I would whip together 10 no fail ways to be lame-o at Blogworld. What I am about to describe actually happened – either to I saw it or someone I was with saw. #cantmakethisstuffup

1) Stay huddled up in a pack with all the people you already know as you roam the halls and session rooms.

2) Don’t wear your name tag or introduce yourself because people should know who you are.

3) Act annoyed when other people sit down at the table you have all to yourself in the New Media Lounge.

4) When a new person you don’t know joins your group conversation, either a) ignore them or b) turn to them and say “And you are?”

5) Sit in a very crowded session with empty seats on both sides of you and force people to climb over you to sit down. Bonus points for not moving you feet so people can get by.

6) At a networking lunch, sit with several people you know, talk amongst yourselves and ignore the people you’ve never met.

7) Leave your sense of humor at home and load up on your sense of self-importance.
As someone approaches you, do a full body visual frisk, pausing at their name tag, before deciding a) if and b) how you might choose to greet them.

9) Don’t introduce people to each other because, really, it’s too much trouble and who wants to be that generous.

10) Be a self-professed “guru”, meet the same person three times in 36 hours and each time, without the faintest hint of recognition on your face, say “Nice to meet you.”

If you were at Blog World – or any other event like it – you’ve no doubt run into these lame-o people. Feel free to share your best tip for imitating them.

And P.S. Lest you think I am a malcontent, I got some really great stuff from Blog World that I will sharing in the coming weeks.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2010 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

http://amyoscar.com Amy Oscar
Amazing the way these same “How to Be Lame-O” tips apply to high school, office parties, college reunions, and every single other social event human beings can invent. Bottom line: Be nice to other people. Thanks, Sarah, for this post.

Anonymous
yep. It seems our mothers were right – it is all about having nice manners.

http://amyoscar.com Amy Oscar
Amazing the way these same “How to Be Lame-O” tips apply to high school, office parties, college reunions, and every single other social event human beings can invent. Bottom line: Be nice to other people. Thanks, Sarah, for this post.

Anonymous
yep. It seems our mothers were right – it is all about having nice manners.

Kay Ballard
Dammit!
Sarah, Darling, I actually invented most of those fabulously annoying techniques and had been planning on bringing them out in a future best-selling, yet to be written ebook, called “How to Be Lame-O Secrets” which I planned to sell for $47 USD along with valuable free bonuses galore.
But, once again, you moved the old freeline, and came up with this enormously informative blog post first.
<3

Anonymous
Milk came out my nose when I read this. Which is all I have to say.

Kay Ballard
Dammit!
Sarah, Darling, I actually invented most of those fabulously annoying techniques and had been planning on bringing them out in a future best-selling, yet to be written ebook, called “How to Be Lame-O Secrets” which I planned to sell for $47 USD along with valuable free bonuses galore.
But, once again, you moved the old freeline, and came up with this enormously informative blog post first.
<3

Anonymous
Milk came out my nose when I read this. Which is all I have to say.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
I guess you ran into the same groups I did. Fortunately was not the majority. Decided some people are just not that into anyone but themselves.

Anonymous
Agreed. And tomorrow I will write about some of the amazing people I ran into who totally get just being in this world.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
I guess you ran into the same groups I did. Fortunately was not the majority. Decided some people are just not that into anyone but themselves.

Anonymous
Agreed. And tomorrow I will write about some of the amazing people I ran into who totally get just being in this world.

http://katjaibur.posterous.com/ Kat Jaibur
Well, Sarah, you sure tell it like it is. Can’t disagree with any of your points. Have seen it all. Not sure if the people who need to read your post will ever see it, or think it’s about them. But let’s hope.
On the positive side, I’ve also been at events where some of the hotshots have been really friendly and down-to-earth, extended their hand and introduced me to their fellow hotshots. I’ve had one “guru” (who met me once) make a beeline across a crowded room to give me a kiss on the cheek and say hello, and recently watched him take the time at a busy event to explain wordpress themes to an art director who knows zip about social media. Some are very kind and generous.
Posts like yours can help raise awarenss that “how you treat people” should be the gold standard for being in the social media elite. (Not how your book is doing or what your blog stats are.) The more we talk about it, the more likely that is to happen.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
From what I have experienced it is NOT the so called elite doing this kind of stuff. It is the people who want to pretend they are. They tend to also be people who really have no social skills. They can play a part online, but IRL they can’t pull it off.

Anonymous
Oh I met some amazing people among the elite (will write about them tomorrow)! Del is correct, though. Some of the people I am talking about here are nothing more than poseurs and pretenders sporting attitude. Sad at first and then quite hilarious.

http://katjaibur.posterous.com/ Kat Jaibur
Well, Sarah, you sure tell it like it is. Can’t disagree with any of your points. Have seen it all. Not sure if the people who need to read your post will ever see it, or think it’s about them. But let’s hope. On the positive side, I’ve also been at events where some of the hotshots have been really friendly and down-to-earth, extended their hand and introduced me to their fellow hotshots. I’ve had one “guru” (who I met once before) make a beeline across a crowded room to give me a kiss on the cheek and say hello, and recently watched him take the time at a busy event to explain wordpress themes to an art director who knows zip about social media. Some are very kind and generous. Posts like yours can help raise awarenss that “how you treat people” should be the gold standard for being in the social media elite. (Not how your book is doing or what your blog stats are.) The more we talk about it, the more likely that is to happen.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
From what I have experienced it is NOT the so called elite doing this kind of stuff. It is the people who want to pretend they are. They tend to also be people who really have no social skills. They can play a part online, but IRL they can’t pull it off.

Anonymous
Oh I met some amazing people among the elite (will write about them tomorrow)! Del is correct, though. Some of the people I am talking about here are nothing more than poseurs and pretenders sporting attitude. Sad at first and then quite hilarious.

http://sallyg.me Sally G.
Funny how we all serve as walking, talking mirrors to each other. Some reflect Who You Are. Some reflect Who You Desire To Create Yourself to Be ~ and some, well ~ in addition to being practice for growing our own tolerance, patience and self-appreciation … they also reflect Who You Are Not.
Must have felt good ATTENDING an event after hosting such a blow-out event of your own!

Anonymous
oh phew! I was worried that you were going to say that my post was just serving as a mirror to who I really I am!!! ;-p
And yes, it was very nice to not be in charge of anything. I could just sit an absorb.

http://sallyg.me Sally G.
As IF!!!! Good Lord. However, now that you say that – I see how I need to work on my lead ins going forward. Thank you for that …

http://sallyg.me Sally G.
Funny how we all serve as walking, talking mirrors to each other. Some reflect Who You Are. Some reflect Who You Desire To Create Yourself to Be ~ and some, well ~ in addition to being practice for growing our own tolerance, patience and self-appreciation … they also reflect Who You Are Not.
Must have felt good ATTENDING an event after hosting such a blow-out event of your own!

Anonymous
oh phew! I was worried that you were going to say that my post was just serving as a mirror to who I really I am!!! ;-p
And yes, it was very nice to not be in charge of anything. I could just sit an absorb.

http://sallyg.me Sally G.
As IF!!!! Good Lord. However, now that you say that – I see how I need to work on my lead ins going forward. Thank you for that …

http://twitter.com/pickettwrites Pat Pickett
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but way to go on catching the nuances of “The Young and Officious.” Thanksfully, there are many, many more people out there who understand that “social networking” is not an oxymoron and get the concept of playing nicely in the sandbox. Anxious to read your findings from this year’s event!

Anonymous
in the end, all I could do was laugh. It truly became comical. And I will be talking about amazingness at Blogworld tomorrow.

http://twitter.com/pickettwrites Pat Pickett
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but way to go on catching the nuances of “The Young and Officious.” Thanksfully, there are many, many more people out there who understand that “social networking” is not an oxymoron and get the concept of playing nicely in the sandbox. Anxious to read your findings from this year’s event!
http://twitter.com/pickettwrites Pat Pickett
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but way to go on catching the nuances of “The Young and Officious.” Thanksfully, there are many, many more people out there who understand that “social networking” is not an oxymoron and get the concept of playing nicely in the sandbox. Anxious to read your findings from this year’s event!

Anonymous
in the end, all I could do was laugh. It truly became comical. And I will be talking about amazingness at Blogworld tomorrow.

http://twitter.com/pickettwrites Pat Pickett
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but way to go on catching the nuances of “The Young and Officious.” Thanksfully, there are many, many more people out there who understand that “social networking” is not an oxymoron and get the concept of playing nicely in the sandbox. Anxious to read your findings from this year’s event!
http://twitter.com/maggielmcg maggielmcg
My favorite was the guy who, in the closing session, among at least 200 free seats, told me, when I went to sit in front of him “Oh, sorry, I’m saving this seat for someone.” Then weirdly followed that comment with “Don’t hate me.”

http://twitter.com/blogworld Blog World Expo
unfortunately whenever you get a group of people together you are always going to get some Lame O’s. I hope you can agree most of the folks at our event are really nice people. At least thats been my experience.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
I totally agree with you. It’s NOT just Blog World. I go to over 40 events a year, it’s everywhere. It is different when you have people that you know from online, but are totally different in person.
Anonymous
Tis very true. And my post is in no way a reflection on my effusive enthusiasm for BWE. These folks were just begging to be written about.
Tomorrow I will be posting about some AMAZINGNESS that I got from some people at BWE.

Anonymous
oh good lord. He knew he was being a jackass but chose to continue being a jackass. Nice.

http://twitter.com/maggielmcg maggielmcg
My favorite was the guy who, in the closing session, among at least 200 free seats, told me, when I went to sit in front of him “Oh, sorry, I’m saving this seat for someone.” Then weirdly followed that comment with “Don’t hate me.”

http://twitter.com/blogworld Blog World Expo
unfortunately whenever you get a group of people together you are always going to get some Lame O’s. I hope you can agree most of the folks at our event are really nice people. At least thats been my experience.

http://twitter.com/delwilliams Delores Williams
I totally agree with you. It’s NOT just Blog World. I go to over 40 events a year, it’s everywhere. It is different when you have people that you know from online, but are totally different in person.
Anonymous
Tis very true. And my post is in no way a reflection on my effusive enthusiasm for BWE. These folks were just begging to be written about.
Tomorrow I will be posting about some AMAZINGNESS that I got from some people at BWE.

Anonymous
oh good lord. He knew he was being a jackass but chose to continue being a jackass. Nice.

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