In my six-plus years since I started Daddy Types as the "Gizmodo for dads," my ambivalence about the weirdness of professional parenting has only intensified.
And before I decided not to, I did originally plan on doing a panel at the M3 Summit last weekend in Atlanta [I think at least one of those M's, if not two, is "Marketing"].
So it's interesting to hear some of the recaps from what was billed as the "First Major Dadblogger Conference":
Chris at SAHD in Lansing has his 10 great things about M3 list up, and like 8 of them are meeting other dads he knows online. [Alright, one was meeting the DadLabs guys, who killed their presentation. The other two were a presentation about volunteerism, and the chance to sit in a Corvette. He IS from Michigan, remember.]
Jason at Dadcentric wrote about the awesomeness of meeting people he knew online--even if the bison burgers they met over nearly killed him.
Brian at Rebel Dad links to some additional recaps, and notes that, as with other First Major Dad Conferences in history, the real takeaway is the camaraderie. Also, he noted that the event was tactfully referred to as "intimate."
So I guess the important thing to remember is, at least we have each other?
UPDATE: Sweet, Jason just flagged the constructive and sober M3 writeup at Clark Kent's Lunchbox, too. My M3 Experience now feels complete. [via @dadcentric]
Overall it was a great experience, certainly not perfect, by any means, but it's unrealistic to expect much from a first attempt.
Now we have at least some notion of where to go next.
For the first time, it was more important to gather as a community and I think we were able to do that pretty well. We did what a group of men would do in that big of numbers ... talked sports, movies and family ... and had a great time.
I expected to see a lot more dad bloggers, and was surprised to see more social media dudes present than bloggers.