Reaffirming Conferences?

I haven't posted since 3/2!? That is absurd. But, I assure you there has been no resting on my laurels. Things have been pretty intense lately. The pile of books I have read - and not written about yet - is growing; the Dr. Mario world record seems... well... far off. And GMAT? Oh right, I put that down as a goal. Yikes.

Before I dig back in though, I had to write about a conference I went to last week. Through the not-so-new-anymore new job, I was shuttled off to Austin for SXSH - an unconference focused on healthcare and social media. Now I know that "unconference" is the hip, new way to have a conference but this was structured enough not to give me an aneurism but allowed for some great impromptu conversations. P.S. I even spoke at the conference! But that's not my focus for today.

The conference itself was little unnerving for me at first - all those people I didn't know, talking about something that is new to me, etc. But that one day did more to invigorate me and reaffirm my choices than something has in quite awhile. I've always known that I am the type of person that thrives in these types of environments - I always leave with roughly a million ideas to implement - but this was a bit different for a personal, rather than job-specific, reason.

I've been struggling a bit lately with what I see as my "life plan." Don't get me wrong, I love what I am doing and where I am but I'm always looking forward, thinking about my next steps and where I want to be. Goals - you know I love them. And honestly, I've felt a bit lost lately. What do I want to do? What are my major goals? I think about school a lot but I'm not entirely sure what to study and I don't want to go back to school just to have a step.

SXSH was, ironically, a great place for me to be with this state of mind. It's great to be in a room full of passionate, like minded people but more than that, a life path was unveiled to me that... well, I guess I hadn't let myself linger on in the past. It's easy for me to get caught up in definites - "I want to be a VP of marketing," "I want to own my own company." But, I have been known to choose goals based more on notoriety and "success" than my own true callings.

What did I learn? Something that I probably already knew and that might be obvious to those of you who already know me. I do not really want to be a traditional VP of Marketing (though owning my own company still appeals to me!). The things that I do that speak to me, that get me going are the types of consumer/patient advocacy that I have been lucky enough to implement in the last couple of positions. I want to build communities but even more than that, I want to activate people. I want to change the way a person feels or thinks or acts by my interaction with them. I don't have to start a movement or anything but I have to be honest - I'm not all that excited about writing creative briefs.

Is it weird to say that customer service and interaction might be what I want to do for real!? Customer Service + Community Building + Ownership of Consumers.