My colleague Mike Manuel is back in the blog posting groove, using something he's calling 'Middle Blogging'. It's longer than Twitter, but shorter than your standard thought-piece. He's got some good stuff.

I'll need to try that format.

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It's the one questions I'm asked most frequently in the past few weeks, "BlogOrlando?" That's it, just one word. The folks asking assume I know what they mean. And I do. Sadly the news is not good.

After a great deal of consideration I have decided not to host a big, public BlogOrlando this year.

Why? A number of reasons:

1. I just can't make the time commitment this year. Work is busier than ever and I've done it three years now. The event consumes almost all my free time in September. I'm looking forward to a bit of a break and I know my family is as well. I've always had a great bunch of volunteers to help out, but still the majority of the work and stress is on me.

2. In some ways I think the event has run its course. When planning last year's event I started by saying, "I can't repeat the same sessions, and have similar speakers." In the end though a little bit of that happened.

As the topics mature you create a few different groups, namely those starting out, and those that are experienced. Eventually there needs to be two tracks, a beginner and an expert. Layer that on top of the already existing tracks for PR/Comms, Journalism, etc and you have quite the complex event. It's not just a simple get together of folks in a room chatting. The first year we had under a 100 folks, the past two we've been near 300, I would expect the same this year, since cost isn't a factor, the event has always been free :-)

3. Back to the roots. Last year I hosted a smaller event a few days before BlogOrlando. If you remember it was the original concept behind the event. I may still do something small, invite only. Think of it as a TED-style event in Orlando. I'll be mulling that over in the next few weeks.

4. I'm not as connected to Orlando as I used to be. My work has taken me all over the world now and I don't get to spend as much time in the downtown area. I mentioned this to a few folks last year; the fact the the guy behind BlogOrlando doesn't really work there anymore. Folks like Greg Pollack and Ryan Price have always been in touch with the local scene and their local events show that.

I've been debating about when to announce this, since I was hoping that thinking about it more would change my mind. However, as I said above, the question is being asked, and a few folks were even asking about travel plans.

It is the complete end? No. I may still hold a small private event this year, or may think about hosting an event in 2010. We'll see.

A few folks have asked if I would let somebody else run the event. I have mixed feelings about this. While there are a few folks that I know could run the event well, BlogOrlando has mostly been my baby and I'm not ready just yet to let it go. However I may change my mind.

Lastly a big thanks to all my friends and colleagues that took time out of their personal schedules and paid their own way to travel to Orlando these past three years. I like to think we put Orlando on the map a bit. Seeing something like this, makes me feel proud.

In the end we all learned from each other and made friendships and business connections that will last for a while. That's more valuable than any topic covered in a session.

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I'll be going to London for work next week. I arrive Sunday, April 19th and depart Friday, April 24th. I'll be staying near Grosvenor Square. Looking forward to meeting-up with Neville Hobson at some point and a few other folks. Are you in the area?

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Ah yes, April Fools. The day that everybody tries to do something humorous online. The two key words in that sentence are 'everybody' and 'tries'.

It's gotten to be a bit of an overload though. With everybody doing something how can you stand out? It's like releasing some insignificant tech news during CES...you'll get lost in the shuffle.

Granted, some brands really do some creative things, but it's getting harder and harder to get noticed. Then there is the general burnout and apathy about the entire day. We could get geeky and try to determine the ROI of a good stunt to determine if they're worth it.....nah.

If you really wanted to break the mold, why not do a prank on another day? The Funded tried this and it backfired though. I still think it might be a good strategy, if you weren't a public company and didn't run the risk of having your stock tank from people that didn't realize it was a joke.

Doug Haslam had a good thought. What happens when we stumble upon this 'old news' a few years from now.

For now I'll pass on any April Fools projects, too much time for too little of a return. However this one was fun to do back in 2006.

Of course not all jokes are online, the photo above was my desk this morning....and well that was kinda funny.

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