#CBBC11

An interesting afternoon at the Christian Buzzwords and Bandwagon Conference 11 (or, for those following on Twitter, #cbbc11). A great gig for me, not least as, being a totally virtual conference, I could attend in person.

Many people contributed to the special atmosphere at today's conference, especially the amazing Pastor Andy Ydna, a cyber-missionary in so many ways. Putting the "buzz" into bandwagon being just one of his key messages. Although I actually missed Andy's address, as for some reason my talk on "Personal Protective Equipment in the Online Environment" was scheduled for "The Tent" at the same time. I thought "The Tent" was a trendy name for an alternative venue, probably on the edgy "fringe" of the event. Instead of which, turned out I was in a tent. Although that didn't stop me putting on a riveting display of riveting, to demonstrate how physical fixing fits into a metaphysical fixation.  And I was glad to talk to Andy in the bar afterwards - although he kept looking over my shoulder in the hope that someone more famous would turn up, (@kouya, I believe, was suffering from the same thing) and tweeting @crimperman via his mobile to see how the show was going. But between that and taking calls and Skype-ing the other keynote speakers, he was kind enough to tell me about his concept of "Postmodern Pat and his black/white Schrodinger's cat".

The other buzz was about Gladys Sydalg. She had a great talk on bandwagons. Didn't understand a word of it. But I didn't care, as she was being streamed to our Android devices so we could all get in the bar quicker.
It was just as well, as I couldn't have heard anything in the main hall. Apparently the sound of people tapping on netbook and mobile keys was drowning out the keynote speakers, while the bandwidth hit  from the sheer uploading of instant reaction actually brought down Gladys's Skype link on several occasions.

So I've learnt a lot about buzzwords today. And about bandwagons. Mostly - don't get in their way. And if one gets out of control, run. I've found out that "biversity" isn't a real word, and interoperability doesn't mean two surgeons practicing on each other.

Most importantly, I've learnt that people can be very funny and creative on the web, without being cruel. I think...

And I've had one two many meads, so I'm off to St Pancras now. If anyone sees a sleeping Archdruid in steel-toe-capped shoes, can you wake me up at Bedford?