It’s going to be quite a gathering.  Chris has been an amazing force in the last three years, including his 279 Days to Overnight Success e-book (detailing how he created his own profitable full time writing job in under one year while the rest of the journalism world thinks the sky is falling) and his first published book The Art of Non-Conformity, amongst tons of other great manifestos.  The publication of his book led to a tour of all fifty states, holding meetups where his fans were able to connect.  When he came to Minneapolis I was lucky enough to host the AONC meetup at our art gallery, and it was one of the best nights of year.

(Ironically, and memorably, I just quit my day job the morning of the AONC event.  Upon meeting Chris in person I said “Your book had a huge influence on me, for I just quit my job.”  He looked a tad stunned and said, “Oh, wow.  Well, um, what’s next?”)

Meeting so many like-minded people that evening was wonderful, and over the last month I’ve slowly been getting ready to meet more in Portland.  A few things that I am specifically doing:

Double checking reservations
I’m always one to be a bit paranoid of being late for a plane or having my hotel say they are actually booked, so I’m going through all the details to make sure everything is covered.  (I tend to arrive at the airport four hours before my flight, but then again I like the culture of airports).  I’m staying at the Ace Hotel so if anybody else is, let me know!  Maybe I’ll buy you a glass of wine at Clyde Common. (I need to say “Maybe” just in case word gets out about my offer!)

Studying the speakers
The line up of presenters is very impressive, but I’m only really familiar with about half of them.  Now is the time to add all to my RSS feed, and start to follow them leading up to the event.  For those of you coming as well, here are links to all the main presenter’s websites:

• Pamela Slim – “Escape from Cubicle Nation”
• Leo Babauta – Zenhabits.net (proving, once and for all, that a .com name is not essential … great content is)
• Jonathan Fields – “Conversations at the crossroads of work, play, entrepreneurship, and life”
• John T. Unger - Firebowl artist (really cool stuff … be sure to check out the website) who will expand on his idea: “The only way you can tell the difference between disaster and opportunity is to decide to make an opportunity out of every event.”  Love it!
• Reese Spykerman – Superstar designer who tweets with me halfway around the world about glasses of wine
• Neil Pasricha – Author of the ‘Book of Awesome’
• Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen – The minds behind ‘Mondo Beyondo’
• David Fugate – Rouge literary agent who embraces the new publishing order
• Karen Walrond – Photographer, artist, and recovering lawyer will discuss non-conformity and art
• J.D. Roth – Is NOT the producer of ‘The Biggest Loser’ (some other JDR is), but is rather a kick-ass personal finance guru
• Danielle LaPorte – Will discuss how self-realization rocks the world thru the ‘Strategy of Feeling Good’
• Jodi Ettenberg – Is going to prove that lawyers can have fun by quitting their job and wandering the world
• Michael Bungay Stanier – will prove there is a difference between good work and GREAT work

Getting oriented
Maybe it’s because every time I’m in Portland (and Seattle) the sun is hiding behind a blanket of thick clouds, but I always have trouble orienting myself to North and South.  This is usually not a problem for me, so I’m looking forward to finally ‘slaying the beast’ of Portland directions via careful study of Google Maps.

Using Twitter to get ready
All registrants of WDS have access to the the twitter feed within the WDS website.  Once you log in, on the bottom of the page, you can click to the ‘Worldwide Dispatch’ which will give you a feed of attendees who are tweeting about the event.  Of course, you can also go straight to Twitter with #WDS but there are some other topics in the world that include that acronym, so you have to slog through quite a few tweets of no interest.

Once in the Worldwide Dispatch, I’m making it a point to try to connect NOW to as many people going to the conference as possible.

Using Facebook to get ready – possibly the best way there is!
The WDS attendees have established a Facebook page to group people together so we can get to know each-other before the event.  Many thanks to those who have organized this page, for it gives us a much more intuitive and interactive way to ‘talk shop’ before the summit.

If you have other leads or ideas on getting ready for WDS, please add them to the comments below!