What was Dad 2.0?

The full meaning of Dad 2.0 (the annual dad conference held this year in New Orleans) didn't hit me until the morning after I arrived home.  I had a feeling going in that this would be a very beneficial event for my blog, my website, and for me as a dad.  I thought that maybe I would make some connections, meet up with the right people, and hopefully that would then turn into some sort of future relationships with brands, most notably Lego.

Image courtesy DesignerDaddy.com no idea who the lady is

While all of that was my initial my initial focus and something that I will have to wait and see on, when I got my first friend request on Facebook from someone who I met at the conference the next morning it really hit me.  This was a event that was so much more than I thought I was going to.  It wasn't about relationships with brands, or getting to know the RIGHT people.  It was about relationships with the people that were there. Namely the other dads.

I'd known some of these guys for a long time and had only met a few of them in person.  I met Aaron Gouveia and Jeff Bogle in Las Vegas, my wife and Lance Somerfeld's wife went to college together, and I first met Oren Miller at a Stay at Home Dads Convention in Washington DC.  Everyone else, I have only known them by looking at pictures of them online or reading their blogs.

That's not to say I didn't know them at all.  Far from it.  You get to know a lot about a person when they pour their heart and soul into a blog post every single day.  I had an emotional attachment to a lot of these guys, it's just that I had never met them in person.  My wife jokes that everyone that I have ever met online isn't real.  I couldn't possibly develop a connection with someone without ever actually talking to them face to face. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I didn't know these guys, but I knew them.

Ever have a reunion with people that you've never met?  Ever walk into a room of strangers and know every single person there?

THAT to me was Dad 2.0.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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