i’m starting my week by attending a class tonight hosted by media bistro on blogging and social media essentials. i smile to myself because time flies. last april, i was vacationing in curacao and saw a t.v. interview with laurel touby, founder of media bistro. the company has made a name for itself by offering on-site and online classes, providing job postings and industry blogs covering the journalism and public relations industry. two months later i headed to nyc for the 2009 media bistro circus, which was a two day forum exchanging ideas with social media experts.

i knew when i attended that first conference that i was on to something new. from day one i was overwhelmed by my ignorance about so many areas in the field of social media. compounding my ignorance was my surprise in seeing that there were very few minorities and baby boomers in attendance. i was surrounded by several hundred, mostly under 30, non suit wearing folks who seemed to actually understand the latest technological advances made in the field. my head was swimming with information. by day two, i broke from the gathering with a headache and decided to skip dinner for a nap.

after that conference i paid much more attention to everything related to the field. i knew that it was no longer cool to hire a young upstart with social media finesse to manage the social media areas of my projects. after all, how could i effectively monitor what they did for my clients if in essence, i didn’t have a clue myself?

tonight, however, it’s a whole new ball game. in only eight short months, i “get” it. i went from severe frustration to having fun with this technology. i find myself spending several hours each day reading about the latest developments in social media, actively participating on several social media platforms daily and preparing workshops for clients who want to learn how to get up to speed on the basics of online communication. while i know there will be a lot to learn this evening, i am also sure i’ll be much more clued in about the basics of this particular course.

so there’s no terror in my heart, like there has been so many times in life when i’m doing something new. in fact, this formerly anti techhead can’t wait to get to class and learn all i can. i’m even excited to see how much of a review the class willl will be for me.

a change has come. the theme for this past month’s social media week in nyc was “shift happens.” i like that because i know it’s happened to me.