Blog School at Google D.C.

I’ve had three occasions in the past month to attend events and presentations at Google’s Washington, D.C. office. It’s a pretty cool space on the second floor of a downtown glass-fronted building. There are lots of different seating and group discussion areas scattered around the office. The atmosphere is industrial, casual and brightly decorated in bold solid colors, and they have their own chef who prepares breakfast and lunch every day for the staff. (See a video tour.)

The first time I visited was the second week of June for an all-day “unconference” planned by the Environmental Defense Fund and sponsored by Ashoka, a Rosslyn-based group that fosters innovation for social change. The event, focused on Green Innovation for Business, used a large portion of Google’s meeting spaces. There were no speakers. Instead, it was a large group think session which was the first of four such events to be held across the U.S. Very invigorating.

My next visit to the New York Avenue office was for an evening DC Web Women presentation later in June on using Google Analytics. It was informative and prompted me to get started.

And just this week I went back to Google for Blogging 101, a two-hour quick course on the basics of blogging as well as how to make your blog successful, presented by a panel of top experts. After a primer on what blogging is and can be, we heard tips from bloggers at Google, The Nature Conservancy and TSA, as well as what they have done to overcome obstacles to getting started and operating smoothly. I will be sharing some highlights in an upcoming post.

What sticks in my mind most of everything I heard at these Google events is that I am just one of 133 million bloggers. So, I’ve joined the throngs. Now I need to stand out.