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I had a great meeting with one of my favourite clients today. (Actually, they're all my favourite clients.) She's been teaching a certification course for a few years and is now looking at more efficient delivery methods. By the end of next year she hopes to have a face-to-face class, a real-time virtual class and a self-directed class. The virtual and self-directed classes will both have "technology" involved in the delivery of the material. In our meeting today we discussed some of the options.

She already has a workbook (it's 3" thick and jammed full of AMAZING information) and a series of DVDs that she recorded during one of her live classes. These are assets we'll take advantage of for the virtual classes. For the real-time virtual class we are looking at adding weekly telephone calls and an online question and answer forum. The workbook will also be available for download. The calls will be recorded and will be available for download by the class participants. We know this combination of resources will be incredibly valuable to the students.

The next step is to determine the "cost" of the information packaged in this way. On the one hand taking the class in person has the highest value, on the other hand, having access to the library of materials she has prepared for the real-time virtual class ALSO has amazing value (plus there's no hotel or travel bills to get to the class). I don't think there's a magic formula for this but we will be using the production costs for the in-person and virtual workshops, the value of the in-person experience and the value of the reference library to create the new pricing for this new offering.

Back in January I hired two people that may have changed my life. This redesigned Web site and business was part of that process. The contracts that I take are incredibly varied. Right now I'm working on a Web site redesign of Bazaar, a membership Web site for the Healthy Breast Programme (site is being redesigned too), I'm the technical editor on a new Drupal book and I'm developing training videos to accompany my first book, Front End Drupal. In my volunteer time I'm "sprinting" four hours a week with the Drupal Documentation Team in anticipation of the D7 code release on September 1.

From that last paragraph, my guess is that a lot of my favourite clients understand only a few things: two people changed my life, I redesigned my business and September 1. I didn't like that I was getting further away from the clients I loved working with. I decided to do something about it. As of this spring, the HICK Tech brand is now my primary focus. I will continue to do "bigger" things, but they will be split into their own space. HICK Tech will now focus building Web sites and training for solo-preneurs and designers.

So who were these people that helped to shape the new vision for HICK Tech? The first was career coach Mike Murray. We worked together in January to help me define my clients and corresponding services. He asked hard questions and made me think. I hated it. Months later I'm still referring back to the notes I took during those phone calls to help shape the direction for my business today.

The second was graphic designer Cynthia Frenette. She created the exceptional new logo that you see on the top of this site. I told her I wanted something that made technology seem easy. I wanted it to be humane. And she absolutely delivered. I see the new logo as a tree, others see it as a dandelion, but everyone "gets" that there's nothing corporate or stuffy or hard-edged about it.

In the new world order for HICK Tech I've done some pretty serious thinking about services that I want to deliver. I thought back to the things that have worked for my clients and things that have been a bit of a failure. One of the things that kept popping up is training. I've done everything from classroom lectures to conference presentations to online workshops and webinars. Sometimes there's a fit between the students and the delivery method and sometimes there isn't. When Lullabot launched their new online training course I was intrigued. I know how hard it is to deliver and to receive online training. Online training often falls completely flat and is rife with technical problems. When it works, it's like green tea ice cream. And when it doesn't it's like a bacon and ginger stir fry.

I thought about the kinds of people that I want to help--they tend to be solo-preneurs. They are their own IT department, marketing department, accountant and whatever it is they actually do for their business. They don't necessarily feel comfortable with video streaming and some of them don't even have the bandwidth for it. To many of them, "Webinar" sounds like something you'd want to have your doctor remove. I realized that in the past I had failed some of these clients because I let technology get in the way of learning.

It's time to try something new.

As of this fall I will be offering teleclasses on topics that I would normally teach face-to-face or in a Web environment. Yes. Classes on the TELEPHONE. There will, of course, be a supporting Web site for participants, but the content will be delivered using the convenience of distance ed and the ease of a phone. I am really excited. I know it's not very fancy or very sophisticated or very Web 2.0-y. But y'know what? This is HICK Tech. I hope you'll join us on the next part of this new adventure.

The keynote presentation for HICK Tech 2008 was delivered by Flickr's Director of Community, Heather Champ. Her presentation, Shepherding Passionate Communities, was absolutely amazing and inspiring. It is, of course, also filled with beautiful photographs. Thanks again to Heather for making the trek up to Owen Sound and delivering this presentation (at 6AM local time no less). I really think this presentation is a must-see for everyone involved in online communities.

If you're on dial-up, or would like to have a copy of this presentation (and the audio recordings from all other conference sessions) on DVD, you can buy a copy now.

In 2008 HICK Tech sponsored its second one-day technology conference in Owen Sound, Canada. It featured 22 sessions on the topics of Business, Community, Food & Agriculture and Technology. Speakers were a mix of local experts and industry leaders from three different countries. The goal of the conference was to provide local businesses and residents the opportunity to enjoy a "big city" conference without having to travel to another region. It highlighted the exceptional work that is being done within the community and sought to encourage businesses to leverage all available resources within the community. Additional information on the 2008 conference is available at: http://hicktech.com/2008

In its second year HICK Tech strengthened its commitment to the environment in every possible way. In addition to adding an environment-themed session to each of the four speaking tracks, HICK Tech did as many things as possible to reduce the conference’s impact on the environment by supporting local businesses, reducing waste where possible, and offsetting energy consumed where reduced consumption was not feasible. Below is a list of the things we accomplished as part of this sustainability initiative for our one-day technology conference. It is by no means a complete list of everything that could have been done, but it is a start and should be considered the minimum for all conferences to achieve at future events.

Support local businesses:

• t-shirts were made in Canada, and printed in Owen Sound and were available by pre-order only (alternative: offer a silk screen station where delegates can print their own conference t-shirt)
• conference mugs were hand crafted by a local potter
• all paper printing was done in Owen Sound (including: business cards, posters, promotional brochures, day-of program)
• food was prepared by an in-town catering company (used to catering large weddings)
• day-of AV and post-production editing was completed by two local AV companies
• wireless hotspots were provided by the city as part of the venue rental
• sponsors and international speakers were bag piped into the conference hall at the beginning of the day
• instead of elevator music we used a local R&B jazz duo for the wrap-up "party"
• graphic design for print material was done by a local print designer
• "brand" photo was taken by a local photographer and depicts a steer standing in front of a turbine located within an hour’s drive of the conference venue

Use in-season, local food:

• the local catering company was restricted to a 100 mile radius for all food (an exception was made for coffee, which was roasted locally); in some cases this meant food was sweetened with maple syrup instead of sugar
• the producers of food spoke from the podium about the food they had prepared
• we worked directly with farmers and The 100 Mile Market to source as much food as possible
• we served locally grown apple juice instead of orange juice; water was poured from the tap into jugs that were available on the tables
• locally brewed beer was served at the wrap-up "party"

Reduce consumption:

• less than one garbage bag of waste was produced during the day (over 100 delegates were present; three meals were served during the day)
• use cloth napkins at meals (and the colour matched the conference’s colours)
• no bottled water or canned pop was served (although it was available from a machine down the hall very few delegates chose to buy packaged beverages)
• offered note paper and pens at a table for people to pick up "as needed"
• used real cutlery, plates and glasses
• offered a compost bin at the plate collection area
• printed things in smaller batches "as needed" (using previous years to estimate quantities)
• used a cloth bag for delegates from a local business instead of a conference branded bag
• limited the amount of printed material went into the bags

Offset energy consumption:

• performed an energy audit of the venue (hired an electrician)
• asked speakers where they are traveling from and what mode of transportation they were using
• used Planetair to purchase credits for energy consumed during the day and by traveling speakers—purchased offset credits at the Gold Standard