Attending GHC From Afar (Crosspost)

As my friends well know, I'm really passionate about GHC. In person, I ramble on and on about the benefits of attending. Online, I blog about GHC, tweet about GHC, and post countless FB status updates about GHC. This year, I've even been helping out with the GHC Communities Committee to help spread the news about GHC through the various online communities (Flickr, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and here on our blog). You can understand my sorrow, then, when I realized that circumstances would prevent me from attending this year. Undaunted, I figured if I couldn't bring myself to GHC, I'd try to bring GHC to me! Thus, this year, I will be GHC-ing from home.

Due to the early sell-out of the conference, I don't think I'm alone in this. In fact, I think there are probably a lot of people in exactly the same situation. What can we do to keep the GHC spirit alive from wherever we are? Here's a few ideas:

Follow up on sessions by reading session notes on the GHC Wiki

Read our blog to get the latest updates and info

Have a real life meetup (local restaurant, coffee shop, etc) during GHC to network and discuss issues related to advertised sessions.

Are you unable to attend GHC this year in person? Which of these ideas would you use to participate from afar? Do you have other ideas on how to connect?

p.s.: I'm in Seattle and would love to meet others who are missing out on GHC this year and learn about what you're working on! If you're interested in meeting up in Seattle or elsewhere, leave a comment below. I'd love to help people connect no matter where they are.