One fine day in Chicago

This afternoon I flew into Chicago from Toronto.

The weather was ideal for my plans before the MarketingProfs Conference began: sunny and warm with a nice breeze off of Lake Michigan.

With the blessing of my family, I flew in early today to take the Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River in picture perfect conditions.

My newfound knowledge of Chicago architecture came in handy at 6:00 pm during the speakers cocktail party. We stood on the third floor patio of the Renaissance Chicago and talked of the behemoths that lined the river.

It was great to meet and chat with the MarketingProfs team: Allen Weiss - Founder, Roy Young - President and Ann Handley - Chief Content Officer and employee #2. The MarketingProfs team was hyped about their first conference and the 300 attendees.

Ann Handley, Paul Dunay (my presentation partner) and I spoke on the patio, amongst other things, about blogging and Twitter. According to Paul, master blogger / podcaster Robert Scoble was surprised that he was not inundated with baby product pitches after covering the personal event online.

My response was that it seems odd that with rampant privacy concerns such as identity theft, bloggers are not more guarded about their private life. If Robert and his family are at the hospital, who is watching his house?

Would-be burglars no longer have to watch the newspapers and mail pile up. Its now as simple as subscribing to an RSS feed to know when no one is home.