Well, it’s no surprise I finally got asked “So, what the heck is this Kickoff you keep talking about?” After all, I’ve only posted a handful of short, buzzy, videos counting down to the event, Twittered a little about looking forward to it, etc.

It’s not a public event but it’s not really a deeply held secret. The Cafepress Kickoff 2008 weekend is an event (this is the second year) where members of Cafepress’ Community teams (Community Forum Moderators and the new Cafepress Voice teams and related Cafepress staff themselves) meet to discuss all things “Community.” It’s a chance for groups that either are community-driven or part of the overall development of Cafepress’ community development and interaction to get together in the same building (Cafepress HQ in Foster City, CA), the same room, and review a years-worth of subjects related to the Community as well as plan ahead the next year.

Yes, there’s an NDA, so no, I’m not being evasive. I’m just saying that you can imagine that having teams associated with the vibrant, active, and ever-growing Community of shopkeepers at Cafepress takes a little planning and benefits from having people on the same page.

The two separate groups – the Cafepress Voice and the Moderators – also have their own goals and objectives to go over with appropriate Cafepress staff. One doesn’t grow a social circle this large without planning and teamwork. I think it says a lot about the company that they work hard to have a yearly meeting to get many diverse people together (rather than suffer through emails or conference calls exclusively) to get honest feedback, opinions, and ideas about how their Community of shopkeepers and customers are doing and how it relates to Cafepress, the company, itself. It’s admirable they take such an interest and welcome face-to-face relationships-building.

For me, I look forward to hearing about plans for the Community forums themselves, getting to know the new CP staff I’ll inevitably be working with over the next year, and form new friendships and working relationships with the CPVoice crew. I’m also looking forward to the social time I’ll be able to spend with all of them. Between the mods, CPV, and CP staff… they are really fantastic people and worth the effort of getting to know in the short time we have. They all have a deep passion for making the most of their time and service to Cafepress and the Community they volunteer to serve. So, it’s with a lot of gratitude that I attend these events Cafepress so graciously provides.

I’m trying to figure out a way (or more particularly the opportunities) to do some kind of “live” reporting from my time there. It’s probably a fairly grandiose idea and likely to fall short of whatever goals I might have in my mind but I’d like to do a bit more than just share photos and a few snapshots upon my return. So, we’ll see if some sort of blogging, video, or live-stream has any acceptable (and practical) place while I’m there. If so, you can be sure it’ll be piped to this blipfish.com blog – just for you.