So far, Toronto Hydro is failing me, hotel rates are too high, but I do have a recharged laptop (I still can’t believe there’s no free WiFi at an online journalism conference). Thankfully, I’ve been able to catch-up with a lot of people, some of which live in my city, or I’ve just met. And that was one of my hopes in attending this conference.

Of the two of the panels I’ve attended, the one on serious gaming was the most interesting. Essentially, the panelist just spoke about the relationship between online (educational) gaming and interactives. That simple notion sparked a lot of ideas that I was hastily jotting down in my trusty Moleksin. The second, post-lunch, was an all-star panel (Rob Curley, J.D. Lasica, Dan Gillmour, and Jay Rosen) that was interesting thanks mainly to Curley’s willingness to dive deep into how they are doing local blogging.

Many of the panels seem to be “ideas-based” and a lot of “wouldn’t it be great if…” Perhaps because I already believe what’s being preached, and have myself preached the same, that I find the tone a little too academic.

The nosepicker is that I have spoken to others here that are completely wowed by those concepts, which is good, very good, for this industry.

Two more sessions today, and I expect at least one more post.