Mesh was one of the conferences where I didn’t get too much from the actual planned sessions, but I got more than my fair share of really interesting conversations and meetings before, and after the sessions. On day two I got to meet people like Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. A great guy, he was very honest, and interesting. I wasn’t expecting him to be very approachable, despite his wonderful videos, but he was, and it was great having a short conversation with him. He sat on a panel called Barbarians at the Gate - Should Old Media Be Afraid of New Media on the first day, and it really suited him well.

I hope he will come back to Canada next year to continue to give his opinions.

I also got to see Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist. When I first saw him, I was amazed at how tall he was. He definitely has a strong appearance to him, despite his laid back, almost hippie attitude towards the establishment and normal corporate money making. He was asked a few times why he isn’t trying to put ads everywhere and make tons of money, and really he came off very sincere in saying that he was making more than enough to be comfortable.

I also ran into Amber MacArthur, and I am a big fan of hers. I think I might have made her think I am strange though, as I took lots of pictures of her in an attempt to get a good one. She is a celebrity to me, and has done some very interesting things, so it was great to see her there.

Will Pate, Amber’s co-host on CommandN was also there, and while he was in a panel at Mesh, I don’t know why they paired him up with someone from eBay and someone from Dell. He really didn’t have much focus directed his way, and I feel bad for him, as he really is interested in social media, having been on the Flock web browser team.

The two people that I really won’t forget though, and made the biggest impression on me were Mark Relph, and Lionel Menchaca. Mark is the Vice President of the Developer & Platform (DPE) Group in Canada and Lionel is a 14-year Dell veteran and chief blogger at Direct2Dell.

Both of them were really great both in their sessions and afterwards.

I wish Lionel could have stuck around a bit longer, but his taxi was waiting for him outside not long after his session was done. The reason he made a strong impression on me is in part because of all the great moves Dell has been making in the marketplace, and how honest and interesting he was. He really had his finger on the pulse of the computer using community, going so far as to say that Dell’s focus on being the cheap computer was a mistake, and that they are working very hard to change their image, and they will take all the community help they can get.

Mark and I had a great conversation after he finished leading the panel that Lionel sat on. He understood that Microsoft has also been trying to change how the community views them, but has thus far been mostly unsuccessful. He talked to me about the feedback Microsoft gets through its developer contacts and whatnot, and I told him that they should create their own version of IdeaStorm for Microsoft, and Windows specifically, so that the community could give feedback in a way that has almost no barrier for entry.

He seemed intrigued by that idea, and I hope he follows through on it. Windows isn’t all bad, but they could use an easier and faster way to get criticism as well as an open forum where people telling Microsoft what’s wrong, can see that it is being worked on, like Dell has done.

Mesh brought a really diverse group of people together, and I enjoyed meeting them. I was a little worried about heading to Mesh, but my fears were unjustified. If you are going to go to a conference on the east coast about new media and dealing with the changes in business that the Internet has created, Mesh should be on your list.

I am already crossing my fingers that I can attend next year.

I want to thank all those that made my experience great. I will continue to mention them on Blogging Pro, Forever Geek, as well as here, depending on the stories, and businesses I have to talk about.