There’s a Hoedown in Detroit this weekend, and it’s not what it sounds like!

WYCD Hoedown logoYep, I went there.

There’s a lot going on this weekend in the Detroit area, and I thought I’d give you a quick head’s up as to where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing.

As you may know, I write freelance for the Detroit Regional News Hub‘s blog, Detroit Unspun – and this weekend is a jam-packed weekend of events all over town. The Hub will be covering Startup Weekend Detroit, a comedy show featuring Dave Coulier for Forgotten Harvest, and the 28th annual WYCD Downtown Hoedown.

As the resident country girl in, well, any of my circles around Metro D, you can safely assume I’ll be covering the Hoedown. In fact, I already wrote a nice little preview post about the Hoedown on the Unspun blog about it.

Coincidentally (seriously – no connection other than I’m an avid listener of the station), I was able to snag a seat on the WYCD Girls Night Out Party Bus yesterday to Greektown Casino, where I honestly went not because I had any money to gamble (I don’t), but because I was looking forward to a different environment for a change and oh yeah, the free buffet! (NOM nom nom …)

WYCD Girls Night Out gals

WYCD Girls Night Out Party Bus gals!

I did try a penny slot, however, but my penny got stuck in the machine, and I took that as a sign that I shouldn’t even bother gambling at all that day.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of country music, tune in to 99.5 WYCD or better yet, come on down to the Hoedown this weekend! I’ll be around taking pictures, live blogging, tweeting, and trying to get Dierks Bentley‘s phone number. (Did I say that out loud?)

Updates will be posted on the Detroit Unspun blog, via the Detroit Unspun twitter account and mine, and really, if you know me at all, you never know where else I’ll end up. If the next time I check into Foursquare I’m somewhere in Nashville, you can safely assume I’m with Dierks. ;)

Oh, and just because it’s funny, here’s a video of WYCD radio personality Jason the 300 lb. Cowboy lighting the official Downtown Hoedown torch (read: barbecue grill) yesterday morning in Hart Plaza at some insane hour in the morning:

The obligatory Future Midwest post

If you’re in metro Detroit (and even if you’re not), unless you’ve been living under a rock and completely off the grid, there’s this “social media” conference coming up in Royal Oak starting tomorrow called Future Midwest that some good people I know have been working their butts off trying to put together.

I’m not going to get into too much detail about all of the events they’ve got lined up, because Dave Murr did a great job of it himself, so I’ll send you there.

Everybody and their brother has been publishing their own posts on what they hope and expect at this conference. This isn’t one of those posts. I’m just writing this to tell you where I’ll be and what Ill be doing. My hopes and expectations align with those of Sarah Worsham, however.

I had nothing to do with the planning or promoting of Future Midwest, but I will be covering it for the Detroit Regional News Hub.

It’s going to be a crazy next few days, to say the least.

Tonight I’ll be picking up my friend Beth Harte, one of the speakers, from the airport, then we’re headed directly to TechCocktail, where I’ll be doing a few interviews and a podcast.

DMA posterFriday I’m pulling a double header with Future Midwest coverage all day, live blogging, interviews, yada yada yada, then heading over to the Detroit Music Awards to hang out with some old friends and cover that, too, for the Hub.

A couple days ago (with a little help from my friends Carolyn Striho and Kathy Vargo) I published a preview article on the DMAs and how they keep Detroit on the map, go check it out.

Saturday, so long as Friday doesn’t kill me, I’ll be back at Future Midwest.

Sunday, so long as Saturday and Friday don’t kill me, I’ll be sleeping. Then later that night, I’ll be found on my couch watching my hero Reba McEntire host the Academy of Country Music Awards.

(And to think I used to party with rockstars all the time, now I’m not sure I can even party like a geek trying to party like a rockstar.)

I’ve been cheating on my blog.

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It’s true.

Not that I’ve ever been that prolific here, but lately I’ve been writing somewhere else. While I’m great at promoting and marketing others, I am always reluctant to do so for myself — call it “the cobbler’s kids having no shoes” or what you will, but I suck at self-promotion. Many in my field are the same way.

But at the encouragement of others, I thought I’d let you know where I’ve been. Recently I dusted off my journalist’s hat and have been writing part-time for Detroit Unspun, a new blog that is sponsored by the Detroit Regional News Hub. What is the Detroit Regional News Hub? From their site:

The Detroit Regional News Hub is the collaborative media relations department for the region and is a central communications clearing house for information reporters may need to cover their stories. Our job is to connect reporters with experts who can provide information about the region’s growth, quality of life, education, economic development and government. Our partners include the region’s major businesses as well as economic development, government, community and philanthropic organizations.

The Detroit Unspun blog is an expansion of the News Hub, but rather than connecting reporters to the experts so they can write the stories, they’re using people like me to provide original stories themselves, with the aim that other reporters will pick up on them.

Detroit Unspun is still in its infancy, and recently debuted for a soft-launch at Ignite Detroit, an event that the News Hub sponsored. There I live blogged recaps of the event during intermissions, took photos, and did some interviews of people involved with the event, as well as wrote an overall recap.

My most recent story is a feature on the region’s only hackerspace, i3Detroit, and how they’re expanding. As of right now, all the content on the Detroit Unspun blog is by me, but that will be changing next week.

I’ve also been doing some copywriting for a couple other places that isn’t online yet.

I forget sometimes that most people don’t know I’m a writer “for realz.” I’ve been slacking on compiling my actual portfolio (or updating it, as it’s very outdated), but no, I’m not just a snarky redhead that writes here sometimes when she needs to get something off her chest. While that’s true, I also wear many writing hats — I write (or have written) just about everything but fiction. For realz.

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