Last Monday, J-Lab i.e. The Institute for Interactive Journalism hosted the New Media Women Entrepreneurs 2009 Summit in downtown Washington, DC. The one day event brought together female panelists from diverse backgrounds in journalism to discuss how new forms of online journalism are emerging new entrepreneurial opportunities – and the steps you can take to cultivate them.

From savvy bloggers to entrepreneurship
Many of the panelists have had their own successes in transitioning from local bloggers, niche bloggers, and citizen journalists to full-fledged new media entrepreneurs just by being savvy online publishers.

Here are just a few of my takeaways from the summit including the keynote speaker from Placeblogger’s Lisa Williams:

• It’s okay not to know everything, just start.
• Include your personality in your site and take a personal approach.
• But don’t let your personality be so engrained in your site that it could not function without you (be able to let go).
• There are revenue models that work, often in combination (consider business models around ads, conferences, and content).
• Don’t do anything for free that you wouldn’t do for free indefinitely.

The gist?
As the journalism landscape is rapidly changing, new media entrepreneurs see this as an opportunity, while traditional media outlets see it as a threat.

So whether you are exploring a career – in blogging, online community building, citizen reporting, aggregating, publishing, creative writing, or any other forms of interactive journalism – it’s absolutely possible in today’s online environment. There’s a career there if you carve it out!

More from Women Grow Business:

• Shana Glickfield and her series on starting a business and event coverage for business owners;
• Top women in tech entrepreneurs and the SmallBizCool video series at Blogworld Expo this year;
• Jen Consalvo on bold entrepreneurship.

Guest post by Shana Glickfield, regular guest contributor to Women Grow Business and Founder of DC Concierge. Shana’s company directs the online community for NextGenWeb, the blog of USTelecom, a broadband association. Shana can be reached at www.twitter.com/dcconcierge.

Pictured:
From the New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit are Maria Ivancin and Jan Schaffer (among others) presenting a new study of women and media. The image is used with permission by photographer Anna Tauzin.

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: New Media Women Entrepreneurs Summit: Event Recap

Transporting back to last week, Las Vegas, early a.m. pacific time:
It’s the opening keynote address for the Blogworld Expo and first time many attendees were convened in the same room. We enter a large meeting hall where rows and rows of chairs are filling up and projected up front is one huge phrase on screen:

How dare you not be awesome?!

That bold question was the most effective ‘mental caffeine’.

It’s a question posed by the hip, wise, and awesome entrepreneur Laura Fitton aka @Pistachio on Twitter. She’s a Twitter champ and founder of OneForty.com and Pistachio Consulting.

And she gets more cool — enough to talk shop for the SmallBizCool series!

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: How Dare You Not Be Awesome: Laura @Pistachio Fitton Gets SmallBizCool

It just seems inevitable that something cool will happen when hearing the phrase: “Jill meet Jill!”
And at last week’s Blogworld Expo, that’s exactly what happened when being introduced to another ‘Jill’ (yet she spells her name with a cool, artistic spelling that she chose when she was six years old). I met entrepreneur (or rather mompreneur) Jyl Johnson Pattee through Beth Harte just recently – thanks Beth!

Jyl founded Mom It Forward and shares at least two reasons why her business is cool, as in SmallBizCool! Think weekly Twitter parties and more…

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: Mom It Forward Founder Gets SmallBizCool!

It was fantastic meeting Nelly Yusupova, CTO of Webgrrls Internationals ( and founder of DigitalWoman).

She’s shares on her cool projects (with a keen insight on what she’s surmounted to be of stronger service to her clients).

Welcome to another segment of SmallBizCool(!), straight from Blogworld last weekend.

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: CTO of Webgrrls and Digital Woman Founder Gets SmallBizCool!

In meeting Mari Smith at last weekend’s Blogworld Expo, I felt delighted and also a bit like a hobbit standing next to Gandolph (I think she’s at least 6′ tall!). Fast Company calls Mari “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” And she’s president of the International Social Media Association.

She’s known for launching major profitable success for numerous businesses, especially through Facebook and Twitter relationship building. So it was a flat out pleasure learning why her biz is cool for the SmallBizCool video series!

Thanks Mari for talking shop with Women Grow Business!

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: Pied Piper of the Online World: Mari Smith Gets SmallBizCool!

Blogworld’s opening keynote speaker Laura Fitton aka @pistachio on Twitter said in the middle of her address “And Becky McCray is awesome!”

Cool -and- awesome
Becky, founder of Small Biz Survival and numerous businesses, presented at last weekend’s Blogworld Expo on how small business makes big impact. In between morning bagels and networking, Becky shared a memorable “and cool moment” with SmallBizCool and Women Grow Business.

Join us! … straight from the Blogworld floor:

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: "I Was Fired, and Then …" Small Biz Survival's Becky McCray Gets Real with SmallBizCool!

She’s been featured in media outlets worldwide for her pioneering work on the Web and as a female tech entrepreneur and author.

She presented at last week’s Blogworld Expo on stimulating brand conversations with women in the social mediasphere. She’s Aliza Sherman who answered – the one question – for our SmallBizCool series straight from Blogworld:

“What’s the coolest part about your business?”

And she answered without hesitation with a response that caught me off guard.

Please join us for a few minutes on the Blogworld floor!

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: Webgrrls Founder and Tech Entrepreneur Aliza Sherman Gets SmallBizCool!

She’s a thriving entrepreneur with a cool story to tell.

And straight from Blogworld she talks with Women Grow Business for our SmallBizCool video series.

She is Wendy Piersall who founded Sparkplugging – the largest blogger network focused on work-at-home resources for solo business owners (and she also launched the Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network).

She’s some kind of cool.

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: 'A Business I Could Walk Away From': Entrepreneur Dynamo Wendy Piersall Gets SmallBizCool!

The orange flower on Debba’s lapel gives just a hint of her coolness as an entrepreneur.

She’s hip, smart, and starts strong, resourceful forums for women communities (and their businesses too). She’s Debba Haupert, founder of Girlfriendology, an online community dedicated to supporting and engaging friendships by women.

For this #SmallBizCool segment, Debba tells exactly while Girlfriendology is so hip (and introduces a new initiative she launched dedicated to women entrepreneurs).

And Debba rawks.

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: Get SmallBizCool! Girlfriendology's Debba Haupert Knows Why Her Biz Rocks: Video Chat Straight from Blogworld

The ‘firsts’ abound

( 6:30pm, in flight bound for Nevada )

Blogging from 30,000 feet up helps expand perspective sometimes. And from that vantage point, I’m realizing these next few days will host a string of first-time experiences. It’s my first time to Las Vegas (have you been??) plus first time to experience the robust Blogworld Expo aka #bwe09 (are you here too?). The prospect for compelling conversations, great speakers (…Liz Strauss, Guy Kawasaki, Wendy Piersall, Tee Morris, Stephanie Michaels, a few just to start), and overall social tech wizardry couldn’t be stronger.

SmallBizCool series (& you)
Film director, marketing extraordinaire, and GrowSmartBiz blogger Mike Dougherty and I will host a new video series throughout the expo – called SmallBizCool.

With this SmallBizCool video series, we want to help amplify small business conversations at Blogworld – and fun! – with the vast array of entrepreneurs participating here.

• Why are you and your business cool?!
• How is social tech used to relate to customer communities?
• What does success look like in your business?

Questions like these will launch our conversations for SmallBizCool (rumor has it Mike will sport some funky shades…). We aim to build a suite of quick cuts – 30 seconds here, 1 minute there – with different Blogworld folks in small biz.

Want to join us?
So if you’re here and in small business or running your own gig, please come say ‘hi’ for a video chat with our #SmallBizCool team (or just let us know where we can find you in Vegas!). Not able to make Blogworld in person? No sweat.

The series will be published on WomenGrowBusiness and other places, tagged #SmallBizCool as to find it online. Your comments are very welcome! Or you certainly can join in conversation via Twitter search too.

On that note
Thanks for being apart of the WomenGrowBusiness community and congrats on the work you do in leading small businesses. And remember for the next few days, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ … (or truthfully it just may end up on #SmallBizcool!).

What do you crave to learn from Blogworld – social tech, entrepreneurship, or see on the SmallBizCool videos?

Share Your Thoughts on this article here: First Time in Vegas, First Time at BlogWorld, and First Post for SmallBizCool