Bridging the Gap: A Mashup of Academic Frameworks & Business Applications OR otherwise known as #BTG11 was the first conference I have co-planned, and with months of preparation, Friday, February 18th, 2011 was a great success thanks to the help of my amazing co-planners Sean Zinsmeister (@szinsmeister) and Paul Schmidt (@drumming).
Our main man MC, Joselin Mane (@Joselinmane) kicked it off with great intros and prizes to the audience. Academic Keynote Erik Qualman (@equalman) then started off the conference with a great energy and had the crowd not only roaring in laughter but applause. My fave part of his Keynote presentation was the tools he recommended (sorry for the blurry snapshot). I am a definite fan of some of these tools including all the free fun Google tools, Wisestamp, Hootsuite, and Grader. If you haven’t tried them out, definitely do!
Then the Facebook panel duo, Brian Simpson (@Bsimi) and Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) were the perfect combo. They were informative, entertaining, and best of all, the complete opposites of one another. They were fabulous at answering the questions of the audience and the crafty ones that Tamsen McMahon @tamadear (our wonderful moderator) threw at them.
Paul Gillin (@pgillin) and Eric Enge (@ericenge) were both fabulous solo speakers who taught the crowd the importance of ROI and SEO, respectively. And although I learned a lot from each, my favorite part was when Meg Fowler (@megfowler) Tweeted, “The only thing in my life with a crystal-clear ROI is coffee. #BTG11″ during Paul’s session. I mean, come on…how can you not agree? Meg also won a kickass raffle prize for that Tweet. Win-Win!
Tamsen knocked it out of the park with her moderating skills for the Content Panel, which included C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman), Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs), Michelle McCormack (@Michellemmm) and John Deighton (@HBSMKTG). A great mix of on the panel, which allowed for great conversation on how content not only needs to be relevant, but one must take the time to create said content in order to reach one’s target market effectively.
Perhaps I am biased, but I must add that lunch was delicious!
In order to avoid food coma, Julia Roy (@juliaroy ) ensured everyone stayed wide awake with her lively presentation on Twitter for Business. It was not only entertaining but full of great case studies including Best Buy, Whole Foods and @comcastcares. Great examples of how brands should utilize Twitter…but please recall, as Julia stated, “There is no one right way to use Twitter for Business.” Great point!
And to close off the great day, Mike Volpe (@mvolpe) kicked ass and took names. He demonstrated the importance of inbound marketing and how social media is just a “piece of the puzzle”, yet an important piece of course. And one thing, people should definitely remember to take away when focusing on marketing and social media: “don’t dip your toe in the water, jump in all the way!”
But the fun didn’t stop there! There was of course an after-party for mingling, free food and drinks. And lets just say the song O.P.P. began playing…enough said? Bring it back to the 90s?
My last remark is that I am lucky enough to not only know many of these speakers personally, but am honored to know them professionally as well. Great people, Great time. What more can you ask for? #BTG11 Rocked! If you don’t believe me: check out below how much the conference Trended on Twitter. AWESOME!
If you missed out:
More pics and videos will be added to the Facebook Page as well.
After attending numerous social media networking events such as the 140 conference, and now Podcamp (and soon to attend FutureM), I can officially claim my “nerd status” without rebuttal. Although, I was only able to attend the 2nd half of this weekend’s PodCamp conference (can you blame me for wanting to run the Susan G. Komen 5K on Saturday as well?) — it was well worth the commute over the bridge to lovely Cambridge.
I joined my good friend, Sean Zinsmeister as we hopped from David Wells (Social Media for Social Good) to Paul Gillin (B2B Social Media – Really!) to Morriss Partee (Geolocation) to Chrisopher Penn (Podcasting 101: 5 years later) to Lane Sutton and Avrom Honig (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare — It’s Taking Over Our Lives).
I definitely enjoyed David’s talk as I’ve worked for a local nonprofit (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company) for about 2 years, where I also utilized social media platforms in order to spread the word n’ do some “social good” for a non-profit that has given such cultural enrichment to the community of Boston.
Paul was more than informative on how B2B’s can and should be using social media platforms to their benefit. Having worked for a digital agency in Boston I realize that utilizing social media platforms is not just a good idea, but imperative.
Morriss hit a hot topic with geolocation. Although I am not a big fan of letting people know where I am via Foursquare and other geo apps, I realize the impact these apps are having on businesses. If a business utilizes an app like Foursquare or Gowalla in a way that consumers are pumped to participate and use it, then it can reap great rewards for that business.
Chris, entertaining as always, kept the audience laughing and intrigued by the different tools that podcasters have at their disposal for delivering their content to their audience. Who knew it could be so easy?
Last but not least Lane and Avrom were the perfect duo — they created quite a discussion regarding privacy and young social media users. How will the new generation of teens impact social media in the future? Guess we’ll have to wait for Lane and his fellow teens to show us.
After a jam-packed day — I am looking forward to seeing these speakers and those I missed again at a future conference. Until then — I salute my fellow social media nerds that I am not only impressed with the work and involvement of each person at these conferences, but look forward to see what develops next…
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