Last week I had the privilege of attending the Social Media Business Forum on behalf of Cliqset. The event was put on by #OurHashtag aka Wayne Sutton, Jeff Cohen and Ryan Boyles. It was really an incredible event. One of the things that struck me and has lingered is the attendee/sponsor experience that they created.
In my opinion, Wayne, Jeff and Ryan were really focused on the entire experience. And my experience really began the minute Cliqset signed on to be a sponsor. I had several conversations with Jeff Cohen — who was always focused on creating value for Cliqset. He had great ideas, beyond the traditional ways, to help create awareness and value for us as a sponsor. A couple of days before the event, Wayne, Jeff, Patrick O’Keefe and I had real-time discussion at Cliqset to talk about what attendees could expect and I noticed how focused they were on the entire experience.
Prior to the event, I received two newsletters laying out for me how the day would unfold. There were instructions about parking, info about breakfast and lunch and even info about how I could engage prior to the forum. And as a sponsor I was thrilled to see they listed the sponsors in the newsletter as well.
On the day of the Forum, I arrived early just as recommended and was lucky to score one of the premium parking spots. As I registered, I was greeted warmly again, and as I went to walk away from the table I approached by Gwen who informed me she was my personal liaison – she asked if I had any questions and if there was anything I needed throughout the day she would help me. And ya know what? She did answer my questions as well as touch base throughout the day. Right before the event began, Jeff Cohen checked in to make sure I knew when he was inviting me up to talk about Cliqset and all the details.
After that the Forum was off and running. There were 3 tracks (beginner, advanced and B2B), you see they didn’t assume the attendees were all coming from the same place. We had choices as to what info we thought would be most beneficial to us. For me, there were a couple of presentations that stood out:
Laura @pistachio Fitton’s Twitter: It’s Not Just A Micro-Blog – I really appreciated her presentation style, I could have listened to her all day. She was very engaging and I absolutely loved the way she summarized her advice for microblogging – Listen, Learn, Care and Serve. If you get the chance to hear her speak in person don’t miss it!
Chris Miller, Wayne Sutton and Jeremy Smith’s session on Social Media Listening and Monitoring Basics was extremely interactive and packed full of ways to listen, monitor and analyze your social media efforts today. I’m still checking out some of the options mentioned. This session was very interactive, lots of questions and a great exchange of information.
Geno Church’s session on Building Word of Mouth Movements gave me so much to think about. His content, stories and metaphors had me fully engaged from start to finish. He really got me to re-think campaigns vs. movements and how we can use that frame of mind as we continue to strive to make our community irresistible at Cliqset.
Finally and certainly not least….the people. I don’t know if I’ve ever attended a conference where all the people: staff and attendees were so very friendly and engaging. It was awesome…it would be next to impossible to list everyone that I met here. However I do want to all of you to know that I enjoyed every conversation and a big thank you for making this ATL girl feel right at home! I’ve asked Wayne and Jeff to do a follow up conversation with me at Cliqset stay tuned, we’d love to have you join the conversation as well!
{ 1 comment }
Thanks for sharing your learning. Sorry I missed the event.
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