My blog reading habits, my blogging and my blog readers are primarily a mix of a social media & public relations slant, so it was fun to cross the aisle so-to-speak into the marketing world at Mplanet 2006.

Overall the Mplanet speaker line-up was impressive. When you have the marketing leaders from Sony, Nintendo and Nokia sitting on a panel together you're in for a treat. End the day by hearing from IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and it doesn't get much better. Seeing Chris Anderson share the Long Tail vibe with the marketing audience was also something special. It's really hard to pick a favorite session.

Social media is what I do, and with many of the sessions focusing on the new medium it was a bit of, "seen it/heard it". However, it was seeing the attendee's reaction to the speakers which really intrigued me. The audience was a mix of corporate and agency, many of which are still trying to come to grips with a loss of control.

If anything, social media, like WOM is a common ground for advertising and public relations. There are aspects of relationships, trust, influence, viral and marketing all wrapped up in one. A refreshing trend is to see that things can't be faked anymore. Over and over a CMO would say that if they ever tried to force something it just wouldn't work.

As with any conference experience I was able to meet a great bunch of folks face-to-face like, Ann, Garrett, Rob, Peter, Eric and many more. I've added a number of new people to the 'Friends' folder in my RSS reader.

Next week I'll be back in some familiar/middle ground at the WOMMA Summit 2006.