NewComm Forum 06 Archive
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
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This is a tough call, because it depends on what you do for a living. The three best *paid* events I went to last year were:
- New Communications Forum
- Gnomedex
- BlogHer
I make the distinction of paid events since there is a bit more of an investment in going to a paid event rather than a local un-conference-type event.
For the past few months I have told anybody I work with in PR that they need to go to New Communications Forum this year. The event is being held March 7-9 in Las Vegas at the Venetian.
All the sessions are great and feature some of the most well-known folks in the PR/social media movement (including some guy named Josh). Like any conference though, the best interaction is during the breaks and dinners...with such a great line-up of folks on hand it's hard not to get something out of it.
The only downside? Deciding between some really great sessions that end up being scheduled opposite of each other.
Spending two days in Palo Alto has really been an experience. The entire atmosphere makes you a smarter person. The level of discourse and interaction is unmatched, especially compared to Florida. I can see why Buzz Bruggeman moved to Seattle from Orlando.
For example, Thursday night was dinner with Toby Bloomberg, Debbie Weil, Nicole Simon, Stephan Spencer, Evelyn Rodriguez, Jeremy Wright, Jory Des Jardins, Shel Israel and Robert Scoble with a brief appearance from Dave Winer & Dan Farber and a drop-in by Albert Lai of Bubbleshare.
Friday night featured a small dinner party hosted by Keith Teare of edgeio. The guests included Mike Arrington from TechCrunch, Gabe Rivera from memeorandum, Brian Oberkirch, David Parmet, Jeremy Pepper, Erin Caldwell, Eva (a Ph.D. student from Stanford) and two women from eSnips who just flew in from Israel. Great conversations and great homemade chocolate sauce from Keith's wife.
I'm in the process of writing a complete wrap-up post from my New Communications Forum visit. Many great people met,
Big congratulations to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson the great guys behind the For Immediate Release podcast. It was announced yesterday that they have signed a deal with McGraw-Hill to write a book about podcasting. In one of those small-world moments I found out that their agent was Yvonne Divita, who I met earlier this year at WOMBAT. Below is a photo of Shel and Neville recording FIR #116 at New Communications Forum (photo is from Jeremiah Owyang's photostream).
Blogging is about loving what you do and sharing that. It's not about making money or lists or rank.
CMO's, marketing people....your job is to find out what people want.
"Building a successful social network requires ceding control."
"Social computing puts the power in the communities and not the institutions. The focus is not the technology it's the community. Everybody is excited about the technology since we're geeks, but it's the community."
I'm sitting at a table this morning with David Parmet, Mike Manuel, Shel Israel, Jeremy Pepper and Brian Oberkirch recording a podcast/conversation about public relations and social media. Interesting discussion.
Update The podcast is up!
New Communications Forum kicks off today in Palo Alto, CA. As a Florida boy, I made sure that everybody was drinking orange juice during breakfast. I'll be posting photos over a Flickr when I get the chance. This highlight below is Neville Hobson, notice the hand flip.
Phil Gomes also has a photoset over at Flickr.
Today is my last day of work before traveling out to Palo Alto for New Communications Forum. After my non-stop live-blogging experience at WOMBAT I have decided that I will not be blogging that much during the conference. Since it is a conference attended by a number of bloggers there should be plenty of coverage to go around. I will have the camera handy though.
I'm looking forward to meeting a number of great folks while I am out there.
