Yesterday I got to celebrate my birthday by having my very own social media conference — SummitUp. I highly recommend this as a way to celebrate your next birthday. (actually this was purely coincidence, but a nice one none the less.) The day was simply amazing. To give you an idea of how well things went, at least from my perspective, my biggest gripe for the day was that the coffee cups were roughly the size of shot glasses. Now, 15 years ago shot glasses would have been a big part of my celebration at the very same Wright State University where the event was held, but now I am older, wiser, and much more dependent on caffeine. Next year I am voting for 64 oz tumblers for the coffee. Still, the fact that I am yammering about something as trivial as small coffee cups is a great sign that the important parts of the day went very well. What was so great about it you ask? Well here is my little highlight reel from the day:
- Kevin Dugan — This guy is a pro. His great intro video did not load, no problem. I have seen more than one presenter implode from such an event. Not Kevin. He simply laughed it off and went on to deliver an amazing presentation on the importance of story-telling in our digitally enabled world. He covered topics like the role of earned and paid media, the importance combining fact with emotion, and the important role that stories play to humanity. He went on to provide specific examples of companies doing this, including Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Sharpie, Starbucks, The United Way, and Best Buy. He then closed with 12 action steps that anyone could use to apply the concept of story telling to social media. This was a perfect lead in for the stories that would be told throughout the remainder of the day.
- Artie Isaac - Following Kevin Dugan is not an easy task, but one that Artie Isaac did masterfully. In fact, Artie customized his opening slide on the fly to incorporate Kevin’s presentation as a set up for his own. (They both cited Charles Dickens as well, which I did not know until today after viewing Kevin’s video.) The presentations dove-tailed into one another perfectly with Kevin articulating the importance of story-telling and Artie then talking about how to use creativity to tell those stories. Artie may have stolen the show for the whole day. He addressed the need for us produce higher quality content by more frequently exercising our creativity. His presentation had the audience laughing out loud and thinking deeply at the same time. He is simply a masterful presenter — using a combination of great timing, compelling use of visuals, wonderful humor, simple advice, and rich wisdom to captivate 275 people for an hour of time. Among Artie’s suggestions were, get sleep, breathe, feed the “creative pet”, make a to-don’t list to go with your to-do list, turn off the television, explore new domains of knowledge, know the difference between message and medium, understand generosity yields creativity, and make time for the things that are important to you.
- Breakout Sessions — Because I was only able to attend part of one breakout due to emceeing and presenting duties, I have less to offer in the way of reviews in this area. I saw about 1/2 of Brian LeCount’s presentation on blogging, and loved it. He spoke of the important role that blogs play relative to search, and backed it up with tons of data points. Well done Brian. That said, I would love to have some reviews of the break-outs. If you attended SummitUp and went to the break-outs, share your reviews in the comments section. From the feedback I got, people really loved all of them. Thank you to Lara Kretler, Roger Bora & Kerianne Acra, Brian LeCount, David Esrati, Debba Haupert, Kendra Ramirez, Ali Margello, Jennifer McClure, & Steve Phillips for offering up your time and talent.
- Bob Garfield — Bob was provocative, insightful, snarky, and funny. Admittedly I am not someone who is easily offended. I did hear people express some dislike with some of the verbiage Bob used and slides he presented, but to me, it was spot on, funny, and relevant. It wasn’t as if he was on stage doing an Andrew Dice Clay routine. He was simply pushing the envelope a little to make a point — like putting a little Tabasco on eggs. Overall, I felt he did a great job of framing up the dilemma facing marketing professionals today as a result of the collapse of old media channels. They say that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news, but I thought Bob did a nice job filling such a role. I also agreed with his prescription for solving the problem, which was rooted in doing a better job of listening to customers. I am excited to read his book, The Chaos Scenario, and will be happy to accept his challenge to talk more about it in the future.
- Lewis Howes — Lewis had fun presenting, and I had fun watching him. He started his presentation by telling a story about his experience pole-vaulting in the decathlon in college for the chance to become an All American athelete. He was totally into the story, and used it as a way to set up the idea of pushing yourself to do what it takes to realize your dreams. He then went on to offer up some great suggestions on how to maximize the results you get through using LinkedIn. He spent a good amount of time speaking about the ability to be found when someone searches for keywords or topics on the site — an SEO style approach that I have not heard before with regard to LinkedIn. He offered up some very useful information in a very entertaining way — and did so coming off of a wicked illness. I picked up a number of tactical tips that I am going to incorporate into improving my LinkedIn profile.
- Chris Brogan — Awesome! Just Awesome! In the same way that Kevin and Artie worked so well together, Bob Garfield and Chris Brogan seemed to be perfectly paired. Bob’s presentation on the demise of the old way of doing business was the perfect lead in to Chris’ advice about the new way. It was sort of like boot camp. Bob broke us down, and then Chris built us back up anew. Chris did not use any slides, but rather just hit go, started in, and occasionally referred to a little moleskine cahier notebook with “6 point font” scribblings to guide the show. He opened with a story about a Japanese swordsman (whose name I will not attempt) and the need for experimentation and change relative to survival. He spoke passionately from the heart about the importance of trust in a digitally networked world. He talked about making your own game, and not waiting around for someone to save you. He went on to discuss the fallacy of security, the resistance people have about change, and the difference between an audience and a community. Chris was captivating throughout. I must have written down 15 pages of notes and ideas from his presentation, all of which will likely surface here and elsewhere in the coming weeks. I can’t imagine a better way to complete the day, than with Chris just bringing it for 90 minutes. My thanks to him for closing the day out strong.
I can’t say enough about the many people who helped put SummitUp together and make the day run so smoothly. It seemed like I got a lot of credit for work that a whole lot of other people did, so let me pass that on with my sincere thanks to planners, volunteers, promoters, sponsors, speakers and attendees. You had everything to do with the event being so much fun. I was just along for the ride.
Even better than SummitUp, was the fact that when I got home shortly afterward, I was greeted by my loving family who surprised me with a great dinner and the gift of a brand new bass guitar for my birthday. Not only did SummitUp rock, but now I am more enabled to do the same. (Condolences in advance to my neighbors.)
Again, thank you to all who made yesterday so much fun. The happy birthday song was the icing on the cupcake.
What did you think of the event?
Very well said, David! I was very grateful to be able to attend this event, and I’m grateful to have been able to take connections made online into the real world, specifically meeting people like Jon Swanson, Chris Brogan, Roger Bora, and Chris Celek. And for me it was the first time I’d been back to Dayton in some time to see many of my Dayton social media friends.
I wished I could have duplicated myself so that I could catch all of the sessions, since they all sounded great. A big theme from the sessions I did attend was the need to start with listening.
I went to Roger Bora’s session, which was also piggybacked by the folks from Santino Day. I think it is awesome to have an attorney who understands social media and this space and can serve as a guide on things like branding and trademark protection. Roger provided some great practical guidance on using some of the free monitoring tools that are available.
After that session I went to Steve Phillips’s session on SEO. Steve did a great job providing some basic principles of SEO, demonstrating some of them with some concrete examples. He also fielded some great questions from those who attended.
Bob Garfield… if you didn’t love what he was saying, at least his slides were engaging. That one with the dog certainly was unexpected! I loved his presentation design: no bullets! Even if his message was not the most positive one, he did recommend we start listening better.
Lewis Howes showed us how basic principles of good networking and branding online can be accomplished using LinkedIn.
Finally meeting Chris Brogan in person was something I’d looked forward to in the several years we’d been connected online. One of the big themes of his talk was listening. Google “Grow Bigger Ears” and you’ll see why.
Events like this one take a lot of hard work to prepare and execute. Thank you again, David, and others, for getting this done. Happy Birthday, and keep on rockin’!
Great summary, David. It was a fun and informative day. Well worth the time. We had four people there so the theme was “divide and conquer” for the breakout sessions. I attended Roger and Kerianne’s session, and the one with that Bowman guy. Both were well presented and informative. I have loads of takeaways from the day and can’t wait to get started on implementing some new ideas!
Forget the confab– what kind of bass did she get you?
Thanks for all the work in bringing in the all star speaking cast.
Only complaint– is that we’re always presenting at the same time–
one of these days– I’ll remember to run the flip on myself– and you’ll do the same.
Thanks David.
Happy Birthday– how’s it feel to be 29?
A new guitar on top of a great day! Wow, David, you are one spoiled dude (very deservingly spoiled!)! I, too, look forward to mega coffee mugs next year and something other than chicken/salmon (which Garfield just adored!). I just wish the sessions weren’t concurrent so I could take more in!
I know you were part of the mastermind team who deserves so many kudos for this event of the year! Thank you all!
Congrats and continued happy birthday wishes, David — it was truly an amazing event and one of the best social media gatherings I’ve ever attended. From the energy of the packed house to the diverse and stellar talent of the keynote speakers, it was a day that flew by and left me energized and full of new ideas. I attended Kendra Ramirez’s breakout session about using social networking sites — especially LinkedIn — for sales prospecting and business development. It was awesome! Kendra’s a terrific speaker whose enthusiasm for her topic is contagious. I highly recommend her to anyone wanting to learn more about using social media for sales.
Bravo to David and crew for pulling this together. I can hardly wait for next year’s event!
David,
SummitUp was an absolutely stunning event! The speakers were engaging and offered up some great tips and new strategies. I especially liked Brian LeCount’s break-out session on the power of Blogs and SEO. He made such a good case for making Blogs a central part of your strategy, that after seeing the data, it became a moment of “why hadn’t I thought of this before???” Another practical application “aha” was Lewis Howes’ emphasis on increasing search with your LinkedIn profile. I happened to make all of the recommended changes as he presented them live and saw my profile move up in the search rankings for my “key words” right in front of my eyes!
Kevin Dugan kept the images of cave animals dancing in my head for days, while Artie Isaac inspired me to un-plug and to breathe deeply. Love his advice to take 30 minutes out of every day to think & create. Bob Garfield captured my attention with his focus on the changing tides of traditional media and gave frank answers to the audience question of the future of careers in radio and other media. Lewis Howes kept me fascinated with his re-enactment of his pole-vaulting jump– I literally pictured him flying over the bar and landing safely onto the mat. Beautiful segue into success with LinkedIn, giving tips that are not widely known. Chris Brogan, as the finale, was a wonderful close to the day. He is so down-to-earth and one of the most authentically transparent “gurus” out there. Loved everything that he had to say about social media, especially the admonition that as companies, we need to “grow our ears” to be in tune with what our customers are saying. It is the customers who are controlling the brand message.
Loved your talk on Data Analytics– still trying to figure out that physics equation with mass and distance that you had up on the screen. Guess you will have to explain that one over a cup of coffee sometime!
Superb event! Thanks to all who put it together. Hope your cupcake made it home safely!!