Warning: Use of undefined constant wpurl - assumed 'wpurl' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/y9gq09f5yym1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/add-to-facebook-plugin/addtofacebook.php on line 50
Rachel Platten brought the house down (photo by Steve Hall)
The Audience Conference was one of the most unique, dynamic and educational events I have ever attended. As one of the organizers, it was also an intense and draining experience.
Ultimately, the Audience Conference focused on communication, large and small, one on one and to the masses via social media. It was a learning experience for me despite over 20 years in show business!
I am grateful to my partner Loren Feldman of 1938Media for drafting me to be part of it, and for the musicians Jason Liebman and Rachel Platten for contributing their talents to the event.
What made the Audience Conference great were the speakers, the rapid-fire programming (and buffets) Loren Feldman provided, and their general approachability during down time.
Here is a summary of my favorite of the speakers, and their general message. It’s hard to remember it all but there will be full AudienceConf.com video updates coming soon.
Brian Clark in a suit!
One of my favorites was Brian Clark from Copyblogger, who spoke about David Ogilvy’s creed, telling the story to your audience as “fascinating truth.”
Jason Calacanis from Mahalo (and numerous other sites) projected great entrepreneurial vibes/skills including being direct, brief and having a vision. Sitting on the edge of the stage to be closer to the audience was a down to earth vibe for such a heavy guy. Ethan Kaplan of Warner Brothers (coincidentally) spoke of technology eliminating the “hegemony of the stage” as he described his path from music fan to blogger to corporate music technologist at Warner Music.
PR commentator Jeremy Pepper was very entertaining, as was David Binkowski of MS & L. Both spoke of confronting negative groups or opinions online and I would want either of them in my corner if caught in a battle of words.
Master Entrepreneurs Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney), Rae Hoffman and @SavvyAuntie (she wore a necklace w/her handle, why would I know her name?) shared a few traits with the speakers Loren Feldman assembled – vision, hard work and a certain fearlessness. I think it the video from the conference ought to be impressive when released.
Some extremely talented and successful folks were in attendance too. I had some friendly and occasionally fascinating raps with CC Chapman, Mark Drapeau, adman David Dunne, Erin Bury from Sprouter.com; Chris Tolles of Topix; Dan Farber of CBSNews.com; Leah DeMilio of Rocketboom; Owen Stone; Anton Mannering; Rachel Marsden; Amy DeMaria of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Frank Roche, a master of Human Resources on a mass scale (50K and above only!).
All of the above were just a few of the diverse and interesting attendees/speakers available to network during sumptuous meals and constant snacks/beverages.
There were also three amazing music performances! This part seems conventional to me but Adam and Mia (which made Loren cry); Jason Liebman and Rachel Platten (pictured above) all delivered an audience experience to the attendees. Loren’s point was that these 2.0 folks who are so used to commenting even as they consume, would just watch.
Please check out the flickr page and stay tuned for video from the Audience conference site!
Congratulations are in order for what, by all appearances and review, was a tremendously successful conference. The conference was unique in a way that few could pull off other than Loren Feldman and 1938Media.
I wish I was there, any chance there is video of the event? Adn when is the next one?