Virtual Like Minds!
Really, this is my take on the conference as a virtual attendee standpoint, since I was watching from Montreal.
Like Minds 2010 seems to be the trend that has been buzzing on my stream since last Wednesday. For those who don’t know yet what Like Minds is, very quickly, it is the conference founded by Scott Gould and Drew Ellis, held in Exeter that bring together some of the most respected social media experts in the world and it is in its second edition.
Pre-event discussions had been informally initiated by attendees, organizers and hopefuls (me being one of them) on Twitter, Facebook, and were channelled through the Like Minds website. This early conversation gave way to being part of the excitement as well as to meeting people who shared my enthusiasm for the event. I was actually able to connect with a few Twitter friends who generously offered to send me a virtual pizza from their lunch at Strada. Thanks Sue Windley!
The moment of truth was awaited with both excitement and apprehension as this was my first Like Minds conference. All my worries went away the first few minutes, I joined in. I could follow the conferences live on Twitterface, read instant feedback, questions and tweet at the same time. Social Media can save lives but has not found a way around time-zones, therefore, I could only watch live Olivier Blanchard’s presentation and the panel session moderated by Andrew Gerrard. I caught up shortly after to Jon Akwue’s Keynote, Chris Brogan’s elocution, Trey Pennington’s moderation as well as the other panel sessions.
Like Minds is the new format of conference where with knowledge, solid organization, motivation, and guts, you can bring borderless communion of minds; It would be interesting to have traffic numbers for the videos as well as the buzz created by likeminds pre/during/post event. It would very insightful to use this conference as another case study on how social media can be applied to bring together people from all over the world. Needless to say the content was very well-suited to the audience, case studies were relevant and the panelists are heavyweights of digital and social media (or social communications – thanks to the new terminology Olivier Blanchard proposed in his presentation and later, his post on Like Minds 2010 .
Like Minds is the new format of conference where with knowledge, solid organization, motivation, and guts, you can bring borderless communion of minds; It would be interesting to have traffic numbers for the videos as well as the buzz created by #likeminds pre/during/post actual event. It would very insightful to have a post-mortem as this could also serve as another case study on how social media (oops, communications) can be applied to bring together people from all over the world.
Of course, Like Minds can evolve, it could improve however; I want to concentrate on the positives which outweigh the improvement opportunities from far. The sense of belonging to the same breed, the same group, the same Minds, shows that what is important in the era of social media, communications, ..is SOCIAL! I
The conversation on-line, Twitter stream, hashtag likeminds were electrifying during the whole conference. There is a massive shift from physical to intellectual brotherhood. This echoes my previous post on social media being the great equalizer.
What stood out for me, content-wise, is that social media is not the end-all and be-all, it has to be thought out, weighted, understood and integrated. The way I see it, if you have to have a good product, solid processed, excellent customer service and frontline staff and then, a well-executed social communications program will help you achieve your objectives. Otherwise, Social media can help you smooth out other areas such as HR. The key is to have clearly defined objectives.
As I am writing this, over 36 hours after the Like Minds conference has ended, the hashtag is still active, people are still tweeting their feedback. To borrow from Kris Kolvin, whether in Exeter or online, attendees seem to be glowing from their participation to the conference.
Another valuable and insighful post about virtually attending the Like Minds from Jo Porritt guest blogging at Chris Hall’s : Attending LikeMinds – A Virtual Perspective
As a business consultant, I advise companies and entrepreneurs on how to integrate social media in their overall business strategy.
I define, implement and monitor social media programs in order to achieve business objectives.
I am also a major Foodie, fashion observer. Normal for a Parisian, right?
Please >>>
[...] friend Karima-Catherine relayed her experience of virtually participating in Like Minds, where she age points out that the strong point of virtual [...]
[...] Sue and I met throught pre-Likeminds conversation and kept in touch after the event. Here she is [...]
[...] Karima-Catherine – Virtual Like Minds [...]