Record Attendance and so Many Brands
Attendance: 480+ Marketing and Communications pros from major brands, agencies, technology/solution providers. We have moved past a group of 'evangelists' into a active membership of experts with substantial experience. Intuit, Ford, Tropicana, Unilever, HP, McDonalds, Comcast, Levi Strauss, Best Buy and so many more were there.
Personal Significance: This was my last WOMMA Summit as president of the board. A lot of folks worked to make WOMMA what it is today not the least of which is our great Executive Director, Kristen Smith. Our record attendance and the spike in brands attending (and brands decoming members) pays off on a lot of work from all of us.
Experience Trumps Evangelism
Outside the Sessions: Everyone shared about the programs they have going on. And more than that, brands were talking about how they were training internally and organizing around social media. Picture a dinner with a major hotel/gaming brand, consumer products good company and a premiere financial services company all swapping stories about how they are organized, how they sell-in programs, how their marcom universe thinks of social media and word of mouth. You would be surpised at how similar some of the organizational challanges are.
Spontaneous meetings happened in between sessions and sometimes became more urgent then attending one session or another. Folks clustered around the tables set up throughout the exhibit space to share war stories and get advice. I loved the brief conversation with one of the McDonald's twitterers (they have 5) in the bus ride over to the Palms. He and his teammates have a very personal touch. I love that he can reward customers with surprise 'thank you' freebies.
The exhibitors came as experts with something to offer not hungry salespeople. You were just as likely to sit down with Peter from LiveWorld or Reggie from Vitrue to hear their solution to a social media marketing problem as a colleague from an agency or brand.
And then there was the House Party at the Palms. The suite was outrageous. It gave me a new metric for the huge scale of Las Vegas (where even the morning muffins are the size of a small pie). And the company was terrific. No one got in the hot tub but plenty tried the rotating make-out booth (I know, sounds creepy and outrageous).
Our event hotel was the Paris which I can heartily endorse. We do some work for the parent brand, Harrahs, and this was my first experience at the property. It was all good.
The theme overall was one of experience. Everyone shared what they were doing, not what they observed others were doing or what their latest blog post POV. Here are some great reources that came out of the meeting:
WOMMA Measurement Guidebook: We set out to do this at least year's Summit and here it is - a practical guide to measuring social media and word of mouth programs
The Twitter Transcript: I have never seen this done before and while it may sound ridiculously boring in concept, browse through this as it really captures what peaked participant's interest throughout.
The Photo Gallery: Great collection that captures in and out of session activity and faces.
The WOMMA Word Blog: Solid recaps of much of the action
(photo: this was taken from the WOMMA Gallery on Flickr)
Comments