24 Hours With Shel Holtz

What a jam-packed couple of days! Shel Holtz arrived in town on Tuesday and we had 21people gather at Big Daddy's for a geek-like dinner. It was mostly marketing folk sitting around the table so I use the term 'geek' lightly.

Shel passed around his digital recorder and we all talked about what social media means to us. Well at least that's what we were talking about when the recorder got to my end of the table. It was being passed from person to person so I suspect the telephone message might have gone awry at some point.

Shel Holtz, Michael Seaton, Mitch Joel, and David Jones all have good summaries complete with a photo of the evening. I was taking an informal poll on how many blogs various people keep up with on a regular basis. We had everything from 'a few' to over a hundred. Not surprisingly it's the people who write blogs that are in the 100+ category. Shel topped the chart at 5-600.

The next day Shel presented to a packed house at The Berkeley Street Theatre. His session "How Social Media is Changing Everything You Know...and what you should be doing about it" was very well received and generated lots of discussion that continued over beer, wine, and tasty eats at the cocktail reception.

Pix of the event are here - http://www.blog.aimscanada.com/photos/10th_anniversary_event_wi/img_6144a.html

Shel started with the basic truths of social media and talked about the role of trust in communication relationships and the impact of consumer generated content. The examples he used of companies effectively participating in the conversation with their customers brought it all to life. They demonstrated how the conversation is happening whether companies are participating or not.

I'll have Shel's presentation available online in a few days. In the meantime check out the blogs from other AIMS members who attended the event:

- Michael Seaton
- Tamera Kremer
- Jen Evans
- Tom Purves
- Michelle Tampoya

Apologies if you've blogged about the event and I've missed it - please add it to the comments.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the event yesterday. It was a great turnout and made for a lively 10th Anniversary celebration. Plus I really enjoyed meeting so many people that I've spoken to on the phone and over email in the last few months. There's nothing like putting a face to a number, email, blog, website, etc.. And a special thanks to the volunteers who worked hard at making this event run smoothly!