On Friday, BlogPotomac delivered the greater Washington region’s first hard core social media marketing event. Our intent was simple: Unify DC’s social media marketing community and provide an advanced event to push the envelope on content so our conversation was beyond 101 tactics (Below image by Co-Emcee Josh Hallet).
While the event was sold out and we had a full capacity crowd, it was the actual content that mattered. Based on the reactions, you would have to say BlogPotomac delivered a smashing hit. Consider the following:
The day started strong with Dell Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca’s Keynote and continued through an A-List series of speakers. Dan Beyers, Maggie Fox and Jeremy Pepper followed Lionel in the morning.
As the day progressed, the content moved from very good to great with more vigorous participation from the crowd. Frank Gruber, KD Paine and Kami Huyse closed out with the final sessions (BlogPotomac Speaker Dinner image by Shashi Bellamkonda features Kami Huyse and our very own Larissa Fair). All three of these were cited as the best sessions in informal feedback from the audience.
Thank you to all of our speakers and co-emcee Josh Hallett for taking the time to do this. None of them were paid, and all of them spoke in the spirit of service. I would also like to thank co-chair Debbie Weil and Viget Labs for all of their outstanding work and support. BlogPotomac would not have happened without them.
Most importantly, thank you to all of our attendees. From bloggers like Aaron Brazell, Jimmy Gardner, Shana Glickfield and Jared Goralnick to organizations — including representatives from the Consumer Electronics Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, Goodwill Industries, Network Solutions and PNC Bank — you made BlogPotomac a true discussion.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the event were the many positive comments from local social media wonks and corporate PR pros alike. Even though the WiFi sucked, people really enjoyed the cross-mix of communicators, and participated in some fantastic networking (photo of Ogilvy PR’s Rohit Bhargarva and PRSA National Capital Chapter President Heathere Keenan by Shashi Bellamkonda features Ogilvy).
There is much more to be said, but it should probably be delivered by others. In addition to the fantastic content being created by the attendees, we will have user feedback survey up on the BlogPotomac page in the next couple of days. When we close the books on BlogPotomac 2008, profits will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (image by Li Evans shows the crowd during Frank Gruber’s session).
As owner and financier of BlogPotomac, I promise that BlogPotomac 2009 (scheduled for June 12 at the State Theater) will be even better. The market will evolve, and many more professionals will be social media marketing savvy. BlogPotomac will evolve with them as a standing commitment to the Greater Washington Community to create a place where our best and most brilliant minds can convene once a year for a fantastic discussion about social media (below image by Hyku features me opening BlogPotomac 2008).
Wish I could have been there. Glad it turned out well!
Geoff, I cannot say enough good things about Blog Potomac. Great speakers, great (and relevant) content, amazing level of interaction, but most of all really wonderful people and energy in the room. Can’t wait for Blog Potomac part deux! Great Job, thanks to you, your fantastic staff and everyone involved.
The event went incredibly well, Geoff! It was great to see all the Livingston staff, too :-). You put on a rockin’ conference. By now you’ve probably seen my uber positive writeup–and I appreciate your link.
It was awesome. had a fantastic time and met loads of cool people. So Psyched for next year – save me a seat!
Crap I hated to miss this as I heard plenty of buzz about it beforehand, and even more now from people that attended. Congrats to Geoff and Debbie for pulling off what sounds like a smashing success!
Great panels, great people, great swag… What else is there? Oh, great blog! ;)
Looking forward to the second Friday in June of 2009!
Great work, Geoff, Larissa, Debbie and everyone. I had high expectations and they were surpassed. In a way, having the wifi suck made me look up from my laptop and soak more goodness up.
If folks want to check out some visual notes I made, here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnygoldstein/sets/72157605608049733/
And here are some audio interviews:
http://www.jonnygoldstein.com/2008/06/13/interviews-from-blog-potomac/
Hey Geoff and Debbie, thanks both for all your hard work. It was a pleasure to be a part of it – great crowd and wonderful company!
Justin, Lynn, Jared, Maddie, Shana, Johnny and Maggie: Thanks so much for participating in this year’s edition.
Mack: Somehow I think you’ll be here next year.
Geoff and team –
I’m still in that ‘post BlogPotomac wow zone’. It was great.
There were many levels of appeal yet two points stood out: first, the depth of interaction between speakers and audience. Q&A was emphasized heartily – thx for cultivating that.
And next, the diversity of attendees struck me. Small business, marketing, government, mainstream press all found their way to BlogPotomac’s conversation.
And to add to the media recaps, for kicks here’s an audio Utterz interview with Helen Mosher on social media metrics & KD’s points:
http://jillfoster.name/2008/06/social-media-in-dc-10/
Thanks again for investing your mojo!
Great job with the organizing, Geoff. Most impressed by you being the man on the job, no matter what the task (thanks for securing the power strips to the floors ;^) ). Character over image. Your parent’s raised you well.
Thanks for the great write-up. I loved every minute of BlogPotomac and was truly honored to be a part of it. Best part for me was seeing everyone “walk the talk” – audio and video interviewing of each other, non-stop Twittering, photos uploaded to Flickr — cool! Thanks for including the links to all the AGC (attendee generated content). Onward!
Geoff, I love the “Rock Star” picture of you facing the audience! I was at the Business Marketing Association, met the Chief Blogger of Eastman Kodak, and other B2B luminaries. Great conference. But I wish I could have been with ya’ll too!
Best,
JZ