Tony Robbins (photo credit Jim Alden(@techfrog)
I’mmmmmm back! Miss me? Guess it is kind of hard for me to be gone when I am Tweeting and Facebooking all the time. So for those of you who do not know, I just got back from The 140tc conference in Los Angeles. To sum it up, excuse my french, it was “KICK ASS!” It was possibly hands down one of the most insightful, and educational events that I have attended in a long while. It was also an amazing networking event for making great connections. Oh and it was.. fun! I thought it would be great to share some of the things from the event. I will do this in list form, because, well people like lists. So in no particular order here you go:
-Well, this is not something that happened at the event, but for the record. I was invited to speak at this event. So this post has nothing to do with that. If I spoke at the event and did not like it, I would tell you. Heck, just ask the New Media Expo folks last year. I wrote a “not so nice” blog about them , which I am too lazy to link to.
–Biz Stone Keynote: Instead of being short and sweet or with his crew, Biz gave great insight to the history of Twitter and how things happened. He spoke for 40 minutes! No, he did not take questions and was gone fast. I think he left skid marks on the floor.
–Gavin Newsom is one cool dude. His wife just had a baby and could not make it to the conference, heck, he still had the hospital band on. So he used Skype video to chat about Twitter and how the city of San Francisco uses it. Well done.
Gavin Newsom via Skype
-The comedy panel was great and was well.. HIJACKED by The Iron Sheik. Seems he decided he wanted to be part of the conference and jumped on the panel. Most of what the Sheik said started with “F***” and ended with “Hulk Hogan”. Oh, and I personally really enjoyed Loni Love and Chris Hardwick. Both Loni and Chris took the time to talk for a while. Oh and both are wicked funny and witty.
Chris Hardwick and Loni Love
-The Dr Drew panel was one of my favorites. I went in there thinking “a bunch of celebs, what are they going to say worth learning?’ Boy was I wrong. It was fascinating to learn how they use it, what they get out of it, their end goals. Dr Drew brought up how regular folks were using Twitter, then Hollywood rushes in and gets hundreds of thousands of followers and they move to top of the heap, per say. Seems that the Celebs feel the same way about Ellen as we do about them he joked. He really put them on the spot, which made this a successful panel. Also, I enjoyed how they hung out with everyone after the panels, took photos and joined the after party.
-The Tony Robbins Keynote. The guy was amazing. He did not talk long at all, only about 120+ minutes. Okay, maybe just a little too long. Yet, he was worth it. I’m not one for “inspirational and self help stuff(no doubt I need it) but he won me over. I may need to buy one of his books. Oh and the thing I liked the best. He tied his presentation into Twitter. He talked about how he uses it, why he uses it, etc.
-Oh and everyone of the celebs does not have someone post for them. They all do it themselves. None of them will allow someone to do it for them.
-Causes and Campaigns panel. Great stuff. Really insightful stuff on how Twitter is used to spread the word, rally the troops, help others and do good.
-Growing your brand panel. Lead by Guy Kawasaki with one goal.. get the Kogibbq truck to the event for lunch. The Kogibbq guy almost pulled it off if it was not for the permits. Oh and Guy, don’t call a panelist business “A Roach Coach”. Im thinking that is not a great move in branding.. I’m just saying. Oh and great insights by Brad Nelson of Starbucks
–Pee We Herman. Let the article explain it, you can read about it here.
-The oneforty store launched. Pretty cool. An appstore that offers hundreds of applications built on the Twitter API
–TidyTweet . It along with 6 other applications presented to the judges for the right to demo to the conference as a whole.(I was one of the three judges.)
–The Today Show. So here is a great example of the power of Twitter. On my panel I gave an example of the number of followers The CBS Early Show has Vs. NBC’s The Today Show. In short I gave praise to NBC. Not even an hour after I am done. I get a Direct Message from The Today Show with their phone number. 10 minutes later I am talking to New York one of the people behind the Today Show Twitter Feed. He had been watching Twitter and saw the tweets about The Today Show. How cool is that? I still am amazed about things like that. Oh and.. CBS..tweet me , you need help.
-So I know I talked about the celebs a lot, but there was more to this event. The panels on brand building, brand growing, social crm and more were great. They had the right mix of both areas to make this a good event.
-Now for some random shout outs: Well done Steve Broback! You too Jason Preston (though we never meet). Krystyl best travel buddy ever, except for the cookie incident. AdventureGirl and Phil.. thanks for feeding me and your kindness.Elizabeth Cron sorry about the teasing from Tony Robbins and myself! I want to drive the Batmobile! Brett..Brett..Brett..fine..Ill say it.. your the man. Jade you owe me an In N Out Burger, Ill take bacon from the Wynn please.
-Sometimes pictures say it all:
Sonal Shah From Scrubs. She was really sweet.
Dr Drew
Rapper Chamillionaire..I'm GangstaPee Wee Herman
The Iron Sheik taken by Chad Kabigting
