Wednesday, November 29, 2006
MPlanet: PreConference Social Networking Immersion Experience
- nifty green and gray messenger-style conference bags
- free sushi
- liquor drinks at the open bar (no drink tickets required)
- acrobats on pogo stick stilts (we're at Disney's Dolphin hotel)
- a bar carved from melting ice
- free sushi
Advanced Email Marketing by Jim Sterne
Boom (Marketing to baby-boomer women) by Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn
Ok now that the glitz and glamor is out of the way here's who I talked with the most tonight.
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
First let me give you the Fleishman-Hillard Inc. rundown. These are the folks who put this conference together.
Rachelle J. Lacroix: blogger relations manager who contacted Jason in the first place. She's a conference blogger's best friend.
Tim Powers: Vice President. He listened patiently while I elaborated on how I like to have long conversational interviews and that MarketingShift's about popping-fresh scoops. We also spoke briefly about his early tech PR work in the Bay area in '94.
Rich Jernstedt, CMO, Executive VP, Senior Partner. He loaded me down with research and gave me the Boom hardback book co-written by Carol Orsborn, PhD who newly joined the company.
If the speakers are as rich and informative as the networking event we should have a pretty good conference on our hands here - nice work so far folks.
Maritz
I spoke at length with lanky Scott Bush, CMO, Maritz and first cousin of George W. Bush. He gave me a sneak preview of the presentation he's giving on Friday - he says it's all new material so if you've seen him present before you will be sure to learn something new.
If memory serves he'll be digging in on customer experience and employee engagement - how the transparency of the web makes the 4 p's of marketing obsolete. But for Fortune 1000s. I'll be interviewing him for MShift before long.
ATT U-Verse
ATT has a new box for delivering IP TV called the u-verse. And they had a parked ice cream truck in the exhibit hall to give away ice cream and tell people about their San Antonio roll out.
When they found out I was press they referred me to the San Antonio tech blogger who tested their product, turned into an evangelist for it and has become such an authority on their product that he's hired to speak at conferences.
iCentera
My conversation with iCentera started when I asked Craig M. Dembeck, SVP about their slogan - portals for mortals. All portals are for mortals obviously, so after we'd cleared that up I learned that what they mean is portals that anyone can build without being skilled in web design and development.
They have an impressive roster of clients and 7 different AppExchange tie ins. I tried to grill Craig on why there was no social networking but they had just two days before added a forum-esque functionality along with internal emails and chatting.
A nifty overall product run by people smart enough to build in the AppExchange environment.
What's Next
For me what's next is bed because I've got to stay fresh all the way to the Keynote Address by Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO of IBm-fingM at 6:30.
Posted By Jason Dowdell at 11:13 PM
Permanent Link: MPlanet: PreConference Social Networking Immersion Experience
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