Church of the Customer Blog
« SWOMfest '08 highlights | Main | Whole Foods' next niche? »
November 03, 2008
SWOMfest '08 highlights
SWOMfest '08 is now for the history books. A thousand thanks to everyone who attended our first-annual conference and party for the Society for Word of Mouth.
Some conference highlights:
Curtis Harris of Fellowship Technologies rocked a SWOMfest '08 tattoo.
Owen Mack of coBRANDIT won best costume at our 80's pre-conference party for dressing up as Pee Wee Herman. He even wore killer shoes like the ones Paul Reubens used to dance to "Tequila" in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." Thanks to Young & Free Texas for sponsoring the party. More party photos here.
The Thriller dancers kicked off the conference. They were an ad-hoc, amateur troupe that met for the first time early on the morning of our event. They were among the 881 Austinites who'd recently been part of Thrill the World, the world record-breaking performance of everyday people around the world doing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance simultaneously. Neal Stewart from Flying Dog captured the video.
The Texas Social Breakfast, sponsored by Dell, took Web 2.0 aspects like tagging, favoriting and pieces of flair, and applied them to the analog model of in-person networking, making conversation starting points easier.
Blue Avocado, an Austin start-up that produces stylish recyclable grocery bags, launched at SWOMfest. The company provided one of their cool products as the conference bag.
Recorded videos of the speakers are here. Thanks to Owen Mack at coBRANDIT for broadcasting the conference live on his cell-enabled camera.
Some reviews:
- Spike from Brains on Fire: "A whiz-bang event filled with great speakers -– and even more importantly –- great interaction."
- Virginia Miracle of Ogilvy PR: "SWOMfest was a blast from the 80’s themed pre-party to Thriller dance recreation kickoff to the final case workshop."
- Neal Stewart of Flying Dog Brewery: "SWOMfest was different than any other marketing conference I’ve attended."
- Geoff Knox of Dell: "SWOMfest turned out to be not just a refreshingly different conference but an event that provided some great insights and an opportunity to rub elbows and socialize with people from a wide range of locations and industries."
- Jay Ehret from the Marketing Spot has "4 Hot Ideas from SWOMfest" on how to create word of mouth for small businesses.
- Rob Williams recorded his thoughts from Haley Rushing's talk about "finding your purpose."
- Connie Reece live-Plurked the event.
Lots of Tweeting during and after the conference. You can read all tweets here. More conference photos are here.
What we learned:
- Food makes a huge difference in the overall recommendability of a conference. We knew that prior to SWOMfest but we confirmed it. If you pay $695+ to attend a conference and the organizers feed you a box lunch, you're getting ripped off. Our caterer, 2 Dine 4, prepared an outstanding Texas-themed breakfast and lunch. Thanks, Gina and crew!
- A conference is a performance, and the venue sets the mood. We held SWOMfest at the brand-new Long Center for the Performing Arts, which came equipped with great acoustics, sound, projector and facilities. That gave it a huge advantage over hotel ballrooms, which can be pretentious and staid. That said, seeing the video of the Thriller dancers showed us how much more we needed to decorate the stage around our theme.
- Liberal breaks are a must-have. We scheduled several 30-minute breaks and a long lunch with no program or speakers. That was a hit with attendees, who said they loved having time to meet and chat with others without being rushed.
- When you don't get what you think is reasonably possible, go to the top. After the Long Center first said installing wi-fi was impossible, then prohibitively expensive, we turned to Cliff Redd, the center's executive director. With his help, we negotiated a deal by which we'd pay $500 to have a wi-fi network installed, which worked beautifully. Our thanks to everyone at the Long who worked hard on our behalf, including Gabrielle, Jim, Jeff, Laura and, of course, Cliff Redd. Get well, Cliff!
Now it's on to planning for the '09 conference.
Other blogs that reference SWOMfest '08 highlights:
Top-notch conference. Going on my must-attend list next year too. Kudos to all those who worked behind the scenes.
Best business conference EVER!
This really was a great case study in the devil - and the magic - being in the details. Things don't have to be perfect, but if they are talkworthy, you can really grease the skids of offline social networking.
Wish I could have been there!
Oh no! It's Pee Wee - quick hide the kids!
