BlogPotomac Exceeds Expectations
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 Josh Hallet 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).
