SoFresh and SoCleanClean: Social Fresh 2010

Yesterday was awesome.  Yesterday was my first time participating in a Social Fresh conference.  Jason Keath is the founder of this event targeted at social media practitioners, leaders and managers.  Unlike many other conferences, Social Fresh is really driven by case studies and results-based presentations.  I applaud this format as many social media centered events have a tendency to get a little “fluffy” at times. *refuses to name names*

I had the honor of participating on two panels (Branding in Social Media & Corporate Blogging) with some serious rockstars in the social space.

• Mike Volpe:  VP Inbound Marketing at HubSpot
• Matt Singley: Senior Director of Social Media Strategy at M80
• Steve Parker: Managing Partner at levelwing{media}
• Kim Brater: Partner & Certified Brand Strategist at Ant Hill Marketing
• Andrew Sinkov:  Marketing Director at Evernote

Andrew, Mike and myself were on the Corporate Blogging panel.  I was just as impressed by the questions coming from the audience as I was by the serious knowledge being dropped by my fellow panelists.  Including a good discussion about whether or not comments should be allowed on a blog.  I couldn’t help but be grateful Michael Gray wasn’t there to argue with me. But I did get called out for disagreeing with Seth Godin.  I’m cool with that.

The Branding in Social Media panel was moderated extraordinarily well by Steve.  I was sitting on that panel with Matt, Kim and Andrew (yes – again – we did a back to back together. ‘Twas awesome.)  As I was nearly alone on this panel as an in-house marketer many of the questions were targeted towards the other panelists.  Again.  Impressed.  These people were throwing their smarts all over the darn place! #humbled Favorite take-away from this panel (because it resonated so well with my inner-SEO): You want something from someone, take them for a drink.  - Matt Singley.  That’s not quite a quote, but you get the point.

Another of my favorite moments from Social Fresh was listening to Peter Shankman’s keynote.  (Peter started HARO for those of you who don’t know.  Check it out. Invaluable.) First.  Dude is hilarious.  Epically so.  One of my favorite quotes: “Social Media is like a laxative.  You can’t control what gets out anymore.”

All in all I’d call this event an absolute success.  Jason did an incredible job pulling it all together.  I can only imagine what kind of work goes into starting such a large and amazing conference.  My fellow panelists were nothing short of amazing.  If I was able to contribute even a fraction of what I know they did – then I’d consider my time there a complete success.

I learned a ton.  I met some seriously talented people. I would welcome the opportunity to return to a Social Fresh event and I urge all of you to attend if you have the chance.

Tagged as: Andrew Sinkov, Jason Keath, Kim Brater, levelwing, Matt Singley, Mike Volpe, Social Fresh