xPotomac: It's Not Just for Pornographers!

One of my big goals for this year is to get out in the DC social media scene a bit more. More than what? I am ashamed to admit I have been a relative shut-in to my geographic community of virtual virtuosos. To be fair, I run my own company, am a mom and wife, and speak a fair bit so I always seem to be on the go, but I really can't make excuses anymore; not with so many talented people located so close to where I live. It just isn't right.

Then I heard about xPotomac and it seemed the perfect place to act on my goal to connect. And hallelujah, I was right.

Vanessa Fox speaks to the audience on voice search.

At this point I might point out some other reviews of this event you could read as companion pieces to my own thoughts, located here, and here, and here (and there are many others...the room was full of bloggers). 

Like any tech event worth going to, xPotomac (formerly known as Blog Potomac) witnessed its Twitter hashtag seized by pornographers early on in the day giving the attendees, myself included, more evidence that we were exactly where we were supposed to be. 

Throughout the day we heard about voice search, the growing use of images and infographics, blogging platforms, online influence, augmented reality, and the future, as well as hearing from the infamous Andrew Keen (the self-proclaimed "Antichrist of Silicon Valley") who shared a more dystopian view of technology...and who managed to piss off a large number of attendees. Keen could still be found nibbling on cheese at the after party, though, so he wasn't a speaker who insulted his audience and ran...he had the cojones strength of character to face his audience afterwards. Or he just really likes cheese. Either way, he did attend the after party with all of the other speakers who were simply amazing.

Me with the effervescent Jill Foster.

The event was chockablock with social media dynamos both on stage and in the audience and well before the end of the day I knew that what I paid to attend was worth it. The speakers were top-notch and the audience was gifted with intelligent participants who made the Q and A every bit as valuable as the presentations themselves. In short, the event rocked.

A moment captured during a break at x Potomac. Photo by Shonali Burke.

Speakers Vanessa Fox, Dino Dogan, Geoff Livingston, Patrick Ashmalla, Shonali Burke, Greg Verdino, Jen Consalvo and Andrew Keen were dynamic and thought-provoking. If the event organizers had offered a chance to sign up for the next event while we were still there, I would have without a doubt paid that day...it was that good.

My takeaways were as follows:

1. The right format makes all the difference for events: Targeted audience, intimate venue, sessions with plenty of Q&A, smart well-selected speakers, ...these all led to a phenomenal outcome. Remind me of this when I have to plan an event.
2. Closing with a thought provoking/controversial speaker keeps the conversation going: Call me crazy, but the conversation was definitely buzzing along following Keen's presentation. Maybe Keen had angered the crowd, but it didn't stop everyone from chatting; in fact, it seemed to give people more to discuss. Smart move. Also, I am completely contradicting myself from how I viewed it at the time. At the time, I wondered if the conference organizers hadn't made a mistake ending on a sour note with Keen. Ah, the joys of being human.
3. Bring on the wearables: I'm ready for Google glasses, Burberry's synced clothing, and everything else. Bring it!

Want more information about xPotomac? Check out the website or follow the @xPotomac on Twitter or you can see the Flickr photos. The new hashtag we used (following the pornographers' siege) was #xpotomac13, if you want to play detective and try to find some of the tweets from that day.

Were you there? Followed along by Twitter? What were your takeaways?

Monuments By Moonlight and the Magic of Shashi

It is impossible to live in DC, be involved in social media, and not know of Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions. Shashi is somewhat of a legend in the social media arena (did you see Network Solutions make a cameo in The Social Network movie about Facebook?), but also one of the nicest, most down-to-earth individuals you will ever meet.

There is a little bit of magic that goes along with Shashi. He is always smiling, always thinking of something brilliant, and so things seems to go into a fuzzy sort of happy-zone when he's around. That's why I'm especially excited about this Friday.

Meet Shashi - Connected and Helpful!

The Washington Business Journal and Network Solutions are hosting the 2nd Annual Grow Smart Biz Conference in Washington, DC on Friday!

I live in the association/non-profit space, an industry known for trying to maximize what organizations get for their dollars, and because of that I'm looking forward to the smart conversation I'll hear about growth on a budget and using technology to its most efficient degree during the Conference. In fact, there is an entire track devoted to Small Business, Government, and Nonprofits...but I'm banking on the amazing speakers and attendees to really make the difference. I've heard fabulous things about last year's meeting, so I'm extremely excited to attend this year's!

Also, the Happy Hour the night before is shaping up to be quite the event on its own, featuring a DC Monument Tour by Moonlight and giveaways...(I even read mention of an optional stop at the Dandelion Patch, one of the conference speakers' businesses. (I need to order 25 fabulous invitations to a holiday party I'm throwing for family...I think this might be the place I use for invitations. We shall see!)

I'm going to broadcast my weekly Social Media Sweet Spot web show from the meeting, so stay tuned for more news and I hope to see all of you there on Friday!

Social Media Events I’m Interested In (Mostly in DC Area - some elsewhere)

2nd Tuesdays Tech ‘tails and Networking Salon  May 11, 5:30pm at Gua Rapo, Arlington, dc The Capital Cabal presents 2nd Tuesday, a special networking event for all D.C. area techies, webbies, quasi-webbies, and smart business people who appreciate a smart crowd. <--probably going to this!

Mak­ing Your Media Matter May 12 Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Mak­ing Your Media Mat­ter is a con­fer­ence for estab­lished and aspir­ing film­mak­ers, non­profit com­mu­ni­ca­tions lead­ers, fun­ders and stu­dents look­ing to learn and share cutting-edge prac­tices for mak­ing their media matter.

Win­ning Media Strategies May 20–22 Wash­ing­ton, D.C. BIA/Kelsey’s annual con­fer­ence focused on the lat­est devel­op­ments and trends for enhanc­ing the tra­di­tional media busi­ness and cre­at­ing the pro­gres­sive change tele­vi­sion, radio, cable and news­pa­per com­pa­nies must make to ensure long-term success.

Con­fer­ence on Weblogs and Social Media May 23–26 Wash­ing­ton, D.C. The 4th Inter­na­tional Con­fer­ence on Weblogs and Social Media brings together researchers from dis­parate dis­ci­plines to increase our under­stand­ing of social media in all its incar­na­tions. This event will be held in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., where gov­ern­ment inno­va­tors are exper­i­ment­ing with the use of social media to increase trans­parency and bet­ter engage with the citizenry.

Gov 2.0 Expo May 25–27 Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Gov­ern­ment 2.0 is about empow­er­ing gov­ern­ment employ­ees to serve cit­i­zens bet­ter and open­ing up the gov­ern­ment into a plat­form that enables cit­i­zens to bet­ter help their communities.

TWTRCON NY June 14 New York TWTRCON NY is a one-day con­fer­ence focused entirely on the busi­ness use of Twit­ter where you’ll see case stud­ies and learn best prac­tices from lead­ing orga­ni­za­tions that are using the real-time Web to deliver bottom-line results.

Gnomedex Aug. 19–21 Seat­tle Gnomedex is a top gath­er­ing of geeks, open source pio­neers and cool kids.

Inbound Mar­ket­ing Sum­mit — Boston Oct. 6–7 Boston Chris Bro­gan presents the third in a series of social influ­ence mar­ket­ing con­fer­ences for 2010.

Online News Association Oct. 28–30 Wash­ing­ton, D.C. The 10th annual gath­er­ing of new media movers and shak­ers, jour­nal­ists and online news managers.

LeWeb Dec. Paris LeWeb is the top Inter­net event in Europe, with 2,400 par­tic­i­pants from 50 coun­tries attend­ing in 2009. No date yet for the 2010 event.

More Event Hype: Have You Signed Up For My Talk Yet?

Next Thursday (Dec. 10) I am joining forces with smart-guy Sean Bordner to talk about "Private Social Networks vs Publicly Available Tools" at the Grand Hyatt Washington. 

I'm pretty excited about this presentation topic because it is a question a lot of association people ask me and one that I faced previously in my career. How does one know if it is enough to have a presence on Facebook and interact with members from there as opposed to using a private network built to work with a database?

Not every association has the same goals or needs. We'll get to talk about that during the session (I'll be giving examples of associations who have successfully stayed with a public social networking tool) and it should be a good time.

The event is free, but you need to register to attend. It starts at 8 a.m. and runs until 11 a.m.

If you have any suggestions about association examples I should use or if you have any questions about the event, please let me know by commenting here or emailing me at klitalien [at] delcor [dot] com.

Here's what we're scheduled to go over:

• How are associations utilizing publicly available tools?
• What is the process to follow when making the decision?
• What should you look for in a public or private solution?
• Can both options peacefully coexist within the same organization?
• How do you measure ROI for a community?
• How can you make sure that whatever you choose integrates with your overall strategy?

Hope to see you there!