Is it really possible to summarize three days in a room with >100 brilliant minds in a short post? Um, no. But the #ungeeked conference was such a phenomenal experience, I have to say something. I can’t possibly do every presenter justice here, but just hit a few highlights. There are many more that should be mentioned here, had I had the foresight and the time to blog each day of the show. If you’re not mentioned here it doesn’t mean I don’t think you rocked. Also, I’ll come back and link to these presentations once I have the links, hopefully tomorrow.
My good friends @TranslatorXD did a stellar job setting the stage with a rousing talk about user experience. “They (users) don’t want a window. They want a view.” is now being touted as one of the memorable sound bites of the conference. Translator then went on to create a truly engaging experience for all of us at the first night after party, with Pokemon-style social media trading cards of and for each attendee and a Twitter-team-based game. It goes to show you what happens when you take the filters off and free your thinking, as they have.
Joe Sorge @AJBombers was one of my very favorite presenters, with his truly unplugged, one-slide, straight-from-the-heart talk. Would have liked to have seen more of that, overall. Finn Digital’s @billfinn nailed it the same way – with notes from his Moleskine notebook and a super-smart product called BoothTag that he quietly “sold” by creating utility, not by giving a pimpy sales presentation.
I did not know of @kellyolexa before this conference, but was so glad I dragged my tired butt out of bed to see her at 7AM on day two. Fiery, funny, and just plain nice, Kelly was part of the Ford Fiesta movement. She fascinated me. I definitely recommend you check her out.
We love Chris Brogan. I love Chris Brogan. I would love to have seen Chris Brogan unplug the Powerpoint and do some improv/Q&A as was the intent of the conference.
What does one say about @jwillie? I’ve never seen anyone turn a presentation into a drinking game before; we were supposed to drink every time he said “Sharepoint”. And while it made for a hilarious and engaging show, I would also like to have walked away having learned something about Sharepoint.
I’m such a dork that one of the biggest highlights for me personally was the presentation from @bhalligan from Hubspot. It truly was like a giant mental inbound marketing-gasm. Hubspot must be a little busy, since I’ve requested a demo of their analytics package, oh a week ago now, and received no response.
But no one – NO ONE- can touch Sally Hogshead as an engaging, FASCINATING presenter. Holy. Crap. Sally has done the hard, crazy-smart work and real research (3-and-a-half years’ worth) to create content that goes way beyond the usual retreads and “check out this shit I made up about X”. Her new book, Fascinate, about seven triggers to Fascinate people, is a must-read, and I am in awe of her as a creative force. After her presentation I seriously was so mind-blown that I wanted to go lock myself in a quiet room for a week and just think. Extremely inspiring.
Honestly, the biggest benefit by far is just feeling so much closer to you, my amazing community since the conference. There’s really no substitute for spending real face time with people; I wish I could have done more of that, but Mom duties called loudly at night, and that’s job #1 for me. Nonetheless, I got to spend time with the hysterically brilliant @SaraSantiago, and get to know @raffel and @angeloakley, and finally meet @thebrandbuilder, among the many others of you who I’m lucky to know.
I have learned – am learning – so much from all of you, every single day, and I thank you for that.
One thing we all seemed to agree on was this: major, major kudos and congratulations to @thatwoman_soho for making this all happen.
What were highlights for you? Or if you weren’t there, what would you like to learn more about?
