Jason Blais: From the Recruiting Front Lines

…SOCIAL MEDIA HAS LANDED IN MAINE!… And it was ushered in by the who’s who of the industry along with a couple hundred people hoping to catch a glimpse of the new being, and, if possible, learn more about it.

Hosted at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus, SocialMediaFTW was a smashing success, selling out in advance, and packing the breakout sessions as people flocked to this conference to figure out how their business could benefit from social media engagement.  SocialMediaFTW (or #ftw09 the official twitter hashtag) was the brain child of Rich Brooks, Chrystie Corns, and Jaica Kinsman- three early adopters of social media in Maine, and all with tremendous professional experience.

I was called by Rich a couple months back, and asked to present a session on Using LinkedIn for Business.  I had a terrific time, and was glad to see a packed room.  In fact, I believe nearly all of the 12 different breakout sessions were at or near capacity. A true testament to the interest and engagement created by this new media.

Here are some of the quick thoughts I came away with from this event:

• 45 minutes per session wasn’t enough time to teach or learn about any single subject area.
• The variety of programs offered was excellent and covered a truly thorough view of social media for business.
• I LOVE presenting live at conferences much more than presenting via webinars!
• While the content helped build interest, some presenters were clearly trying only to generate leads for their businesses.
• Just because someone’s a genius in their field, they don’t automatically qualify as a great presenter.
• Of the presentations I saw, there was a good mix of basic and mid level education going on. (hard to do high level in this time frame with such a varied audience)
• There truly was something for everyone.
• The networking time was effective, and a great way to actually meet some of those folks I only knew through social networks!

In closing, I left the conference very excited and optimistic about the growing engagement of these new media outlets across all types of businesses here in Maine.  From my experience, the internet and these types of platforms are actually much more relevant and important in states where the population is spread out.  Maine, and NH and VT for that matter, are all laggard adopters of new technologies and trends, so I’m glad to see we’re finally jumping on to this ship, so we can all rise with the tide.
Want more on the conference?  Click here for the dialogue regarding #ftw09 on Twitter.