Like Minds? Love Minds!
Rokk Media had the priviledge of being one of the sponsors for the inaugural Like Minds conference yesterday (16 October 2009).
With a firm focus on socal media and the (apparently) thorny topic of whether it's possible to gauge a return on investment - what is clear is that the event was a resounding success, and for Rokk Media an undoubted return on investment was achieved on all levels!The brainchild of Scott Gould (@ScottGould), ably assisted by the force of nature that is Drew Ellis (@DrewEllis) - Like Minds is set to be a regular conference bringing together like minded thinkers on a wide range of interests and topics.Like Minds 'v1' was hosted at the impresive Exeter Conference Centre - a notable venue that I had not been to before, but would heartily recommend. In a way hosting it in Exeter - not particularly renowned as a hot-bed for anything, underlined the true global reach and 'hyper-local' realities that Social Networking can deliver. An impromptu greeting from Twitter Uber-God Stephen Fry (@StephenFry) sent a 'wooh' from the audience as it flashed up on the 'Twitter Wall' and further illustrated the reach and impact the event was having.The key speakers - Trey Pennington (@treypennington), Oliver Blanchard (@TheBrandBuilder), Daren Forsyth (@darenBBC) and Maz Nadjm (@Mazi) were universally excellent, and the idea of closing their sets with a round-table Q&A comprising three additional speakers was inspired and very entertaining.Over two hundred filled the room on the day with more than 500 watching a live A/V stream - and thousands twittering with the #LikeMinds hashtag. Given that promotion was purely and exclusively via social media it is a further testament to the power of the medium and of itself answered heartily whether ROI is achievable by investing in social media marketing.For those of you that were unable to attend you can view recorded highlights from the Like Minds website (http://alikeminds.org).The next conference is planned for February 2010 with further details to be released. I am certain it will be an even greater success and sincerely look forward to Rokk Media supporting it in any way we can.
