New Media Marketing Conference - will you be there?
The second annual New Media Marketing Conference is being held at Gallagher estate from 25-28 March. Quality gatherings like this don’t come around often, the speaker line-up is impressive so I suggest you secure yourself a place quickly. New Media affects everyone; responsible brand custodians and marketers need to be up to speed with the latest developments.
In a post this morning Mike mentioned that (we need more bloggers / Twitterers / podcasters / videocasters at these events.) The honest truth is that although this is a new media conference there are many entrepreneurs, bloggers, twitterers, videocasters and podcasters out there who won’t be able to attend as they’re not in a financial position to do so, I include myself in this category. I live for new media and the amazing discoveries I make on the web each day – if I was paid to research and discover new ways of doing things then I’d be as happy as the proverbial pig in sh*t. Unfortunately I’m a web entrepreneur focused on building a business and a reputation and the needs of my company and my family have to come first.
My opinion is that conference organisers in SA could to involve their target audience more – consider the basics of crowdsourcing and actively practice that before, during and after an event (Basic wiki usage could assist just about any event organiser) Bloggers, podcasters, twitterers – we’re addicted to social media – why not actively involve us?
My suggestion? Identify key new media practitioners and reward them with entry passes in exchange for building-up hype, assessing and tracking online coverage, live-blogging workshops, twittering and Facebooking key points. Post-conference they could then analyse the success / feedback. The only research required by organisers beforehand is to identify the selected ‘workers’ to ensure quality coverage and exposure.
If you read this blog you’ll know that I’m passionate about making new media concepts more accessible to the ‘everyman’. I was once a marketing general manager for a well known international company and I didn’t give the internet a second thought. But all it took was one web conference a few years back and I was hooked. New media has forever changed the way I do business, solve problems and work with clients (for the better btw!)
If you’re not attending the New Media Marketing conference let me know why – is it perhaps the conference content? A fear of not having sufficient tech knowledge? Is there a price barrier? Or do you feel that online new media concepts don’t affect the way you do business?
Filed under: New Media Marketing Conference | Tagged: event organisers, facebook, live-blogging, New Media Marketing Conference, twitter
[...] to Melissa Attree, who I think did enough to win the ticket to New Media Marketing 2008. Vincent did the same and as a result Bev is going - [...]
Congrats! See you there!
Awesome! I can’t wait
Nice one Melissa,
See you at the conference.
Congrats on getting that ticket and I hope that you enjoy it very much. I’m going to keep my eyes on Zoopy and their coverage.
And I fully agree with you, it is such a pity that the conference organizers didn’t do more to engage us bloggers, podcasters, etc because at the end of the day, who is going to attend this event? Business people from large corporations where R9k per person is a drop in the ocean in their large corporate budgets and who have heard about this “new media” thing, but have no idea what it is all about - so I guess it is a great thing to spread the word to all the tranditional business people out there.
The people who are the movers and shakers in this space like myself, yourself and anybody else who is making a significant contribution to new media in South Africa cannot pay that R9k at all. There are so many great start up companies where their core business function is new media and not even them, can really afford to attend such events. So who is going to be there really?
That is why unconferences like PodCamp, etc are so important in the new media community because they bring together and allow for engagement for those who are really making a difference within the new media community in SA and I wish that more of these are organized throughout South Africa. PodCamp Cape Town and StarCamp was last year, in April it is PodCampSA. So is anybody up for the challege?
Gosh, maybe I should of blogged this and put myself in the running for going to the new media conference, but again, I’m in Cape Town and I don’t have a company who is going to give me an all expenses paid trip to such a conference.
@Eric - thanks it’ll be good to meet you
pity you’re in CT but then you’ve got the sea and mountains n stuff so…..thanks!
@Glen - thanks so much, you make a lot of sense and yes it would have made a good post
As one of the conference organisers for this event, i understand what you are saying about the bloggers/ podcasters etc. However, we are a commercial conferecing company - our aim is to make money as well - just as all of you are mentioning about building your companies. When the concept of the conference first came around, we specifically aimed it at large corporations/ advertising agencies etc who know very little about the industry. Thats why I worked so hard to get such a fantastic line-up of speakers who would be able to impart their knowledge to those who dont know much about new media.
It is only the 2nd Annual, so hopefully next year we can work out a plan to get some bloggers/ new media buffs etc there as well! But I hope to see some of you there in any case! See you on Wednesday.
Thanks for the comment Hayley Tthe lineup is a really great one so well done on that. I do get what you’re saying I guess that deep down I was lamenting for my old corporate days when they would pay just about anything to send me places and expose me to new things
Looking forward to it and good luck!