So I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10, and I really should be getting ready for bed so that I can get a good night’s sleep, but I’m just SO jazzed about today’s event that I have to crank this post out now. Highlight Midwest was just too awesome for words!
The un-conference portion of the event was held during the day at Kansas City’s Record Bar. I have to say, I was skeptical at first about it as a venue for a conference like this. But I’d never been to a barcamp-style meetup before, so I also wasn’t really sure what to expect. After having experienced it though, I can now say that I really like the format and will be looking for similar events like it in the future.
The morning began with coffee, bagels, and schmoozing. After about half an hour of chit-chat, the presentations began. One of the kickoff presentations was by Jon Crawford of StoreEnvy, which is an application that allows you to build a social-oriented, customizable online store for free. (And their business cards are freaking ADORABLE. They look like little clothing hangtags, with a barcode and everything. Genius!)
Next, Jenn and I saw Shashank Date of Nurture, which is a lead-nurturing platform that allows customers to set up automated e-mail campaigns, rank contacts, and track who’s opening which e-mails, following links, and exploring these sites.
Michael Bailey‘s presentation on MobaTalk was the one we went to next. MobaTalk is an awesome new way to connect via Twitter with videos. Upload your video to MobaTalk, then enter your text and a tag, and the video link is sent directly through your Twitter account to your followers. They can also subscribe to your stream, or watch it directly in iTunes or Google Reader.
Next, we saw Nathan T. Wright and Hillary Brown of Lava Row talk about social media businesses in the midwest. Owning a similar business ourselves, we already knew a lot about what they were saying, but it was interesting to hear another perspective on the subject, and heartening to see a company in our region with bright people building a successful business and fostering an active tech, creative, and social media community in Des Moines.
At this point, we broke for lunch. Being a vegan, I have to be careful when I eat out, so I was a little worried about the lunch aspect, but I have to hand it to the Record Bar; they did a great job of providing delicious foods for everyone, and the woman working there knew exactly which foods were and weren’t okay for me to have. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal of hummus and pita, salad with a really tasty vinaigrette, and vegetable minestrone.
After lunch, Jenn and I separated and went to different presentations. I sat in on Scott Kahler and Doug Sparling‘s presentation, about utilizing Ruby on Rails to run their comic syndication site, GoComics. It seems they’re also developing a new iPhone app that will allow users to read comics right on their phone or iTouch. Being a huge comic nerd and an iPhone user, this excited me to no end. (One of the comics, Halo and Sprocket, is a favorite indy comic of mine, so I did a little seated chair dance when I saw that they’re offering it for mobile use. Squee!)
Jenn, meanwhile, sat in on Adam Coomes‘ presentation on Social Radar, an amazing new product that lets you monitor social media and the web for specific terms in real time, and easily generate reports and graphics based on the data they return. It seems like it will be a truly invaluable tool for companies and social media consultants who are engaged in brand monitoring.
After that was my turn to present. My talk was over non-profit organizations and how they can harness the power of social media to spread their messages and gain membership and donations. I really feel like I got a good response, so thanks to everyone who came to see me speak!
Next up, Jenn and I checked out Derek Maune, who did a presentation on a new platform called Quillpill, which is a microfiction tool that lets users write poems, short stories, journals, notes, and even full-length books in increments of 140 characters, similar to the character limitation on Twitter. It looks really interesting, and I’m eager to try it out. Maybe this year I can finally find the time to participate in NaNoWriMo. Might be easier in chunks of 140 characters at a time!
Last but not least, I watched Mike Templeton‘s presentation on microblogging and his site, Microblink, which is a microblogging platform/application review site and news aggregator. Definitely a great tool for avid Twitter fans like me who want to keep up on the latest trends within the microsphere.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear all the presentations throughout the day, so be sure to check out the Who? page on the Highlight Midwest site for a list of all the other great presenters and their contact info.
After the presentations, we heard a fantastic set by The Threes, one of Kansas City’s own local rock bands, and then an equally awesome set by The Nadas, who are based in Des Moines.
The evening presentation, hosted by the Kauffman Foundation at their conference center, brought everyone together again for some schmoozing and boozing, and then we heard presenters from Kansas City, Omaha, and Des Moines talk about what is going on in each of their hometowns in regard to the social media movement. The evening ended with a panel discussion and Q&A from some of the region’s best and brightest.
All in all, the whole day was a fantastic experience. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have been a part of this event, and to have met all these wonderful people and heard their stories. It was a truly inspiring day, if not completely exhausting, and I’m already looking forward to our next big regional get together.
Thanks again to everyone who helped plan, organize, and facilitate Highlight Midwest. You made it a huge success!
(Sidenote: I know this post is boring with just text, and I PROMISE I will upload photos tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully I’ll also have video of my presentation at that time, as well!)
