I paid $15 to attend a 1.5 hour breakfast panel about online marketing creativity Thursday, June 25, 2009 in a small meeting room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located between Parramore and I-4.
The panel consisted of a reps from Sea World, Ripleys Believe it or Not and Orlando Fringe.
The rep from Sea World showed two videos about her park, then did something called "Powerpoint" where she flipped through pictures and numbers on a screen behind her as she read words off something behind the ledge of the podium. What I learned was, Shamu now has @Shamu and not @therealshamu on Twitter, the park invited "A-List" bloggers to the park before the ride "Manta" was open so they could, what else, ride the ride and blog about it.
Next was the dude from Ripleys Believe it or Not. He used his own computer and did more slides and numbers. Blog, twitter, blog blog SEO. And did you know Ripleys has the number one aquarium in the US?
Finally, Beth Marshall was up.
She whips past the podium in her black dramatic sheath blouse and commands the room sans Powerpoint, microphone, numbers or aquariums and belts out her intro. She then sells the SHIT out of Fringe and its own marketing strategies. She goes into depth about 2007, Facebook, Twitter, podcasting and blogging. What worked, what didn't, what they learned... and when the Fringe won an arts marketing award in 2007.
During the Q/A, she hilariously admits she doesn't even know what Doterati is, says her Facebook account is where most people go to get info about Fringe, and gives major props to Brian Feldman for running the 2009 Fringe Twitter account and me for being the Social Network Marketing Manager in 2007 and for doing the website in 2008.
The topic of "What's next" in online marketing technology is broached by a guy in the back of the room, who calls SEO, Facebook and blogging "old." The panel hims and haws, but Beth throws the question... to me! Completely unprepared, I can't remember anything (I can now: Posterous and Seesmic Desktop- Try them BOTH) so I mention one thing that has been irking me: Ning communities. That starts a mini-debate that even extends to someone in the room sending me a tweet pitting Facebook groups against Ning communities.
Unfortunately I had to leave early to catch a press screening at Enzian, so I don't know how it ended. However, I think more of these talks should and could happen, and not just in the $15 a person community, but in the free-at-Dandelion community as well.
I personally want to do a presentation for Doterati with fellow creatives who actually are in the trenches DOING the work called "We Actually Do the SH**." Doterati, when you set that up, call me.