by Susan Getgood, 2008-2009 SNCR Fellow
sgetgoodgetgood.com
http://www.getgood.com

There are more than a few web and social media conferences, workshops and seminars. Sometimes it seems like there’s a new one every day. But only one offers access to the leading minds and the leading research in social media, and that’s NewComm Forum, the annual conference of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). The hallway conversation alone is more interesting than the typical keynote at a more run of the mill conference.

This year, NewComm was held at the San Francisco Marriott from April 27-29. It was co-located on the second and third days with the Inbound Marketing Summit, which provided an interesting juxtaposition of NewComm’s social media veterans and Inbound’s newbies.

What sets NewComm apart from other social media conferences is its focus on research and the work of its fellows, and this year’s conference was no exception.

The conference opened on Monday with remarks from Jen McClure, president of SNCR, followed by a general session featuring Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose (www.donorschoose.org) and SNCR 2009 Fellow Geoff Livingston. Best brought the audience through the inspiration and history of DonorsChoose, a nonprofit organization that delivers resources to public schools, and then Livingston, Best, and the audience explored a variety of issues related to online fundraising. Best also gave all the attendees a $50 DonorsChoose gift card to apply to a project of their choice, a great way to let them experience the process.

Breakout sessions on the first day of the Forum included two that featured honorees from SNCR’s 2008 Annual Excellence in New Communications Awards. Panelists Julie Crabill (SHIFT PR), Paull Young (Converseon) and Laura Tomasetti (360 PR) shared their award-winning projects for Gazelle.com, GRACO, and Zarafina, respectively, in Blogger Relations: Beyond 101 moderated by 2008-2009 Fellow Susan Getgood, and Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions and Geoff Livingston shared Best Practices & Lessons Learned in Network Solutions online reputation management program, the 2008 award winner in the category.

Topics covered in other breakout sessions on the opening day included the organizational impact of social media, Facebook culture, investor relations, measurement, social interaction design, trends in journalism, Government 2.0 and a case study of a social media implementation within a large enterprise.
Monday concluded with a keynote by SNCR Founding Fellow Shel Holtz on Social Media and Crisis Communications, followed by a Welcome Reception sponsored by Visible Technologies.

The second day of the conference opened with the presentation of the SNCR Visionary of the Year Award to Charlene Li, who had been unable to attend the 2008 awards ceremony in November. Li then moderated a panel on Twitter with SNCR Fellows Shel Israel and Laura Fitton. Their lively discussion was followed by a presentation by Senior Fellow Alan Kelly about the Playmaker’s Periodic Table of Influence Strategies as applied to corporate Tweets.

Concurrent sessions on Tuesday focused on business to business, communities, brand ambassadors, scalability and influencer relations; the day concluded with a general session, World without Media: What Will Fill the Void, with SNCR Senior Fellows Paul Gillin and JD Lasica and a Happy Hour Tweetup hosted by DNA13.

The concluding day of NewComm Forum started off with a bang. Or really a bump, as in Things That Go Bump In the Night, the title of the first general session of the day. SNCR Senior Fellow Joseph Thornley led the highly interactive panel discussion with JD Lasica, Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang and Amy Muller from Get Satisfaction.  The Twitter back channel of #sncr tweets was broadcast on the screen throughout the session, letting the community on Twitter as well as in the room participate actively in the discussion.

The second general session, You Shall Know Us By Our Dialtone, was a fast-paced and engaging presentation by Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs and the top-ranked chrisbrogan.com on the impact of social media on business in the future. The morning concluded with a final set of concurrent breakout sessions led by SNCR Fellows on SMS, how social media supports innovation, and the effect of social media on the 2008 US Presidential election.

After lunch in the Inbound Marketing Summit Expo Hall, NewComm Forum 2009 concluded with a general session, Making Sense of our Hyper-Connected World with Andrew Haeg, 2009 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University and senior news analyst at American Public Media, followed by a NewComm tradition, the open discussion and strategy sessions, during which attendees can get one-on-one time with SNCR Fellows about their specific social media projects.
 
As previously mentioned, hallway conversation at NewComm is among the best one will ever experience, and this year, a new session option extended the conversational possibilities. Over the three days, SNCR Fellows led in-depth two-hour roundtable discussions as part of their ongoing research projects. Topics included New Business Models for News Organizations, led by Andria Carter and Tom Foremski, Social Media Metrics & Measurement, led by Connie Bensen, Social Media and Innovation, led by Steve King and Carolyn Ockels and Social Media Program Management Best Practices, led by Susanne Rockwell.

The next Society for New Communications Research event is the Fourth Annual SNCR Research Symposium and Awards Gala, to be held November 5th and 6th 2009 at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Susan Getgood is a 2008-2009 Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Susan was among the pioneers in introducing children and parents to the Internet as an expert in online safety and General Manager of Cyber Patrol, one of the world’s first Internet filters. Her 20+ years in the computer software industry included leading a global marketing team as Senior Vice President of Marketing for SurfControl, with offices in the U.S., England, Australia and seven other countries. In 2004, she founded GetGood Strategic Marketing Inc. to help bring blogs and social media into the marketing mix. Today, her firm helps public and private companies and organizations build brands and drive revenue with integrated marketing and communications strategies. She writes two blogs of her own, Marketing Roadmaps and Snapshot Chronicles, and also contributes to a number of group and client blogs.

deutsch english