Christopher S. Penn : Awaken Your Superhero » Conferences

Performance Based Social Media at Social Fresh East

Christopher S Penn — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:12:35 +0000

I have the pleasure of speaking to the Social Fresh East crowd today. For those interested, here’s the slides that I’m speaking about.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Beyond the Toolbox

Christopher S Penn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:30:21 +0000

This morning I had the pleasure of keynoting the University of Toledo’s Internet Marketing Conference. Here’s what we talked about:

My thanks go to Dr. Iryna Pentina and the entire UoT staff for having me be a part of a fantastic event! Stay tuned to the UoT website as they may be posting video from the event in the future.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Where are the advanced conferences?

Christopher S Penn — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:04:28 +0000

One of the questions that crops up all the time in social media and new media events is, where are the advanced conferences? Where are the events tailored to the veteran practitioners, the folks who have been doing it forever and are already good at it, beyond the basics? The answer may surprise you: there aren’t any.

Why?

The answer comes back to teaching and learning, and how teaching evolves throughout your educational process. At the most basic levels of learning, a one-size-fits-all methodical approach works extremely well. Memorize this multiplication table. Learn the periodic table. Execute this set of procedures. Follow this recipe to make a cake. Move your hands like this and your feet like this.

After a certain point, however, you achieve proficiency in the basics. You know how to Tweet. You know how to post items on Facebook. You’ve sat through the same “How to build your brand” session at every conference. This is the point where most conferences stop, and understandably so. At this point in your education, you need to start experimenting.

Experimentation, testing, breaking things and seeing the results – this is the essence of more advanced education. There isn’t a single conference in the world that can give you this experience. You have to go out and do it. Test things, play around, vary stuff, until you find what works and what doesn’t work for you. The problem is, no one can teach you this in a conference session.

At this point, you need to be working with a mentor, a guide, someone who has gone before you and has made their own mistakes and learned from them. You might get a few ideas about new things to test or new tools to experiment with at a conference, but there is no substitution for the journeyman’s path at this point in your education. It’s up to your mentor to give you more advanced cases to learn the intricacies of your craft. For example, they might suggest building different kinds of Facebook pages to see which works better for you, a brand page or an organization page.

Once you’ve gained proficiency, once you’ve gained a certain degree of mastery, then conferences and events really become useless. At the most advanced levels, you and your teachers are simply explorers on the path together, sharing discoveries, learning and teaching each other. You’ve transcended the basics, transcended the need to have someone give you different scenarios to test, transcended the need for going to conferences entirely unless you’re there for the social aspect or to teach as a presenter.

Can you, as a veteran practitioner, still get value out of conferences? Absolutely, but it’s value you have to create for yourself. Here’s an unpleasant truth: most conference organizers in the social media space aren’t veteran practitioners of social media themselves, so they have no idea what would be of benefit to you. Find other veteran practitioners and go grab lunch or coffee while you trade ideas and your own research, so that you can get fellow explorers’ input on what you’re doing. Find the local coffee shop near the venue or the diner or other places where you can create meetings and brainstorming sessions for yourself.

If you’re a conference organizer, try to create as many open spaces as possible such as lounges and alcoves with open seating so that veterans can get together outside of sessions. One of my favorite facilities in this regard is the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, where we hold PodCamp Boston 6. There are tons of little alcoves that are wired up with displays and pervasive Wi-Fi, so veterans can gather in impromptu meetings to share and discuss, some of which are out of line of sight to ensure a little more privacy.

The bottom line is this: once you no longer need to sit in conference sessions about the basics, the rest of your journey is largely your responsibility. Find mentors, find fellow explorers, and see what you can create together, but understand that there is not and likely never will be a conference for you.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Social+Email Integration from Social Fresh Charlotte

Christopher S Penn — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:34:08 +0000

For those who weren’t able to attend, here’s what I shared at my opening keynote at Social Fresh Charlotte:

Advanced Email+Social Integration

View more presentations from Christopher Penn

Thanks to all who said some very nice things about the talk and especially to Jason Keath for inviting me to kick off the conference.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Is this conference worth it?

Christopher S Penn — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:21:33 +0000

One of the most common questions asked of conference organizers goes something like this:

“How do I justify this conference? Why should I attend it?”

This was asked of me recently about PodCamp Boston:

The short answer is: there is no justification. None. A conference by itself is just a gathering of people, and while it would be amazing to deliver everything to everyone, the reality is that a conference is more like a mirror than anything else. What do I mean?

There’s a story Stephen K. Hayes tells that in the innermost shrine of the Togakure village temple, there’s a source of enlightenment and power like no other. Every year, the priests of the temple conduct exotic rituals to honor this holy power, and aspirants come from around the world to catch a glimpse at it. When the pilgrims are all assembled before it, the doors are opened and the power is revealed: a simple round mirror, reflecting that we are our own sources of power.

The question about conference justification is the wrong one. It’s too vague. The better question is, do you have a burning question you need answers to, and if you do, does this event move you closer to answering it or further away? If you don’t have a burning question, the blunt and honest truth is that you should expect to get nothing out of a conference or any other event. On the other hand, once you have a burning question you need an answer to, figuring out whether the speakers and attendees of an event are likely to help you move forward towards an answer will be relatively straightforward.

What burning questions are you currently seeking answers to at conferences?

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

How to present with a mind map

Christopher S Penn — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:49:56 +0000

One of my favorite things to do at live conferences is present using a mind map instead of a deck of slides. Why? I love being able to show the audience the very big picture from the start, giving them a sense of perspective and scale (i.e. this is a very, very big topic), as well as giving them a sense of how things are related, something that a regular slide deck can’t do. With today’s mind mapping software, you can then dump your “slides” as a single PDF and provide it in advance (since it gets away from death by bullet point) as a download and after the event.

As a power tip for presenters, mind maps are also a lot harder for competitors in your space to make use of. Typical presentations are crammed full of language and data that, in addition to being boring most of the time, are also very easy to copy. Mind maps are a lot more brief by design, which means that someone else will have a harder time performing your exact presentation verbatim without studying you extensively.

Mind maps aren’t a panacea, of course, for presenting. There are downsides! They inherently require a lot more laptop driving, so you’ll spend more time at the machine than you do with a slide deck. If you’re the sort of presenter who runs around the stage a lot, using a mind map can potentially tie you down. They’re incompatible with virtually every clicker/remote out there, so be prepared to bring your own mouse. If you don’t have a trackpad or pointing device that supports full two dimensional movement, it can be awkward and slower than a slide deck. Finally, some mind mapping software does not support inline media, which is an absolute must for presenting, so be aware of that before you present.

How do you present with one? First, start with a mind map. That may seem obvious, but for presenters used to discrete slides of self contained information, mind mapping can be a stretch. Mind maps are not just your slide bullets in a different visual format; maps also encourage you to set up and display connections among related ideas. If you’re new to what makes great mind maps, I definitely recommend learning about them and trying them out first before going in front of a crowd.

Make sure your mind mapping software allows you to present full screen, and practice in advance every aspect of the presentation a few times, including moving around the map. You’ll find that it will take some practice and rearranging of your map for optimal placement on-screen. I like to present in clusters – that is, showcase an entire section of the tree and drill down into it, then zoom back out and head into a next main branch. That way, there’s a sequence of ideas that are all woven together.

One cautionary note: don’t drill down to the individual node levels if you can avoid it, or you’ll create a lot of dead time as you navigate the map. Present a cluster, highlight one or two pieces of media in it, then spend the rest of the time presenting and talking about your content rather than driving the map.

Should you present with a mind map? That’s up to you, but give it a try and see if your audience responds. Certainly, it’s different than what most other presenters are going to be doing on stage, so if you’re looking to set yourself apart, it’s worth trying out.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

How to Market Your Podcast

Christopher S Penn — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:45:13 +0000

For those folks attending PodCamp NH 2011, this is a mindmap of the presentation, How to Market Your Podcast.

If you’d like to download a high resolution, printable PDF, click here.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

How to market your WordPress blog

Christopher S Penn — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:21:28 +0000

I’m delighted and excited to share some of my ideas, strategies, tips, tools, and methods for marketing your WordPress blog at Boston’s WordCamp event. As I anticipate a fair number of people and A/V conditions that are always less optimal than we’d like, I’m providing the mindmap for the session in advance here, so that if you’re attending (or even if you’re just curious), you can follow along on your own device and not have to rely on squinting at the screen.

Click the image for larger versions.

Would you like a high resolution version you can download and print out? Click here for the high-res PDF.

One cautionary note: without hearing the presentation that goes with the map, there’s a good chance some stuff won’t make sense. If you’d like to hear the full presentation, make sure you request the next marketing conference you attend to book me to speak and ask for this presentation to be a session at the event.

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Informer vs. performer

Christopher S Penn — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:54:57 +0000

Ever look on a conference session list and see a presenter listed whose talk you’ve seen before? I certainly have, and depending on who it is, I’ll either go for a “repeat” session or skip them and see someone else. What makes the difference? Whether the presenter is an informer or performer.

I’ve talked to some presenters who believe that constantly changing your presentations is bad, the sign of an inexperienced presenter. If the goal is performance in the sense of performance art, then they are absolutely right. The goal is for the show to be as smooth, as flawless as possible. These folks have their shows timed perfectly, and it’s an art to watch and enjoy. Tom Hopkins is a great example of the performer as speaker – he can recite his presentations literally word for word from his books, which is no small accomplishment since his books are hundreds of pages long. That said, if you as a member of the audience got the message the first time, chances are you don’t need to see the show again unless you enjoy it for the performance that it is. Every subsequent performance will be a literal re-run.

I’ve talked to some presenters who believe that every speaking opportunity should be unique, with content tailored to what the audience is there to learn. If the goal is education, teaching, and sharing of knowledge, then they are absolutely right. The goal is for the education to be as thorough and as current as possible. The informer’s presentations will be rough around the edges. There will be stumbles as the presenter sees data they just slotted in the night before from the latest research study, or odd pauses as ideas hit them literally right on stage. There’s less polish, but you can go see the teacher at every single conference they’re at and get new ideas, new information, new perspectives, and new stuff to test.

Which is better? It depends on what you value. I value learning first and foremost at conferences. I’ve been in some sessions in which the presenter was awful but the data was valuable, and I was there principally to learn, so I got what I came for. I’ve been in some sessions in which the presenter was marvelous and I was incredibly entertained. That said, I walked away with nothing new from the presenter, so I didn’t get what I came for. If you’re a conference organizer choosing a keynote speaker, you may well value the polished, perfectly timed, perfectly nuanced performer for your center stage spotlight because they’re a known quantity and a reliable performer.

Can you have the best of both worlds, a presenter who is both a performer and an informer? Yes, you can, but such teachers are rare masters, true experts who have incredible expertise in their areas such that new information and new ideas are seamlessly integrated into their decades of existing knowledge and ability. Go watch someone like Stephen K. Hayes teach martial arts and you’ll see decades of experience and new learning all at the same time. What’s truly incredible about teachers like this is that they can present in such a way that everyone, veterans and newbies, walks away having learned something.

I’d imagine at the end of the day, most speakers who want to be on stage for a living aspire to be both informer and performer, masters of knowledge and delivery equally. I know I certainly do, and in a few decades, I hope to be able to do both flawlessly.

What about you? Which do you value more? Which do you enjoy more? Does this reflect who you choose to see at conferences?

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

What Martial Arts Can Teach Us About Improving Presentations

Video: Awaken Your Superhero from #140conf

Christopher S Penn — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:59:47 +0000

I had the pleasure and privilege of presenting at Jeff Pulver‘s 140 Character Conference in New York City about a favorite topic of mine, Awaken Your Superhero:

One of the key points I hope you take away from this talk is that right now, you have superhero powers, you have opportunities to be a superhero, but you may not have the motivation to be a superhero, or may not realize your own power. As I suggested in the talk, this is an exceptionally dangerous place to be.

Without proper motivation, without a reason, a cause, something to believe in, your superhero powers will corrupt you. Sometimes it will corrupt you to just selling crap as a marketer. Sometimes the corruption will be much worse, making you believe you’re someone you aren’t, or don’t want to be, or never thought you could be.

Without proper awareness, you’re treating your superhero powers as something mundane instead of the tremendous gift that they really are. You’re beyond giving away your power – you’re actively resisting, actively denying your full potential as a digitally connected human being. Imagine Superman preferring to be Clark Kent all the time. Imagine Bruce Wayne staying in his mansion at nights, refusing to help Gotham. When you treat your powers as mundane aspects, or worse, as crass tools, you’re forfeiting the place that has been prepared for you to do amazing things with your life.

I hope this talk has motivated you to explore the your full potential as a future superhero in the digital world and given you a chance to take a step back and realize the power that you do have. Take that power and do some good with it!

If you enjoyed this talk, please consider leaving a recommendation for it here. Thank you!

If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network!

Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now!

Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile!

Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.