Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Marketing/Branding/PR (Page 13 of 29)

David Meerman Scott to Speak at ‘Social Media Breakfast’ in Twin Cities October 31

I’m really happy to report that I successfully convinced one of my famous-author friends to speak to our next Social Media Breakfast here in the Twin Cities. We call it "SMBMSP" for short, and this is our eighth monthly event. Smbmsplogo
David Meerman Scott, a very well-traveled and popular speaker, is the author of the top-selling book, The New Rules for Marketing and PR. Davidmscott_2

He told me back in August that he’d be coming to MInneapolis for a seminar on October 30, so I asked him if he would consider staying over another night if we could schedule one of our breakfast meetings on the 31st. Newrulesbookcover_2
He was gracious enough to say yes, so we got some sponsors, and now we have it all scheduled. It will be held at Deluxe Corp’s headquarters in Shoreview, MN, thanks to my friend Steve Neilsen, whose company, PartnerUp.com, was recently acquired by Deluxe. The meeting is scheduled for 8:00 to 10:30 am on Friday, October 31. Attendance is free, open to anyone interested in social media, and the first 100 attendees will receive a free copy of David’s book. (By the way, David blogs here.)
To register, go to our group’s social network site at smbmsp.ning.com (clip shown here), click on the "Events" tab, then click on "SMB-Twin Cities 8," and then look for the "Order Now" button. Smbmspningpage_2
Or, just go directly to our RSVP page. Look forward to seeing you there!  Oh — and costumes are optional…  🙂

What I’ve Been Blogging and Tweeting Lately

Just a post to catch you up to what I’ve been doing elsewhere online recently, on venues other than this.  First of all, my volunteer/pastime blogging thing over at Minnov8.com included a post a couple days ago on a bigtime conference held here in the Twin Cities last week called the MIMA Summit. Mimasummitpost_3  It was sponsored by, you guessed it, MIMA (the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association). Here’s a partial screen clip of that post, and the whole post is here.

Then, just yesterday, I participated again in the weekly Minnov8 Gang Podcast, this one Episode 9 already. (Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.)  You can grab it off the Minnov8 home page via the link at top center there, as you can see on the second screen clip. Minnov8podcastlinks We talked about a number of topics, including recent confabs in the Twin Cities, the economic times, social media (of course), and, hey, even wine.

Finally, I continue to Twitter all the while — that just never stops! 🙂  I’m including here a recent screenshot of my Twitterstream. But please do follow the whole dang shebang hereGraemetwitter1008
One cool thing that happened recently is this: I received a rating for my Twitter account of 91 out of 100 from twitter.grader.com.  Wow, that means my Twitter presence is rated higher than 91% of all the other accounts they’ve graded! Nice to know I’m doing something right..

UPDATE 10/6/08:  Meant to say that social media is a part of everything I do now for my clients, and also that I’m quite active in our local Social Media Breakfast organization. Be sure to keep the morning on Oct 31 open, because we have an exciting, nationally known speaker coming to town. [Actually, he was already here for a private gig, and I convinced him to stay over a night…  🙂 ] Watch the "SMBMSP" site above for the announcement later today.

UPDATE 10/9/08:  I see our local media site MinnPost picked up my story on the MIMA Summit.

Best Team Get-Up at DEMOfall – BizEquity.com

Bizequitycomgroupphoto

So, how does a presenting company stand out at DEMO? Ask BizEquity.com, led by DEMO returnee Ami Kassar (on the far left). This new site helps you find out what any small business is worth — so they all dressed up like, you got it, small business owners. Ami is in pizza shop garb, complete with tomato sauce stains… 🙂

TechCrunch50 vs. DEMO – My Take

You may have been seeing some of the talk online about TechCrunch50 taking potshots at DEMO as its organizers try to get publicity for their new event, which they purposely scheduled during the same timeframe as the venerable, long-standing event. Tc50logo
Can you say "in your face"? DEMO is now going into its 19th year and has become widely regarded over that time as the place for promising new startups to launch. The TC50 organizers are trying to claim that they somehow are more pure because they do not charge a fee to the startups they accept to present, while DEMO long has done so — widely seen as the price for the process DEMO puts a presenting company through to benefit from its first-class brand of company launch experience, which includes all the positive things that go along with that in the way of publicity and investor exposure.

Demofall08

I'm about to leave for San Diego to attend DEMOfall 08, which will be about my seventh time covering their events as a press registrant. They are very, very well run events. I also have a press pass to TechCrunch50, although, since the dates of the two conferences directly overlap, I will only be able to attend that last day of TC50 (in San Francisco), on Wednesday. I'd like to take in all of both events, but I can't; no one can, except from a distance or online.

TC50, despite its name, is actually debuting 52 companies. DEMO will have 72 presenters. Another difference between the events is that DEMO always releases its list of presenters the Friday before the event, which typically starts with a Sunday evening reception. TC50 has chosen to be, uh, different, saying it will only release names of its companies at 6:30 am Pacific on Monday, and that's only for companies who will pitch that day. It won't release the names of those presenting on Tuesday and Wednesday until 6:30 am on each of those days. Do some people know already who's presenting?  Sure, I suspect word leaks out a lot from the companies themselves, although both shows prohibit news being formally released before their "embargoes" lift on Monday. (Note that press attendees' inboxes begin filling up days before both events, but they of course expect us to honor the embargoes, and I do.)

So, what do I think about all the hype going back an forth (most from the TC50 side) about this competition for Startup Launch King-of-the-Hill Event?  A lot of distraction, really — which even TC now admits.  This is supposed to be about the startups. I wholeheartedly agree. It seems there are plenty of them out there, so what's the problem with two events like this?  Why does one have to be in the other's face?  (It would just make a lot more sense if the events were scheduled separately.)  I have a take on how they're different in other ways, too. DEMO, over the years, has increasingly tended to attract more established startups — which, of course, have no problem paying their fee. Many have raised Series A and B rounds by the time they get there, and I've seen many beyond that stage. Thus, the fee is a pittance for them, especially for the benefits they gain. (And it costs them more than that to have good PR support for the event.)  DEMO has even taken to having 4 or 5 large firms introduce new products or services at each of their events. My hometown boys from Best Buy being a prime example at the year's DEMOfall… TC50, on the other hand, seems to be seeking raw startups for its event, those that have raised little or no money. Thus, not having to pay a fee is a good thing for them. More power to 'em! But it will be a different type of event than DEMO for that reason: earlier stage startups than most (not all) of DEMO's presenters.

Another way I'm thinking TC50 will likely be different:  I suspect many more of their presenters will be Bay Area based.  DEMO has long prided itself in its companies being from all over the U.S., and increasingly the world. (See my last post for the number of countries this year's DEMOfall class will be from.)  We'll see how TC50's companies stack up in this regard next week

I did not attend TC's first attempt at a conference last year (called TC40), but I heard from a very experienced tech PR person at DEMOfall last year, who had come directly from it to DEMO, that it was "pretty horrible."  I'm hoping for their sake, and for all the hype and expectations they have created, that they do better this year. And, most of all, for the sake of the startups — who may have not invested a fee into the TC50 event, but have surely invested many, many hours of preparation.  And that's money, too.

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