The sixth regional BlogWell event was held yesterday, August 13, 2009, at General Mills headquarters in suburban Minneapolis, sponsored by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. 
It was a sold-out conference, with more than 300 registered, and the largest such event to date of any of the previous versions held in major cities across America. Ours drew attendees from several states (and even as far away as San Francisco and London). It featured practical, how-to case studies from eight large corporations that have succeeded using social media: General Mills, Mayo Clinic, Walmart, CME Group, McDonald’s, Progressive, Ford, and AccuQuote (a last-minute replacement for H&R Block). 
I participated in live-blogging the event as a member of the “Minnov8 Gang,” with my colleagues Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, and Phil Wilson. Minnov8 was a media partner for the event. Please check out the archive of our live blogging at BlogWell at the Minnov8 site. We think it turned out great. It was the first time we’ve used a great new tool for this purpose called ScribbleLIve. It even allows the archive to be presented in normal, chronological order (unlike typical blogging formats).
My Photos: As I usually do at events I’m covering, I point and shoot when I can, when I’m not heads-down on the keyboard. Or schmoozing. Or interviewing. I randomly grab shots with either my iPhone or my little (semi-worthless) Canon A560. One of these days, I’m going to get a better camera. Or, uh, become a better photographer? Someday. When I have time. Nonetheless, here’s my Flickr set, for what it’s worth.
My Tweets: Didn’t do too many at the event, since we were live-blogging in longer-than-140-character chunks, which arguably is a better way to cover events. But what tweets I did do (before, during, and after) you can scroll back and see here: @GraemeThickins …and they’re also mixed in with just a TON of tweets the flowed on the hashtag #blogwell all day yesterday — and I see are continuing today.
My Interviews: I took along my trusty studio-grade handheld recorder (the Olympus LS-10) and grabbed seven brief audio interviews before and after the sessions, and during breaks. The last two featured wine, so you’ll have to excuse the background merriment. Here are the MP3s, in the order I recorded them:
• Listen to my interview of my friend and fellow Minneapolis blogger Arik Hanson.
• Listen to my interview of Gia Lyons, evangelist for Jive Software.
• Listen to my interview of Don Smith, a social media guru at General Mills.
• Listen to my interview of Jesse Engle, CEO and cofounder of Cotweet.
• Listen to my interview of Jim Cuene, Director of Interactive Marketing, General Mills.
• Listen to my interview of Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company.
• Listen to my interview of Andy Sernovitz, founder of GasPedal and Social Media Business Council.
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