I find myself speaking at a good number of events these days, but last week’s Social Story was one of the first whose speaker photo looks like a promo for a new TV superspy show. Left to right – Murray: The master strategist and brains of the operation. Buvala: The master of disguise and infiltration expert. Yanov: The gadget specialist and tech/surveillance guy. Pennington (a.k.a. “Suits”): The idealist boss with a penchant for formal attire. TV: The cat-burglar/safe-cracker/Kung Fu expert. Destructo: Cars, helicopters, guns and explosives. Frenchie: The hapless decoy.
I will be talking a lot more about #MIMA later this week (Here is the link if you want to attend), but what I can say about Social Story is this:
1. It was nice to finally speak at an event in Greenville, SC. No planes, no hotels, lots of familiar faces. Aside from Social Media Club, that’s never happened before. As much as I love to travel, it was nice.
2. 1/3 of the speakers had blue hair. That’s a pretty interesting statistic. Usually, 0% of the speaker roster at events to which I am invited can boast blue hair.
3. Most of the presentations were done without slides, without bullet points, without “decks.” Small audience, small venue, real engagement. It was kind of refreshing to go analog in a field so often dominated by slide presentations. Personally, I felt a better connection with the audience than when I bring my 700 slides along for the ride.
4. This must be the first conference of this size and of this type that attracted such a range of speakers. At one end of the spectrum, it had an incredibly versatile fire-breathing multimedia artist (Tim TV), and at the other, the head of Edelman’s global Digital practice (Rick Murray). I love that.
5. The conference did not settle for the typical endless stream of Social Media douchebags with something to sell. BIG thumbs up.
6. Social Story’s ticket prices: Not $659. Not $329. Not $199. Forget all that. I think the price of a ticket was around $50. In this, #Likeminds and #SocialStory have something in common: Attendees don’t get fleeced at the box office. There’s a lot to be said for that. While some conferences warrant a high price tag, most are horribly overpriced. This one was well worth the price of admission.
7. The event production team was phenomenal. Hats off to all the folks in black shirts. 100% professional, friendly, efficient and dedicated. I was impressed.
8. Trey Pennington likes to wear a coat and tie.
9. The live-streaming of the sessions was a great idea. I enjoyed getting feedback and questions from people from around the world via twitter. (Let’s face it: Not everyone can fly to Greenville, SC for two days just to attend an event.) I can’t stress enough how important it is for events of this type to think beyond “asses in seats.”
10. The first rule of swagclub is… Oh, never mind.
11. Trey Pennington definitely doesn’t take sponsors for granted.
Oh, and I almost forgot: The above speaker photo should put an end to #stachegate.
Have a great week. Back in a few days. 😉
Thanks Olivier. 150 is kind of a “magical” number as you know from the marketing world, so it seemed like the right target to have given the goal of creating an intimate, relationship-building event. Those snazzy black shirts were courtesy of Southern Tide: uber-spiff if you ask me. Try on the one in your goodie bag! Oh, and why did you photoshop your stache off of the group pic? 😉
Hope things go great at MIMA.
The shirt fits like a glove. It’s perfect. I really dig the fabric too. It’s stretchy and kind of silky. The whole thing is an apparel win, right down to the fish “label” hanging from the button.
Cheers,
#149
Olivier, not only does Trey like wearing a jacket and tie; he’s very stylish with it. Blue shirt and pink tie combo looked awesome!!
Gutted not to have got over to Greenville. It’s still simething I want to do. You guys spend so much time in the UK I really want to get some Brits over to SC!
I was in and out of meetings so missed the livestream but hearing great things.
I totally agree with you on the price of these events and it’s nice to see Social Story keeping it real on price.
Yep. Unless an event is truly set up like a course (in which case its high price-point is offset by the depth of how-to know-how and insight being shared with the audience) or the event spends a lot of money on speaker fees, there is no reason why most basic 1-day events that focus on Social Media cost upwards of $300, even $600 per person to attend.
There is something a little unsettling about “conferences” whose organizers spend $0 on speakers, staff the event with unpaid volunteers, don’t take the time to carefully craft a unique or truly valuable program, and still peg them with a multi-C-note price tag. What I dig about #Likeminds and #SocialStory and even #ungeeked, is that organizers don’t try to exploit their audience. In fact, I refuse to speak at events that don’t seek to strike that balance.
Yeah, we need to get more of you Brits over Stateside at some point. 😉
Yes, it is nice to be part of a “nearly PPT free” environment. Maybe that should be something you promote in the future with stickers and endorsements. Considering the way migrant PPT workers are treated, stuck in those little cubbies in rural Greenville, packing in bullets and cheap clip-art all day for a pittance.
It was nice to see you there lycra-free, as well. I was worried that you’d ride in on a bike, unsnap your helmet and want us to all do cardio before you spoke.
I would recommend that in future photos, the don’t group all the good-looking people on one side of the image. You need to spread yourselves out.
😀 You know, next time, I might just have to do the bike thing. That’s a pretty cool idea.
LOL. What a great take on that picture. Well, unless every thing I disguise is a 6’4″ giant, then I fear for the longevity of my spy role.
On the PPT thing- yes yes yes. I’ve been trying for years to gently zap people away from both PPT and the illusions of the “elevator speech.” So, at SocialStory I was delighted to see very little of that. A bit of enforcement is okay (mine was mostly composed of single pictures) but the reliance on colored light over enlightened words has run its course.
Great to meet you in Greenville and perhaps on our next shared stage we’ll have a chance to have more conversation.
Thanks for this post.
-Sean
@storyteller
Indeed! I’d love to hang out more. Sorry i couldn’t make it to the speaker dinner Thursday. I was between flights and deadlines. It’s been a weird summer that way.
You know, at 6’4″, you might also have to be our team’s muscle. Good call.
See you soon, I hope.
Yep, I didn’t get in myself until 10PM on Thursday- so I missed the whole crew, too, save my excellent drivers of Eric and Aaron V. I taught in the morning here at an event in Phoenix then sprinted like a madmax driver to the airport to catch the flight to the east coast.
LoL- I could do the heavy lifting for the spy team were it to become needed. However, I would require specialized SWAG such as the Social Story heating pad, pain killers and IcyHot afterwards.
ha!
Do you think there is room for people to start paying a little something something for access to the livestream. Seems only fair to pay like the others that attend live. Now of course not the same as being there, because like you said the conversations in the room and meeting people live and connecting is the secret sauce. I know I would pay 10-20 bucks to see these conferences live.
What do you think? Do you think there are others out there that agree?
Yep. Even a nominal fee. It’s still a little alien though. We need to start training folks to do that. Turn it into a normal thing. I would pay a small fee to stream a #likeminds, #sxsw or #SocialStory, sure.
Olivier – it was great having you as part of SocialStory conference – I can tell you (and anyone else reading) it was worth far, far beyond the time and effort of being involved for me (due in no small part to the most excellent BitTyrant folks – Aaron, Susan, Kat, and everyone else “behind the scenes”).
I thoroughly enjoyed your preso, and caught a few important “takeaways” – but what was that paper, folding thingy you held up called again? 😉
Thanks again – great to see you actually in Greenville for once.
A neeeeeews-pa-per. I had to Google it.
Keith
Good grief!
Keith paying for live stream is like squeezing a lemon!
Friends of mine in the IT industry laughed at me when they heard that I listened to something on line.
Apparently, the joke was that only a nobody would listen on line.
Definitely, the conversations in the room and meeting people live and connecting is the secret sauce.
A lot of people feel that way. IT industry peeps can be pretty cruel though. 😉
ftr. best non-call out ever. when you said that thing you didnt say, and the titter ran though the crowd……damnnnn!
well, lets just say he was one damn pleased titter.
thx for doing that thing you do! hurry home, we gots a revolution to run here.
#149
#sss
Quick question: If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?
😉