Mima Summit 2008-It was all about the FEED
The Mima Summit 2008 was held at the Minneapolis Depot in downtown Minneapolis yesterday, October 1, 2008.
Several members of EatonGolden attended. I thought I would share my thoughts on the event.
Content:
I think it’s extremely difficult to find presenters who will bring content to an event that speaks to such a broad audience of professionals. I also think the Mima board and planning committee did a good job of achieving this. It felt like there was something for everyone. Everything may not have been for everyone, but that is an impossible task. I know that I got value out of it as someone who has been practicing for 13 years as an Interactive professional. I spoke to others in marketing and interactive on both the client and agency sides and everyone got some professional inspiration from the day.
Interaction & Connections:
The location of the Minneapolis Depot and the amenities provided by the conference planning committee allowed for people to connect and re-connect. I do believe you get out of it what you put in. If people were willing to participate, the set up was there. The rooms were nice for the sessions-a few were standing room only, but that’s ok, it helped encourage people get to their rooms on time. 
The space outside the sessions was great and the refreshments were available all day long. There was no want for lack of coffee, soda, water or even a snack. The Depot has a lovely bar in the hotel that was a nice place for people to camp out and take a reprieve from the activities. The main lobby area was nice and spacious so people could move around and catch up at the same time.
The meta connecting that was happening was also really intriguing to me. Many people were armed with a digital device and used the microblogging service twitter throughout the day to connect around the Summit content virtually as well as physically. In fact, each session had a specific Twitter host and if the audience had questions they were free to send a message to that host for better facilitation of those questions and comments.
What’s Next:
I thought the day raised some pretty big questions for us to continue to grapple with as communicators trying to facilitate connection in an interactive way. How we work, the kind of skills we need, even who the competitors might be were all brought up throughout the day.
The morning keynote speaker, Rebecca Lieb, talked about the fact that brands need to be about storytelling and connecting with people through content. This puts interactive agencies and marketing companies in competition with publishers.
The afternoon keynote speaker, Ze Frank, really showed us how connecting people can be messy but amazing. He pointed out that yes, there is a ton of non-relevant content being created by the users in user generated content, there is also a ton of really relevant content being created and more importantly really relevant connections being made. He posed the question to the community about the responsibilities of a brand in this environment. Does a brand have a responsibility to be in the conversation?
The rest of the day had multiple choices for interesting speakers, panels, and discussion. The topics ranged from optimizing and measuring success in online experience, better methods for collaboration and user experience, success stories, mobile and more.
I liked the fact that I felt like there was some challenge and an overall acknowledgement that we are still figuring this stuff out and it’s changing under our feet. New skills need to be cultivated to adapt, adjust and meet the needs of more sophisiticated audiences. It’s an exciting time to be working in this profession and in this community.
Another testament to the community was the fact that the Mima Summit sold out so quickly, people who couldn’t get in started an Unsummit so that everyone who wanted to gather together had a place.
And now to leave you with the gift from Rhett and Link, online comedians who wrote a song just for the Summit:
Posted in Conferences, Inspiring
