The day began with a keynote from David Weinberger, a commentator at National Public Radio.  Shel Israel has written a great synopsis of the keynote that I would like to direct your attention to.

After the keynote, the event separated into a number of different ‘tracks’.  As my interests varied, I sort of wandered between the various tracks throughout the day. 

The first talk I attended was on ‘How Web 2.0 is Revolutionizing Mainstream Media,’ by Paul Gillin.  I had listened to Paul’s talk last fall in Boston and was still pretty satisfied with the overall content and delivery.  Paul reviewed some of the more notable examples of how social media has impacted the traditional space: Vincent Ferrari’s campaign against AOL; MommyCast’s impact on March of the Penguins; and Craig’s List’s impact on the traditional newspaper industry.  Gillin then went on to offer a frank, well thought-out discussion on how and why social media is causing traditional media businesses to evaluate their financial models.

One interesting model that Gillin pointed to was Naplesnews.com, a traditional newspaper that has begun integrating user-produced content into its e-publication. 

After Gillin’s session, I headed over to a talk given by Jim Nail from Cymfony (recently purchased by TNS Media Intelligence) on ‘Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy.’  The proposition of the presentation was how to persuade your company’s executive team that social media is important, and a worthwhile investment. 

Nail offered some very compelling statistics, including:

1. Consumers trust in ads has plunged 41% in the last three years.
2. 92% of consumers cite ‘word-of-mouth’ as the best source for new ideas on products.
3. Consumers trust discussion boards more than ads in other mediums.

Nail won me over when he began referring to traditional ICTs - Usenet, e-mail, and discussion boards, as forms of social media - a point that often gets lost in the buzz surrounding blogs, social networks, and wikis. 

Some of the other interesting points/reflections he made include:

1. According to Jupiter Research, 28% of top search engine results come from social media sites (I’m sure Wikipedia accounts for a lot of this);
2. One of the important gains of monitoring social media is that it helps you be prepared and respond effectively when a journalist calls. 
3. Monitoring social media also helps you identify and contain negative issues.
4. Starwood hotels launched their new aloft brand on Second Life and the event was so popular, it maxed out the Second Life attendance capacity for the destination.

I was even more impressed by the questions that immediately followed Nail’s presentation.  The general savviness of communications practitioners has really jumped in the past year or so.