One year ago today, on Sunday, May 31, 2009, we hosted the first TWTRCON. It was a Sunday, and yet we had a sold-out room of more than 300 people packed into the Hotel Nikko ballroom in San Francisco. Beginning at 8 am with the first Laura @pistachio Fitton Twitter for Business 101 pre-conference keynote, and going well past 7 pm official close of the after-party, the energy and atmosphere was absolutely electric.
We had put the entire event together in 8 weeks, an absolutely amazing experience that worked only because the community grabbed a hold of the idea and helped to made it happen. We had incredible support, from our earliest speakers–Steve Rubel, Laura Fitton, Guy Kawasaki, MC Hammer, Intuit’s Seth Greenberg, Comcast’s Frank Eliason, Boingo’s Jeremy Pepper, Kogi BBQ’s Mike Prasad, Adventure Girl Stefanie Michels and more; from marketing partners such as Operation Smile, PR Newswire and others; and from our first sponsors, companies such as CoTweet and TweetFunnel (now MediaFunnel).
It felt like we were doing something really important. Still, a number of industry experts told us: “Enjoy it while it lasts–because it won’t last long.” It was the height of Twitter-mania, and many people felt that it was just another fad, a fad that would go as quickly as it had come.
One year later, I know that they were wrong. Twitter has irrevocably changed the way that we do business. Many organizations are only just beginning to create a plan to follow the trail blazed by TWTRCON SF 09 speakers from brands like Virgin America, Dell, Kogi BBQ and Intuit. Those early Twitter for Business pioneers in turn have opened the door for companies to explore new real-time platforms such as Foursquare, to integrate micro-blogging into traditional marketing campaigns, or to create sophisticated analytics based on listening to real-time customer feedback. TWTRCON NY 10, the third TWTRCON event, will be looking at all of these issues and more.
But the real reason I know that our first birthday will be the first of many, is this tweet, sent by a young “social media enthusiast” a couple of weeks ago:
For us, TWTRCON is a conference and a community. For Dina, TWTRCON represents a future career.
So we dedicate our birthday wish to Dina, and to all of the smart, fearless, ambitious social media enthusiasts like her who will transform the way we do business in the years to come. May HER wish come true – we can’t wait to hear what she’ll have to say.
