Back from Webvisions

Back from Webvisions (although I didn’t travel) and I must say it was probably the best conference I’ve been too. It had a very different feel, and energy compared to a library conference. Perhaps it’s because the people at Webvisions don’t have as much of a problem proving their relevance as librarians do. The presentations were all also, largely fantastic. The slides were very well done, and in the case of web designers, quite attractive.

I’ll point you to the Web Strategist, Jeremiah for a good wrap up of all things WebVisions.

Jeremiah’s panel on Community Marketing was one of the highlights for me. He, Brian Oberkirch, Dan Saffer, and Kit Seeborg really put together a smart, practical, and engaging session.

One of the really cool things Jeremiah mentioned from this panel was how Factiva put together a video tutorial for him, but made it publicly available via YouTube. The video tutorial is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8a9IHwUED4 and shows Jeremiah how to set up an RSS company alert.

The Practical Business Blogging Panel was also fantastic. The panel included Andy Baio, Matt Haughey, Derek Powazek, and DL Byron.

Listening to DL Byron talk about blogging internally and the external corporate blogs at Boeing was very interesting. Some of the Boeing librarians are going to be attending the SLA Northwest Regional Conference on Content Management with me, and I will be sure to ask them about blogging at Boeing.

I also had a chance to talk to DL Byron after the session, and he even gave me a clip-n-seal. It’s a very cool product.

I’m looking forward to the podcasts for the sessions. I think marketers and managers in most companies would do well to listen to the Community Marketing and Practical Business Blogging sessions.

Derek Powazek also gave a great session on The New Community that was very interesting. I enjoyed his distinction between online communities which were like company towns, and the move towards a new type of community.

Finally, I have to mention the Designing for Community Interaction session with Mike Davidson. There are some good notes about it at Web Things Considered. He talked a lot about his company, Newsvine, which looks very cool. He had some great practical suggestions for designing websites that encourage interaction. Some suggestions include weighing registration needs and anonymity, how to create light registration methods which won’t turn people away, and ways to build reputation without discouraging users who first register.

Technorati Tags: WebVisions, Community Marketing, Blogging, YouTube, Factiva, RSS