Terry, Liz & Phil Gerbyshak (1st SOBCon07 speaker)
I’ve just returned home from SOBCon09 in Chicago – a weekend gathering of 130 friends and social media practitioners with open minds, big hearts and tons of ideas.
This is the third time Liz Strauss and I have hosted this event, and just as the first two, I was totally blown away by the positive energy and “can-do” spirit of every single person who attended.
It was a perfect environment for valuable and focused learning – and learn we did.
For nearly three days we had an ongoing conversation about the value of this medium as it relates to our business and personal goals and objectives – from seemingly a million different directions.
We talked about building trust, shaping personalities, defining personas, staying true to ourselves – and that was just the first two hours.
After we “gut-checked” ourselves with statements like “free doesn’t pay the rent”, we dug deeper, looking at the nuts and bolts and the blocking and tackling of our businesses, from the “thing itself” to all the discipline, focus and preparation that is needed behind the scenes to fully flower our ideas and passions – and oh yes, make some money.
We realized that our “audience” can extend well beyond what we might have thought before, and we would be well served to make the changes necessary to make us accessable to all who would want to reach us.
And then, day two.
Are we hitting our social media targets? Can we really market on Twitter? How valuable are those conversations? Do we have our analog act together as well as our digital? (Don’t you love panels!)
We learned that how we look and how we act as “in the flesh” humans is more directly linked to our online sucess than we think.
We realized that warhorse axiom “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” HAS to apply in our digital world too, and we got some pretty darn good tools to figure it out.
We tossed around (with great vigor) the notion that social media can and should only be a part, and oftentimes just a small part, of an integrated whole. It’s not the be all and end all. And beware of those “experts” who say otherwise.
And finally, the person who stared this whole thing put it all into perspective, in the form of a simple little house. One with a great big heart in the middle of it.
Then, the next day, we got a chance to apply what we learned for the benefit of our wonderful sponsors.
What SOBCon is creating, in my view, is a new breed of businessperson – the “Digilogger“.
A Digilogger is someone, or a company, who can successfully synthesize what has and always will work on the “analog” side of the fence and blend it seamlessly with the digital tools we now have at our disposal.
Put even more simply, it’s making sure the platform is the extension of the human, instead of the other way around.
It’s old school merging with new school, into something meaningful, vital, vibrant and better still, successful.
And that’s what the “S” in SOBCon is all about.
Yes, I’m a Digilogger. And now, after three years, those ranks have grown by leaps and bounds.
Are you next? If you haven’t already, join the SOBCon family and find out.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended, supported, and sponsored this event.
And Liz, I dedicate this post to you. 
(Oh, and mark your calendars – SOBCON2010 is April 30- May 2)
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This is very, very good news. The energy from SOBCON ripples out post event every year, much to everyone’s benefit. Hat’s off to all of you.
I am there! Thanks for everything Terry, it was awesome.
It is going to take me a week to mind-dump all of the info and contacts that I gathered!
Love the moniker: Digilogger – nice! The integrated strategy theme was woven into every presentation and panel at SOBCon. None of us knew the others were going to speak on it, it just that important of a basis. We are media and touchpoint agnostic…everything needs to blend as we consume or the hiccups cause brand distraction.
Thanks for a phenom weekend, Terry! You and Liz have this trend pathing down. Congrats!
Another year of growing and those folks who show up sure do make us look good. How did we get to be so lucky? How does it get any better than this?
I learned so much from everyone this year. Some folks taught me things just by being there. Others answered questions and pointed me in directions that made my future clearer.
You, sir, though have been there every minute of this digital / analog journey. I’m so smiling for all of the friends, words, and images we’ve got in common now. Can’t wait to see where we are this time next year.
Thank you for this. Thank you for you.
Thank you again, Terry & Liz, for hosting such an amazing event. I learned so many things I had not expected to learn, came away with a renewed sense of focus in an entirely different direction than I had imagined, and made a bunch of new friends in the process.
The ROI of SOBCon is hard to measure – partially because you just can’t put a pricetag on the value of the relationships you make.
Standing ovation for both of you!
Terry,
Wonderful to be there and considered a Digilogger…..
“We learned that how we look and how we act as “in the flesh” humans is more directly linked to our online sucess than we think…..
Isn’t this back to the core of authenticity that we’ve spoken about?
See you next year – on my anniversary – again.
Oh, and please say Hi to that Lovely wife of yours! LOL
“…it’s making sure the platform is the extension of the human, instead of the other way around.” — I like that!
Sounds like a wonderful and powerful event!
I love the new term you’ve coined. Now, can you turn “Digilogger” into an original song? Would love to hear you sing it.
The point you make is so good. Integrating online and offline is the way to go. George and I were so thrilled to be able to do some fantastic offline learning & networking at SOBCon09. Now we will continue to nurture those lessons and relationships online. Offline & online go hand-in-hand.
Thanks for the inspiration!
So sad to have missed it but glad that I was able to connect with several of you the night before. From the feedback on the web, looks like this was another wonderful one!
I strongly agree with your comment, “it’s making sure the platform is the extension of the human, instead of the other way around.”
It sounds like you covered some really great stuff last weekend.
Terry – the SOBCon weekend was exceptional. There was so much information freely shared and synthesized, it was amazing. The kindness factor makes this even exceptional and stands out in a crowd of conferences. I look forward to SOBCon10 (or X)! You and Liz did a phenomenal job.