IABC WORLD CONFERENCE 2011: A MEMBER’S PERSPECTIVE
In April, IABC/Tulsa and IABC Southern Region paired up to offer one person an opportunity to attend his or her first IABC World Conference. In order to win the trip to San Diego, all IABC/Tulsa members were invited to show a little creativity in the social media world. Jennifer Pigeon – known as @journaljenn in the Twitter world – was the winning member. Just in case you didn’t follow her tweets from sunny California, she offers the highlights of the conference in this month’s newsletter.
Greetings fellow Tulsa-chapter IABC members! I wanted to share with you some details from my recent trip to the world conference. It’s hard for me personally to not feel completely overwhelmed and out of my element in environments I am unfamiliar with. Part of my personal development involves pushing myself out of my comfort zones and experiencing new things.
I admit that part of me was a little intimidated upon my arrival to the IABC World Conference (or #iabc11 if you followed the event via Twitter). But, as I began to meet new people I found myself becoming more and more intrigued by the amount of talent all gathered in one place.
I wore with pride my badge declaring that I was a member of the recently announced “Small Chapter of the Year.” I met some awesome people from literally all across this country and around the globe, and brought back valuable information about communications, strategy and engagement.
So many conferences and training sessions I have been to in the past have been little more than how-to guides on popular social media tactics. I am happy to report that is not the case with IABC!
Many of the sessions I attended focused on message, which we all know is the root of our business. Without a strong message, all of the latest tools and technologies really don’t amount to much.
Content, feedback, creativity and merging new media with traditional practices all have a place at the table of what we now have to consider “the new normal.”
We may not be completely sure where the tech world is heading, but I am positive with industry leaders like ours we will be guided down an innovative path, which will help us to give ALL our stakeholders a voice!
Thank you for this experience and the opportunity to be your Tulsa-chapter representative this year. I look forward to working with all of you as I assume my new position as Communications VP on our chapter board!
I’d like to end with a small summary of the conference – in 140 characters or less!
Innovative leaders strategically guiding business communicators toward an uncertain, but exciting future! #iabc11