My kids are bombarding me with their wish lists. I’ve got a wish list, too. But instead of iPods and Wii games, my list consists of three things I’d like to make happen in 2009:
- Make UnSummit a quarterly event - People have been asking me when the next unSummit will be. Frankly, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. We certainly don’t need to wait for any kind of a Summit to take place in order to have an unSummit. So how about another one, in February?If there was a theme for the inaugural unSummit it was social media. And beer. But much has happened in the few short months since then, specifically that little matter of the economic meltdown. So, for the next UnSummit, let’s take the economic crisis head on and ask:
- What will 2009 hold for us as entrepreneurs, marketers and developers?
- What can we be doing to find gigs, stay employed and keep our businesses going?
- What should we be doing to pull together and support each other through this rough patch?
- Become a civic booster – Having been inspired by the civic pride that fuels the startup and tech scene in Portland (Polymer’s other hometown), I’d like to do my part to encourage a similar spirit here in Minnesota.To that end, I’d like to gather local creative and tech leaders for a pow-wow on how we can actively promote Minnesota’s incredible creative/technical/entrepreneurial community — locally, nationally and perhaps even globally.Obviously, there are lots of questions:
- Are there organizations already doing this?
- Do we need to form a new organization?
- Who would be natural allies in such an effort?
I’m convinced that thinking and working collectively in this area is vital to our well-being as a community, especially in a world that becomes increasingly volatile and competitive.
I was recently pleased to discover that some locals are already thinking about this. Matt Wilson of MIMA and Evantage fame, let me in on a killer idea that would definitely put us on the map in more ways than one. Want to know what it is? You’ll just have to get involved.
- Write a book on pragmatic social marketing – Enough preaching to the converted about how great social media is. I’m itching to move from the theoretical toward the practical and lay out some tangible steps that marketing, advertising, PR, sales and customer-service managers can take in order to gain experience and enjoy some initial successes in this realm. While I’m sure my fellow social media kool-aid drinkers might enjoy the book, the audience for this would actually be client-side managers. They know social media is a force to be reckoned with, but what they lack are strategies that allow them to connect social media to tangible business goals and then sell social media initatives to their bosses.Whether it ends up being a downloadable e-book, a print-on-demand vanity edition or an actual hardbound tome, I think a book is the right format for this, as it will lend some needed legitimacy to the subject. Expect to see some posts on the blog as this idea develops.No doubt, a book like this will need to provide some solid case studies, so if you have any examples of work you’ve done, please let me know.
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