I should probably already be sleeping considering that I have to get up at god-awful hours of the morning tomorrow to drive to Tampa for Social Fresh. In fact, when this actually gets published, I should be in the middle of my drive! Instead of sleeping like a sane person, I wanted to share why I’m so super pumped about Social Fresh in the first place.
1. Networking
First off, the people. As my first solo conference, Social Fresh is my first opportunity to meet a few of the people I talk to on Twitter on a regular basis all at once! People I admire, people that challenge me, people that are just plain smart! It’s been exciting to chat with them, make plans to meet up and now get to know them on a different level.
Twitter brings people together, but nothing beats face-to-face. Honestly, the interaction is the real reason people actually go to conferences. Social Fresh is no exception.
2. Great topics
The team at Social Fresh did a great job of putting together a very interesting program of speakers and topics for attendees at all different levels of expertise.
The first day is devoted to exploring Facebook – I’m particularly interested in the Facebook Page Building: Tabs and Add-ons talk by Ty Downing, the Facebook Ads talk by Justin Levy and the Facebook Analytics talk by Christopher Penn. I just hope my battery holds up for the massive note-taking and tweeting I’ll be doing during those sessions!
While the second day focuses more on social media in general, I’m looking forward to Mike Schneider‘s talk on location-based services. I’m not as knowledgeable in that area as I wish I were. From what’s being said in the Social Fresh Facebook group, it’s gearing up to be a very dynamic talk.
3. Experience
Like I already mentioned, it’s my first solo conference. I wanted my first conference to be welcoming and not overwhelming – so far Social Fresh has already kept up its end of the bargain. Between the great Twitter list Summer Joy drafted and the active Facebook group, I already feel like part of the community, and I’m not even in Tampa yet! Very empowering way to start a conference.
All in all, the next 2 days will definitely affect my perspective – I am so looking forward to it!