Jun 16, 2008 | blog
Saturday night I was listening to social media guru & fellow Social Media Breakfast conversationalist @Albert Maruggi of Provident Partners being interviewed on WCCO radio here in Minneapolis. What really struck me was the way in which the host of the show totally spun every point that was brought up. Instead of a real discussion of what is happening in the social media space, she choose to simply believe her pre-conceived notions of the Internet as a “dangerous” place.
Now I agree that everyone is welcome to believe what they want, but to not let an honest discussion develop seems deceiving to me. Whether you believe in the hype or not isn’t the point, rather the inability to have an honest discussion about something on an old-media platform in a public space. Personally I think that fellow Twitter @MNHeadHunter hit the nail on the head in this tweet.
@rickmahn Biased or not knowledgable. Or feeling threatened 🙂
Personally, this is one of the examples that worries me about so many people relying on old media for all their political news. If we can’t have an honest discussion of the facts on the platform about something like social media, how can I trust them about my political choices from any party? Disappointing to say the least.
Oh yeah, Albert was great on talking about facts, concepts, and directions – well done Albert!
Did anyone else catch the broadcast last Saturday? What did you think of the interview?
May 27, 2008 | blog
I’ve been doing a lot of local networking this past month & and have met so many talented people. With the exception of SOBCon08 at the beginning of the month, most of the events I’ve been to and people I’ve met have been local.
What I’ve found in this very busy month, has been a consistent mix of people from all sorts of industries and business fields all looking for new ways to connect with each other. The main interest these folks have, is to find better ways to connect with their audience.
The most fascinating part for me recently, is just how much talent there is right here in my home town. I’ve no illusions of Minneapolis being a center of cutting edge web 2.0 startups. However, there is a rich history of successful, community-oriented and customer focused organizations that developed here and still call Minnesota home.
That, in combination with strong focuses on healthcare, non-profit, educational, and retail markets makes it a progressive environment. Minneapolis has a diverse, knowledgeable, community-driven population of professionals that are looking to enhance their interactions with clients & peers. They’re engaged in improving their game and providing improved services to their customers.
It’s this excitement that I hadn’t seen until recently. The interest in making things happen is here, the knowledge to do it is here, and the determination to push boundaries is also part of this community. I’m looking forward to continuing to look for ways to make things happen, to find those talented individuals who share this vision. To make sure that they find ways to reach the right people with their ideas, and solve real problems that aren’t being addressed today.
Have you tasted the local flavor in your community? I urge you to get involved. Find a way to get yourself in the process, find how you can bring value and help build something for your community or customers. How are you getting things started in your community?
Photo credit: strange librarian
May 10, 2008 | blog
I was at MinneBar 2008 on Saturday and had another great experience. Good people talking about Web2 development & design. Peter Fleck and I also were able to present a session on “This Think Called Twitter” where we got the group talking about some of the social web. Lots of great new Twitter friends to talk and work with in my hometown of Minneapolis!
For all the great organizational efforts of everyone at MinneBar, the U of M did a money grab and kept the WiFi closed. It was the only negative of the entire unconference. Too bad – I could have done more live-blogging of the sessions and the great vibe of the people attending.
Still, I came away very enthused because of the interest and excitement everyone seemed to have. I’m looking forward to continuing to connect and build relationships in the social web with these folks. We have a lot of great talent here in the Minneapolis & St. Paul area, so I know there is some great potential.
Apr 30, 2008 | blog
Hey everyone, we finally have concrete news on the next Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast. SMB-TC3 will be held at Concordia University in St. Paul on May 16th.
After the fantastic turnout & and small space of the last event, we’ve been looking for a better space for the next one. It seems like there aren’t a lot of places that had what we seem to need for our event. Namely, larger space for 20 or more people, WiFi, centrally located, access to public transportation, and food/coffee.
All the spaces that did have enough space were actual conference facilities that start costing real money. Since this is a free event, we have no good way of paying of a larger space.
So, luckily, a number of people offered to check with the places they work at and we suddenly had a few options. The one that worked out first was at Concordia. Jason DeBoer-Moran works in the IT department at Concordia and was able to arrange a true, full-featured conference room for us to use. It meets all the needs of the group, save the one thing that makes for a good breakfast… food.
So, we’ll be bringing in food ourselves. Anyone who would like to donate a box of bagels, doughnuts, coffee, or fruit tray is welcome to bring it with you, or contact me to coordinate making that happen. Simply direct-message me via Twitter, email me (rickmahn at gmail.com), or message me via the MSBMSP Ning site if you want to “donate-a-doughnut”.
Agenda
So what’s going on at this event? Quite a bit for sure! Since there is open WiFi, space, projection equipment, and (did I mention) space we can do quite a bit.
- Demo of Cullect by Garrick Van Buren
- Shared Feeds & the need for better filters
- What exactly is Social Media – a continuing discussion
- We’ll have a live video feed and will be include the remote folks via the overhead projection. At least we’ll try and hope it works.
- YOUR IDEAS HERE! 🙂
Location
You can RSVP at: http://smbmsp.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2029643%3AEvent%3A1382 (requires simple registration)
We’ll be in the Library Technology Center Room 215 for the event. Here’s the location information:
The Concordia University Library Technology Center is located on the north side of the campus, near Concordia Avenue and directly east of the Pearson Theater. The Library Technology Center’s physical address is 1282 Concordia Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104
Campus map:
Get an (original) copy of the campus map at: http://www.csp.edu/AboutUs/maps/color_campus_map.gif
On this map, The Library Technology Center is building 25, and parking can be found in lots A, B, E, & H.
I look forward to seeing everyone there! Our Social Media Breakfast Network at http://smbmsp.ning.com now has 50 members and I’d love to see as many people make it in person or via video as possible.
UPDATE: Fixed the date above, the real date is May 16th. Sorry for any confusion!
Apr 12, 2008 | blog
Today was the second Social Media Breakfast in the Twin Cities. We had a great turnout for the small space that I had booked. I won’t make that mistake again, even though it worked out ok. Albert Maruggi commented awhile ago on how much talent and interest there is here in the Minneapolis & St. Paul area in social media. I have to agree as our meetups keep backing up that interest with really great, dedicated, intelligent people who want to get involved for so many great reasons.
The group here in the northland has a mix of great perspectives and intentions – I honestly am honored to be able to spend time discussing new ideas and opportunities with this group and encourage anyone interested to check out the social media site for our meetups. We’ll be hosting more meetups and I’m planning on keeping it interesting and helping the group in whatever direction it wants to go.
UPDATE: Connie Bensen had a nice recap & comments on the video feed that we set up for this event. You can visit her post here.
