Two weeks ago I was able to take part in the 140 Conference hosted by Jeff Pulver in New York City. I was pleased to be among the characters at the event which brought together Twitter users from a number of different walks of life and geographic locations. While there were a number of highlights at the event I think my biggest takeaways were as follows:
- Twitter is about love as people share their thoughts and assemble an army of supporters online and off
- Twitter is the ultimate social recommendation feed reader and start page for many
- Twitter's text messaging capabilities make it a powerful tool for reporting and organizing groups while on the go - bypassing regular text messaging protocols
- Twitter is a connector, touching so many people in all walks of life
A number of my friends, followers and colleagues spoke at the event and while there are too many to mention in one article without vomiting the entire conference schedule. I thought I would share a few tidbits, photos and videos from the two day Twitter love fest. If you missed the event you can watch it streamed live on June 29th (Day 1) and June 30th (Day 2) starting at 11AM EST. The re-broadcast can be watched over at: http://140conf.com/watchit
I have to say I really enjoyed the Twitter and Journalism panel which was moderated by Robert Scoble and included Ann Curry and Ryan Osborn from the Today Show who won over a number of fans at the event while CNN's Rick Sanchez appeared to really offend people in person.
Twitter & Journalism Panel Discussion.
Ann Curry explains why Twitter works for Journalism.
Ann Curry takes a photo while Ryan Osborn from the Today Show looks on.
I got pulled into a private training session (thank you Chris Brogan!) as some well known Twitter users taught Sports Illustrated supermodel Melissa Haro how to use Twitter.
This is how she put it (above).
Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Melissa Haro learns all the various aspects of Twitter.
The Official 140conf "Melissa Haro Twitter Training Team" (photo above taken with Jen Consalvo's camera).
There are a number of nonprofit and social good campaigns that are leveraging Twitter from Twestival to #IBlameDrewsCancer. Twitter is a powerful tool for raising money. Twestival was an event created by Amanda Rose and thanks to Twitter and was held in over 200 cities which raised money for Charity Water. I Blame Drew's Cancer is Twitter driven cancer fundraising effort started by Twitter user Drew Olanoff who was just diagnosed with cancer. So if you are feeling angry or upset about something just tweet out #IBlameDrewsCancer and share whatever it is that is on your mind. For every tweet Drew has made it his mission to find a charitable dollar to match.
Drew Olanoff speaks about #IBlameDrewsCancer.
Gary Vaynerchuk spoke about how Twitter and other tools enable him to care more from anywhere and used the term "scalable caring." Gary even shared that he tweets out his AIM screen name to get a couple hundred fans to IM with him real-time. He likes the rush of real-time conversations with real people. Later that day, I got to show Gary just how much I cared by accompanying my friend Nate Westheimer to the taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, in which Gary shared his wine expertise with Jimmy.
Gary Vaynerchuk speaks at 140conf.
Scott Porad of I CAN HAS CHEEZEBURGER spoke about leveraging Twitter for social discovery. He highlighted Follow Fridays which was created to share your favorite Twitter users and expose them to others, by my friend Micah Baldwin. Twitter is open so people can find new friends and therefore offers a sea of discovery opportunities.
Diane Birch, a musician who has been leveraging Twitter to grow her fan base and share her music, offered some entertainment performing What is Love and you can watch one of her videos (below).
Also Sharon Glassman entertained us all with the geek nerd dork song, showing she is pretty talented on the fiddle.
Wyclef Jean and Chris Sacca entertained us all with their tales of Twitter use and how it is changing the way music is distributed and marketed.
Check out the discussion between Wyclef Jean and Chris Sacca on the video (below).
Wyclef Jean and Chris Sacca Discuss Twitter at 140conf from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.
Congratulations to Jeff Pulver on pulling together the 140conf and I look forward to more good things to come as it continues to expand to other cities connecting a number of different Twitter groups online.
