MRU Shift on May 10, held at Mount Royal University in Calgary, brings together international thought leaders in digital and social media to discuss ‘bridging the gap’ from traditional media to social media. As the community manager for MRU and a speaker from last year’s MRU Shift I am so excited to attend this year and proud to be a part of a university that is forward thinking and a leader in innovative events like this.
The caliber and industry celebrity status of the speakers are a great draw and the panel discussion between them as part of the program will be a rare opportunity to hear candid opinions and insights from those that are leaders in digital and social engagement.
Peter Shankman – As opening keynote for MRU Shift, Peter will talk about the connection to being mobile and customer service; imagine each of your customers walking around every day with the ability to engage and spread the word about you – in their pocket.
Julien Smith – In Julien’s talk on the Adaptation Imperative you will be challenged to see a human + technology world as an ecosystem that is changing faster everyday, and as in nature, your business needs to adapt or perish.
Alexandra Samuel – IRL the online acronym for in real life is explored by Alexandra describing how to ‘love your life online’; stop thinking of what you do online and IRL as two separate strategies for integrated and increased engagement.
Chris Brogan – As closing keynote, Chris will speak about a concept he calls the Human Digital Channel which understands no matter what the technology, to be successful we need to a human approach.
What I am hoping to learn from the ‘bridging the gap’ discussions is about the next level of community engagement. We all know that social media is not a magic solution for marketing and communications and does not take the place of in person relationships. Many brands and organizations such as MRU have grown their online presence past the information push, past customer service into (mostly) meaningful conversation with our audiences. Now what? How do you take these conversations and relationships into human real life, and vice versa, for real impact with your audience. For MRU communities I want to see the lines between public relations, marketing, social media and customer service blur to create customer engagement and community.
How to get the most out of MRUshift
Conferences are not meant to give you the formula or the ‘how to’ do social media for your business, this is always going to be up to you. Attending a conference is much more than passively sitting in your seat and waiting for the eureka moment where you realize ‘that’s what I should be doing!’ and write down a 3 step plan to success. The key to getting the most out of a conference like MRU Shift is to have a game plan ahed of time:
- Have an open mind and prepare yourself to absorb information and learn. Knowing ahead of time that much of the information will be larger, thought-provoking concepts means you will not be furiously writing down bullet points from the speaker’s slides. Give your full attention to the speakers. Listen. Absorb. Reflect.
- Jot down the ideas that stand out to you during (or even better) after each speaker when you have had a minute to think back on what the important ideas conveyed were. I would recommend to NOT tweet every phrase and idea during the presentation which is common; this means you are focusing on providing your followers with information rather than truly listening to what is being said, and could miss your ‘aha” moment.
- Network and meet other people at the conference that are not a part of your own circle. A great benefit of conferences like MRU Shift is to meet and interact with like-minded people IRL. Be active; ask why they are attending and what they hope to get out of the conference, what is the best thing they have learned so far, how will this affect what they do in business? Exchange business cards and connect with them online and keep the conversation going.
- Agree to give colleagues or your boss a presentation shortly after the conference is over. Not only will this share great information you learned with your team, knowing you need to relay information to others makes you pay better attention to each speaker!
- Take the top 5 or 10 ideas that you took away from the conference and ask yourself (and your team); how could this apply to what we do? This is a great exercise to go through – write down each of your top ideas on its own flip chart paper. Then brainstorm for each one how your business could apply it in real ways. Brainstorm as many ideas for each as you can and then go through all the ideas and choose the best ones for you. Do them.
I am so excited to hear from each of the speakers, we are so lucky to have them come to MRU Shift! I cannot wait to have my ideas challenged, my mind blown and be inspired to make changes on how MRU bridges the gap between online with traditional IRL.
If you are considering attending MRU Shift register now, the early bird deadline is April 23, 2012!