Brian Solis and Jason Falls more Epic than KC Snowfall

[Jenn Bailey]

Ben Smith, the Face and Founder of Social:IRL, put on an event yesterday titled: Explore and Engage.

It was in Wichita.

That meant it was a 2+ hour delightful pastoral drive into the heart of Kansas and a 5+ hour white-knuckled arctic adventure roller coaster back home.

Was it worth it?

You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!!

Who were the tag team speakers for Social: IRL - Explore and Engage? Brian Solis and Jason Falls.

Do you really need adjectives? Okay. Start with these: Brilliant, Witty, Insightful, Delightful, Innovative, Inspiring, Generous and Approachable.

I could go on, but let's go on.

Brian Solis (the Engage half) started us off and, besides being a snazzy dresser, his vision s fo r 2011, 2012 and beyond were both passionate and motivating. What is social media doing to us as leaders? It is giving us the platform and the power to BE a distribution network.  

Brian talked about Digital Darwinism, the other term for Engage or Die. He told us this movement we are seeing is not about Twitter or about Facebook or any of the other networking tools that are currently out there. It is about the change that these tools have brought to the marketplace. Whether these tools last or don’t doesn’t matter, because the change in how we do business has already happened and is here to stay.

The part I liked most in Brian’s keynote was when he talked about the Audience within the Audience. What does that mean? Well, Brian asked how many of us were tweeting. It was a social media event. A good ¾ of us raised our hands. He smiled and said, “So, while I’m talking to you I’m also talking through you to who you are talking to.” Think about it. There were 100+ of us in the room. But through our tweets, how many was Brian actually reaching? Yeah! Scary good stuff.

Jason Falls (our Explore half) came on next. Brian had given us the pep talk and now Jason took out the proverbial white board and we got down to business. And let me tell you something, this man knows his business. Jason told us that we needed to be nimble and responsive to our audience, but that we also needed to be grounded and make sure there was an underlying plan, a method to our madness. He shared more tools and tips and tactics than I could possibly keep up with. That is why I am forever grateful that he will be sharing his deck with us. He delved right into some of these measuring an d monitoring tools and took the “eek!” and “huh?” right out of them. He showed us all the cool parts and why they’re relevant to what we are trying to do.

What made listening to Jason more than a whirlwind of “how to?” All the best bits came with hilarious stories. All the tough bits came with encouragement. All the confusing bits came with clarification. This was no dry reading of a product manual. This was a guided tour through the geektastic possibilities of the interwebs with an enthusiastic Kentuckian at the wheel. Loved it!

So, “Bravo” to Ben Smith and Social: IRL for putting together a great event. Yes, there was some drive time. Yes, there was some weather. But I don’t care where he decides to host the next one. For content like this I’ll go anywhere.

 

[SceneStealerEric]

Nice work, Jen! Good to know you made it home safe! I thought both speakers were very inspiring and asked tough questions.Also, the event itself couldn't have been better organized--bravo, Ben!

[Joe Cox]

Great work Jenn!!!  A very good summary indeed, and I love that picture!

[Lisa Qualls]

Great summary Jenn, made me wish I could have been there! Glad all the KC peeps made it back safe and sound.

Cheers,

Lisa