Courtesy of the iPhone
Tonight I attended the best professional meeting I’ve ever been to in Milwaukee which was hosted by Spreenkler. Spreenkler as described by their web site is a meetup/agency/idea which focuses to accelerate business creativity and innovation. Tonight, Milwaukee’s creative professionals and entrepreneurs gathered at The Residences At Hotel Palomar for a night of informative conversation and networking.
The feature speaker was none other than our very own Mayor, Tom Barrett. He covered many topics including the economy, local and national, his plan for our great city, and how us as creative professionals can work together to reach a common objective of making this place the best city to live and work.
Despite our down economy, Milwaukee must remain competitive. This means recruiting and retaining top performers, including keeping current local college grads here in the city. From the downtown culture, to public transportation (rail!) and the industries that call Milwaukee their home, there are many factors that determine who stays and who goes. Our image will be a big factor in this. As Mayor Barrett said, we need people to forget about the East Coast and the West Coast, and start thinking about the FRESH COAST! We need to define ourselves (our brand) and stop letting others define us.
Not only were the people in attendance the most passionate people I have seen, but the most unique. The reason? TWITTER. Now I’m not saying that Twitter made this event possible, it was only a small factor. I bring up Twitter for several reasons. First, this is how I found out about Spreenkler. From some simple research on other Milwaukee professionals, I was able to follow updates and become involved. This is how I got introduced to Steve Glynn, the mastermind behind Spreenkler who I met for the first time in person today.
Also in attendance was Al Krueger, the man behind Comet Branding and Cd Vann, owner of Magazine Soho. I first contacted Al during a Comet Branding radio show he was doing, via Twitter. Al was live in a interview with Mike Hafertepe, Regional Vice Preseident Great Lakes Region of Subaru, and he asked his followers to submit their questions. So sure enough, I submitted mine through Twitter, and moments later as I was listening to the show, my question was aired. (I asked about the brand of Subaru as a cult following, and related it back to our local Harley-Davidson, which similarly also has an amazing cult following.) It was pretty amazing at the time just seeing how social media can enhance our communcation and keep us well connected.
The important takeaway – all of these people I have mentioned started out as people I met through Twitter – never would I have probably met them otherwise. And as I walked around the event, all I heard was “Twitter this”, “Twitter that”. People were discussing how they found others and this event all through this free online service. And it was refreshing seeing many people above my generation taking hold of such useful social media (no offense X’ers…and Boomers!).
In all, it was a great night of learning and an experience that confirms why this is all so worthwhile.
#1 by Ben - January 8th, 2009 at 05:18
Great to see that Twitter is making an impact on both the local business/intellectual scene, and across a mixed generational group. Bodes well for the growing acceptance and use of convenient and efficient social media tools across all user. Should drive more innovative usage and increase the reach and impact of tools like twitter i.e. if your not plugged in, you don’t know/can’t be reached, so it is good the locoal twitter population is growing, hopefully in balance with the rest of the country for once.
#2 by Mike - January 8th, 2009 at 06:39
Awesome time it was!