I spent yesterday (10/6/2011) and today at Converge South.
ConvergeSouth is the annual Web/Social Media/Mobile App conference held in Greensboro, NC. This year it was held at North Carolina A&T University. The conference is organized completely by volunteers and this year is it’s 7th year. Originally based on the “blogger-con” concept, ConvergeSouth has grown as technology has developed and has tried to meet new needs of it’s community via Social Networking, Social Media, App Development and more without ignoring new users’ needs – that’s why there will always be a “101″ or Beginners Track at ConvergeSouth.
This year’s agenda was packed full with lots of good information. Here is the Agenda.
I got to hear presentations from lots of well informed and experienced people including:
Mark Schaefer, Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and world renown blogger @ {grow}.
Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager at Bing, SEO guru and author.
Tom Webster, Vice President, Strategy, for Edison Research, most widely-known as the sole provider of U.S. Election exit polling data to all major media outlets.
I enjoyed and learned from the presentations delivered by numerous local specialists including:
Hey – It’s a Social Media event – Here are the good people’s twitter handles.
@_DavidHorne_
@1918
@brandonburke
@EFadiman
@iamjohnford
@JeffSanGeorge
@KateMorris
@kevinbriody
@KristenDaukas
@laurenpolinsky
@marktzk
@rickamme
@SuePolinsky
and many others whose name’s & twitter handles escape me
Beyond the great conversations by the presenters, I also benefited from the informal and enjoyable conversations with dozens of participants in the hallways, restaurants and even bars.
I am now following a new group of tweeps who I hope to continue learning from and I added a bunch of new followers to my own twitter stream.
The cost to me for this event was a whopping $75 plus travel (only 60 miles from my home in Davie County). The education I received and the people I got to know during this day and a half event is well worth this small cost.
The entire event was put together by a volunteer committee, the logistics, scheduling and materials put together by volunteers. Thank you very much to everyone who helped make this event both enjoyable and a success for myself and my fellow attendees.
I look forward to attending next years event.
Teddy Burriss 