Some events I've attended recently have made me realize it's so easy to go above and beyond the basic conference formula and make it an event that's more valuable for sponsors, attendees, speakers, and people following along online.

Celebrity endorsements are as old as the advertising industry itself. But in the past few years a new type of celebrity endorsement has emerged: we've moved from celebrity as spokesperson to celebrity as "global brand ambassador," someone who aims to raise the global profile and is an ongoing evangelist for the brand.

Looking back on my entrepreneurial journey so far, there were many reasons I'd wanted to say goodbye to the corporate life. But the one that sticks out is the moment I realized that, no matter how hard I worked in my previous role, I'd never make it to the top. I wanted to be the Chief Executive Officer and, for me, the only way to do that was to launch my own venture.

The true humility and humiliation of social media is not what the web analytics tell us: it's what the audience does (or doesn't do) with the content. You can buy audience, links, and clicks, but you can't buy people who care and want to share whatever it is that you are doing.