I needed to plug my laptop into a wall socket, so I could check my email. I am the last person on the planet with a "dumb phone," which you receive for free when you sign up for the plan. I saw a man sitting with his back against the wall typing into his laptop. I figured the wall socket was right behind him. I walked toward him, bent my knees, and asked him if he could plug his laptop in my extension cord, so I could use the spare socket.
Warren Bobrow freelance editor and writer for the Wild River Review, shared his learning experience in attending the 140 Character Conference. I met Warren sharing an extension cord to keep our laptops powered.
"It's a life-changing experience to be around people who are interesting, interested, and love to eat," Warren claimed. "We don't fill our stomachs just to eat, we fill our stomachs to fill our souls.
Attending events such as the 140 Character conference, Warren has been able to cover topics for which he is passionate, like biodynamic wines and restaurant reviews.
"The ability of having interpersonal communication, speaking with a smile, sharing with people and learning what someone else is doing, has made me the person that I am today."
Over 180 speakers spoke such as Ivanka Trump, who spoke during my 140 Second Series on how the Trump Organization, is leveraging the real-time web to engage people.
"It was very nice to talk about our initiatives in engaging our audience in the social interactive space, particularly on Facebook and Twitter," Ivanka stated. "It's been a great forum to setup a dialog."
Lynn Rose wrote and performed the social media anthem. Lynn spoke on how to use video to raise awareness to your online presence.
"You need to recognize that you have a voice and it's heard, and it's recognized across the board," Lynn noted.
Some of the challenges in promoting that voice include the management of the distribution channels.
"The challenge is making the right choice," Lynn argued. "You're going to go to Facebook, you're going to go to Twitter, you have Vimeo it takes so much time to get caught up with that, know that you could make it happen because creation is not defined by time."
Lynn cited her results in putting together the video for the social media anthem, using digital networks. Lynn managed to organize Grammy-award winning producers and globally renowned headliners, like Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins, to work on the piece and complete it in nine days.
Cathy Brooks is a business strategy consultant who spoke on how company stakeholders should engage online communities with their personal stories on what it took to build their organizations.
"Teaching people how to connect the who with what," Cathy said. "Why who you are, your personal story matters in business."
Her formula constitutes unpacking your personal narrative and incorporating it into your brand's story. Cathy had just launched a platform, which teaches people how to tell their brand's story. She shared some of the challenges everybody shares in launching a new platform.
"Time not enough of it," Cathy argued. "Money not enough of it, and resources not enough of those."
Cathy states that our personalities and quirks as human beings have never mattered more as much as now.
Matthew Ebel is a rock pianist who was called in by Jeff Pulver to play some of his music in the "Meet in Greet" lobby of the 140 Character conference. Matthew was also in attendance to answer any questions on how musicians can use Twitter.
"The biggest challenge is that they just don't get it," Matthew said. "They see it as a way to tell people what they're having for lunch."
Matthew believes that musicians should be using anyway available to speak to their fans. The real-time web is a space with open lines of communication with fans. Musicians should be on it.
"I've been able to actually find places to stay on tour," Matthew recalls. "Well I've got a show tomorrow and no place to sleep can anybody help me? My fans will tweet it out and somebody will retweet and eventually somebody will come in; it's an emergency broadcast system of the new millennium."
Paul Murnane is a "reporter for WCBS 880 in New York. Paul interviewed some speakers and attendees of the event. He was most interested in the various ways in which the real-time web can be used.
"If you walk and find 100 people in the room, you'll find a hundred different ways and that's the amazing thing," Paul said. "How companies are building devices like cameras and phones which can be used with Twitter; somebody will talk about how it has transformed politics; other's about its business application."
Paul cited how discussions on the senate and the house floor can be documented on platforms like Twitter and the event can be broadcast to thousands in seconds.
"It's faster than television," Paul stated. "The ability to watch something and process it; somebody could look at something write something up and then have it on the web instantly."
AJ Leon and his wife, Melissa Leon, run the Twitter kids project The project teaches kids how to use social media to communicate with people overseas. Children who have never used computers can learn from other people anywhere on the planet.
Melissa Leon works in Spanish Harlem, where AJ says children are not allowed to use social media websites in schools because they are believed to be solely a source of entertainment. The educational value of digital networks is not recognized.
"Within the developing world, taking things over there, they just appreciate it," AJ said. "There are no real challenges besides the technological challenges of getting internet up; if you can figure out a way to get internet up, then you can connect the world."
AJ states that children in Tanzania have now amassed hundreds of Twitter followers because of the Twitter kids project. Many have started their own blogs. They launched the project in October of 2009.
Oz Sultan, Executive Strategy Consultant at Esultancy, spoke on how social media has affected death of friends and family and associated reunions.
"Some time ago, things happened in your life, people passed, different events, and it was memorialized in rock," Oz said. "Now its memorialized, time and memorial, on the web."
Oz touched on how would people be remembered if they pass in this decade or the next. A lot of personal information on somebody who has passed is archived on the web. People are congregating online more frequently than in person. Oz argues that reunions are more meaningful due to the added real-time connection on the web.
"When my buddy died, the best way to disseminate everything was on Facebook. So everything from when the memorial service would be; when the funeral would be to who was going to be available to go, to the funeral to how we were going to coordinate different memorial events after we had his memorial service," Oz said. "All of these different pieces were coordinated on Facebook, obviously through Eventbrite; a lot of information was spread on Twitter and blogs;
Adam Wallace is the director of digital marketing at the Roger Smith Hotel. The Roger Smith Hotel has held many social media training events and parties. At smart camp and art camp, speakers from the Museum of Modern Art and other arts organizations taught artists how to use social media to promote their work.
Adam has also held events with Mashable and SXSW. Their main focus has been to teach on how small businesses can use social media to compete with bigger organizations.
"Us being a family-owned and operated hotel, we're using Facebook, Twitter, social media platforms to be able to compete with some of the big-chain hotels," Adam stated. "We speak about how small businesses can leverage the power of people, community and networks to really build an audience and really be able to compete with some of the big chains."
Adam said that the Roger Smith Hotel will be holding many private parties. They organized a number of events for social media week and have more lined up for Internet week.
Kosha Dillz and Flex Matthews were commissioned by Jeff Pulver to deliver a social media hip-hop performance before the 140 Character Conference community.
"We bumrushed the GaryVee keynote in South by Southwest in front of a 1,000 people," Kosha said. "These video cameras popped out of people's pockets and started filming us, and it's been jumping off ever since."
Kosha and Flex are doing a video on MTV and touring with Snoop Doggy Dog in Amsterdam. They even dropped a little 140 Character conference freestyle.
Phil Thomas Dejulio, co-founder of Pegshot.com is attending the 140 Character Conference and shot a video of me video interviewing Ivanka Trump. Philip uploaded the video instantly on his iPhone.
"It's all about sharing media; so video, photo, audio what we're doing right now," Phil said. "While you're doing these interviews, there is a way to share that information instantly as opposed to just archiving it. It's all about real-time right?"
Phil developed an iPhone app, which allows people to shoot video, upload it instantly to the web, and tag it with location parameters such as the names and locations of coffee shops, events or wherever you are on the planet.
Phil discussed an issue that arose in Haiti, where an image of an earthquake aftermath was captured and uploaded to the web. Viewers thought it was another earthquake in Haiti, when it was in fact a doctored photo of an earthquake aftermath over 10 years ago.
"That's an issue with real time; everybody is tweeting and sharing information but they could be sharing the wrong information," Phil said. "So what is important now is the ability to share not only what's going on where you are but the visual information to prove that this occurring; not only what's occurring but where it is as well."
Neal Rodriguez features some of the brightest minds in cyberspace including thought-leaders in social media marketing and search engine optimization on nealrodriguez.com, where he provides social media and blog training.