NCMPR 2012 - San Francisco - Day Two

I had no idea that the thirty minutes leading up to the presentation would be such a rush.  First, Renee needed to dash back to the Huntington Hotel - we missed the cut for getting digs in the conference hotel - as she had forgotten the clicker.  Then I realized that it would be our laptop that we would be using to launch our prezi and I had to run back to get the power cord - the last thing either of us wanted was to run out of juice half way through.

We had been stewing about this day for weeks, trying to parse together a presentation that would be useful for our colleagues from institutions both large and small.  The shape of it started to come together about a week ago, though we made changes on the fly, even as late as the night before.  We had picked up a few tricks from Derek DeVries who had used a prezi for his "How not to be a social media noob" pre-conference session on Sunday.

The addition of Kony 2012 fell on our laps in just the last few days.  The humanitarian viral campaign has been picking up steam since the 30-minute video was upload to YouTube last Monday.  As of this morning, and only eight days later, it has attracted over 76 million views.

"How many people know what this image is about?" I asked the standing room only crowd of about 100 in our opening breakout session starting Day #2 of the NCMPR national conference.  "Quietly, please raise your hand."

Slowly but surely, most everyone lifted their arms above their heads.

"That ladies and gentlemen, is social media magic."

Only three or four people in the room were left wondering what all the fuss was about.

It strikes me that the presentation will lend itself quite well to a blog, as we had scripted the whole thing out in advance to make sure we were good for time.  So, my plan is to get "Making Social Media Magic" on here as a separate entry in a couple of days.

We both felt that it went exceptionally well, with lots of great questions, interaction and interest. And as I glanced down at my watch and saw that we had reached the end of our time, our final thoughts were within reach.

"The only mistake you can possible make is to think too small."

This is a great line, originally spoken at a Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Council meeting by my esteemed colleague (and fan of San Francisco) Allan Vinni.  He corrected me by email last night, saying that the original quote had "dream" instead of "think", though he likes (and approves) the use of the word think, as it's something he likes to do a lot.

"Focus not on your limitations, but on your opportunities.  Think beyond the obvious and imagine the possible."

"Thank you."

It was 9:15 on the nose and our social media magic story had come to an end.

This was so much fun, especially putting it together and delivering it with my partner in crime Renee Summers.  Thanks to NCMPR for the opportunity to stretch ourselves in this process, encouraging us to take a step forward and share some of our ideas.  While Renee organizes conferences and I attend them (lots of them with my dual roles), this was our first opportunity to get in front of the microphone and it was a great experience thanks to the energy that every single person brought into that room.  Thank you.