140 | Twitter Conference offers value beyond the hype
I wrote last week that Twitter is becoming nothing special and, of course, I meant that in a good way. Twitter has become a solid part of our social ecosystem for both business and pleasure, whether we like it or not. Over the course of the last year the use of Twitter for business has exploded and one-off tutorials are coming out of the woodwork faster than Tiger Woods' girlfriends. Fear not, confused information consumer. There's a place to go learn about all things Twitter and business without self-promotional hype: 140 | Twitter Conference (#140tc), presented in Seattle on March 8 by Parnassus Group.
This isn't the first Twitter Conference, of course. The Parnassus Group has hosted similar events in both Mountain View and Los Angeles. In fairness of disclosure, I've personally been involved in a couple of the #140tc conferences. Why? What separates it from other secondary conferences of the same ilk is that it doesn't just offer the same big-name speakers over and over again. It does attract some rock stars -- and even some bona fide celebrities for certain events -- but it really focuses on bringing in folks who aren't just thought leaders in the space, but who are successfully using Twitter hands-on in their jobs. Or, those folks who build the applications that make our businesses, or personal social network use, run much more smoothly. Check out some of these speakers:
- Damon Cortesi, Untitled Startup
- H.B. Siegel, IMBd.com
- Brad Nelson, Starbucks
- Adam Loving, Twibes
- Shauna Causey, Comcast
- Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite
- Rich Harris, Seagate
These are all speakers who have hands-on experience building the applications and best practices against which large and small companies have modeled their own social network use. Other speakers include Ben Parr, Maya and Kathy E. Gill.
Taking the Twitter networking and education beyond the usual conference, Parnassus Group is partnering with Chevrolet to put on a Tweet House event at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi). The group will take over Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop on March 12 for a day of sessions and parties. The event is invitation-only, but people can request invites by contacting the organizers.
Registration for 140 | Twitter Conference in Seattle is available here.