In my last post, I reviewed the first half of the IABC 2009 World Conference as I saw it (and how I tweeted about it) and how Twitter was a huge part of the conference. Now I’d like to review the second half and the powerful speakers who helped shape the focus and energize the attendees.

Tuesday was, of course, followed by Monday night, and the IABC Heritage Region reception where I met @kathryncobb (from Chicago, its a long story how she wound up at the Heritage Reception) and two friends I’d made the night before at the Welcoming Reception at the Ferry Building (pictured here) in San Francisco. Laura Stone Bell and Erin Sullivan from Jones Day were, as many IABCers are, welcoming, friendly, and a lot of fun. Long story short, the four of us wound up at Halmand Palace, an Afghan restaurant in SF. The food was delicious, it was my first time having such cuisine, but Kathryn, who grew up in Pakistan, explained to us first how to pronounce  what we would be eating and what is typically in the food of that region. Seems her father a doctor, took her family to Pakistan when she was young to show villagers how to cut down on infant-mortality and other health-risks and the family lived in northern Pakistan until she was 17. Another world-shrinking moment for me as a result of my involvement with IABC.

Tuesday General Session:
I was frankly too enthralled by Robert Swan, OBE to tweet much during his speech to IABC. His insights into leadership, the environment and our own sustainability as a planet where spot on, and I’m proud of IABC as an organization which brings us such speakers and walks the walk with its own environmental practices. Gone are the days of water bottles, huge conference programs and directories at IABC conferences, instead opting for more online resources for speaker notes and glasses and water jugs in the session rooms.  Why do such sessions make us so thirsty? Bravo IABC!

Tuesday Morning:
BJ Fogg, Ph.D. presentation Design for Behavior Change: Why Facebook and Twitter are winning was awesome. His insights into to how design can make people act, for me, was worth the price of the entire conference and yet, it was only one of the many sessions I attended. BJ broke down the complex nature of behavioral studies and design into clean, fun, and powerful examples. His session was the first I ran into that the speaker didn’t want anyone blogging about his presentation as he is publishing a book about the topic. He didn’t mind the occasional tweet about it, so I’ll respect his work and limit my review of the presentation to my tweets: Behavior change through on line video very interesting. Start small…; BJ Fogg improv with audience members very funny. Good sports and adventurous Adam, Eve and Serpent #iabc09 persuasion behaviormodel.org; BJ Fogg pain/pleasure core motivators hope/fear social belonging other core motivators; BJ Fogg behavior is all about motivation and ability. Make it simple, to motivate “view your world through this filter.”; We live in a one click world – BJ Fogg.

Tuesday Afternoon:
After a lunch out by Union Square, where I caught some of the 47th Annual Cable Car Bell-ringing Contest. I was back at the conference for the Web 2.0 and internal communication panel discussion with Deborah Moore, from here in Philly, Karen Horn, from Washington State and Jeremy Schultz (@jschultz) from the state of Oregon and Intel. This discussion really found its legs when it was opened up to questions from the audience. It seemed the post-lunch energy level of the panel was a bit off as the majority of the session was very low-key and the examples were nothing earth-shattering. Tweets speak for themselves: T10 web 2.0 presentation needs more energy. Speakers seem very laid back. GSK Intranet homepage the busiest I’ve ever seen.; T10 Web 2.0 a second wind has liven up the presentation with questions from the audience. D. Moore is quite the comic “youtwitface”; RT @disruptivethink #iabc09 – check out ibm beehive -http://bit.ly/1Tejt Intranet based on facebook; RT @llibitz #iabc09 T10 – Web 2.0 tools don’t replace the traditional emp. comm tools (printed pubs, f2f, etc.) just augments them – AMEN!

While I was sitting in the Web 2.0 presentation I was also following along with on Twitter the other presentation going on through my fellow Twitter-journalists such as @BryanPerson who was conducting a Twitter session for communicators. It was the first time that that’s happened at an IABC conference and it was like a sub-conference of information going on.

All-Star Session Tuesday Afternoon:
I chose Shel Holtz @shel for my late afternoon session and his topic News Releases in the Social Media Era. I’ve seen Shel present several times and he, like most of the all-star presenters, never fails to deliver. He captured the mood of the present state of print-publications, newspapers and magazines and then set about explaining how social media, the web and the up and coming workforce are changing the rules. I found it very interesting how IABC has sponsored the creation of standards for the social media news release, or as Shel said it should be called the Media Packet, as it contains more than stale quotes and boilerplates. It’s holds logos, video, images, key content, facts, and links to what others are saying on the web. My tweets: Traditional press releases are dead or dying as they were designed for print when most journalism is moving online. #iabc09 shel holtz as5; @shel sncr.org shel founding partner of society of new communication research. #IABC09 SNCR; Online press releases work to push folks to Corp. Websites and interview requests, but it must be news; @shel Mayo Clinic uses YouTube and wordpress to spread its news no video bandwidth used at Mayo US Dept of Labor on twitter; @shel ”Communicators need to learn SEO it’s the price of admission” learn how to use keywords. #iabc09 focus on first 250 words of pr; #iabc09 pressreleasegrader.com can be used to test your online press release before you release it. @shel can only analyze ones in English.; “PDFs don’t work as online press releases. Avoid them at all times.” @shel #iabc09; @shel IABC is sponsoring and pushing the social media release. Lots of controversy followed. #iabc09; @shel showing core facts, links, and multimedia (video, logos, images) of the social media press release. #iabc09; @shel research aids include tags, links, and what other people are saying about this release #iabc09 boilerplate, contact and SM links.; @shel PRXbuilder, Pitchengine, storycrafter, realwire are all Social Media Release creators. #iabc09 all trying 2 standardize.

Dine-Around: An IABC Tradition:
I chose Nettie’s Crab Shack for the San Francisco Dine-Around, as I like seafood. Little did I know the lack of seafood most Canadians from Calgary, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the like have access to in their hometowns. It explains why out of 9 of us at dinner only three including our host David Kilgman from the SF chapter of IABC where from outside the U.S. – Simon Hardaker from Great Britain and I had to explain why we chose the restaurant. It was a great meal and good company and we all got to know a bit more about each other. Adrianne Hartley Lovric explained how she was recently married, but was just now getting to met her in-laws as her husband was from Croatia. The International in IABC can be overemphasized, I learn how small the U.S. is in the world and yet I was asked repeatedly by those from other countries what Americans thought of our new president. I suggest the Cobb Louis salad at Nettie’s Crab Shack, by-the-way.

Wednesday Morning:
Sam Harrison @zingzone from Georgia got our creative juices flowing in his session the Three Ps for more Creative Marketing – passion, performance and pitch. My tweets can’t cover the inspiration I felt during this session and beyond as I’ve started on some project back here in office. #iabc09 where are we in a rut in our lives? Sam Harrison 3ps where are we not creative because of our “velvet rut” – our comfortable zone. Passion fuels creativity and we need to practice Kaizen and stretch our selves. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Learn not to be careful- D. Arbus – take risks and be willing to take risks. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Harvest your mistakes. Good mistakes = strong procedure/bad results 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Sometimes you need to go against the rules of your org. And personal rules. Stop worrying what other people think. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Dave Eggers and the story of 826 Valencia – go against the rules. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Don’t fool yourselves and get galumping (L. Carroll ) 3ps of marketing tap your childhood creativity and whimsy. #iabc09; Throwing paper airplanes with inspiration phrases images at each other in Sam Harrisons sessions. FUN #iabc09 3ps of marketing; (the paper I picked up by the way simply said “Oz” on it, I think it’s fate, as I’m a huge Baum fan and collect all the Oz books, serendipity!) Great inspirational stories of people looking at the ordinary in new ways. #iabc09 3ps of marketing find the opportunity in the ordinary.; Popping bubble wrap in Harrison’s session pop pop pop take the ordinary and turn it into extraordinary. #iabc09; Get outside and get outside ourselves. 3ps of marketing #IABC09 get inspired by nature. Playpumps.com; Good/bad stuff lists – you find the good always outweighs the bad. 3ps of marketing #iabc09 list what good stuff happened to u today and bad; Stop saying “they just don’t get it.” it’s our job to make sure they get it. Prepare, not about you it’s about the decision makers #IABC09; Ask if it’s a good time to present your ideas, and be passionate. – Harrison #iabc09; Missle defense system prior to presenting anticipate objections (missles) and your defenses – Harrison #iabc09 be persistent.

Closing Session:
I can’t pretend to do justice to Sir Ken Robinson’s, Ph.D.  closing speech to IABC. All I can say is buy his book(s). Out of Our Minds and The Element. You won’t be disappointed. If we all found our passion the world would be a much better and happier place. The conference ended fittingly with a standing ovation.

Let’ keep the dialogue going. What did you think of the conference, a session in particular, what have you done since the conference that was a direct result of attending? What did you think of the Twitter coverage or my summary?

Until next time, Tim