In the blogging world they say that "Content is King".  in the world of trade shows and conventions I would have to say attendance is the royalty.  My friend and colleague Chris Brogan runs some events that I was able to attend in San Francisco called the Inbound Marketing Summit.  This last show he ran was a little different from what I was used to seeing in our world of social media and marketing.  The event was a lot like speed dating.  The speakers had 20 minutes to give us their knowledge and impart their wisdom and then it was on to the next item.  Those of you like me with ADD, this is the perfect scenario.  Others might not have been keen on the idea.  Mostly the people complaining were speakers as they had 45 minute slide decks they were pushing into a 15 minute slot and trying to get 5 minutes of questions.  This is a new way of doing things and we may see more of that in the future.  I would love to see this event in Dallas and Boston, but for now I have a couple of conflicts.  Thanks Chris for allowing me to attend and keep up the good work!

Tags: Chris Brogan, Inbound Marketing Summit, San Francisco, Events, Conferences

Freeman created a new exhibit concept for eight Teas city and convention visitors bureaus that received a top award at the recent American Society of Association Executives

annual meeting in San Diego.  The exhibit was named “Best In Show – First Place” in the Island Booth category. 

The island booth had eight pods containing the eight visitor bureaus within the state of Texas, all surrounding off of a center island that had a stage for live musical performances.  This also supplemented by a bar that served refreshments Texas style to participants.  The cities of Arlington, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Houston, Irving, and San Antonio, were grouped together for the exhibit. Sounds like an elaborate exhibit booth but as they say everything is BIG in Texas–well at least elaborate in Texas.  Congratulations from all of us at Convention Insider and Conventions.net to the folks at Freeman on their award.