The #140conf is a traveling conference created to share the effect the social web has on business and society. Attendees are immersed in a day-long marathon of micro-presentations and panels on a variety of topics that reflect the industries and trends of whatever city the conference happens to be in. Produced by Jeff Pulver who is part philanthropist, part "American Internet Entrepreneur", the #140Conf has been held in major cities all over the globe– New York City, San Francisco, Barcelona, Detroit, Tel Aviv... The conference will make its way to Main Street on November 1st with its first #140conf Small Town. I recently attended the #140conf in Boston and found it to be both stimulating and a bit overwhelming. The speakers and subjects changed with dizzying speed – every 15 minutes. If you can hang in, you can absorb a massive amount of new information in record time. And if it all becomes too much, you can always beat a hasty retreat (as I did) to the Boston Public Library for a lunch hour of complete silence. Or, you can take advantage of the free yoga session. Ommmmmmmmm The topics and speakers at the Boston conference varied wildly from health care to music to law enforcement to politics to nonprofits. As a result, the auditorium was continuously awash with tweetable quotes. Videos and pics of the entire day are archived here. Some of the juiciest tweets are right here: @cspenn on the good you can do with social: “You can be a Superhero. Are you ready?” @johnbaloney on Deschooling the state of now: “Technology can rescue the learning experience.” @bhsprincipal @sanmccarron @baldy7 on Real-Time Education and the lack thereof: “It’s bordering on malpractice how much schools are not using technology & social tools.” @universalhub, @dabeard, @mleccese, @kordmiller and @tmcenroe’s on the effect of the Real-Time Web on News Gathering: “Twitter is what the hell journalism.” @cc_chapman’s on why marketers should pay more attention to daddy bloggers: “Why isn’t there an Amazon dad program?” @jeffcutler on citizen reporting vs journalism: “Social media can’t make you a journalist unless you’re practicing journalism.” @dewittn on his story of being a “disappeared child” in war-torn El Salvador and reuniting with his family through social: “The only way my parents could change the world was to pick up arms. You have social tools.” @JessicaRMurray @andydixn on how 30 Nashville volunteers launched YouthTurns, a non-profit that helped keep kids out of prison with a 24-hour design-a-thon: “Changing the world is in our hands.” @amandapalmer @cyperpr @matthewebel @spinaltap Music Panel on how the social web has changed the music industry’s business model: “Access is replacing ownership.” “Musicians will be able to fire their agent, manager and record label.” @CarissaO @healthyjack @shwen on How the healthcare industry is leveraging the real-time web: “Patients are taking control of their health and connecting with their peers around it via the social web.” “Providers use social to share accurate health information and to learn.”
Social immersion, coming to a city near you
