Passion between IT & Social Media

I attended my first Social Media Club meeting in Silicon Valley when it was hosted at KNT-TV, the NBC affilaite, during a time when it was exploring citizen journalism and ways to get the community involved in its newsgather efforts. That’s when I sat next to Mike McGrath, who became the chapter leader along with my former Intel pal and now KNTV pro Meredith Smith.

Finally, my wish came true. I wanted to host a Social Media Club meeting at Intel, and that wish came true thanks to support from my boss and especially from many Intel pals like Mark Pettinger, Bob Duffy, Laurie Buczek, Josh Hilliker and Aaron Tersteeg. Thanks to several others like Lyn, Denise, Darold, Jason, Patrick, Chris and PodTech’s “Marketing Voices” host Jennfer Jones.

I list the people first because that’s what it’s all about. My friends made it possible to get time with Shel Israel, Dave McClure and Jeremiah Owyang. The evening attracted a somewhat small, but fully engaged audience of PR pros, enterprise tech experts and social media enthusiasts.

Several people pitched in to spread the word, including some who pointed out that the event was available live through UStream.TV (nearly 20 people joined online — see chat pasted below).

This was an evening of sharing, griping, laughing and opening up to directions we can take to implement social media into the companies where we work.

What hit me most what how Shel Israel got things started, warmed up the speakers, engaged the audience and helped make sense of things through his eyes, feelings, thoughts and desires.

Jennifer Jones from PodTech talked about how more marketing pros are getting their footing in social media. What a great mix of experience with PR and marketing history and new exploration with social media!

Dave McClure what the guy who best hit the them — Social Media and the Enterprise, Moving Forward — and Intel’s Bob Duffy showed how Intel is taking concerted efforts to move beyond corporate blogs into community building.

How-People-Use-Technology Guru and original IT@Intel blogger Eleanor Wynn painted historic and human aspects that brought to life the “how we got here” and “how can we face challenges ahead” stories. She is gifted with an ability to listen and understand people, but her present to the audience was some real insight into how people are using social media…peppered with humor and wonder.

Thanks to everyone who visited Intel headquarter and to those who watched when they could. Here is a collection of blog posts related to the Social Media Club, Silicon Valley held at Intel on 10/22:

• Del.cio.us –nine items bookmarked so far
• Mike McGrath’s Blog Talk Radio interview with Eleanor Wynn

What inspired me was the great follow up posts by Jeremiah Owyang, who grounded everything in reality and next steps. Here are one and two great posts that I hope spur more devotion to making social media fit into everyone’s work/life balance…with help of companies and their mighty IT departments….moving at the speed of business. Then Jeremiah “The Social Computing Prophet” finds time to involve more disciples by taking notice that I was sharing his posts with many folks inside Intel. Jeremiah’s posts got over 35 comments so far — wow!