Thanks to everyone who attended today’s Lowell Social Media Conference.  With 61 names on the sign-in sheet, our audience grew considerably in size this year.  Thanks especially to Lowell Telecommunications Corp which co-sponsored and ably hosted the event, especially Gloria Polites and Steve Brogan.  An intern from LTC video recorded the conference so once the resulting file is edited and uploaded we’ll share the link with everyone.

Thanks especially to our presenters who were:

City Councilor Dan Rourke on how the city of Lowell uses social media

Lily Lynch of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network on how to organize a major social media campaign

Brian Bahia of Stellar Web Studios on current trends in web design, especially the intersection of social media and websites

Greg Page and Ed Bayiates of Merrimack Analysis Group on how your online activities are tracked and used by big business

Besides these main presenters, we heard from others who use social media to share their message with the community.  These included:

Mindy Dopler-Nelson of Lowell Bike Coalition

Emil Kurivilla of Entrepreneurship of All (formerly Merrimack Valley Sandbox)

Bopha Malone of Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association

Phil Lupsiewicz and Dave Byers of Lowell National Historical Park

Chris Hayes and Aurora Erickson of Learning Lowell

Sara Marks of the Lowell Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon

Jay Mason of 350MA of Lowell on fossil fuel divestment

Joy Uyeno of UMass Lowell

John Noto of Lowell Makes

And to paraphrase my friend and co-blogger Paul Marion, “to have a great conference, you must have a great audience” and we certainly had that today.

While this was labeled the “2^nd annual Lowell Social Media Conference” it is actually the sixth organized gathering of people from Lowell who are interested in and active on social media and the Lowell blogosphere.  I announced today that the 3^rd annual Lowell Social Media Conference will be held next year on the first Saturday in December so save the date.  In the meantime, I urge others to organize similar gatherings at other times during the year.  While I think today was an information-filled event, I also believe we would have benefited by attendees having more time just to chat and mingle.  So let’s get together again at Elliot’s Hot Dogs or Top Donut or someplace new, just as we have in the past.  Give me the date, time and place and I’ll be there.

City Councilor Dan Rourke

Lily Lynch of Mass Nonprofit Network

Brian Bahia of Stellar Web Studios

Ed Bayiates & Greg Page of Merrimack Analysis Group

Our great audience