Heather at Mesh!

Here at BlogCampaigning, we've been pretty big supporters of the Mesh Conference over the past few years. That's why I'm super excited that BlogCampaigning's own Heather Morrison is going to be speaking at Mesh this year! Along with her colleagues Ujwal Arkalgud and Michael Coulson from Sequentia, Heather will be speaking on a panel entitled "Digital Ethnography: How to build a better online community by understanding your audience's culture"

From the description:

"This workshop will introduce you to the power of digital ethnographic research. Through the use of interactive exercises, we will walk you through a practical application of this research method to examine the cultures of two prominent online communities, Reddit and Digg, and spark ideas for how you can use digital ethnography at your organization. Here are three key questions that we will address:

1. What is digital ethnographic research and why is it useful to me?
2. How can the idea of contextual observation, the foundation of ethnographic research, be used to: better understand audiences, optimize marketing initiatives and messages, and better position products and services
3. How can digital ethnographic research be applied to understand and build online communities?"

I'll definitely be heckling live Tweeting this panel, and I encourage you to check it out!

-Parker

Parker's post-mesh Thoughts

I debated long and hard with myself about whether or not I should post about the recent mesh conference. It was a great experience and I feel I should share it with BlogCampaignign readers (meaning: my mom wants to know why I haven't emailed her in so long), but at the same time blogging about an event where everyone spoke mostly about blogging and social media is starting to feel a bit self-referential for me. In the end, Heather took the burden off my shoulders by writing a great post about the lessons she learned at the conference. We didn't go to the exact same sessions, but you get the idea.

To add my own personal touch, I will say that I left the conference feeling incredibly inspired. Despite the economy, there was a sense of optimism at the MaRs centre last week. Every room I was in was full of smart people. Social media junkies, webheads and the technologically inclined have known that the old guard has been on its deathbed for years now. In this respect, the mesh conference was almost a celebration for the attendees. Not only are they poised to take control of the world in the next few years, but its something they've been looking forward to for a long time.

The future is going to be amazing.

-Parker