Today’s hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson. (Photo credit: Lee Odden (TopRankBlog; Flickr).

Joining us on the podcast is a brand new Minnov8 contributor and participant, Gary Koelling, who is Senior Manager, Social Technology at Best Buy Inc. After interactions with Graeme Thickins — who isn’t bashful about promoting Minnov8 — Gary decided he’d like to create for Minnov8 and completed the form (hint: you could too!).

Gary is the founder of BlueShirtNation.com, Giftag.com and leads several social technology projects within Best Buy. He describes himself as a tinkerer, gadfly (and an aspiring iconoclast), reader, tryer (someone who tries), teacher and listener (with a fairly tuned bullshit meter). Due to the success of the efforts he’s involved in, and the high profile of our hometown consumer electronics retailing giant, Gary has been able to talk to lots of people and companies around the country about social media and social technology.

Our favorite quote about his speaking around the country from his LinkedIn profile? “I don’t know if it’s helping, but I enjoy it.” We sure think so since he’s in-the-game, taking risks, experimenting and driving towards high value outcomes for his employer.

LINKS
Here are links to sites, products or other resources discussed during the podcast:

• Good economic news for MN tech firms in Q4 2008: MTS revs up 9%, EPS up 21% (view MTS “Test Suite“) and NVE up 24%, EPS up 44% (view NVE “Fun Facts” page)
• Mashable article on 40 Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them (Scroll down to the “Retail” section)
• Fortune Top 100 Best Places to Work: Mayo (24th) and General Mills (39th) as great places to work (via MNHeadhunter)
• Forbes listing America’s Top Most Wired Cities: Minneapolis is #7 on the list
• The (mostly mythological) “Osborne Effect” but is there some reality to it in an online world?
• Macintosh image editors increasingly used by Tim Elliott: Acorn and Pixelmator
• Gary headed to Etail in Phoenix and a Computerworld event (both he and his cohort and colleague, Steve Bendt)
• EVENTS: Social Media Breakfast 1/30/09; Minnedemo (RSVP if you want to get in!) 2/6/09; Unsummit 3/7/09.

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 22 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Based upon feedback we’ve received from you and many other listeners, the Gang is increasing the pace of the show and getting to areas of interest in a tighter show format.

In today’s show, a few links mentioned include:

+ Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit

+ The concurrent UnSummit that occurred for those unable to get into the MIMA Summit 

+ TechCrunch article on the credit crunch

+ “With credit tight, young companies keep closer eye on cash” by Katharine Grayson, Twin Cities Business Journal

+ RangeBuzz, “...the Iron Range MN online guide to northern MN dining, nightlife, music and area events. RangeBuzz.com makes it easy for you to discover what’s happening on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota!”

+ Next Social Media Breakfast on October 31st at Deluxe Corp. (watch their site for details to appear).

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 9 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The day was set in the increasingly popular “unconference” format where the agenda naturally evolves around a given topic or question. Some fifty interactive and social media enthusiasts spent the day addressing a wide range of topics. Three separate “spaces” played host to discussion and presentations on How Traditional Agencies Can Move to Digital, Social Media Reality Check, New Possibilities in Video, Marketing Heresies, Community Management 101,The Future of PR, and a  session addressing the lofty goal of Measuring ROI of Social Media…nope, we didn’t quite figure that one out. Dang!

In addition to the sessions, good food, and the ability to enjoy a Guinness before 11:00am, an ongoing project session to provide the Local and it’s sister Irish pubs with a social media strategy was undertaken. With so many creative professionals working on it, any business would have to consider this one heck of a bargain. Though time constraints prevented the finished plan from being presented, organizer Mykl Roventine intends to compile the pieces of the strategy and present it to the Local within the next few days.

Like many conferences these days there was no shortage of Twitter activity, and for a brief time, there was a bit of competition for “hash tag” (#unsummit08) dominance Twitter Search with the MIMA Summit being held down the street. That’s where the competition ended as many of the UnSummit faithful were very interested in the information coming from MIMA. I’m sure their participants were equally interested in what was happening at UnSummit. One of the pleasant surprises of the afternoon was an unexpected “phone-in” round of drinks and appetizers compliments of MIMA President, Matt Wilson. With plans for many of the UnSummit attendees to attend the happy hour with the MIMA Summit attendees you could almost feel a group hug coming on.

Don Ball, Mykl Roventine, Meg Canada and a host of other volunteers supplied the many social media outlets with a stream of information, session summaries, and photos. All readily available with visit to the blog, a search on Flickr for the tag unsummit08, and of course a Twitter Search for #unsummit08.

In his closing remarks organizer Ball noted that the next UnSummit will take place on a date that does not coincide with another event. Whether that is the case or not, there appears to be plenty of brain power and interest to go around in the Twin Cities.

UnSummit ’08…More Than a Summit Alternative is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.