Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation
As we bask in the afterglow of another MIMA Summit here is a quick video of some new and old friends of Minnov8 (meeting twice weekly at a church basement near you) and their “take-aways” from this year’s event.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFnl6iND48
This just in from our pals at Gaspedal in Chicago (the group who also runs the Social Media Business Council): The August 13, 2009 Blogwell event held at General Mills (and covered here buy Minnov8 in our liveblog) videos, presentations and Gaspedal liveblog/per event are up on this page.
For those of you who attended yesterday’s MIMA Summit ’09, you might agree that one highlight was the presentation by Ford’s Scott Monty. To whet your appetite for the other videos at Gaspedal, here is the presentation given by Mr. Monty in August at the event covered by the Minnov8 team.
Yesterday was the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit 2009 called “Migrate” and it was not only incredibly well done, but there were over 1,000 attendees, the largest turnout for an event of this type I’ve yet seen in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The Minnov8 team was there with a booth and a plan to liveblog the event, archived here in case you missed either the event or the liveblogging.
Before I continue, accolades are due to the vision of the MIMA board and the flawless execution of the event by Jen Kane and team at KaneConsulting. The only downside — outside of their control — was the unfortunate technical issues with Wifi which made our ability to liveblog the event one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced as a team covering a live event like this one (we had to use our iPhones and the intermittent connections to upload what turned out to be minimal content for your viewing).
We were incredibly pleased to have been the media partner for MIMA at this event and want to thank the board, staff and Jen Kane for
Reactions to the sessions were mixed based on the people I talked with: those who are experienced in interactive marketing and social media found many of the sessions to be quite basic and somewhat redundant (same stories heard over-n-over again like Dominos, Motrin Moms, Dell Hell, et al), while others with less experience absolutely found the sessions enlightening and filled with new information. One attendee from a Fortune 100 company said to me during a break, “I know most of what was said in (session name), but three things were presented that turned out to be completely new information, and my criteria for a successful event is learning ONE new thing in each session I attend. On that count alone, MIMA was a resounding success for me.” I felt the same way and, frankly, am eager to view the videos of sessions I missed and access the slide decks of the presenters since there is so much value that was delivered at MIMA Summit.
The Minnov8 team has yet to process the event in full, but a few thoughts come forth: it would be useful to understand specifically who attends, what their level of experience is, what organizations they work for and so on. In addition, it would be fantastic to see significantly more vendor attendance with booths and, possibly, a two-day event in order to ensure that people had time to migrate through the a vendor exposition. I know I’d hoped to hear A LOT more about analytics software and would’ve loved to have had a chance to talk in depth with makers of analytics software and services.
As always at these events, the people are what matter. It sure was fun to see many of the same folks as at other events and to meet new ones. After the jump are two things from Minnov8 team member Graeme Thickins you will find interesting and useful. … [Read More…]
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No doubt, the Minnov8 Gang is stoked about the upcoming MIMA Summit this Monday. We plan on our usual “no holds barred” live coverage complete with live blogging, video, and photos. A practice that’s…well…pretty geeky. However, we are not alone.
The MIMA folks and Jennifer Kane Consulting, the people that brought you “little Seth”, are giving the geek meter a workout by providing plenty of tech fun gadgets and mobile access. For those of you who thought that free wifi at a conference was the shizznit, prepared to be amazed…
Behold, courtesy of the M Group, the Wayfinding Station. Not to be confused with the Wayback Machine (Sorry Mr. Peabody), this little gem, built on Microsoft’s Surface technology, is, and I quote, “a multi-touch experience to deliver conference information and services to attendees”. Check this, “Users can navigate a map of the conference facility and related breakout sessions by grabbing digital information with their hands and interacting with content on-screen by touch and gesture – without using a mouse or keyboard.” Sweet!
Wait there’s more. MIMA created “conference personas,” each with a pre-configured schedule based on an area of interest. You can chose a “persona chip” and be Social Media Maggie, Suzy Search, Email Ian, Mobile Mack, Victor Video, or Brady Branding. (Sorry, no Pete Propeller-Head.) You’ll then get an itinerary of sessions related to that area of interest. “Because Surface sees and interacts with objects, guests will be able to place their conference persona chip onto the Surface screen to trigger different types of personalized digital responses, and then the transfer of digital content to their mobile devices,” explains the M Group’s Janessa Meyer.
No, wait! There’s even more. MIMA is even using individual tags that are embedded with the URL to each of the conference speakers’ social networking site of choice. These tags are printed on the conference signage corresponding with that speaker’s session. Using the Microsoft Tag Reader application you just use your mobile device to connect with the speaker’s sites and social media outlets just by snapping a photo of the tag with their device. Shnikies!
If they only had an iPhone app…wait…they have one of those too! Geek metered…pegged!!!!
(Crap! I don’t have an iPhone. My coal burning Treo 650 probably will only buzz and click pittifully. But still…it’s pretty cool.)
The Minnov8 Gang (Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson) will post LIVE throughout the day on Monday, October 5th at MIMA Summit “MIGRATE ‘09′ and will be covering the event with comments, videos, audio interviews and photos taken throughout the day.
Visit this page on Monday morning (at 8am Central) to watch the day unfold at the MIMA Summit.
Our final interview for our friends at MIMA had us heading out to Carlson Marketing. There we had a chance to sit and talk with Doug Rozen, who has a rather all inclusive title…SVP, Global Lead – Creative, Interactive, Media & Mobile. Doug shares a some insight on mobile marketing and trends as well as highlights of his MIMA Summit presentation.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHI90Icw-o
The MIMA Summit is on October 5th and is sold out. Never fear….the Minnov8 Gang will be there with our tweets, video and photos so you won’t miss a thing. If you can’t make the MIMA Summit, join Minnov8 for the Unsummit at the Hennipen County Central Library on October 10th. There will be plenty to learn and share….and it’s free.
Buythechange.com & Localtweeps.com are two websites created and co-founded by local tech startup Monkey Island Inc. entrepreneur Zack Steven. While these initiatives are miles apart in their application and scope, they share the same DNA: hyperlocal, community-driven services focused on generating both financial and social capital.
Buythechange.com, which launched around 3.5 years ago, is a localized social commerce network that helps people buy and sell products/services with their community friends and next door neighbors. It also aims to promote local businesses – as opposed to faceless corporate enterprise – say for example, one owned & operated by an out of area central office. Hyperlocal is the mom and pop shop down the street, the independent contractor neighbor, or the local food shelf. When products or services are posted “for sale” on the site, a specific geographical network (neighborhood/community) is alerted, which fosters more personalized connections than a craigslist model by simply removing the anonymity factor. This form of commerce enhances social bonds which lends itself to more meaningful long term relationships, commercial and otherwise.
There are three membership levels: a free Basic membership which allows people to post goods and events, a $24/year Personal membership which allows people to post services (as well as goods and events), and a $120/year Business membership which includes a business profile and posting of unlimited goods, services, jobs and events. The social cause comes into play when a portion of the membership fee (33-50%) is donated to a local non-profit of the members choice, and then(optionally) the cause is added into the member’s profile, further shaping the identities and intentions of each individual member. Simply put, Buythechange.com is “classifieds with a conscience”. … [Read More…]
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There’s no doubt that mobile marketing is hot right now and one of the hottest segments is mobile coupons. While there are multiple services providing the design and delivery of those coupons, Kwingo‘s Lisa Foote and her partners saw a need for a “do-it-yourself” option for businesses. Enter their new sister company MixMobi.
Currently in private beta with a public launch scheduled before the holidays, Minnov8 got a look at the new service. In an effort to develop a product that answers a need first and foremost, Foote explained that MixMobi was born out of feedback from Kwingo customers who were looking for easy production and distribution of a coupon campaign.
She noted that MixMobi delivers three important benefits. “Immediacy; the ability to design and deploy a coupon without the need of a graphic designer or agency. Ease; anyone can design a coupon. There are no programming skils needed. If you can send an email you can design and launch a coupon.” and finally she noted, “Reporting; once the coupon is launched tracking can begin in a matter of minutes via an easy to read dashboard.”
The MixMobi program allows for the user to log onto an account and create campaigns with the use of simple text fields, drop-down menus, and templates that can include user artwork and colors. Once the coupon and campaign are created a link to the coupon is generated. That link can be immediately deployed via Twitter, or by simply cutting and pasting the link into an SMS message, email, websites, etc. “We started with Twitter because of the ease of deployment” noted Foote. “More services are on the way.” The coupon is viewable on any web enabled device…and with the multitude of platforms out there right now, you know this is not always the easiest of feats. (See the demo video below.)
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8vLfSVuDZM
The principals at MixMobi, including Foote, Brad Roberts, and Kelly Heikilla, are looking to monetize their service in two ways. First, by targeting small to mid-size businesses who can purchase and design campaigns at varying levels of service. For example, $19.95 will allow a business to launch 2 offers per month with up to 2500 page views each. “We feel this is a very competitive price point in this space.” noted Foote. Of course, what’s a web start-up without a free-use level. MixMobi offers such a beast with one offer per month and 1000 page views.
The second road to profit for MixMobi is the targeting of large agencies or retailers who wish to purchase a software license that allows them to launch multiple campaigns across multiple brands and time frames.
The shakedown of MixMobi is privately underway with three clients and will be for at least 30 days. So far, “Feedback has been positive.” according to Foote, and she hopes to see it live in time for the holidays…which in retail terms could mean as soon as Halloween.
DEMO Fall 2009 is going on right now and Minnov8’s Graeme Thickins is liveblogging the event here. As always, great new companies are launching and you can follow Graeme’s liveblog or send him a tweet: @graemethickins.
Startups launching at DEMO Fall 2009
Here’s another of our ongoing interviews with MIMA Summit presenters. This discussion with Jennifer Veesenmeyer of Stratigent touches on her session at the Summit and the successful integration of analytics into your strategic plan…early on in the process.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo0XxmsZezM
The MIMA Summit is on October 5, 2009. Everybody who’s anybody will be there…Minnov8 will be there as well! Heads up! Registration close on October 1, 2009.