What I do want to write about is something that occurred to me during C.C. Chapman’s talk about Building Your Brand Through Passion and Community. He was discussing a common topic where Podcamp Boston is really a venue for sharing ideas and connecting like-minded people. This is something we take for granted at conferences but then I started to think about social media in general.

The point of Social Media usually is to connect like minded people for the sharing of information through a technology portal. However, we still find the need to physically connect through the social media device of a conference. No mater how advanced a social media site can become, the human factor still can not be overcome. Being able to stand up and ask C.C. an immediate question, have him query the audience for an answer, then connect two people together for the answer could be accomplished solely on the digital realm. But we like sharing these experiences in person. Matching the face to the idea is exciting, new, and fun. Something about being able to exchange ideas and have the completely unusual and random things happen drives us as people to be more creative.

Maybe conferences just need a sexier word for them in this Web 2.0 era? Live Social Media Events could start to take the world by storm. But you know that in the end all we are doing is just fulfilling a need that gets lost through the translation mechanism of technology. People are social creatures and we still need to sit down and break bread with someone from time to time just to remember what the social part is all about.

(NOTE: I did want to provide a link to the video of C.C.’s talk and of the impromptu jam session on Sunday but I could not quickly find links. If you know where they are, comment and I will add them in)

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