NewCommForum: Opening Remarks by Cluetrain Author David Weinberger

The New Communications Forum opened with a packed main hall ready to listen to David Weinberger speaking about social media.

Unfortunately, we were first subjected to a direct sales pitch for Conduit, one of the two conference sponsors.  Starting off the main conference sessions with this PowerPoint presentation hit all the wrong notes.  Now, I am not familiar with the company or its product, and it may well be outstanding.  But the conference organizers should not have started like this.

As the CEO of a company that has sponsored -- and will continue to sponsor -- conferences, I can only hope that we would never succomb to the urge to deliver such a pitch ourselves.  I don't mind sponsors participating in conferences, but they should add value, not merely pitch from the podium.

Fortunately, after the sales pitch concluded, we moved in to the main presentation.

He described his talk as "Life After Broadcast: Conversations, Blogs, Wikipedia, and the New Authority."  He focused a lot on the changing nature of authority and the openness of the World Wide Web.  He described it as a "permission-free zone."  He asserted that companies selectively release information to control customers -- he called it "marketing" and said it is rooted in fear.

The walls have been torn down, however, by the Internet.  And now "marketing becomes war."  Instead, companies must engage in conversations with people.  It should not be a corporate monologue.

All in all it was a high energy, entertaining opening to the conference (though it did run considerably over time). 

UPDATE: Paul Gillin offers an excellent and much more detailed summary of these remarks.  Shel Israel does, too, and check out the comments for an exchange with Amanda Chapel (Strumpette) -- it shows why I love Shel!  Finally, read one more post from Joseph Thornley and you will feel like you attended yourself.

Technorati tags: David Weinberger, Cluetrain Manifesto, NewCommForum, New Communications Form

Comments

[Michael Brito]

Chip - yes, agreed that the sales pitch at the beginning of the keynote was unecessary. The lunchtime keynote - WInners and Sinners of Social Media - (going on right now) is really good also; although I can't believe that one of the panelists said that Wikis will die in 2007.

I guess we'll see....

Michael

[Amanda Chapel]

Here's my take on the conference. See http://tinyurl.com/2f374p , "The Communications Forum Wrapup: The Incredible Talking Dog."

:)

- Amanda