#Social2011: Radian 6’s User Conference

It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m finally settled into my hotel here in Boston. Today and Friday I will be attending Radian 6’s User Conference, Social 2011.

For those of you who don’t know, Radian 6 is an online listening tool that allows Community Managers like myself to get a glimpse into what is being said about their client’s brand online. Additionally, it’s one of many tools that helps users gather research and insight into what people are saying about a particular topic online. At JWT we’re already doing this type of work with Randian 6 and other listening tools, but there is always room to grow and I’m hoping that this conference provides just that.

Prior to getting to Boston late this evening, I was feeling frazzled and rushed as I left New York. I literally booked my ticket just a few hours before leaving and I hadn’t had much time to organize which break out and training sessions I wanted to attend. As I sat on the train, I started searching Twitter for the conference’s hashtag, #Social2011. Not surprisingly, I saw that lots of people were already in Boston meeting up before the conference even started. A tiny bit of FOMO washed over me- I was missing out on all the fun and the pre-conference festivities.

But then, instead of watching all of the activity take place without me, I jumped in and joined the conversations. I asked if anyone else was staying at the Westin, seeing as the hotel where the event is taking place is completely booked. Within a few minutes I had people telling me that “the Westin is rockin.” From there, the conversations just started to flow. Four hours and a drained cell phone battery later, I had made three really great connections that I’m going to follow up with during the conference.

I’m not surprised I was able to “get to know” a few of the attendees without physically being in Boston though. This is a social listening conference, so most of the attendees are experiencing this conference in two different ways, simultaneously: via the web and in real life.

So, if you’re not able to make it to Boston for Social 2011, don’t worry. They’ll be lot of great coverage via this blog, the hashtag and the live video stream. I’ll be doing my best to live-tweet the event, so feel free to follow my updates on Twitter at @MeghanKathleen.