Social Media Conferences Everywhere

If you’ve been in this game a long time, you’ll know that every week there’s a new social media conference springing up that promises to deliver new tips, amazing speakers, great networking and all the things you could ever wish to know. If you’ve been to a few though, you’ll know that they vary greatly in skillset, in focus and in success. I don’t go to too many, generally those I’m asked to speak at, but this year I’ve decided I’m going to go to the Spredfast Social Media Summit, and here’s why.

Social Media Conferences Meme

Social Media Conferences Everywhere – Buzz and Woody know what’s up

Targeted Content for Targeted Audiences

On looking at the Spredfast Social Summit 2016 Speaker and Agenda list the first thing that jumped out to me was these speakers were high quality and were the do-ers in major organisations. Knowing that I’ll have the ability to network with this kind of thinker in the social media space really gets me excited and I’m keen to really learn. Sometimes I find I go to conferences and there are so many different levels of skills that it’s hard to either target to one group if you’re a speaker or to learn something new if you’re an attendee. I’m not sure what the agenda will be this year, but I do know that if it’s anything like last year, it’s going to be a good one.

Spredfast Social Media Summit

Some cool artwork at the 2016 Spredfast Social Media Summit

Oh hey Michelle Obama

Not going to lie, the cherry on the top for me was seeing that Michelle Obama was going to be speaking at the event this year. For me, getting to see such an inspirational speaker is almost a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I have been blown away by how articulate the Former First Lady is and I am keen to listen to what she has to say about the use of social media not only in her husbands campaign, but in the most recent election. I may be dreaming, but I’m hopeful that there may be some selfie opportunities. That would certainly tick an item off the bucket list for me!

Michelle Obama Spredfast Social Media Summit

When they go low, we go high – Michelle Obama will be amazing to see

Austin is the new San Francisco

Speaking of ticking off a bucket list item… a few years ago my partner and I did a road trip across the USA from New York to Los Angeles. As part of this, the only place we chose to spend time in through the whole state of Texas was Austin. We knew it would be the best choice for our liberal hearts and anywhere with the tagline ‘Keep Austin Weird’ works for us. It is a fantastic place and I am super excited to be going back and spending a little longer there. What impresses me most about Austin is how it seems to be taking on San Francisco as the tech, certainly social, mecca of the US. Start-up companies are well supported there and emerging organisations with great work cultures and philanthropic ideals are blooming in the South. I’m hoping to get to see Spredfast HQ when I’m there to check out if it’s as cool as I imagine it to be. It is only another 9 months until I’m out of a job and a little sojourn to work in Austin certainly wouldn’t go wrong!

Austin, Texas Postcard

Ahh Austin, you liberal little city in the heart of conservative Texas.

I like cool tech and I cannot lie

Ultimately, the reason I’m planning to make the trek from Australia to the US in October is that I want to be wowed. I want to see smart, sexy, innovative things being done with social media. I want to be engaged and inspired again by what can be done by social media. I am desperate for insights into what some of the big hitters are doing and how I can ensure I build that into my future plans and my current ones. And sure, I’m not going to lie, I’m just a massive nerd for cool tech and this looks like my kinda playground. Anyone else heading along? Hit me up if you are – @gadgetgirltracy and hashtag #SFSummit