Next week, I am excited about returning to my favorite conference, Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. I am particularly happy and grateful that my friends over at Social Media Examiner who runs the show have allowed 25 of my Chapman University students to volunteer at the event. This will give the students access to phenomenal learning and networking opportunities at an early stage of their careers and for me, it is difficult to see a more fun way for them to spend Spring Break 🙂 The world's top experts in many areas related to social media and digital marketing will speak and the 2,500 marketers attending will provide plenty of chances for good networking and discovery.
I cannot put my finger on exactly what it was that made last year's event such a success. However, I think it has to do with the culture of generosity and openness that Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner, has managed to instill. I got the chance earlier to interview Michael about the origins of Social Media Examiner and it is quite clear that he has found a winning recipe.
By being a pure play publisher, he sets up true win-win scenarios as he lets his invited experts to shine in the spotlight at his prestigious events while they return the favor by doing it for free for the most time. Michael Stelzner is also very humble and low-key in his personality which makes him accessible and someone that people would like to help.
Another reason that Social Media Marketing World has been successful is undoubtedly that Michael has managed to assemble a strong and very committed team to help scale the operations. Last year, it was quite impressive to see how relaxed Michael Stelzner actually was even when the event was in full swing and this shows that he has been a good delegator. I was happy to meet up with the event director of Social Media Marketing World, Phil Mershon, and learned about all the focus that goes into the details of ensuring a high-quality event experience for all attendees.
Consider getting the Virtual Pass to Social Media Marketing World which should provide a rich library of materials for the year to come, cannot recommend it enough!
Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are so-called “affiliate links” but please note that I only recommend products or services that I either use to satisfaction personally or am confident will add value to my readers based on endorsements by people I trust.
In January, I very much enjoyed the honor of making a keynote presentation on Trends in Digital Marketing and Social Media in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event was professionally organized and promoted by the leading-edge content marketing agency 
