Every summer ( at least for the last four years) the bloggers and social media geeks of Indiana converge at Blog Indiana.  This year  was no different.  During the two day event I had a chance to catch up with old friends, meet twitter friends face to face and and even make a few new ones.   I tweeted my heart out, and took pages of notes of things I should, could or want to be doing.  It will take a few weeks ( maybe months to sort through all the great ideas.

It was a jam packed two days, but some of my favorite moments were:

• Jay Bear opening the conference with numbers.  Ok, so I am a number geek, but I love the fact that he challenged the audience to look beyond the number of fans and followers and dig into results.  He talked about the real costs of social media, which include the manpower to maintain the profiles, and formulas on how to calculate ROI. He addressed the fact that sometimes you can’t prove cause and effect, so you need to look for correlations.
• The brand panel with @ButlerBlue2 – I have to admit, I have had a lot of speaking opportunities over the years, but I have never shared a stage with a dog.
• Sara Croft – who gave me an outline for social media one hour a week.  I don’t think I can live like that, but it does make it seem more manageable.
• The conversation with the social media representative from the Super Bowl committee.  It was a small group, way after hours, but the conversation was lively.  Bottom line, I think they are underestimating the impact social media could have
• Doug Karr’s 40 slides, 40 tools, 40 minutes..   Fired up on Red Bull he closed the conference with bang.  I thought I had seen all the tools I could handle, till I went to his session.