Comet Branding - Branding | PR | Social Media

Comet Branding visits the Ragan Unconference

Last week I rolled down to Chicago from Milwaukee on the Amtrak Hiawatha to attend the Ragan Communications Unconference (#raganunconf). I have attended unconferences in the past and I was very interested to see how they were hosted in Chicago. In all, it was a great experience and while there Comet Branding TV interviewed Ragan CEO, Mark Ragan, and Amber Naslund from Radian 6.

This unconference event was a bit different than others that I have attended. For one thing it was  focused on using social media in communications/public relations and for another, it was about five to 10 times larger than any unconference I have ever experienced. This in itself presented some challenges.

The session I participated in focused on external communications in the main ballroom at The Drake hotel. There were nearly 400 people in the room and only two moderators with one microphone each. So, it was a bit hard for good ongoing conversation and dialog. But, many great points were made and many interesting discussions took place.

I also learned that if you want to stand out at a corporate/agency communications/PR event – dress like a social media type or wear a unique hat. I think Amber and I were two of very few people who were wearing jeans and there were no other hats insight. It was great fun though.

I was very happy that I ended up attending the event because I was able to meet some great people for the first time, meet some people in person who I know through Twitter and I had the chance to share some ideas/thoughts/experiences that I have. It was pretty rad. Well worth the train ride.

A couple issues that interested many people are the legal implications of using social media in business and developing social media guidelines for organizations.

At our agency, we also host the Comet Branding Radio show and the topic we are covering on our May 20th show centers on these very same legal implications and processes for the corporate- and agency-side communicators. We will have two great lawyers on the show to field questions and discuss the topic.

After the unconference portion of the event, I met up with Amber (@ambercadabra), who has been on the Comet Branding Radio show and it was great fun meeting her in person. During the interview we discussed Amber’s vision for the future of social media, three things business can do today in social media and what she has coming up next. You can see her interview here:

Comet Branding interviews Amber Naslund at the Ragan Unconference (May 8, 2009) from Comet Branding on Vimeo.

Similar to most communications professionals I am certainly aware of Ragan.com and some of their events and it was rad to meet and interview Mark Ragan himself. In this interview we discussed how he became involved in his father’s business and the experience of transitioning a traditional media publication into a new media one as it is today. You can see his interview here.

Comet Branding interviews Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications at the Ragan Unconference (May 8, 2009) from Comet Branding on Vimeo.

What are you thoughts or what was your experience at the Ragan Unconference last week? Share them in the comments. I’d love to hear them.

Upcoming Comet Branding Radio Shows (Weds @ 11am CDT):
May 13th — In-bound Marketing with Hubspot.com’s Brian Halligan, CEO and Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing
May 20th — Legal issues in Social Media for Communicators with Christopher Cain, Foley & Lardner and Chris Moander, Dahlberg Przybyla Law
May 27th — Discussing the new book “Putting the public back in public relations” with Brian Solis.

Tags: Mark Ragan, Ragan.com, Social Media in Business, The future of social media