Right now I am on a Greyhound bus hitting Los Angeles.
My first Convening Leaders session was fabulous and I hope it won’t be my last. For me there were three important elements, my mobile dissertation research, networking and the events.
Events at PCMA12
The range of events at PCMA12 was great and well thought-of. This is true for both, the social and the educational events. TED fellows, entrepreneurs, motivational speakers – there was something for every kind. The Closing Block Party was being imagination, partying with Kool and the Gang brilliant, and free F&B a dream. Well done – however, SDCC, how is that sustainable to use paper cups for coffee?
Networking
Networking was a big theme for me, especially as I am leaving university soon. Talking to Art, who suggested I should not start working, but instead, for two months, go somewhere, sounded daring and intriguing. Who knows. Many people that I met were inspiring, and it was fascinating, how easy it was to bump into legends such as Greg Ruby, Jeff Hurt or the CEO of Cvent.
Mobile research
I went into the conference and wanted to interview two people. I ended with four – Bob Vaez of EventMobi, Matthew Donegan-Ryan of Crowd Compass, Trevor Roald of QuickMobile and Silke Fleischer of ATIV. Besides meeting four inspirational personalities, I got a lot out for my dissertation. Also, all agree that the PCMA Convening Leaders app was a disgrace for PCMA and the programming company. It seems for now that a lot about mobile apps is about educating conference organisers, even more than attendees. As Bob Vaez said: If you need to explain how your app works, you might not do one at all.
I will go into more details in the following weeks.
For now that’s it. Thank you PCMA. Thank you Frederike, Jascha, Nikolina, Vanja and Tom. Thanks Dr. Joe. And thanks to all the awesome people I met.
