With thanks to guest blogger @GirlBug for sharing her adventure! You can read her other tales here.
As with all good discoveries, I stumbled across the ‘World Wide Rave’ by accident. Half-way through my 5 month global trek, I was in New York City and looking for action… action of the Twitter variety. And oh what timing! David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) was invited by GlobeNewswire to launch his book ‘World Wide Rave‘ and ring the bell to open NASDAQ. He invited 30 lucky Twitter buddies along to participate in the first ever #NASDAQ tweet-up. I was very lucky that @dmscott had room at the inn for this little Australian gal… in fact he thought it was pretty funny that I was representing Australia for this tweetup. Funnily enough I would be fielding many questions about whether I came specifically to New York just to tweet at the launch. Errr, no.
Bright and early Monday morning, I rustled up some corporate attire fully vindicated for my ‘you-just-never-know-I-might-need-that’ approach to packing clothes. Not only was the first tweetup to take place at the NASDAQ, I’m also certain it may have been the earliest one. C’mon 8.30am? I was on holidays… surely the world markets should cater to this?
After successfully passing the security check and chitchatting with local Twitter folks, we finally met the ★ star ★ of the moment, @dmscott. The brief was very simple: Tweet away & drum up some noise for #NASDAQ tweetup. All the tweeps had to join @dmscott onstage after his speech to cheer as he rang the bell. Easy enough? Everyone was busily tweeting away. From the outsider’s point of view, it may have looked like a very anti-social event, with 30 people texting, tweeting and tapping away on their mobile phones. But I met a wonderful bunch of new people and we created a little #NASDAQ twitter chatter amongst our followers.
During the tweetup, all the tweeps had their photos taken at the podium and beamed up to the NASDAQ big screen in Time Square. Who would’ve known that getting your face on a big screen would be so much fun? Suffice to say, I had a ball and was drunk with joy. This still rates as one of my favourite experiences in New York City and my 5-month adventure.
If you want check to out our World Wide Rave, watch this video posted by @devindwyer – you’ll get a gist of what the event was about (can you spot me??)
I’ve since had a chance to read ‘World Wide Rave‘ and found it thoroughly useful and easy-to-read (a huge plus for the time-poor). The book examines exciting and powerful ways to build and engage with an online audience, and is littered with practical examples and inspired business ideas. This is a small book with big messages. It’s triggered my brain to think more creatively about the needs of my client and how we can better serve their audience.
Next up… Social Media Masterclass. Can’t wait for more inspirations and ideas.
