A conference earlier this month at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management harnessed the power of social media to demonstrate the power of social media. More than 500 thought-leaders, professionals, faculty and students attended the conference, doubling last year’s attendance, and participants played active roles in online discussions on Facebook and LinkedIn and by submitting questions for speakers via Twitter.
The 2011 Kellogg Tech Conference, which took place on April 9th, was one of the top 10 trending Twitter topics in Chicago that day. Top executives from LinkedIn, AOL and Dell delivered the conference’s keynote addresses, and panel discussions touched on topics ranging from the role of social media in affecting social change to the future of mobile technology. The conference also featured a 24-hour coding competition called the Hackathon.
The incredible potential of social media was a recurrent theme throughout the events of the day. “We’re just seeing the first chapter of it now — there’s no telling what can happen,” Mark Pfeifle, former White House national security adviser and communicator, said as part of a panel discussion entitled ““Social Media Meets Social Change: The Retweet Revolution?”
Another panelist, Katrina McGhee, EVP and CMO with Susan G. Komen for the Cure, noted that social media is already being used to rally people around causes in a staggering way. Her organization faced a huge challenge in organizing a recent Race for the Cure event in Egypt, where it was taboo to talk about breast cancer. But the event was a huge success thanks to a grassroots online effort by local women to get the word out, she said.
“That’s the positive power of social media to create a community where people can come out together for a cause,” McGee said. “That kind of power behind social causes can literally transform the world.”
For more on the 2011 Kellogg Tech Conference, click here. For participants’ take on conference highlights, check out the event hashtag on Twitter: #KelloggTechConf.
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