First day at #ggm09 goes towards the end

… or better saying the program part goes towards the end, the party is still waiting for us 😉

Impressing and truly inspiring it was so far. For me at least.

These are the sessions I went to:

– 10:30 Marketing with Social Media by Heidi Wold – Do’s and Don’ts in Marketing via Social Media
Great examples for good and bad marketing (i.e. @saltakvarn + and @nike -, the latter because there is i.e. no official facebook group but quite a few inofficial ones, meaning Nike does not seem to be interested to use the huge potential of people who would like to talk to them. So there is kind of a monologue going on with just a few and irregular replies from such a big company. Kind of a waste, but I reckon they will realise that soon enough.)

11:30 Jin Moen from Moveintofun about how to create a product and then try to get it out onto the market. The latter will happen early next year, please correct me if I am wrong. Cool product they have, it is kind of a device called BodyBug that gets people dancing – similar to Guitar Heroe making people move their fingers and play music. More information you find here. Would be fun to try actually!

12:00 Build your site with WordPress with the WPGirls – this one got me thinking of moving my blog (or a new one I might start) to WordPress.org, making me more flexible with design and plugins. Also, what I did not know before was that there are even possibilities to create an online shop with WordPress! Very inspiring session from @LolitaLoca. Followed by a second WP-Fika-session at 15:00 covering topics like backup and hosting of a blog. Great and useful.

– 13.30 there was a special session held by Janaina Pilomia about the Nokia 900 which will be launched end of this year, beginning of next year. Like quite a few other ladies I had the privilege to test the new toy for a bit more than half the day. Many functions remind of the iphone, yet it feels sturdier and you have the choice of actually using a normal or a virtual keyboard. I kind of like it but from what I’ve seen from the iphone I still find that a bit sexier. On the other hand it would also be great to have a device that is not mainstream… The Nokia 900 runs with Maemo 5, a Linux based OS. I like Linux because it is open source and there are also loads of different applications available. One could even easily write some oneself we got told, i.e. by using Qt. Well, if one could. Me = “not so techy, no programmer at all” – but maybe one should give it a try simply? If possible I will borrow it again tomorrow. Oh yes, the Nokia 900 is no phone but a computer. Important difference.
(Janaina is actually from Brazil and working since two years in Finland… How on earth could she swap Samba with Finnish Tang0?? Not to mention the climate difference.)

15:30 Ella Britton from thinkpublic, London talked to us about their very interesting project in the UK. thinkpublic as a social innovation agency involves people in designing  and developing solutions for improving services. That means that i.e. Alzheimer patients get asked to help creating or improving services in the public sector that they are going to need as their condition progresses. The result is not only that services get better but as important, that people feel valued and taken seriously instead of being pushed aside and treated second class. Ella really managed to pass her passion for her work on to us listeners I believe. My thought was that it would be great to have something like that also in Sweden – it would work here as well, I think. Well, I need to keep my ears open, cos I think it would be really fun to get engaged in such a project here in this country. thinkpublic’s concept is going to be rolled out end of the UK throughout the entire UK – not bad for a company with just 10 employees.

Apart from a great program we were spoiled with good food for lunch (vegetarian or Chicken wraps), great coffee, re-energizing juice from Pauluns, energy bars, fruit, … Well, you get the picture. We did not starve at all and thanks to the sponsors we do not need to pay a penny for it. Impressive organisation, I have to say – and this is meant as a big compliment to all the ladies who put their energy into this to make it such a great day.

Soon there will be dinner/ after party and I really look forward to day no. 2.

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