Who is this conference for?

This has been a big question I get when talking about the event.  I thought I would offer a small summary of what I feel every level of business owner, marketer or SEO can get from this great opportunity.

Entry Level - If you are a business owner, running a business or a small business marketer you may very well get the most out of Local University.  A solid amount of the information and sessions are gear toward baseline education, do-it-yourself tips and giving you a clear understanding of how things work and how you can benefit.  Confusion on Internet marketing will be replaced by clarity.

Intermediate Level- Where some of the information covered might be a good refresher, you’ll still get some new angles and information.  There is no doubt that the local search expertise presenting will give you more insight into this exploding area of the web and business.  The Q & A sessions will also give you access to ask questions in some areas that might be of specific interest to you.

Expert Level- Here is a great chance to support the industry you work in.  The chance to learn may still exist within the local search presentations, but the chance to network with other great Internet marketing minds as well as business owners and other local marketers is fantastic.

This 4 hour workshop will cover fantastic information on search engine optimization, local search , social media and more.  It’s a jam packed line-up that can benefit all levels of Internet marketers.

• Register now and use the code five2010 to get $40 off, dropping your cost to just $89 for this event.

Thank you to the local sponsors helping make this event possible, Deluxe and ReliaCloud.

It was great to be around and interact with people truly wanting to learn, improve, share and take steps to trying new things.  I met and talked with so many Realtors, Brokers and Mortgage professionals that are excited and dedicated to doing more online.

If the Bar Camp concept is new to you, it’s a user generated conference format.

I enjoyed leading 3 different Real Estate Bar Camp sessions today on:

• Why Good Web Design Matters
• Social Media Q & A with Kate-Madonna (she rocks)
• Local Search Marketing – Google Maps

The organizers of this Bar Camp event did a great job and kudos to Greg Sax, Jason Sandquist, Nobu Hatu and Teresa Boardman.  I’m glad to have been asked to attend/speak by Jason Sandquist whom I’ve know on Twitter (@jasonsandquist) for 2 years, but now finally in real life as well.

Here are a few photos I managed to snap and there are many more on the REBCMN Facebook page.

As you can see from the board above, a wide range of topics were covered.   Social media, iPhone apps, blogging, search, web, video and more was delivered for the Real Estate industry.  Many commented and tweeted they were ready to get back to the office and start implementing what they had learned.

Great event, great people, great day.

• Limited space, Register now – FREE

Mobile Web Design & Marketing
I will be giving a short presentation on mobile web design covering the basics of the why, how and some of the technical aspects involved. Delivering information on your business to consumers via their iPhone, Blackberry, Android and even basic cell phones is an exploding area of marketing.

We’ve also invited Lisa Foote, founder of MixMobi to speak on their mobile marketing service that any business can leverage with ease.  Lisa is an expert in the mobile marketing industry and brings knowledge and passion to this exciting topic of mobile coupons, offers and consumer engagement.

Bottom Line: Great People, Free Food, Drinks & Mobile
The Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hour has earned great reputation as a fun and dynamic event.  You can follow them on Twitter at @TCTHURHAPPYHOUR.

You’ll connect with other great Minneapolis & St. Paul area professionals, eat some great food, get one more check-in on your Foursquare account and get some great insight in the mobile web and marketing landscape.

Make sure you reserve your spot and we’ll see you there! Drop us a comment below if we’ll see you on April 15th.

This 4 hour seminar features national experts as well as representatives from Google and Bing, covering an incredible amount of Internet marketing information.

• You can sign-up now for just $89 (Save $40!) by using Five Technology’s promo code:  five2010

This workshop will be held at the fantastic Westin Hotel in Edina, located just off France Ave.  There are two identical sessions, one morning and one afternoon, but seating is currently limited to just 200 per session.

Local University introduces, explains and teaches Internet marketing basics, aimed at the small business owner and marketing person.  Incredible insight, process, best practices, D-I-Y tips and case studies will be provided on:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Local search (Google LBC & Maps, Bing Local)
• Social Media (Blogs, Facebook & Twitter)
• Web Analytics

This event is truly one of kind to hit the Minneapolis & St Paul area.  Take advantage of the opportunity to learn Search Engine Optimization tips and techniques that will lead to sustained, long-term search engine rankings (and new customers).  The last Local University event in Spokane, WA was a huge success.

Local University Presenters
I’m also excited to be part of the outstanding line-up of presenters including David Mihm of GetListed.org, Mike Blumenthal, Matt McGee, Mary Bowling, Ed Reese, Ryan Hayward of Google and Mikko Ollila of Bing.

Register Today
Head over to the Twin Cities registration page (use our promo code) and reserve your spot.  If you’re coming from outstate Minnesota, the Westin is offering a $139/night rate for fantastic accommodations.

You simply won’t find another seminar, with this amount of information here in Minnesota for the price.

Local University Twin Cities is sponsored by Google, Bing, Deluxe and ReliaCloud Cloud Servers from VISI.

For me, small business is all about great people. They are inspired, resourceful, passionate and ever adapting.

Thanks to these characteristics, I feel great about the landscape of small business in 2010. Though consumer and business spending may vary, credit and loans will remain tight, some great things are going to happen. Many have already planned out what they can do this year to improve.

Small business has two fantastic things going for it in 2010:

• Opportunity and Technology

Opportunity: With any slump or downturn, there is the new battle to emerge or launch new ideas. Whether it’s an existing small business adding a service or product to their offering, or a longtime corporate worker being laid off and now taking the jump to work for themselves, opportunity is rampant.

Technology: Without a doubt, here is the part that excites us at Five Technology. We’ll get the chance again this year to work with some incredible businesses ready to leverage technology like never before. It might be a web redesign, a CMS integration, starting a blog, networking with social media or a custom web application that will push efficiency like never before.  The web is business in 2010, just think about it.

So let’s get after it. Let’s take advantage of the opportunity and mesh ideas with technology, to increase marketing efforts, sales, processes and efficiency.

Let’s make 2010 the year of the small business.

My presentation went great and we covered a lot of great information on viewing your website as an employee.   The CMWA group has a great vibe and they had a flurry of good questions for me in the Q & A portion.  Somehow, I survived.

Here are just a few of the great businesses I was able to speak to and with last night:

Mestads Bridal,  Mulligans Event Center,  Yapuncich Photography,  Pianist For Parties,  Northern Lights Video,  Blooming Creations,  Icing Dreams Specialty Cakes,  Capture Video,  Blackberryridge Golf Course,  PrimeTime Wedding DJ and Reichel’s Catering.

Thanks for having me out CMWA!

Over the last 20 years, EasiWay has grown to be a leader in the screen printing industry, making the most efficient and environmentally friendly screen cleaning and reclaiming products and solutions.  They desired a new look that was crisp, clean, had a water element and a touch of green.

Here are are initial logo design concepts:

EasiWay was impressed and excited with their design choices and it made narrowing down a few to explore difficult.  Through further discussion and ideas, one logo design concept was chosen to work from.  We then presented  a few versions and ultimately came up with a winner.

EasiWay’s new logo design:

The team at Easiway Systems was great to work with and we are now creating their new product labels as well as their e-commerce enabled website.  Stay tuned for the launch of the new website in the near future.

My Twitter use has a very high value to me and if fact it even has a number.  I’ve posted in the past on the benefits Twitter showed me right form the start, how it can drive blog traffic and a big attempt to amount 100 reasons for a business to Twitter (still short, add one!).

My Twitter ROI as of today is:  $13.50 per Tweet

As of the tweet I’ll put out to announce this blog post, I’ll have closed just over $25,200 in business only and directly because of Twitter and my 1,870 updates. That is just plain cool.  Even better is I have many more projects being quoted, referrals being given and connections being made.  Strictly from Twitter.

I’ve received this business from Twitter in a few routes:

• Industry peers. Thanks to Twitter I have connected with numerous other talented web designers and developers that have passed me leads.  Twitter allowed us to connect, view links to work we’ve put out and made them think of Five when there was a project or lead that didn’t fit them.  This has been both humbling and exciting as a some very talented people themselves think enough of our services to recommend us.
• Marketing proffesionals. I’ve connected with internal marketing talent from various companies locally and nationally that have put me on to RFPs, projects and other needs that I would have never known about without a connection via Twitter.
• Twitter friends. It might be baseball related, small business related, music related or another interest I have put out there, but I have connections that are non-web design related.  The replies and conversation might be about about the Minnesota Twins offense, but then a direct message comes out of nowhere with a contact person at a company that needs web help.

Do you have a Twitter ROI or a Value Per Tweet (VPT)?  Share it if you can.  I’m constantly amazed at the value I get from Twitter in news, connections, knowledge, ideas and yes … even sales.  I’m looking to add to my Twitter ROI.

A shift is taking place on the web for small business.  Websites and web content are moving to reality, far away from marketing hype.  If a company can change their approach and find ways to bring valuable content to users, then they can improve traffic and ultimately leads.

A Clear View, Show What You Can Do
A buzz word in the web design world is transparency.  To me, this simply applies to the ability to show potential customers and current clients just what you can do for them.  Instead of pitching them that you are “the best, the leader, number one” why not drill into exactly how you can help them?

Example 1: A CPA Firm could use their content to outline their menu of accounting services … and their content might read the very same as 10,000 other CPA websites in their industry.  If they shift their approach, they could provide a summary of how they helped a small business find financial efficiency, position it for growth and help it succeed.

They could show their target market exactly what they ARE doing and make it easy for that user to understand the type of benefits they bring with their service.  Their services mix to create success for a client, instead of a users trying to guess what they need off the standard services list.

Example 2: A Restaurant can show their menu items and a burger is a burger is a burger in print version.  But if you take a short video clip of making your gourmet or special burger, post a series of photos and customer comments on it … you have something to bring hungry stomachs in.

In taking the approach to show the reality of your ingredients, the process and the visual WOW factor, you have created a distinct difference from your competitors websites.

Those are just two quick examples of how taking a better approach to web content and involving ideas, media and real web content can have an impact.  EVERY business out there can find these valuable ways to better illustrate how they can benefit, help and serve their clients and customers.

Build you website visitor a clearer picture on your offering, expertise and process and you will become a clear choice as the one to buy from.

The line-up of speakers featured some great Internet minds.  Kicking off Friday morning was Jason Fried of 37signals.

Jason stressed getting away from failure (it’s not cool), the value in eliminating interruption, focusing on the  day at hand and not a 2 year or 5 year plan, putting the most effort into the things that don’t change in your business (service, process), and the value of your by-product.  I had a ton of interest in finding the by-product of your business, not just the specific service you offer, but the knowledge in the process of it.  This can translate into books, speaking events and more.

Another speaker I really enjoyed was Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless Tees.  His time on stage focuses on transparency and accessibility.  He outlined how these things contribute to success of his company.  Jeffrey hit upon the message of spending time with your community of customers/users and listening to them, reacting to them and acting on the right moves.

Gary Vaynerchuk closed out the presentations with his “loud” presentation (loud in a good way).  His passion for getting people to hustle, work hard, build a brand and deliver your expertise in any way possible is a great message.  Gary definitely let his feelings be known on how the Internet will squash everything … newspapers, TV and possibly high education. Gary also did some great Q & A with the crowd as well.

Other attendees recapped the conference as well, so check out Shane Adam’s blog, Read Write Web and Silicon Florist.  Check out Managing The Edge, it has a decent video segment of interviews from the conference as well.

It was a well put together conference, crazy successful for a first time conference.  I was encouraged by the fact I hold some of the same value in transparency and making things happen.  I also picked up some great ideas on other theories and ideas to strengthen the Five brand and business of web design.

In such an evolving industry it’s great to listen to great Internet minds and also interact with others fighting the good fight daily.  Overall, I give Big Omaha an A- and look forward to next year.