I had the pleasure of attending SMCSYD – Social Media Club Sydney last night at UTS, with fellow #nscm ers. Kristin Rohan and Tony Cosentino.
The topic was Building and Managing Online Audiences and the special guest was MC Hammer, yes THE MC Hammer!!
Now I can be honest with you, my #nscm buddies, I went last night because I had heard the SMCSYD was a great event with quality speakers but I thought MC Hammer’s attendance was the token celebrity, with a major sponsor, not that he would contribute to the content and information on the evening!
Well shut my mouth and paint me purple !! I was so impressed by his knowledge and skill as well as being in fine form for a man over 40!!
I was a fan of MC Hammer 1.0 but I am inspired by MC Hammer 3.0!!
This man lives and breathes what he is talking about, he adds value to any converstation.
He spoke of being authentic, engaging and being the centre of your information universe & more!
Unlike other visiting celebs, he didn’t take himself seriously and had a laugh with the room about his past. He even answered the following questions posed via Twitter feed (too chicken to say in person??) and via mic:
- “What can and can’t you touch?”
- Do you feel and tweet differently when you are wearing your Hammer pants?
On a serious side he answered questions about future apps, technology he uses (yes he IS a little geeky), how does Social Media handle the challenges of the poor and language translation, what does he see as the future of social media and will it change the world.
I liked his answer to the question:
Q: “Your star shone very brightly for a short time, do u think if social media had been around, your career would have been different?” (this is from memory not transcribed)
A: “I wouldn’t wanted anything to be different! I love the journey I have been on. If things have gone differnetly, I would not be speaking to you now” He added, he believes in the Butterfly Effect – if one thing had been different this would then affect many more outcomes. I loved it!! He is so REAL!
Our divine Kristin had tweeted Hammer directly (yes note I am now on second name terms with him!!) and made him a gorgeous gift of vintage fabric envelope with a gorgeous card inside finished with a choc satin ribbon, and got to give it to him and even got a hug!!
He was so divine, even telling off Rob Rohan (Mr Krisitn Rohan to us) for taking her out of the USA!!
Sorry, Rob, Tony and I missed the hug shot as we were watching it live!!)
Kristin is one of my heroes!!
Another hero of mine is Tony Cosentino – despite this tweet during the event:
Here it is incase your eyesight is like mine:
Tony has been the only reason I have not picked up Wordpress and the Ecommerce plug-in and submerged it in a bath!
He is a professional, honest business man with a lot of integrity with an AMAZING previous career.
He is a great encouragement and a fabulous coach. More importantly he is very generous and a wonderful man!
A new hero of mine is David Peachey. A footballer who played here then overseas and is now with the Rabitos (please be inpressed that I can recount this, sport like techie things are not my strengths!!!)
David started the David Peachey Foundation in 2004 with the goals:
• Providing educational scholarships & overseas exchange opportunities for school students.
• Allocating sporting grants to talented indigenous youth.
• Engaging in the ongoing reconcilliation process & personal development of indiginous youth through mentoring & cultural immersion camps.
• Delivering education, health & sports programs in regional & remote indigenous communities throughout Australia.
Thanks to Tony’s iniitative of speaking to David about #pianostairssyd (more on this soon), I got to speak to David one on one. So inspiring!! He is actually being the change he wants to see in the world!
David’s focus is on education not sport, he proudly told me that only 2 of the kids play footy! 2 new recipients are doing medicine at Sydney Uni…fantastic.
David is giving hope to the children and communiities where there was none – what an amazing legacy!
I enourage you all to visit the site and learn about the foundation.
Keep an eye out for the next SMCSYD! It is a great event and although I did not meet so many of the attendees last night there is a great assortment of people.
All I can say is that the connections I have made via Social Media (Kristin & Tony amongst them) have definitley enriched my life and business and I look forward to more adventures, experiences and stories!!
J
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