Internet Week: Where Tech and Culture Collide

From May 18th to May 21st, entrepreneurs, community managers and techies filled Internet Week HQ at the Metropolitan Pavilion for week-long events, hands-on classroom talks and virtual reality pop-up stations (check out Vrse.Works). With all the events that happened, here are my highlights and takeaways…

Building your personal brand on social

We’ve heard it all before — using social media can help to elevate your personal brand. But hearing it from three witty, fiery and passionate women made it more worthwhile.

Bevy Smith, Aliza Licht and Genevieve Gorder came together, belting their anecdotes and how they authentically built their social media presence which stands at a collective 698.9K followers.

Genevieve lent the audience the perfect analogy for pushing out social media content. The analogy: feeding her kittens. Genevieve knows that her kittens need to constantly be fed to stay active. The same holds for your audience. Consistently feeding content to your audience will keep them connected and always coming back for more.

These three women have done just that. From tweeting their day-to-day in the world of public relations to creating live tweet segments for network shows, they have created growing communities around each of their names.

After the event, Aliza Licht was selling signed copies of her new book Leave Your Mark, and I was sure to get my hands on one…

Goliath needs David: Startups pitch brands for partnerships

As a startup founder myself, it was only right to attend this event to witness first hand how startups pitch to various brands to strategically foster partnerships, helping to build relationships and increase the bottom line.

Five startups (Vengo, Strap, Rest Devices, SecureRF and Chargifi) took the stage at the YP Theater to pitch to three judges for a chance at a paid pilot with a major marketer.

While Chargifi landed as first-runner up, I was hugely rooting for them based on their sleek presentation and product that, “brings convenient power to people where and when they need it most, so they can stop worrying about their battery and get back to what’s really important.”

Chargifi US Director Tom Gregorio leveraged this need among the many entrepreneurs and freelancers in the room (including myself) that work out of co-working spaces, coffee shops or even travels frequently. With a shift in the industry and an increase in remote work, the future is bright for Chargifi.

The Future of Media

As we saw throughout the week with sessions on social media and personal brand presence and new products to ease remote work, it is evident that the digital media industry is always evolving. Companies are putting more of their dollars into integrated marketing efforts and emphasis on their social media platforms.

The key is largely about getting in front of the right audience. If you don’t do that, from a content perspective, you’ll miss out on the future and the only way you can monetize. — Jeff Green, CEO, The Trade Desk

Missed the festivities? Check out #IWNY on Twitter to get up-to-date tweets on all the sessions from this week.