by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
BANGOR, Maine — In spite of heavy rain that made for a soggy day, the What’s Next conference, organized by the Bangor Daily News on Aug. 9, attracted 300 attendees to the daylong event held in a ClearSpan stucture on the Bangor Waterfront in conjunction with the annual KahBang Music, Art, and Film Festival.
“We didn’t suffer any negative consequences because of the rain,” said Pat Lemieux, event producer for BDN Maine. “Everyone stayed dry and comfortable.”
The focus of the conference was on what the future holds in social media, in-bound marketing and video integration and production, and all things tech as it relates to business, Lemieux said.
Keynote speaker during the morning session of the event was Chris Brogan, CEO of Human Business Works and co-author of “The Impact Equation,” a book about “how to get your important ideas distilled, spread across a platform that you’ve built, and cared for and understood by other people,” according to information at his website chrisbrogan.com. His topic at the What’s Next conference was “Mastering the Digital Channel.”
Marcus Sheridan, owner of the most visited swimming pool website in the world, which has generated $1.7 million in sales, gave a keynote address during the afternoon session. His message, Lemieux said, is when people have questions answer them in a way so they can get the information they need.
During his stay in Bangor, Sheridan posted on Aug. 8 on his website thesaleslion.com, “You see, I’m here to speak at the Bangor Daily News “What’s Next” Marketing Conference tomorrow and right now I’m using the opportunity to see a part of the world I’ve never seen, which is way better than locking myself in a hotel room over the next 48 hours. … Although I’m not one to enjoy being alone often, I appreciate moments like this one. The architecture of the old buildings and the river running through town take my mind to a place of yesteryear, envisioning what life must have been like a century ago, letting the closet history buff within me smile with wonderment.”
Dan Fletcher, former managing editor of Facebook also was on the agenda. He talked about the intersection of journalism and the Internet and how he is building a website that will offer an a la carte magazine that will allow users to subscribe only to writers they like. Writers will receive a portion of the profits, and the other portion will go to support the platform.
“We also did a mash up of a panel of marketing professionals and a rapper who calls himself Spose,” Lemieux said. Participants talked about personal branding and how to get a message out that is relevant to personal branding.
Lemieux said that response from those who attended the conference indicated that they left knowing that there are lots of options out there, whether its for a business, a brand or a cause, and how to reach people using various tools in the realm of Internet technology.
“People in the the room were really excited,” Lemieux said. “It was buzzing. Participants saw and heard fascinating people they don’t usually get to see.”
Plans are already in the works for similar conference next year.