Recently I watched a video by Jeff Pulver, wherein he contemplates why he is hosting a social media conference, the 140 Characters Conference” later this June.  As you can tell by the name the conference focuses on twitter, but is it really something more?  This is what I think:

The social web has begun a profound and irreversible cultural change.  The ease and speed at which information is transferred and the ability to share knowledge and opinion with each other, enables us to align ourselves in numerous flexible ungoverned groups. The alignments, immediacy, and interactions that take place give us a feeling of belonging that is core to what it means to be human. Our busy lives in modern western society have largely limited these types of analog interactions and the Social Web is filling the gap.  

At the same time, this profoundly affects business.  A company’s “brand” used to be pretty much synonymous with corporate identity.  In the past, a business could gain consumer awareness though advertising, project their message though numerous media channels upon the consumer or audience who could not quickly or easily respond to the company nor share sentiment with each other.  Now, in 140 Characters, from anywhere, anytime, on the go, the audience can share sentiment and this changes the nature of what a “brand” is and how companies must approach the customer.  

I like Marty Neumeier’s definition of brand “the gut feeling your customer has about your product, service, or company.” I would say this definition can be extended to personal brand as well, “the gut feeling that people have about you”.  For some reason, it seems really easy to share opinions, feelings, ideas, and knowledge in 140 character bursts and in the process of doing so people get a “gut feeling” for each other and align themselves accordingly.  

Like Jeff alluded to in his video, Twitter may be gone or change very soon due to economic pressures, but as a culture we have grown to crave the types of interactions and empowerment that we gain through tools like Twitter and I would suspect that something else would soon emerge to fill that demand.  The Social Web is here to stay and is affecting many industries.  

So, In terms of the 140 Characters Conference, Twitter seems to be a jumping off point to explore some very important issues created by the emergence of the Social Web…the Realtime Web.  I see the 140 Characters Conference as a way to take the pulse of these industries, explore the challenges created, and brainstorm solutions with industry and thought leaders.  Hopefully, a greater understanding of how the social web is affecting both individuals and industries, and a glimpse of the future will emerge.

In case you haven’t heard, Jeff Pulver has gathered 140 of the top social media characters and is hosting a conference to take a look at Twitter.  The conference is called the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) and it is the characters that will define the event.  Make sure to take a look at them.  The conference will take place at: New World Stages in New York City on June 16/17.  I can’t wait!

“the original scope of the event was to explore “the effects of twitter on: Celebrity, “The Media”, Advertising and (maybe) Politics”, the scope of the event has expanded and we will be covering these topics and a lot more. #140conf will be taking a look at twitter as a platform and will be taking a look at some of the industries which have been disrupted by the advent of twitter.” – 140 Characters Conference Website 

Also in case you haven’t heard, Jeff will be providing scholarships to 30 people who would like to attend but the cost is prohibitive.  This is how it works:

“If you would like to apply for a “#140conf Scholarship”, please send me a message via email in 140 words or less on “Why YOU would like to attend #140conf.” Extra consideration will be given to those people who also post their entry in their blogs and share a pointer to their blog post on twitter and include the #140conf hash tag.”

“This offer (has started) and will continue until each scholarship is awarded. The winners be awarded on an individual basis and access to the event is not transferable. It will be up to each respective winner to get to New York City to attend #140conf as travel costs are not included. I hope this scholarship program will provide access for a group of people who will benefit from the experience and who will contribute to the event.” – Jeff Pulver

So this is why I want to attend in exactly 140 words:

Over the past six months I’ve become fascinated by how social media, especially Twitter, has changed the traditional power dynamics between individuals with power and those without, as well as, between customer groups and companies.   It seems that this has given the” little guy” a much greater sphere of influence and companies need to pay attention.

Like many others, the economic turmoil has hit me and my family very hard.  This is the time in my life that I need to make a change and I have thrown myself head first at social media.  I see tremendous opportunities for companies and orgs to use social media to build stronger relationships with their audiences and very few are doings so effectively.  I hope to come away from the conference with a deeper understanding that I can use to build my business.

Good luck to everyone and hope to see you there.  It looks like #140conf is going to ROCK

 Tweet about this with me at: http://twitter.com/andrewmueller and use the #140conf hashtag