Flooring The Consumer on Simple Marketing Now

Please visit Flooring The Consumer's new home on SimpleMarketingNow.com where you can subscribe to receive updates to blog articles in real time!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I attended NeoCon... Virtually!

That's right! I attended NeoCon 2009. I'm not kidding and here's the proof [note the @cbwhittemore] drawn on this awesome new "white board with Tabrasa by IdeaPaint - a dry erase paint that turns any working environment into a high-performance writing space" from MDC Wallcoverings.

@cbwhittemore is this inspirational enough? We're far better ... on Twitpic

Talk about a brilliant way to create conversation around a new product! Just look at all of the images that Tabrasa by IdeaPaint generated. That's how I got in on the act and attended NeoCon.... virtually. Thanks to Twitter. Here's how.

In TweetDeck, I set up a search for carpet early Monday morning and came across a reference to #NeoCon09. I draw your attention to the # symbol [i.e., hashtag] which, according to the Twitter Fan Wiki, are "community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets." In other words, it's a terrific way to track Twitter conversation around common themes.

Once I discovered #NeoCon09, I created another search and came across a Tweet from fellow blogger @DarrylOhrt, author of BrandFlakes For Breakfast. I thought Darryl was attending NeoCon and hoped to live vicariously through his tweets.

He wasn't, but I did learn from his Tweet that he knew of something exciting going on. The Tweet pointed me to his post on whiteboard anywhere where I got the lowdown...

The MDC Wallcovering showroom [#10-155 in the Chicago Merchandise Mart] had artist Phil Lubliner illustrating live at their booth. The scoop? Tweet your request to @mdctabrasa with the hashtag #mdctabrasa and he would draw it.

My request was for "simple, beautiful, inspiring flooring."

The result was the photo above, tweeted back to me, which you can enjoy in larger format via this TwitPic link. An unexpected bonus.

[BTW, seems that for those there physically, you could get a free stuffed monkey, too, and some extra freehand doodling.]

For those of you interested in what Twitter contributed to NeoCon, I suggest that you read through the #NeoCon09 coded Tweets.

[Note: they will appear in reverse order, with the most recent Tweet first.]

You'll notice plenty of situational exchanges: who's where; the elevators; no cell service; getting started, etc.

You'll find what I consider broadcast advertisements "come to my booth to see my new product."

Links to photos.

Lots of immediate reactions to new products.

Also, announcements about special recognition and awards.

But, you'll also find links to more detailed observations and reviews:

Furniture Goddess
NeoCon Impressions
3rings - A Product Blog for Architecture + Design
Ponoko Blog - with pictures of the NeoCon Twitter board

With more sure to come.

And, don't forget to check out #NeoCon09 on Flickr [note the monkey]. It's fascinating.

The energy is palpable. The reactions are immediate.

This is what makes social media so magically potent. It allowed me to attend NeoCon virtually!

Thank you, Darryl!

Technorati Tags: Del.icio.us Tags:

2 comments:

Jim Gould said...

Sure, now you tell me about the free monkey. I was there and did not see that product.

Most interesting flooring product of the show to me was the click ceramic tile called Avaire. Won the Innovation Award for the show.

CB Whittemore said...

Jim, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't learn about the monkey until very late in the show... Avaire sounds very interesting.

Thanks for sharing! CB

Post a Comment

Reminder: Please, no self-promotional or SPAM comments. Don't bother if you're simply trying to build inauthentic link juice. Finally, don't be anonymous: it's too hard to have a conversation. Thanks, CB

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...