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It has taken the whole weekend to completely digest all the amazing learnings we gathered last week at the WOMMA summit. The WOMMA tagline is “Creating Talkable Brands Next and Best Practices” and they totally delivered. Great learnings from great brands like Mattel, Sprint, Intel, Unilever and Sephora just to name a few. But the most talked about sessions were definitely the keynote addresses that carried four themes that will help us navigate the social media industry over the next year.

The summit opened with Sally Hogshead teaching us all what it means to Fascinate – the theme of her recently released book of the same name. One key theme was how brands need to stand out in our cluttered and noisy world. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best, if no one knows about it. And with an average attention span of only nine seconds, consumers will remember the brands that persuade them in the most social ways. The brands with the best word of mouth reputations will stand out and others will fade into the background. Later in the conference, there was a panel discussion of legal counsel from Coca-Cola and American Express, and I was reminded that both of those brands have been able to stand out with plenty of reason to be risk averse.“

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Although it was a few weeks ago, my mind is still buzzing with learnings from the 2011 Digital CMO Summit, which I had the opportunity to attend in New Orleans with John Bell. This unique event was not only filled with hands on learning and compelling content, but brought together some of the most innovative brands for a two day summit. More to come on that in my next post.  While I was at the summit, I had the opportunity to meet some truly inspiring and interesting people - who not only breathe social - but know how to apply it to a entrepreneurial spirit to fuel really smart ideas among the vibrant New Orleans community. Meet Chris Schultz, President of Voodoo Ventures. We briefly sat down with Chris who shared his passion for creativity and the importance of entrepreneurship in New Orleans, especially Post-Katrina.

Chris is a co-founder of Launch Pad, a collaborative workspace in downtown New Orleans that is home to more than 60 startups in the Big Easy.  He created Launch Pad Ignition, the first seed accelerator on the gulf coast, and part of the Techstars Network and the Startup America initiative.  The list goes on: He also co-founded TribeCon, a conference about leveraging online communities to create offline change and mentors young entrepreneurs in the community in addition to building his own companies. You can see part of his interview with us in the video below:

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We are very excited to announce that we are a proud sponsor and participant of an upcoming virtual conference brought to you by our friends at PRWeek next week. With new applications and social media tools emerging every day, staying up to date on the latest trends in social media innovation is critical to our business as PR professionals.

The PRWeek Lab will take place Wednesday, June 2 and Thursday, June 3, 2010 and will provide an online resource for PR professionals on the most recent social media trends, tools, and strategies, thought leadership, and case studies- all without leaving one’s office. The online platform includes live webcast sessions, keynote speakers (such as Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and Ben Edwards, VP of Digital Strategy and Development, IBM), as well as exhibitor booth environments for follow-up questions, live chats, and material downloads. PRWeek Lab will be a fully interactive experience, with Q&A throughout, as well as polling of all participants on the quality of the content and the future of social media. No other PR event will bring you closer to the action that is driving today’s social media innovation.  Please visit here for additional details.

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Getting jazzed for the WOMMA School of WOM confab in Chicago (my hometown) on May 24-26.  A few thoughts and tips …

Sessions

The conference is packed with great sessions.  I’m seriously impressed.  A few I’m personally keen to catch …

• Jeffrey Hayzlett of Kodak speaks on Monday from 2pm-3pm.  You might know that Hayzlett recently announced he’s leaving Kodak, which could make for a very candid session.
• Also on Monday (4:30pm-5:15pm) , Pete Blackshaw and John Stieger lead a session on P&G’s customer relations efforts as a spark for WOM.  I’ve never met Blackshaw, and am looking forward to doing so.
• On Tuesday morning, Sarah Hofstetter and Roberto Mastracola deliver a case study on Coke Zero.  When Coke speaks, I listen.
• The Tuesday keynote is from Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.  These guys are darlings of the Chicago scene.  Very eager to hear what he has to say.
• Ogilvy’s very own Kaitlyn Wilkins will join Ford’s Marisa Bradley on Tuesday to talk about building a more social Ford Motor Company.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart; and knowing how passionate Kaitlyn is about her Ford work, I’m sure it’ll be a great discussion.
• Jason Anello of Yahoo will lead a session called “How 20 Purple Bikes Generated 20 Million Impressions.”  I’m a big Y! fan, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Jason deliver an overview of this program.

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This past week I had the pleasure of attending a few of the NY400 events in New York City, including the H209 Water Forum. The H209 conference was dedicated to bringing Dutch and American environmental and engineering experts and policy makers together to explore ways to tackle 21st century water-related challenges, and develop solutions for a sustainable future. A mouthful I know – and definitely not the sexiest topic – but I learned some interesting facts on water-management that made me take a second look at the relevancy of the issue and ways to use my DI skills to bring awareness of it online.

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The CDC’s National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media starts tomorrow with an amazing lineup of presenters and keynote speakers. The conference is in its third year and brings together social marketing practitioners, academia, public health practitioners and many others to discuss best practices in health communications and marketing.

I am thrilled to be going to this conference and am looking forward to learning from some of the best social marketing practitioners and thought leaders in the country. I plan on blogging about my experience here on the Fresh Influences Blog with my colleague Kristin Parrish. You can also follow our Tweets @KFoster926 or @sarahmarchetti or follow the conference hashtag #NCHCMM. If you are attending the conference, Alex Rampy wrote a great post you should check on on 5 Ways to Prep for the CDC Conference.

Several representatives from Ogilvy PR’s Digital Influence and Social Marketing teams will be speaking at the conference. If you are going, please stop by our sessions:

Partnering with the AME Church to Educate African Americans about P.A.D. - Erica G.Taylor (International A/B) Tuesday, 2:15 — 3:45 p.m

Twitter Best Practices for Nonprofits and Health Communicators - Sarah Marchetti (Grand Ballroom A/B)Tuesday, 2:15 — 3:45 p.m

Motivating Women to Address Risk Factors for Heart Disease by Creating an Online Community with Customized Social Media Tools - Emily Yu and Kristin Foster (Poster Session)Wednesday, 9:30 — 10:15 a.m

Redefining Teen Health Communications Through Social Media - Trish Eitel Taylor and Caitlin Douglas (Cottonwood A/B) Wednesday, 10:15 — 11:45 a.m

Policy Advocacy: The Fifth “P” of Health Marketing - Bryan Callahan (Dogwood A/B) Thursday, 10 — 11:30 a.m

You can check out the program book for full descriptions of these sessions and all the other presentations that will be going on over the next three days.

Do you have any questions for us while we’re there? Any content you’d like to see here on Fresh Influences that Kristin and I can collect for you? Let us know in the comments.