November 30th and cities & towns around Ireland will have tumble weed blowing through them as the social media brigade heads down to sleepy west of Ireland village Cong. Remember the John Wayne movie, the Quiet Man - well that, Ashford Castle and now Congregation.ie are putting Cong back on the must visit map.
Congregation is kinda different to your normal pile ‘em high in hotel rooms with a high flying oil snake salesman selling social media kool-aid. Not in Cong. First you cannot buy a ticket (although I am now thinking I could probably find a buyer for mine on eBay) - no sir you have to write a blog post and send it to them and if they upload it to the site www.congregation.ie - then you’re in. At least this means you get to do your home work in advance. On the day you get to present your social media nuggets to the social media posse - in fact everyone is a speaker. And there is no big, vast chamber venues - its all small intimate places like coffee shops, bars, restaurants and exhibition spaces. That way you really will feel like you are just having a conversation.
They are running the event using small groups of 10 people or a ‘Huddle’ with 3 presentations delivered at each one.
Chatting to organiser Eoin Kennedy he has factored in lots of yapping time in-between the four sessions - not to mention the pub crawl that evening as you take over Cong village.
The really nice thing about this is that its real people telling real stories and experiences. The website gives lots of guidance on what you could talk about from a how to do something in social media, research (either original or curated), a social story of how a business is using social media and finally a social media rant or perspective on social media.
They obviously know Culch.ie readers well as not only is the event free but they are also giving you lunch and coffee/tea throughout the day.
Hats off to MKC communications www.mkc.ie who are the main sponsor along with support from the Irish Internet Association www.iia.ie and the Public Relations Institute of Ireland www.prii.ie.
Sounds like its worth the fuel but I hear lots of people car pooling for the drive.
So get typing and send your 600 words (including a 100 word summary, biog of writer, contact details, photo and the 4 takeaways) over to [email protected] before its too late..
For more information see www.congregation.ie or follow them on twitter http://twitter.com/congregation13, LinkedIn , Google+ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/congregation2013. Twitter is where most of the action is.
If you cannot make it make sure you check out the blog posts that are already up there and I know the organisers would love an auld tweet - so share the love.
