The past few weeks has seen my attending quite a few events that I should have blogged about and didn’t. So, I decided to create a small post that chronicles some of the recent events I attended and share some of my interactions with a broad range of marketers in the Bay Area. Here are 4 events you may find interesting:

1. Bloggers on Sake

seated from l – r: i, CK and fellow Benihanans

Yes! I finally got to meet the one-and-only Christina Kerley a.k.a CK (blog), whose marketing blog we all tremendously enjoy reading. Here are a few things I learnt about CK: consummate marketer (Duh!), passionate marketing advocate for her clients, a “whirlwind of ideas”, one of the most entertaining marketers to hang out with (here’s her take).

She shared with me some of the truly exciting projects she is involved in. Her many travels across the country is going to shortly bring her face-to-face with our marketing community — Mack, Paul, and David. I look forward to meeting with CK yet again when she visits San Francisco, a month from now, and I bet Karl will be joining us then?

2. Are you LinkedIn?

From l – r: Robert, Konstantin and i
Pic Source: Michelle Hoover

As some of you already know, I’m on the board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Marketing Association (SVAMA). We put together some really informative marketing events every month and my goal is to establish a rapport with the academic marketing institutions in the Bay Area (think Santa Clara University, Stanford, etc…).

I was recently invited to an absorbing marketing event hosted by Santa Clara University (MBA Marketing Network), featuring Konstantin Guericke (Co-Founder of LinkedIn). Of course, Konstantin had tons of insightful commentary on the burgeoning social media phenomenon. It definitely was a great opportunity for the business school students to learn more about successful social collaboration ventures. Congratulations to the MBA students who put together a great show!

Also, a shout-out to my good friend Robert Jacobs (see pic above) who puts together some of the cool marketing events for the SVAMA.

3. Back to Basics – a SVAMA event

Pic Source: Michelle Hoover

Speaking of Robert and the great panel discussions he puts together, reminds me of the most recent SVAMA event that we organized at SAP. It was centered on “Innovations in Market Research” featuring speakers from IBM, IDC, and Universal Responses. I wasn’t a panelist but definitely enjoyed trying out for the part (see pic above)!

Kent Yunk — Sr. Go To Market Manager, IBM SWG
Pic Source: Michelle Hoover

I had a chance to chat with Kent Yunk, IBM’s Senior Go To Market Manager, who shared with me some of his ideas, predictions and reservations about this whole social media juggernaut characterized by corporate podcasts, blogs, and RSS feeds. Fortune 500 corporations are slowly-but-surely jumping onto the bandwagon and I believe this will inevitably lead to the tipping point when it comes to user-adoption.

4. oDesk meets Lunch 2.0!

From l – r: Jeremiah and Puneet Gupta
Pic Source: Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah and I, recently attended Lunch 2.0 hosted by oDesk (blog), a popular startup that intends to shake up the outsourcing scenario. While there, I had a chance to talk to another good friend, Dave McClure along with his fellow oDesk’ers Sawan Deshpande and Ed Schaffer. I think Jeremiah gave a very timely, accurate assessment of what oDesk is, and you can check that out here.

Also, in related news, Congratulations to Jeremiah for being inducted into the Lunch 2.0’s Hall-Of-Fame. I was mighty impressed with the huge success he generated when he hosted Lunch 2.0 at HDS. He has now been invited to be a part of the Lunch 2.0 team involved more extensively as organizer, blogger and coordinator. Way to go, buddy!