Conference Bites

Big Ideas for Short Attention Spans

We can’t all be everywhere we would like to be.

Amidst the proliferation of conferences on technology, marketing, business and sustainability, it’s tough to choose which events to attend.

ConferenceBites has been created to ease this dilemma by bringing the best moments of the best events directly to your email box or web browser.

OMMA Social Jan 26 San Francisco

"Social Media marketing is about a marriage, not a one night stand."
~ As tweeted by Hallelujah

"Facebook users have over 50 Billion connections to people and brands. People trust their friends more than they trust messages."
~ Brian Boland, Facebook, as tweeted by Robert Hof

"Marketing & Advertising is throwing chum in the water. If the fish start biting, then we can engage."
~  Jim Sterne

"Predictive analytics is data poor, SM is data rich: 'Chocolate and peanut butter waiting to happen'."
~  Jim Sterne

Joke regarding recent client question, "Can you filter out all the negative stuff and then put an ad next to it?"
~ Somrat Niyogi, CEO & Co-Founder at Bazaar Labs

"Texting is the redheaded stepchild of Twitter."
~ Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, as tweeted by Kristin Hersant

"ROI? Who cares? What's the ROI of putting pants on? You do it so you don't look like a douche-bag!"
~  Michael Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media

For more information on OMMA Social:

Value Based-Sustainability Conference Keynote Jan 26 San Jose

Quotes from Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi S, Keynote Address:

"The next 10 years are going to be more traumatic than the last 10 years." (Showing centerfold of Senator Brown)

"How to meet the financial crisis: We need to become like a forest... fire is a time when we thrive."

"Fiji water as $6 water sold in luxury hotels after being shipped around the world is 'dead man walking' "

"Consumers will look for and support companies that share bad news as well as good. PR may get turned on its ear."

"We need a broader version of green—we need blue… not an organic Oreo, but help mom get her kids to eat carrots."

"Look at context (for green)—COP15 didn't succeed, politics has failed. Investment is about to be taken off the table by Obama. Its an awesome responsibility for the corporate sector—to do what Copenhagen and US politics hasn’t. We need to generously work together to share ideas/solutions—we are in the right place (corporate sector) right now."

For more information on Value-Based Sustainability:

Executive Council's Value-Based Sustainability Conference Jan 26 in San Jose

"We…need to get value by extracting it out of information, rather than out of the ground."
~ Kathrin Winkler, VP of Sustainability, EMC

"Is focusing on the 2% of greenhouse gas impact caused by IT & COM navel gazing?"
~ Dunstan Hope, Managing Director of ICT Practice & Advisory Services, BSR

"The 2% is a big idea, first because its really 4%... you only need 25 of those solutions to solve the whole thing."
~ Sumir Karayi, CEO, 1E

"In 2008 we stepped back and realized our field and customers were asking for sustainability. We went from tactical to strategic in our approach."
~ Scott Bolick, VP of Sustainability, SAP

"Why have we been quiet? We didn’t want to say what we could do without having evidence."
~ Francois Ajenstat, Director of Environmental Sustainability, Microsoft

"Who are the next Ray Anderson's to speak for the Green Business community?"
~ William Brent, Head of Cleantech Practice, Weber Shandwick

"The greenest product is one that already exists. Reuse is an environmental boon."
~ Libby Reder, Head of Environmental Initiatives, eBay

"Metrics are still the holy grail in this (sustainability) space."
~ Libby Reder, Head of Environmental Initiatives, eBay

For more information on Value-Based Sustainability:

From COP 15 in Copenhagen DEC 10-11

"President Obama is calling for an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. You’re not going to meet those targets with a wind or solar farm here and there. What’s required is nothing less than completely rethinking the way we produce and consume energy."
~ Gary Locke, U.S. Secretary of Commerce

"The cost of fuel has risen, while the cost of… emissions is ferociously high. If we don’t curb the carbon, we imperil the planet. In the next few decades, we need to rebuild and reinvent virtually every industrial activity; from power generation and transportation to manufacturing and construction, to run efficiently and economically in a carbon constrained world."
~ Gary Locke, U.S. Secretary of Commerce

"So when we talk about the potential of job creation arising from clean energy investments, we’re not just talking about someone working for a solar or wind company. We’re talking about creating an entirely new model of economic growth…. The potential new business and new job creation is astounding."
~ Gary Locke, U.S. Secretary of Commerce

"We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting emissions in the atmosphere...(but) the sense of guilt or culpability or reparations—I just categorically reject that."
~ Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s chief climate negotiator

"If we leave Copenhagen without a legally binding outcome and without very strong commitment on finance, how can we go in front of our children and tell them, ‘We couldn’t reach [an agreement].’ We stand with AOSIS. That’s why we need the support of you, the youth, because you are the ones who are going to suffer if we don’t have a good result.  And sometimes your governments will hear you when they do not hear us."
~ Antonio Lima of Cape Verde, the vice president of AOSIS, (Alliance of Small Island Nations), speaking to young activists

"The fate of my country rests in your hands."
~ Ian Fry, Tuvalu Delegation

For more info on COP15:

Al Gore's Keynote at GreenBeat's Smart Grid Conference Nov 19

"At some point I will fully depreciate that line—namely 'I used to be the next president of the US'."

"This roller coaster is heading towards a crash and we are in the front car."

"Each one meter of sea level rise means 100 Million climate refugees."

"We are locked in a way of thinking about the grid, as large centralized generation... the world is passing that model by."

"The economists have a word - externalities, which basically means 'forget about it' so no wonder its hard to price carbon."

"The smart gird is connected to all threads of the crisis. The Smart Grid will empower an new set of devices, (many) not even invented yet."

"It requires a 1000mw power plant just to power the televisions that are turned off in the US."

"We will soon live in an era where the use of the internet by things (smart devices) will eclipse the use of the internet by people. For every man, woman and child on earth (there are  5.6B) there are, or soon will be 1B transistors."

"The single largest solution is energy efficiency… The transition to green tech clean tech is a jobs initiative. We can 2.5M new jobs just for retrofitting—jobs that can’t be outsourced."

"The odds of us encountering a leopard as we leave today are pretty small.  But the odds of encountering the climate crisis are 100%."

"The builders of the great cathedrals of Europe stayed on task across generations. We have that capacity..."
~ Al Gore, Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

For more information on GreenBeat: