Hey IDYE readers. This past week I had the opportunity to check out the #140conf.

For those unaware, the conference was created by entrepreneur Jeff Pulver, pioneer of the VoIP industry and a leader in the emerging TV on the Net industry. Basically he co-founded a little service called Vonage.

The 140 Conference is essentially a conference about social media for social media enthusiasts.  Obviously much of what is discussed is related to Twitter and everyone in attendance displays their Twitter handle with pride.  Literally everyone who attends the conference wears a laminated badge with their picture and Twitter handle as a way to easily connect with one another.  The conference took place October 4 and 5 at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood and there are now conferences held all over the world, including Tel Aviv, Barcelona, London and New York as well as San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston.

The speakers at the panels range from Nick Cannon, @NickCannon, host of America’s Got Talent and husband to the one and only Mariah Carey, to actor and host Kevin Pollack, @kevinpollak, to wine connoisseur Rick Bakas, @RickBakas, author of the book Good Bites and singer songwriter Michelle Branch, @MichelleBranch

Pulver’s passion for the real time Internet is apparent throughout the conference panels.  Like a tweet with only 140 charaters, the panel sessions at the conference are also short, and to the point.  With sessions running between 10-25 minutes it caters to those that have limited attention spans like myself.  The conference covers every topic imaginable with a wide array of speakers.  In one hour I heard writers, rappers, musicians, advertisers, documentarians and dating experts talk about their personal experiences and how they took their careers to the next level by utilizing Twitter.  Pulver is purposefully bringing together people from very diverse backgrounds, “I am hoping to expose many people to as many different voices as possible with these conferences.”  He invested in Twitter and he believes that, “Twitter is a change agent for different businesses.  The adoption of Twitter and how it is a change agent for different types of businesses makes me believe today that the invention of Twitter in the 21st Century, when we look at the history of communications, the impact of  Twitter’s introduction will be as powerful as the introduction of the telegraph, telephone, television or radio was to people’s ability to communicate.  There is some real value here.”  Pulver clearly believes in the power of Twitter, but he also wants people to challenge his views because ultimately the great and powerful part of this social medium is that we all have thoughts and opinions to share.

I don’t want this conference to come across as a bunch of speakers self-promoting.  Granted there was some of that happening, but overall the spirit and tone of the panelists was one of optimism, new engagement, and how to inspire change  that is proactive.  Though some of what I heard was a lot of what I am already aware of, stay consistent, don’t over share, be authentic etc, while here some of the panelists made me think about things in a new and fresh way.  @JulieSpira uses her tweets to discuss online dating.  Apparently there are about 92 million singles across the US alone and she shares her personal online dating successes and disasters, which frankly I found to be both refreshing and endearing.  While  @hardlynormal has raised awareness about the issue of homelessness through his tweets and is single handedly helping people in real life.  His story is awe inspiring.  The list goes on.  For a complete look at the panelists check out the schedule here: #140conf Schedule.

Many people don’t understand Twitter and are adamantly against it.  I can understand their hesitancy.  When I first heard about it about two years ago, I quite frankly didn’t get it either.  Ironically, my father was the one who convinced me to utilize it for networking purposes.  Now, I am a huge proponent of Twitter.  I have been able to learn about and discover new people I never would have without it.  I have forged real life business and personal relationships and have made some really supportive friendships that I cherish.  Finally, I wouldn’t be here writing this post had it not been for seeing a tweet about this Blogger position!  The #140conf allowed me to meet some of the people I do follow in real life as well as follow and meet new people.  Plus Jeff Pulver opened up the bar for all of us at the end of the conference.  You can’t get any better than that!

For more information and how you could be a part of the next conference take a look here:

140conf