I attended the Ohio Growth Summit on Tuesday, which celebrates the innovation of small business. The event was sponsored by the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Columbus State Community College. I was very impressed with the people I met; sincere, energized, smart, focused and everyone wanted to learn. My kind of meeting!
The morning kicked off with a keynote on Personal Brilliance by author, advisor and speaker Jim Canterucci. He is a very engaging speaker. I can’t wait to read his book and learn more about how to achieve personal brilliance.
After Jim’s presentation, the larger group split up by interests. There were a few different tracks attendees could choose from; some sessions related to finance and securing funds, some related to invention and product development. I stayed in the Social Media track, which included a presentation and then a roundtable discussion about how small businesses can benefit from social media. After lunch, there was an “Elevator Speech” competition and then the closing keynote by social media guru Chris Brogan.
Brogan is soft-spoken, personable, and funny. He is pretty transparent so you know when he’s happy about something and you know when he’s not. He was not at all what I expected. I expected arrogance and I got humility.
We exchanged a couple tweets at one point in the morning as he expressed some frustration about a little bit of self-centeredness he was hearing in a couple people. We then chatted about that very briefly at lunch. He told me to hold him accountable; if he made his speech about him, call him out. Imagine that!
Well, of course, that was not necessary. What really surprised me was Chris’ message. I expected a social media expert to be all about the technology. Chris Brogan is all about the relationships. He toned down the emphasis on all the social media tools and amped up the message about building relationships:
“Be personable. Be human. THEN share on the web. It’s about connection and community.”
His parting words said it all:
“Be Helpful, Be Kind, Share, Believe in Yourself.”
Imagine the possibilities if we all took those words to heart! Thanks, Chris Brogan. It was a pleasure to meet you.
PS: If you’re on Twitter, follow @canterucci and @chrisbrogan.
