The Ragan Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference, perhaps better known to its attendees as #RaganSM, proved to be a good show on several new and fun fronts – one of our D6ers who has requested anonymity and will be referred to as "Sunshine" repeatedly proved that what happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily have to stay in Vegas (keep reading).  But before we get to "Sunshine," I’d like to discuss some of the key ideas from the conference:

1)     The concept of “brand journalism” – where brands have a more important and significant voice in culture was introduced by Mark Ragan and echoed by various other speakers.  This idea is fascinating for several reasons.  Moving brands to a more utilitarian and culturally relevant space has been talked about at conferences for years.  However, brand journalism is especially interesting when you consider how so many “experts” in recent years have discussed the death of traditional media and reporting.  Perhaps the next move for journalists is brand journalism.  Think about it.

2)     CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT!  While this seems to be a popular message at a lot of conferences these days, Ragan’s focus on content produced by people who truly understand how to tell stories + truly emotional engagement showcased the importance of great content in a way that is rarely explained at conferences.  Story telling reigns supreme.

3)     Microfailure is constructive.  In social, failure (i.e. prematurely tweeting, tweeting from the wrong address, etc.) needs to be embraced for social to succeed.  Social is clearly a situation where creating to think, rather than thinking to create should be the norm.  This couldn’t have been demonstrated any better that by the Red Cross “oops” tweet and their magnificent recovery.  How fortuitous was it having the Red Cross as a speaker?  Which reminds me…

4)     Listening is more important than talking – find out what’s important to people and become a part of the conversation to create connections.  An example of this is how The Red Cross of Chicago seeks out and aids people who have suffered house fires.  They didn’t create the reason for interaction, but they inserted themselves into the situation and helped people in need – thus fulfilling their mission.  How is your business heroic?

And now back to "Sunshine."  Above is a rare video of "Sunshine" besting Brooks Thomas of Southwest Airlines by a smidgen in the Inaugural Definition 6 - Ragan Communications Sprint For No Reason. 

As shown in the above pictures and previous video, Definition 6 hosted a great impromptu party in "Sunshine’s" humble suite (he somehow only got it with a $100 upgrade) that was attended by about 100 conference-goers, possibly one female escort (we still aren’t sure) and Alan Garner, of course.  Perhaps this should be an annual happening.

As you likely can tell by now, "Sunshine" of Atlanta, GA practically owned Las Vegas from February 14-February 16, 2011.  At one point he even lost his BlackBerry in a taxi, tweeted about it, connected with another conference attendee who, after seeing the tweet, miraculously connected the dots and reunited "Sunshine" with the cabbie who had his CrackBerry--Keith Nichols of Western Cab.  (If you’re in Vegas and need a ride – 702.736.8000 – they deserve the business).

A joyful "Sunshine" getting the cabbie’s phone number from Bo Edwards of Lockheed Martin.



 "Sunshine" getting his Blackberry back from Keith



 "Sunshine" dropping Keith some of his winnings for his honesty and generosity. It was a Ragan Conference miracle and a timely case example for the power of social media.



NASA Astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock



Video Courtesy of @Kevin_Hunt

But enough about "Sunshine" and back to the conference.  From the first astronaut to check into Foursquare from space (and who funnily enough, only realized much later that he has to do it twice before becoming mayor – #fail) to a singing David Pogue from the New York Times, the presenters were varied and provided a broad range of takeaways for the equally varied audience.  The 17 tools that everyone should know about for social media seemed to be the 17,000 tools that everyone should know about for social media and an always-entertaining Shel Holtz was equally as informative.  Congratulations Ragan on a great conference.