Two days before the event I learnt Social Media FTW ‘09 was sold out, completely full with 225 delegates and a waiting list. Wow! I was impressed I had no idea so many people in Maine were so hungry to learn about social media. I was pleased I had decided to go, I was curious to meet all these people who also have in interest in Social Media.

In just half a day #ftw09 covered topics for the beginner wanting to learn more about Twitter, Facebook and Blogging for Business to Mike Lewis' session on Social Media ROI. This was extremely popular and obviously is one of the biggest challenges for organizations using (or considering) adding social media to their marketing mix.

The value I saw was the diversity in presentations and speakers, choosing which one to attend was difficult as all seemed valuable, fortunately all presentations were recorded so as a delegate I will get to view the ones I missed. Overall the conference was a success, just checking out the Twitter stream of comments is proof to that.

It really is the speakers who make an event. How well they know their topic and how well they engage with the audience. CostVidaFred made a session about podcasting interesting, entertaining and valuable by engaging with the audience and sharing his own experience.  My congratulations to Rich Brooks at Flyte for attracting outstanding presenters, who are obviously passionate and knowledgeable about social media, Im sure that was no easy task. And thank you to all those who took time out of their busy schedules to present and share their knowledge at #ftw09.  

Im wondering though, did #ftw09 feed the hungry, or increase our appetite.  After all social media is continuing to grow and evolve and with it so does our hunger to stay up to date. Im definitely looking forward to Social Media FTW 2010.