MIPs Entrepreneurship Fair 2014 – A True Success!

So yesterday, it was my pleasure to have been one of the speakers at the 2014 McMaster Innovation Park Entrepreneurship Fair and let me tell you it was a success.

Know how I know? Because of the questions we received from the attendees….that’s always a great ranking factor when it comes to the “value” of what it is you’re passing on to the seminar attendents – and after more than 100 speaking engagements over my career, I think it’s the best way of all!

But before I mention those items I should let you know that yes, the weather has been terrible lately, there was a snow squall the night before the Fair and yes the roads were bad…not bad enough to stop the 200+ folks who came out to the Fair nor for that matter for a bus or two of high school students enrolled in EntrepreneurShip training to attend.

We had some extra space sure, but the main thing was that when conditions aren’t absolutely perfect for the chore of “getting there” the ones who do showup are very very passionate.

My own session was as the sign here shows on “Social Media for StartUps” and I co-delivered that seminar with a good friend Shanta Nathwani who is a Sheridan College instructor, a solid #HamOnt booster and yes, the woman who founded the WiTH group – Women in Technology Hamilton and let me tell you, she knows her stuff.

While my own presi opened the seminar I talked for about half an hour on Social Media basics; on the vast numbers of users of the various platforms and yes, on the need to use E.A.T. – expertise, authority and trust – to climb the ranks in Google as you become the expert in your channel.

For me – and thankfully for my clients, the “rank in Google” is the be-all and end-all of online marketing….getting new incremental traffic directed to your site by those rankings can mean the difference between having a StartUp that will fail or do well!

Shanta’s own presi was taking the Social Media basics I provided and expanding on them all…she is a widely accepted WordPress guru and she explained why using such a platform to both host your site and then publicize your content works perfectly….and she then provided full Case Study storys too that showed same.

The quesitons tho were what got me – oh, I didn’t get hundreds, but they were pretty much “spot-on” when it came to tactical queries on Social Media. From “what do I use as my Startup G+ page content” to “how often can I tweet without looking like I’m pushing” type of queries. With both Shanta and I offering up our own opinions, we even got some of the attendants adding their own comments and that valued IMHO the whole seminar.

Loved this event! It also of course was more than my single seminar; there were exhibitor tables with various local groups showing off their services or items aimed at Startups; there was a great StartUp Panel with a good friend Joe Accardi of Platform302 fame too, ably MC’d by our Innovation Factory’s ED, Dave Carter too…

All in all, it was a great event. I hope that the feedback that MIPs got was universally good as I’d hope it continues to be run next year and in years to come too….I loved the bright passionate faces that look to a speaker for knowledge…and yes, I hope it was passed along too!

Lastly today, my video taken pre-Fair to let the prospective attendants know what we’d be speaking on!