The University of Minnesota is hosting MinneWebCon on April 14 at the McNamara Alumni Center.  Featuring Eric Meyer, an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS and Web standards, MinneWebCon delivers a blend of technical and creative information from industry practitioners and educators.  The day’s sessions will cover:

• CSS
• Web accessibility
• Internet law & liability
• Online tools
• Social networking
• Microformats
• Podcasting
• Web video
• User-centered design

 Find our more information and register online at http://www.minnewebcon.umn.edu/

Since that first Marketing 101 class in college, we have all had the “four P’s” of marketing emblazoned on our brains:  product, price, promotion, placement.  Align these four with your customers’ needs and your marketing should rock… right?

Well, not anymore.  At last week’s MIMA event featuring Rachel Marret, EVP of MRM Worldwide, we learned that the digital age has ushered in a fifth “P” of marketing:  Participation.  Gone are the days of reactive marketing, where largely passive customers responded with Pavlovian reliability to a brand’s outbound messaging.  Today’s customers, she stated, are less “slobbering dogs” and more “indifferent cats” – more in control, more inclined to have the “it’s all about me” attitude, more likely to walk away from relationships (read:  brands) that don’t deliver real value to their lives.  “Consumers are self-servicing their way to brands,” Marret explained.  “Peoples’ brand expectations have flipped, from ‘I’m loyal to you’ to ‘be loyal to me’”. 

What’s needed in this new Age of Participation?  According to Marret, marketers need better ideas.  Ones that go beyond engagement to enabling and inviting participation.  How?  Through creativity.  Through building meaningful communities.  Through inviting public collaboration.  Because participation with a brand, she contends, is today’s proxy for true value.

A  few other “P’s” come to mind about her remarks:  Pithy.  Perceptive.  Powerful.  Pertinent.  And Podcast – as in, if you missed it live, download it and be persuaded (yes, another “P”  – I couldn’t resist).

While some of us love to blog, some of us really don’t. We’re looking for the lovers, not the haters.

MIMA is a community of really smart and diverse people and we’d like to hear more from you. We’ll be piloting a guest blogger program in 2008 and would like to invite contributions from MIMA members to our blog.

Want to talk about blogging? Metrics? Optimization? Web design? Search? Web 2.0 and beyond? A great new conference or web application? Your new iPhone? Something nobody’s talking about yet? All of those (except maybe the iPhone) would make for good topics.

If you’re interested in participating in MIMA’s guest blogger program, please submit an email to Jamie@mima.org with Guest Blogger in the subject line. In the body, please tell me a little about yourself and include topics of interest and, if possible, some writing samples. I’ll spend the next two weeks or so reviewing emails and charting out a schedule.

I’d also like to thank all of those who have been guest bloggers in the past plus Meghan Wilker, Nancy Lyons, and Gwyneth Dwyer, Geoff Brown, Michelle Bernloehr, and Erica Butler – our newest guest bloggers. MIMA exists for our members and couldn’t operate without volunteers.

Speaking of volunteers, we have a several openings for other volunteer positions. Volunteering is a great way to stay connected with the community and meet like-minded people. And we need you.

Availability includes:

1. Marketing Committee – PR assistance
2. Membership Committee assistance – several options
3. Event Committee – event assistance
4. Technology Committee – onsite podcast set up and monitoring, ideally someone with some production and editing experience

If you’re interested in any of these opportunities, please either complete the form on the Volunteer page ( http://www.mima.org/join/volunteer.asp ) or email me at Jamie@mima.org.

Thanks.
Jamie Hermes

Got a camera? (You’re nodding yes.) Planning to vote? (Of course you are.)

Participate in the Polling Place Photo Project, a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism, sponsored by The New York Times, AIGA, and Design Observer.

All you have to do is look through your lens and document democracy. Simply capture your local voting experience (abiding, of course, by state and local laws), post your photos, and become part of this nationwide, non-partisan project. The goal is to capture primaries, caucuses, and the general election from the people’s point of view.

Here’s how to participate. And here are some recent photos from the Super Tuesday Minnesota caucuses:

Minneapolis
“Democratic caucus line”
Photograph by Lewis Weinberg

“The convener shouts out directions”
Photograph by Pat Carney

Saint Paul
“Caucus chaos”
Photograph by Heidi Sandstad

“Post-caucus quiet”
Photograph by Arah Bahn

How about it MIMA members? Capture your user experience. Look through your viewfinder. Point and shoot. This is everything you applaud in a open-source initiative — photographs of the people, by the people, for the people.

As the Ogilvy & Mather Digital guru, Jan Leth is a man of few words.   But he makes them count.  On Monday night (Feb. 4th) at the Fine Line Music Cafe, he got pithy with the state of interactive.

His summary: “Dada. Data. Alpha. Beta.”

DADA: Interactive is a revolutionary mash-up just like the art movement.

DATA: User-generated content is re-shaping applications and authority.

ALPHA: Word of mouth now spreads so easily. Marketers need the alpha (males and females) on their side.
BETA: Everything is in flux. Accept imperfection. Stay in the flow.

He answered audience questions similarly. Minimum verbosity, maximum  insight.