Swag!

I was at the MIMA Summit (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) earlier this week. It's one of those events that, when you leave, it feels as if your skull was forced open. In a good way.

One of the great things about marketing conferences, besides the great info you glean, is that you usually get some pretty cool swag. At the MIMA Summit attendees received a swag bag full of the cool and useful items at right.

The conference was packed with design, Web, tech and marketing geeks. The presentations were all about how the Web is changing how we live and what that means to marketers -- how to use the Web and e-mail in new, cool and effective ways. The morning keynote was by a guy from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. He talked about trends in Web use and provided lots of stats (I love stats!) about Internet use, type of use, etc., by various segments of the population.

One of the presenters, from Schematic, had the most brain-busting presentation. He talked primarily about how we'll be navigating the Web in the future. Take a look at the Schematic site and you'll see what I mean. The first part of the presentation was so out there I felt disoriented. (Like I was walking in eight-inch heels through deep mud on a listing ship.) After I got acclimated I was fascinated.

I work at a school that is part of a larger church. MIMA gatherings are full of people who do things we could only dream of. But that's the beauty of it. The ideas open up my mind and push me to keep learning and growing. And it's just plain cool.