Louisville’s Social Scene

@chimoose, @ambercadabra, @gregcangialosi @michellej, @chrisbrogan, @justinlevy, @jasonfalls

I got to hang out with some cool people all day on Tuesday and it was really good times. Chris Brogan was in town giving a new media boot camp and we hosted it on Humana’s 25th floor. Here are some of my personal thoughts:

(Disclaimer Alert- I work in Humana’s Innovation Center – I am expressing my personal opinions below and not those of Humana)

First off, Jason Falls is responsible for bringing Chris and company to Louisville. I’m two years new to Louisville and had met Jason after my first year in Possibility City. I have only great things to say about the guy, as does everyone I’ve met who knows him. Anyway, he approached Greg Matthews and I with the idea of Humana hosting the boot camp back in January. We both thought it would be #awesome and set about convincing others in the organization to get on board so we could host it.  Fortunately approving authorities thought it was a pretty good idea as well, and everything came together really nice.

Big ups to Jason for being the mastermind behind this event.  By all accounts it was a tremendous success. Thanks man.

So in the wake of the #imbc, I’ve been asked on twitter why we would want to host the bootcamp at Humana? What’s in it for Humana?

I don’t think that the answer can be completely summed up with financial figures. Its bigger than that, in my opinion.  We could probably apply some kind of marketing equation to the exposure that Humana received from those who attended the event, those who caught it on twitter, and those who will learn about it from subsequent blog posts like this one.

And we may have to…

But whatever that number turns out to be, its a short term return when you think about it.  What about the bigger picture? The Innovation Center’s mission is to spread a health epidemic centered on life and happiness. We’re also trying to help the company along its path toward becoming a social enterprise, because a social enterprise will be a more efficient and engaged enterprise.

Lofty, long-term goals for sure… The kicker is that we know that we can’t achieve them alone. So bringing in some of the top minds in this space over time, to share their thoughts and plant seeds amongst our internal and local community, will do nothing but help us achieve our ultimate goals.

The real value of an event like this one lies in the relationships that are built. Relationships that provide access to knowledge that we otherwise would not have had access to and access to ideas that we may not have thought of on our own. The transformation of that knowledge and those ideas into initiatives or products that help accomplish business objectives is where social media ROI can and should be calculated.

Chris Brogan’s closing remarks at the SMC Louisville Event could be summed up into a three step process:  find each other, band together, make a difference.

These things take time, and the benefits may not be immediately visable… but that’s what’s in it for Humana.

photo by: hallicious