Sunday, July 1, 2012

Looking Back at Silicon Beach Fest


The sand has settled from Digital LA's inaugural Silicon Beach Fest, a celebration of the LA start-up culture challenging Silicon Valley. With three days of panels (and after parties) held simultaneously in four locations across Santa Monica and Venice, guest got to mix, mingle and learn about what's happening and upcoming on the Los Angeles tech scene.

PromoJam, a leading social media platform, held four panels at their offices focused on social media with respect to broadcast, music, hispanic market and voting. Executives from NBC Universal, UStream, Interscope Records, OOYALA, M-GO, Hitflix, Atom Factory, The Audience, Topspin, Lopez Negrete Communications, RAPP, Shrine America Latino, Rock the Vote, Redlaser and Techcrunch took time out of their busy schedules to share their insights on social media. 

The key takeaway from PromoJam's panels is that people are using more and more devices to engage with media and are adding their voices to dialogue, whether it be Pretty Little Liars fans, the upcoming election and concerts. It's imperative for brands to conduct conversations, not dictate what they want fans to know.

From a personal standpoint, I really appreciated seeing people so passionate about what they do. Embodying the spirit of emPLAYment, was inspirational. They live, breathe and socialize with those who are directly or indirectly involved with their entrepreneurial pursuits.

The first ever Silicon Beach Fest showed the LA community the strength of the LA tech scene. With locals joined by those from New York and as far as London, it's becoming clear that SoCal is catching up to it's NorCal neighbors in terms of innovation, technology and start-up culture. Better start planning for next June's extravaganza!