• by Kelly Samardak , March 12, 2010

OMMA Global San Francisco
March 17 - 18, 2010

Next week I'm heading to San Francisco with the bloody-knuckled, sweaty-browed (No tears, people! No tears!) MediaPost Marketing and Events Team for OMMA Global!  I'm geeked up as all hell because I always feel shot through with energy and part of the team around event time.  Scoff and chortle all you want, but there is nothing like being swept up in the storm that is a group working to make a huge industry event successful.  That and I've never been to San Fran and I'll grab whatever tiny moments I can to get a glimpse.  AND I'll be giving you folks this column, West Coast style!  So what's what?

The first big what is that I'll be documenting the whole experience from beginning to end with my camera and I'll be (wo) manning our event-specific Twitter account, @MediaPostLive.  Of course I encourage you with event-specific fervor to follow @MediaPostLive for all MediaPost/OMMA breaking event announcements and discounts and such. For this event itself, you'll want to keep an eye on the #OMMAGlobal hashtag for eavesdroppings if you're not going.  And of course, if you ARE going and plan to tweet, slap that hashtag in for easy discovery of other tweeting attendees (and to avoid duplicating observations).  I'll be posting twitpics and links to the MediaPost Flickr throughout the show.  And I mean it; I can't wait.

Our cocktail party at the end of day one (March 17th) is going to be awesome - how can it not be?  All those squeezy balls and cocktails in the Expo Hall, the sounds of vendors vending and sellers selling, marketing types marketing.  Scary to some, amazing to others.  The people watching is going to be superb and you'll be able to check it out in the mass of photos I'll be taking.  Word on the street is, one of the exhibitors is giving away an iPad, too.  Wish I could enter!  Until then, I'll just keep trying to trick people with my Etch-a-Sketch. The fun doesn't stop in the expo hall my friends because I'll then head out into the night to cover Pereira and O'Dell's Prohibition Party at The Barrelhouse.  It looks like the guest list is full up, so you'll have to live vicariously through the after party post.

Day Two is going to be just as toasty as Day One, and I can't wait to inspect peoples' eyeballs to see who was out late and who wasn't.  The agenda is packed with keynotes, panels, sponsored sessions, private networking sessions AND at the end of the day, ANOTHER cocktail party on the 39^th Floor The View lounge at the venue.  And then, seriously, we'll all be hopping on a red eye to get back to the NYC Friday morning.  It's my first red eye, and you can choose not to believe me, but I'm even excited about that.  Hoping for some good sunrise from the plane shots (pictures, not tequila).

So sure, there's that big something or other happening in Austin, but the rest of us are saying "South By South WHAT!"  If you're going to be in San Francisco for OMMA Global, I look forward to meeting you in person! 

There is still time to get your free ticket to OMMA Global!