Cool Marketing Thoughts

I went to a Blog Dinner (capitals intended) yesterday. MSN once again upped the ante by choosing a fabulous location. We met at noon at the prestigeous Belga Queen Super-Deluxe Oyster Bar/Lounge/Restaurant in Brussels and besides the fact we got to meet Shel Israel and Rick Segal, we were served delicious food in good company. Good food and conversations, that sort of stuff goes straight to my heart.

I talked to Shel about the book he ghost-authored with Scoble (Naked Conversations) and about the benefits it has to offer to companies that still need to define a good and transparent blogging policy. Shel has some really great insights. I’m glad I had a chance to talk to him. I also met Simon McDermott from Attentio and we had a really interesting talk about the brand rumor tracking tools. Too bad I didn’t end up next to Rick because I think that would’ve been interesting as well… Time, as always, flew by way too fast.

Check out the Belga Queen Club

I finally met Veerle Pieters, the godess of CSS and design and probably the best known blogger outside the Belgian borders. In all honesty, she rocks! Also there and in for some good conversation was Jean Philip De Tender who’s currently working as program manager and content coordinator at ‘één’, the Flemish TV and radio broadcasting company. After dinner I also talked to Geert Desager. Last time we met over e-mail he was still working for Tagora (an ad agency), but he’s now working for Microsoft on the trade department.

© Pietel

Some of the usual suspects were there as well, and we had some good talks. Networking kicks butt. I’m so glad I went. I’m so glad I was invited. There’s only one word left: Awesome. No wait: Cool.

Thanks Bea, Kris and Simon for putting this together. I had a great time!

More pictures on Flickr © Pietel
Also see my pics, on Flickr too :)

Update: More pictures from Veerle and Peter