The Brands-Only Summit recap: 304 social media leaders. 161 brands. 3 incredible days.

January 2, 2014

Last week's SocialMedia.org Brands-Only Summit was an extraordinary family reunion. It was an incredibly spirited, energizing, and huggy social media conference.

We were blown away by the response: 304 social media leaders from 161 brands attended. (With no vendors, sponsors, or consultants — save for a handful of guest faculty members teaching classes — allowed in the room.)

Getting so many social media executives together reminded us just how special the people leading the social media movement at big brands are. (See the tweets below for a glimpse of the experience.)

We're already working on the next Brands-Only Summit.

We're definitely bringing the Brands-Only Summit back next year, and we hope to have the official dates locked down in the next few weeks. Signing up for our email newsletter is a great way to stay in the loop for event announcements.

Presentations from this Brands-Only Summit will be available soon.

We'll be posting all the videos and slides from the conference in the next few weeks. Until then, this Storify collection of tweets from the event is a great place to start, as is our live blog posts from throughout the conference.

Here's a glimpse of the Brands-Only Summit experience through some of our favorite tweets:

It was an amazing experience — so amazing that people had amazing ways of describing it:


 
It all started with a pre-conference focused on measuring social media:

 
Then we kicked off Classes and Case Studies Day with 12 How-To Classes:


 
Three brilliant authors took the stage:


 
Tyra Banks gave a keynote on the intersection of social media, traditional media, and product marketing:


 
And we closed out the day with 12 Real-World Case Studies:


 
With so many smart folks in the room, at times it felt more like a family reunion than a business conference:


 
We had a chocolate emergency, but we got through it:


 
We took a few breaks from all the learning to have a little fun:


 
We all ate — a lot:


 
We left exhausted, stuffed, and looking forward to the next Brands-Only Summit:

We're already planning the next Brands-Only Summit — and we hope to see you there. Sign up for our email newsletter for updates on our events and to learn what big brands in social media are up to each week.