After receiving a tweet earlier this week about RECon 2014 social media agenda from a Dishing Social Media fan (yes, apparently there is a lone soul out there that reads this column), I thought I'd check back in with my ICSC friends and see what the social scoop is for the internationally-known Vegas show.
The RECon social media talk of the town the last two years was the iTech Lounge. The lounge provided hourly social media/tech classes by various industry marketing professionals. It was a great place to start learning about social media and how to apply it to retail real estate. Some of those sessions included, 2012 - Blogging for Business, Social Media and Public Relations, Pinterest 101; 2013 included, Twitter Titans, Analytics Newbie, I've Peaked - Now What, and Useful Apps For #CRE.
ICSC has now graduated to a fully sponsored social media area at RECon for 2014 called, "The Happiness Lounge." Now, before you judge this name (yes, I did it too), know that is sponsored by the very cool Coca-Cola - one of the top social media leaders. With 81 million Facebook likes, 2.4 million Twitter followers, I look forward to learning from them. The sessions will be categorized five ways to make sure you get the education you're looking for, including: #CrashCourse, #ICSCTechTalk, #HappinessBreak, #REConTweetup, and #MobileMeetUp. Some of the scheduled sessions that stood out to me are, The ROI of Social Marketing, New Rules for Consumer Engagement, Google Glass Trends and Implications. The new lounge will be located in Central Hall at 19th Ave & K Street. More perks of this grinning place consist of free Wi-Fi, phone charging stations and cozy seating.
You can also look forward to a new ICSC RECon app that will be launching the end of April. Some of my favorite functions include member lookup, show floor plans and event schedules. Sarah Malcolm, director of new media at ICSC has also told me that they are working on a consumer app called #MyStepsCount - essentially a pedometer app that counts your steps at RECon. I always wondered how much mileage I was getting at the show. Now when you complain to family about how much your feet hurt, they'll actually realize all the work you're doing. I also learned there will be some competitions and prizes around this launch, fun!
Social Media Fun Fact: Pharrell Williams' "Happy" song has 188,811,115 YouTube views as of 4/18/14.
Diana Podaski is vice president - marketing and social media at Linear Retail Properties, Burlington, Mass.