Content Jam 2013 Recap

By Andy Crestodina

On a gray October morning in Chicago’s South Loop, 200 marketers got together. It was Content Jam, our content marketing conference. It was a day of teaching and learning, a day of old friends and new.

This was our second year, and we did things a bit bigger, with nineteen speakers instead of four. The new format didn’t allow for attendees to join every session, but as promised, the presentations have been uploaded. You can view them all at the bottom of this post. We’ll be adding more as they roll in.

Content was created…

Two graphical reporters in the house, George Berlin and Lin Wilson, captured sessions as sketchnotes. Tony Gnau from T60 Productions was there shooting video.

And some of the pictures we took are priceless. Here’s a batch from Orbit and from Mightybytes.

In the few days since the event, attendees have been publishing recaps. Here are a few:

  • Gini Dietrich’s Discussed Content Marketing in 2014 and Beyond by David Deal
  • The ROI of Content Conferences by Chuck Kent
  • Why the Internet is Awesome by Ariel Upton
  • Content Marketing Quotables from Content Jam by Myles Dannhausen
  • 9 Content Marketing Tips from #ContentJam 2013 by Devan Perine
  • 18 Tips from Content Marketing Innovators Marti Konstant’s eBook with quotes from the speakers
  • Jam Session: What Storytellers Can Learn from Content Marketing from StoryStudio
  • Content Jam 2013: Story, Science, Strategy and Very Social by Tim Frick
  • Crafting Your Brand’s Story: Content Jam 2013 Recap by Mightybytes
  • Jamming at Content Jam by Susan Silver

Know of an event recap we missed? Let us know, and we’ll add it here.

Friendships were made…

Content marketers are social, of course, both online and off. Our friend Kyle Akerman helped us all connect on Twitter with this list of all the attendees. Mana and the team at Lightspan put together this fun Storify Event Recap.

By early afternoon, the #ContentJam hashtag was trending on Twitter. Congrats people!

We gave back…

The organizers – Story Studio, Mightybytes, and Orbit – are all B-Corps, so we think about sustainability in all things. A portion of the registrations are being donated to Barrel of Monkeys, which teaches creative writing workshops in Chicago Public Schools. We also did our best to make it a low-impact event, reusing and recycling whenever possible. Even the buttons in the Button-O-Matic were made from recycled steel in Busy Beaver’s solar powered button factory.

And we’re very grateful…

It took a lot of time, energy, and help to put it all together. So we owe a huge thanks to everyone who made it possible.

  • Columbia College for lending us their home.

  • Protein Bar, our delicious lunch sponsor.

  • Howells & Hood for the refreshments served to our speakers.

  • Community Media Workshop for organizing the space.

  • All the amazing volunteers

  • The out-of-towners! So honored to see friends from Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, California, and Ontario.

Also a special thanks to Amanda Gant, the event producer, wrangler of cats, and voice of reason. Thank you, Roger!

Content Jam 2014?

Yes, there will be a Content Jam next year. We’ve already got a few new ideas, and of course, we’re open to suggestions. Hope to see you all there!

There is more where this came from…

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