BuzzLogic co-founder Todd Parsons and I got back from a whirlwind two day trip to the Boston area for the New Marketing Summit - a relatively new show put on by Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott and Paul Gillin. The event was interesting for a few reasons. First, the format was different - quick paced sessions (some as brief as 10 minutes) made time fly by, and no concurrent panels or "breakouts" meant singular focus on key topics and a unique cohesiveness for the overall event. Some of the content was your typical new marketing speak, but some was really different - I particularly enjoyed the New Millenial Marketing Movers panel, which included some of the most articulate and informed young marketing professionals I've ever been around - Ben Grossman and Emily Belyea impressed with insights and examples of how millenial up and comers will keep the rest of us on our toes. All around, a good event that touched on a variety of topics, from convincing senior management about the importance of social media to breaking down the best practices for how one actually "manages" an online community.

Some people I really enjoyed meeting included Adam Broitman, Christine Major of PerkettPR, Jaculynn Peterson, Sarah Hamilton of EMC, Mandy McFadden of BarkleyREI and Thomas Edwards of the Infinity Project. Special shout out to Kevin Kennedy, founder/CEO of Webgrrls International, who won the BuzzLogic GPS giveaway. Check out Webgrrls if you haven't already - they're an online/offline networking organization all about helping women in technology propel their careers and businesses forward. They put on a series of great events and have local chapters nationwide.

If you're wondering about Braintree, well, that's the name of the town where we stayed. The name is so quirky, I just can't get it out of my mind. So I did a little search for "Braintree" in BuzzLogic's system, and interestingly, Braintree is not only mentioned quite a bit in the blogosphere, the town actually has some social media innovation of its own going on. In fact, the most influential post in the Braintree conversation hails from Metaboston and discusses how Braintree-based wine store, Bin Ends, is building a customer following by organizing wine tastings over Twitter. Very cool!