“Our strong suit is what we do, and our audience.” – Jerry Garcia

Say what you will about the Grateful Dead, but they understood Audience.

From the folks that bought their records to the Dead Heads that followed the band around for 30+ years, The Grateful Dead mastered the art of appealing to their fans and monetizing them, while simultaneously staying true to their music.

In my opinion, Jerry Garcia would have loved Loren Feldman’s Audience Conference.

I know I did, along with the rest of the attendees who sat in the audience.

Upon entering the Hudson Theater, you could tell that this conference was going to be different. The glamorous history of the theater itself coupled with the fact that we were not forced to wear our pedigree dangling from a lanyard created a feeling swankiness; a feeling one does not typically experience during a conference.

Loren kicked off the event laying the ground rules in the matter in which we’ve grown to love him:  No Wi-Fi, no Twitter, no open laptops, no cell phones, no flash photography — or else.

It was the first time in a long while that I was about to consume conventional, one-way, top-down media and quite frankly, I was concerned that I wouldn’t know how to do that any longer.

After listening to the first two speakers, which included Dan Farber and Andrew Keen, I realized what a pleasure it was to just listen and digest.  The rest of the speakers that graced the stage of the Hudson Theater were Rachel Marsden, David Binkowski, Joe Jaffe, David Dunne, Jeremy Pepper, Jason Calacanis, Brian Clark, Jeremy Schoemaker, Rae Hoffman, Frank Roche, Melanie Notkin and Ethan Kaplan.

I have seen many of these folks speak before, but somehow they were all different this time. More candid, more raw. It was as if they now had the opportunity to share their story in a way that they couldn’t have done before with an audience that somehow mattered more — or at least they all made us feel that way.

Lunch was the gastronomical equivalent to the fare at a high society wedding (or at least a Bar Mitzvah) and the late afternoon was spent enjoying the divine music of Robert Bruce, Jason Liebman, Rachel Platten and Adam & Mia. (Seriously, when was the last time you saw a Harp at a Conference?).

After the conference, many of us shared our thoughts over cocktails at the Millenium Hotel followed by a wonderful dinner at the Roger Smith Hotel.

To those that didn’t attend, I understand that there will be some videos released, but not everything. The true essence of what was shared during the Audience Conference shall remain with the folks that attended — as it should.

Until next year, Loren.

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Listen above, on GeekCast.fm, or download to iTunes.

My guest today was Loren Feldman, the Founder and President of 1938 Media, which helps companies develop a sound internet strategy and communicate their messages through videos.

Loren’s entertaining and sometimes biting videos razzing on the tech industry, (often featuring a puppet or two) have become cult favorites.

In this podcast, Loren talks about:

Loren also talks about what he’s going to be doing at Affiliate Summit East 2009 and how attendees can hook up with him and Michelle Feldman during the conference.

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TheSpew Episode #1 is now under our belts. Coming in at a little over an hour after two Pamela Fails. (We dare you to find them!)

Listen above or on GeekCast.fm.

I (@missyward) moderated this week with panelists:

• Connie Berg (@connieberg), Head Bird in Charge of FlamingoWorld.com

• Lisa Picarille (@lisap), Media junkie, social media lover, former Editor-in-Chief Revenue Magazine

• Karen White (@KarenWhite_LV), former Managing Director of Squirt Gun Media

Wendy Piersall (@emom), Founder & CEO of Sparkplugging.com was our special guest this week.

Show Notes:

• Karen White’s surprising announcement

• Missy’s PubCon and SXSW trip to Austin – “Brand Moi and Zero Signs of Recession”

• Loren Feldman is a nice guy, no matter what he says.

• Peter Shankman better get in touch with Missy re: skydiving for Save the Ta-Ta’s

• RackSpace Cloud SXSW Lounge Party: Hookahs, hummus, henna and Missy Loves Rocky Barbanica, Scoble’s Producer

• Hangin’ with the DIYThemes guys (Brian Clark and Chris Pearson) and all the cool stuff coming for ThesisAffiliates.com

• Rise of women-owned internet marketing businesses.

• How being an “online woman” has changed through the years

• The 3 “Most Stand-Up” guys we know (in today’s episode): Chris Brogan, Shawn Collins, Joe Morin

• Affiliate managers must use Twitter. Period.

• How Wendy Piersall got into the Mommy-Blogging business

• Why Brands are all over Mommy-Bloggers and how it’s helped them both out.

• Walmart 11 Moms Campaign – Marketing Done Right.

• Tips for Newbie Mommy Bloggers

• Dating and Relationships in the industry – the ultimate Catch 22

• Inbound Marketing Summit and GaryVThunderCruise

Subscribe to TheSpew RSS Feed or download via iTunes.