Success Comes With Help

The State of Now Conference 2012 is over.  It was a big success, with many viewpoints presented, ideas exchanged, stories told and excitement generated.  Over the course of the next several weeks you’ll hear guest posts from those who spoke and those who attended.  You’ll read about the plans we have for the future, bringing the State of Now to all of Iowa!  You’ll see videos from the speakers.  We will take the month of May to wrap up this past event.

But today, we need to thank the people that made the event possible — our sponsors.  If you’ve ever planned and hosted an event, you know that things don’t happen without the right tools and money to run them.  It’s easy enough to take the money offered and go on about your business.  Some events do that – they post up a banner and say ‘there’s your sponsor, thanks’.  We don’t think that is giving enough credit where credit is due.

Verizon Wireless has been a partner of the State of Now Des Moines since we began.  They make it possible for us to get the word to you – through some of the tools we test for them.  This year I used the Xyboard, a light weight tablet that made traveling so much easier.  We also gave away a Razor Maxx at the event.  You’ll hear from Val Plagge sometime this summer about how she’s using the phone, and how it’s working for her out on the farm.  Karen Smith, Verizon Marketing, also spoke at the conference.  She’s a local Iowa girl passionate about women’s sports.  We girls here in Iowa love our sports!  She talked about sports and communications but she also shared with us what project Verizon is getting behind.  We ask you to visit www.pavethewayproject.com, talk to #ptwproject on twitter, listen to the music.  Pave the Way Project is a teen dating violence awareness project promoting healthy relationships and empowering youth through pop music.  Take a minute – go to the site – and see how you can make a difference in a young person’s life.  Listen to the music!

The Franklin County Pork Producers are a local organization that supports pork producers and helps get the word out about pork.  They stepped up to the plate because we covered Agriculture and talked about pigs.  We spoke to their audience and they were a natural fit as a sponsor.  Locally, they are involved with events that bring pork to the attendees.  Yup – they feed us! We thank them for the sustenance and the support in getting the word out.

Country Inns and Suites in Clive offered us a special rate for attendees … and they also made sure we had comfortable beds, nice rooms, hot breakfast and great customer service.  But you know what?  THEY DO THAT FOR ALL OF THEIR GUESTS! They believe in treating you special.  I’m sure we’ll use them for future projects, and I’ll personally look for a Country Inns and Suites on my travels.

Internet Solver has also been a partner since we started the State of Now in Des Moines.  What do they do?  They make sure that everyone in the room has internet access.  Imagine 125 people tweeting, facebooking, shooting video and doing this all day long.  It takes the service that Internet Solver provides to keep everyone online.  They make this technology minded conference very happy!

Kum and Go made several people happy with the gas cards they gave out! Oscar and Felix provided lunch (delicious wraps!), Headway Themes makes sure I’m happy and can write on this blog about what I do, Civic Center of Greater Des Moines let us host this conference in the Stoner Studio Theatre and were there for every little need we had.

Sponsors really do make the conference world go round — and we are so happy to have partnered with our sponsors!