Overall, I thought the Techknowlogy Summit was a great swing in the right direction for South Dakota and the technology community that (believe it or not) exists in that state. I attended two breakout sessions:

• Making Internet Marketing Work For You!
  Panelists included:
  • Aaron Mentele (from ElecticPulp - webdeveloper),
  • Darin Namken (from Commission Soup -- Affiliate Program Owner),
  • and Jeff Frohwein (from Colorado Tech -- Professor).
  I thought that overall the session was quite unorganized and that -some- of the advice given by Aaron and Darin were just wrong. This may be because Aaron is a webdeveloper and runs a company that develops websites. I don't believe their biggest forte is SEM, and Darin his business is to get people like me that can drive converting traffic to his client thus making him, his client, and me money. So, in short there were not REAL SEM people there, but some of what they said was worth listening to and some of it wasn't. This session would have been a good one for people that know NOTHING about Online Marketing, but they really wouldn't have gotten much out of it other than a definition.
• Web 2.0 Trends and Opportunities
  Panelists included:
  • Aaron Mentele (from ElecticPulp - webdeveloper),
  • Paul Batcheller (from PrairieGold Venture Partners -- principle),
  • and Dean Barker (from Blend Interactive -- webdeveloper/blogger).
  This breakout session was 1.5hrs of defining Web 2.0. I could have easily saved them the time with my definition: Shiny, White Space, Big Fonts, Infinite-Beta, Web Apps, and User Generated Content. I've never met Dean, period, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. I think it's safe to say that he knew more than anyone really needs to know about Web 2.0 -- but that's mostly because he's a blogger -- they all know too much (or at least think they do). :) Overall, it was a pretty decent session and it was interesting to hear their thoughts on Web 2.0

I am sure that over time as this conference begins to pick up steam and the breakout sessions become a little less ambiguous that it will start to take shape as a decent-to-good conference to attend, and I wish them all my support and best as I would really like to see it grow and expand. I am told I'm on the speaker list for next year, yay!