When the team at the RAMP Group came up with concept of NetProphet about 8 months ago, we thought it was going to be a big risk, but the potential was just too hard to resist. We decided that White Wall Web and RSAWEB would be willing to commit to sponsoring if we could find other sponsors to make up the difference (between the costs and the sponsorship – a task that proved harder to achieve than we initially presumed). We felt that, if we get 200 delegates to attend, we would have done very, very well…

Then fast foward to today…

img_02611.JPG400 delegates arrived and queued to get access to the Old Mutual Business School (amazing venue). Some nice touches faciliated an incredibly interactive vibe – a Twitter fountain on the big screen was one, a decent number of breaks was another, a one hour lunch was another and QA sessions when time allowed was another.

A great mix of speakers, some well known, others less known, but all “experts” (or at least passionate and researched) about particular subjects. See the full agenda and speakers on the NetProphet site. Marlon Parker wrote a succint personal account of the days procedings, naming it a “wake up call.”

All the Twitter activity got us top 10 trended on Twitter for about 5-6 hours (we hit 2nd at one point and were 4th overall for the day on #NetProphet).

As a sponsor and organizer, this was incredibly satisfying, especially since the community expressed so much appreciation for our efforts (I trust that we won’t have to lobby so hard next time to get the sponsorship required to run this event).

At RAMP HQ tomorrow I’m sure there will be loads of discussion and post event analysis and we’ll be deciding how to take this event (and brand) from strength to strength. I hope to convince Tim Price (who heads up RAMP Marketing) to blog the story of how NetProphet came about, and how we managed to make it succeed as it did, as a kind of marketing case study.

Mike Stopforth blogged a great endorsement for NetProphet which seems to sum up the sentiment (which is also immensely satisfying).

Right now, I’m about to hit the sack feeling very pleased with our first NetProphet and proud of the amazing team of people I get to spend my working days with.

All presentations, videos, post talk interviews (video) and pics will be up on www.netprophet.org.za shortly.