Last week I spent the better part of four days in Seattle. The latest Blogwell event was there and I always try and make the most of this travel by meeting with as many agencies and companies as possible in every new city.

ICUC Moderation Services is sponsoring five Blogwell events this year. The Blogwell conferences are afternoons full of case studies held around the US on various dates throughout the year. There is a lot value jammed into one afternoon for those who want to find out what the big brands are doing in social media, where they are finding success and where they are not. Brands at last weeks event included Boeing, Starbucks, Pemco and Xerox.

The latest event was held in Seattle - more precisely Redmond - at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters. This HQ, called the campus, is a conglomeration of 40+ buildings on a 300 acre parcel of land. I was told this facility is where 35,000 of Microsoft’s finest come to work each day.

This video is just a few shots of the building we had our conference in and the space around it. This is by no means a tour of the place but it will give you and idea of what’s there.

Back on the road… I made the trip to Cincinnati last week for the Blogwell conference. One of five Blogwell events ICUC Moderation Services has sponsored this year.

The Wednesday afternoon conference was a great experience for our team (Alisha Paul, ICUC’s Social Media and Marketing Manager, and I) to share with the approximate 250 other attendees what we do and how we do it. Along with sharing our services we also watched as eight speakers presented case studies and talked of the success they’ve found in social media.

Aside from the conference I also visited eight fantastic shops in the Cincinnati area. These shops ranged in discipline from design to PR to advertising to marketing and their eagerness to understand what was happening at the forefront of social media was inspiring. I did not walk into one office where after presenting ICUC Moderation Services my audience did not express interest in working with us and see value in our core competencies.

For business, this trip was a success and I look forward to growing the relationships with the new friends I made in Cincinnati.

As for the people of Cincinnati, they are generally pretty hard on their city - I found myself constantly defending it. So, to all Cincinnatians, “your city isn’t that bad, I enjoyed it, be proud of it!.” Everyone I met, from company executives to concierge, and from cabby to construction worker, were all polite and very helpful.

Aside from work I took some time to take in the sights and sounds of the city. Seeing the Ohio river was a really touching experience for me. Understanding what that river divided, freedom from slavery, is really a hard thing for my mind to grasp growing up in rural Manitoba were freedom was nearly limitless. I walked across the John A. Roebling suspension bridge, completed in 1866, and thought how easy it was to cross this river today and how 200 years ago people were dying to accomplish what I did in only a few minutes.

In the end, I would say if you get the chance, visit Cincinnati. If not for the sights, for the people. And if your company wants to send you to Cincinnati for a conference, don’t scoff at it. You’ll be rewarded for your journey to the American heartland with great people, great service, and Graeter’s ice cream.

The second half of my drive to my Sister’s - Calgary to Mission. The happy part of the day refers to the time before Canada lost to the USA in Olympic hockey. We stopped to watch the game in Kamloops, B.C. The mood changed for the worse after that and I thought it best not to show myself in that light. :)

But, I’m here now, I’m safe so that’s what matters most.