[This post was written for and published by the MITX FutureM blog 8/26/2011]

FutureM 2010 has a special place in my memory. Last year I made it out to seven events in six days.  This was not an easy accomplishment; though I live in Boston, at the time I was commuting 30 miles north every day. Each afternoon I would rush down I-93 into town to satisfy my passion for learning and sharing. The FutureM sessions, events and attendees filled my mind with some of the freshest, most innovative approaches to the new world of marketing.

At the time, I was employed by an enterprise cloud computing company, driving their channel marketing and social media strategies. The events I attended at FutureM were awesome.  I was able to learn from some of the brightest minds and best companies in marketing and social media, including Chris Brogan, Josh Bernoff, Brian Halligan, IBM Center for Social Software, Curata, BzzAgent… the list seems endless.  FutureM networking events and parties expanded my network and has fueled many great discussions of shared experiences.

FutureM 2010 made it all real. It’s one thing to read hundreds of blogs, follow thousands of people on Twitter, download eBooks, PPTs and podcasts and the like — but it’s a whole other thing to learn and interact live in person. Working in the corporate and enterprise space one can easily feel detached and even lonely, particularly so in the early days of social media and content marketing. FutureM and the sessions I attended confirmed my findings, and opened the door to further exploring.  Last year the hot topics were Social Media policies, ROI tracking and engagement theories.  This year I am sure FutureM will help all of us by having sessions that elaborate on the finer details in what has become a Marketing 2.0 world.  So much has changed in the last few years, and it’s critical that marketers evolve to keep up. We all know the brands and marketers that have been left behind. I hope and expect that 2011’s FutureM events and sessions will inspire more innovation and creativity and expand our collective ability to deliver better results and ROI.

For me, FutureM 2011 is very timely. I am now running marketing at Yottaa, a startup in Cambridge that is providing Web performance services via the cloud.  The company’s products make websites faster and more resilient, and provide better insight into website operations and performance trends.  Faster websites deliver greater conversion rates, reduced bounce rates, increased pageviews, and improve user satisfaction and SEO.  Services like Yottaa are what FutureM is all about: the future of Marketing.  I hope to meet some attendees at the Mass Innovation Nights event on September 14th, where Yottaa will exhibit.