Al Maag, Chief communications officer at Avnet opens the Social Media AZ conference with a keynote that has everyone’s head nodding.

He talks of how he brought a technology company to consider using .social media to communicate, by asking the wrong questions, but being persistent in asking the right people. Turns out it was an integral part of Avnet’s brand strategy. His main approach to the C-Suite : He told then, look, “the train has left the station,” and we are going this route, because guess what, the competition is going to be on this train, anyway.

Some highlights of his presentation:

• The Avnet’s Facebook program began in Europe. It’s Avnet’s way of sharing knowledge and enhancing talent.
• The Avnet blog was not even claled a blog when they began
• If you don’t have guts and self-esteem, don’t be in this job. (“I’ve been called Tweeterdumb” and “blog boy”)
• Lose the battles …win the war
• Just bring in a consultant. (Shel Holtz plug here)
• LinkedIn is the new Rolodex, videos are vital, Twitter is not for everyone

AvnetonDemand.com was created with no budget

Al Maag’s blog is primarily to communicate with the media; he talks of things such as Woodstock (guitars) and

The line up of speakers is like a who’s who in new media, PR, interactive.

Mike Corak and Chis Sietsem on crafting a social media plan were good. Some of this is what we know, but it reassures me to see others think this way. Especially that Measurement, that much maligned word, is not just about traffic but measuring (knowing) engagement, sentiment..

Next session Elizabeth Hannan, says welcome to the hot room (a passing reference to the air conditioning here). It’s all about building community.