(front row, left to right)
Todd Decker, iModules
David Cacioppo, emfluence Interactive Marketing

Mike Bucek, Kansas City Royals
Matt Anthony, VML (Co-Chair & Co-Sponsor)

Bill White, Sprint (Co-Chair & Co-Sponsor)

Scott Zalaznik, Sprint.com

(back row, left to right)

Brian Yamada, VML

Ramsey Mohsen, Digital Evolution

Evan Maxon, textCaster

Marcello Vergara, Propaganda 3

Gard Gibson, VML

Dustin Jacobsen, Barkley

Rob Sweeney, textCaster

Nicole Tremblay, Fleishman-Hillard

John Styers, 3C Interactive

Shelly Kramer, V3 Integrated Marketing

Josh Rowland, Lead Bank

Terry Pulliam, Sprint

Erin Sleddens, Kansas City Royals

Camille Lauer, Hallmark Cards

KC Area Companies at the Center of a Digital Storm

“Just in the past hour,” said VML Global Chairman Matt Anthony, “I’ve posted a message to a friend undergoing cancer treatment, reloaded a couple photos on the ‘Head for the Cure’ Foundation Facebook site, and followed Erin [Sledden]’s posting on the Royals’ victory today.”

Yes, Anthony affirmed to a score of assembled colleagues, all of them pioneers in the wonder world of social media, this phenomenon has quickly become central not just to the marketing of products, but to the way we live our lives.

In the 11-year history of Ingram’s Industry Outlooks, this was our first assembly dedicated to social media, a concept that scarcely existed when we launched the series. Chairing the session were Anthony and Bill White, senior vice president for corporate communications at Sprint. VML, Sprint and textCaster co-sponsored the event, which was held at VML’s relentlessly expanding offices at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.

The first Web site VML built was, in fact for Sprint. That was in 1995, when there were but 15 million people on the Internet. Today, as Anthony pointed out, there are 2.2 billion on the Internet and 600 million on Facebook, the founder of which is still just 26 years old. The world, indeed, is changing.