Originally posted on the ExactTarget Blog.

The Collective Power of One

We all learned at a young age that the easiest way to avoid answering the “which is your favorite” question is by saying enthusiastically, “I liked them all!” Well, during a conference featuring “The Power of One” as the connecting theme throughout – “I liked them all” sounds rather like a cop-out. But that’s my answer to the question “Who was your favorite speaker at Connections 2011?” I loved them all. Collectively.

It wasn’t the power of just one of the speakers that moved and impacted me – it was the Collective Power of One (ahem, maybe the secret theme of Connections 2011) that made their stories the most powerful. After all, how can you compare the quality of the content of a speech from a man like Aron Ralston, who survived 127 hours alone, pinned by a boulder in the desert and amputated his own arm because he felt a tremendous drive to return to his loved ones – to – a panel of industry leaders having real-time conversations about real-time emarketing topics that mean the world to our work and our businesses?

Jimmy Wales, the CEO and Founder of Wikipedia, was thoughtful, intelligent, and even quite humorous – but I also spent my Wednesday morning enthralled in excellent conversations and panels on social media marketing and content marketing for B2B businesses. Both were tremendously valuable, thought provoking, and informative. I wouldn’t have wanted miss one for the other under any circumstances. I also can’t forget all of the product contributions and visionary conversations of the ExactTarget executive team of Scott Dorsey, Tim Kopp and Scott McCorkle; without their updates and edge-of-your-seat announcements Connections would not be complete or worth attending! And I of course cannot dismiss the powerful messages of education and giving that we heard on Day Three: between Soledad O’Brien’s poignant message about the Power of One education and impacting One life with One donation, and the panel of education equality advocates that joined the conversation at Connections 2011 – the message was overwhelming.

So, it is with some hesitation and some resolve that I stick to my guns and say that Connections 2011 wasn’t about the power of One speaker but rather the collective power of all of the “One” speakers and attendees – brought together by One conference that enables email and digital marketers around the globe to harness the power of One communication tool to reach millions and millions of “Ones” out there. Cheesy, I know, but I’m sticking to what I learned in 3rd grade when it comes to weighing in on a really tough decision: “Well, I guess I just really loved them all!”