LinkedIn with Jason Alba

Jason_albaLast night I was in Sunnyvale attending a presentation on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the premeire business networking site.

The presentation was hosted at Intero Real Estate by Mitchell Levy of HappyAbout. Jason Alba author of I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? was the featured speaker.

I got to chat with Jason before the horde arrived – he was expecting about 20 to 30 attendees but 120 showed up. That’s Silicon Valley for you – everyone is networking like crazy. Some estimates are that over 70% of people in tech in Silicon Valley use LiinkedIn.

Linkedin_groupIt turns out Jason is from Salt Lake City. I moved out here a year and a half ago from Park City, UT. Jason and I talked a bit about Utah, tech, LinkedIn and other social networking platforms. I found him to be insightrful, practical and helpful. He has an easy-going manner and a wry wit.

Linkedin-interoJason’s presentation was straight-forward and focused on four things we could do to start reaping immediate benefits from LinkedIn. He then answered questions for over an hour.

The lobby-shot picture was taken when the meeting room was already full. Thus, you see people in the last shot having to bring additional chairs into the room for the presentation.

I had a great talk with Lois Steiner of Facilities First, a professional facilities solution provider. We talked about the business potential of having an industry wiki on the Facilities First website and a few other ideas for increasing web presence and traffic.

It was really one of the best events I have been to in a while – well worth the drive down and the time invested.

Mitch interrupted the meeting for a five minute break so everyone could catch the lunar eclipse. At the end, he even allowed anyone who wanted to get up and make any announcement they wanted as a means of promoting networking between the attendees.