Rachael Marret – MRM Worldwide,
Great Event – highly recommend checking out the podcast, even if it won’t be able to convey the images, the spirit of the even, interesting conversation, and, oh, the food! :-) The podcust and pictures are already posted on the site. Ha! You can spot my very photogenic back on one of the pictures 
The age of the participation – consumers expect brands to behave in a certain way. “The balance of power” between the brand and consumer.
Consumer expectations:
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loyalty paradigm is inverting: consumers expect brand to “be loyal,” to assure consumer’s privacy.
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Consumers expect transparency
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Consumers are “self-servicing” their way to brands
Marketing need to behave differently:
Before – “What does the brand wants to say”
Now – “How the brand allows consumers to participate”
We need to get beyond “engagement” to “participation;” participation has higher emotional bond.
Participation enabling tools:
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creativity
- community
- collaboration
- culture
Some of the examples:
http://www.msdewey.com/ – which takes too long to load on my home computer
Famous Evolution video (yep, it is YouTube – blocked at most businesses)
How do we measure participation?
Participation – proxy of consumer value. There are more passive users than active users. Level of participation can be used for consumer segmentations.
The most poignant quote from the presentation, I think is this one:
