Best-selling Author Seth Godin Encourages Students to Unleash the Idea Virus

Legendary Internet pundit Seth Godin spoke to a packed auditorium of students and corporate partners on Friday, February 9, 2007 in Van Munching Hall. Known for his thought-provoking and sometimes controversial books, such as All Marketers Are Liars and Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin believes that both students and companies should think big.

Godin was introduced by Jeremy Epstein of Microsoft, which was one of the sponsors of the event. Epstein, a self-professed Seth Godin fanatic, still possesses the purple-and-white milk carton in which he received Purple Cow. He emphasized to the audience how powerful Godin's concepts were and indicated that, after having given his boss at Microsoft a copy of one of Godin's books, the division of the software giant was beginning to implement some of Godin's ideas, albeit slowly, he joked.

Godin's presentation centered around four key concepts:

• The most exciting place to be in marketing is with the early adopters.
• Innovation is key to attracting and keeping customers attention.
• You need to get your customers to talk about your product to their friends and associates this is the most effective form of marketing.
• This type of viral marketing can best be facilitated online.

First-year MBAs Tekisha Harvey, Don Wood and Liz Slobasky at the event.

An energetic and humorous speaker, Godin held the audiences attention for a solid hour.

Of the roughly 200 attendees, one-third were corporations with links to students and faculty at Smith. Many full-time students invited marketing representatives from the companies with which they interned this summer to the event. For instance, second-year Karl Olson drew two marketing executives from Millennium Chemicals, a Lyondell Chemicals Company, where he interned this summer.

Dan Phelps, president of the Smith GMA(left), with Seth Godin..

Seth Godin provides a unique view of the business world that is applicable not only to marketers, but also to any business discipline, says Dan Phelps, president of the Smith Graduate Marketing Association (GMA). We are excited to have brought Seth to Smith, and hope that the attendees come away from the day with fresh ideas to use in both their businesses and in their daily lives.

The event was preceded by a continental breakfast and followed by a book signing and networking reception in the atrium. All attendees received copies of Godin's latest tome, Small Is the New Big.

First-year MBAs Ted Martin, Ramen Riahikhoee and James Haas at the event.

The event was sponsored by the Smith School Graduate Marketing Association, the Smith School's Office of Professional Programs and Services, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Microsoft, and Polk Audio, many of which donated items for the events raffle, which included a 27 JVC Flat Screen HDTV, Polk I-Sonic Entertainment System, Starbucks gift cards, and Microsoft software packages.

▓ Susannah Campbell, MBA Candidate 2007, Smith Media Group