---

We pulled up the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a little unsure of what to expect. The drive to the speedway was packed with acres of Winnebego and tent cities of fans getting ready for the big race this weekend.

The racetrack itself is absolutely overwhelming. It's bigger than you ever imagined. Times ten. It's possible that it's as big as Manhattan. That may or may not be true - but even Wikipedia says that it's the largest and highest-capacity sporting facility in the world.

Then we met Adrianne. And after about 3 minutes of chit chat, we realized he's one of us. We talked about open source, about the cloud, and about how internet everything is the future of the world. It was pretty awesome to meet a fellow internet geek amongst a city of asphalt, motor oil and cars.

The Indy Speedway gets it. They're using the internet in fun ways to give their fans loads of content wherever they want to view it. They've managed to produce events that draw over a million views for only a few thousand dollars. Think you might be able to learn from that kind of wisdom? We think so.

Adrianne gave us a PlaidNation VIP tour, got us out onto the track, in the media center, and to the hub where the race geeks produce internet goodness.

See more of what Adrianne has to say about the Speedway's internet awesomeness in the PlaidNation Indianapolis wrapup video!

Labels: indianapolis

posted by darryl ohrt at 7:39 AM 0 Comments

---

Brad met Joe on the internet. This sounds like the beginning of some bromance dating site, but it's not. Brad met Joe after he left a comment on Brad's blog. They later met in person, and one thing lead to another, and now they're in business together. This is proof that your best future business partners may be one of your current Twitter friends.

And that's just the kind of team that you want working on your social media campaign. Brad and Joe make up BlueFuego, and they're helping some of the nation's top higher ed marketers connect with their students like never before.

They not only connected on the internet, they work in the cloud, too. With both partners on the road 90% of the time (judging from their tweet-streams, anyway) why should they have an office at all? They don't. They're an outstanding example of how you can now operate a business in the cloud. They're not just talking about it - they're doing it.

We've been internet friends with the BlueFuego boys for a while now, and finally got to meet them together, in person. (Especially ironic because @FJGaylor lives in the same state as Plaid.) Yep - sometimes the internet makes it easier to meet halfway across the country.

Who are you going to meet on the internet?

Meet Joe at Twitter.com/FJGaylor, and Brad at Twitter.com/BradJWard and the BlueFuego crew at their main site or on Facebook, and see them in the PlaidNation wrapup video for Indianapolis.

Labels: indianapolis

posted by darryl ohrt at 6:21 AM 0 Comments