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So one week on, as the dust settles on an amazing #cloudforce Sydney, we have been pulling the Radian6 data on the social conversation which always provides very interesting insights on how a conversation has developed.

(If you weren't able to attend #cloudforce, you can find all the decks from the breakout sessions as well as video of the #CFinnovate Innovate Panel discussion here at our Landing Page.)

We were able to pull a wide spread of insights - both quantative and qualatative - which were pretty interesting.  In total there were 2,986 mentions of #cloudforce Sydney - 44 per cent of which happened during the two hour keynote.  This total volume represented a full 51 per cent of total conversations around #salesforce at that time, up from only 22 per cent in 2011. For Sydney to dominate the #salesforce conversation during US business hours is incredibly significant if you consider relative populations and market size.

We were able to pull other statistics of note as well.  In terms of demographics, the audience split 67 per cent male; 33 per cent female - not a huge surprise that a technology conference is male-dominated but I think most would argue that the split is more balanced than expected?  Also, a full 48 per cent fell into the 25-34 age bracket which is indicative perhaps of the youth appeal of the Social Enterprise message.

Of the key contributors mentioned, the out and out lead was @toosaasy as many of the delegates celebrated the company mascott's arrival in Australia following his adventures around Sydney that hit the social channels.

Cloudforce-mentions-grew

But easily the most interesting, staggering even, and most important is the massive increase in mentions over last year.  The 2,986 mentions of #cloudforce on the 14th June represents a phenomenal 406 per cent growth on the 12th May 2011, i.e. last year's #cloudforce Sydney.  This is the largest growth spike any Cloudforce experienced this year - not San francisco, not London, not Paris or Toronto - experienced this kind of enormous growth.

"The 2,986 mentions of #cloudforce on the 14th June represents a phenomenal 406 per cent growth on last year's #cloudforce Sydney."

The spike represents a few realities.  The conference itself was twice the size - we welcomed just over 3,000 visitors which was double the 2011 event.  Salesforce itself has grown considerably in terms of employees as well who are all much more engaged with Social than they were this time last year.  But none of this can begin account for a 4x growth spike.  For me, it represents the degree to which Social has grown as a channel in Australia, and the degree to which people employ social tools - particularly Twitter - to communicate, participate and disceminate.  This is the maturity of the social enterprise - it is here and now.

To understand how we pick this stuff up and manage the responses, this little video about our #commandcenter at HQ is very enlightening. If you've questions about it, ping @natespeak who leads it: