Content Marketing World, or #CMWorld as insiders call it, is a major economic and marketing force helping make Cleveland cool among digital influencers who would otherwise never consider coming to Ohio.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For all the 3,500 people psyched about the fifth annual Content Marketing World conference here this week, other Clevelanders might be scratching their heads wondering what the big deal is.
Turns out, Content Marketing World, or #CMWorld as insiders call it, is a major economic and marketing force, helping make Cleveland cool among digital influencers who would otherwise never consider coming to Ohio. The conference started Tuesday in downtown Cleveland.
"Together, and I mean 'together', we've been able to create a movement," founder and host Joe Pulizzi told convention-goers. "We are changing lives. I believe this for a lot of reasons, but mostly because we are communicating better with our customers, helping them live better lives and get better jobs."
For those still in the dark, here are 15 things to know about CMWorld's "Bright Lights, Big Content" conference, which runs through Friday, Sept. 11:
1.) Content Marketing World was born in -- and has almost always been held in -- Cleveland. The first CMWorld conference, held at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel in 2011, was supposed to draw 100, maybe 150 people. Instead, 660 showed up and reaffirmed the movement.
The next year, the conference moved to Columbus because no Cleveland venue was big enough to hold everyone. But when the $465 million Cleveland Convention Center opened in 2013, CMWorld came back, and brought 1,750 people.
2.) This year's attendance surpassed the 3,500 mark Wednesday, with keynotes, workshops and events taking over the entire Cleveland Convention Center, as well as the adjacent Global Center for Health Innovation. More than a dozen breakout sessions have required overflow rooms where attendees watch the speakers via remote camera.
3.) Content Marketing World is the largest in-person content marketing event of its kind in the world, making an estimated $3.6 million impact on the local economy. This year's 3,500 attendees -- many of whom are coming to Cleveland for the first time -- hail from 50 countries, some as far away as Canberra, Australia.
4.) Fifty-three people have attended all five Content Marketing World conferences, and their names are inscribed on the CMWorld Walk of Fame leading into the main speakers' forum. The group includes: Craig Coffey, Ann Hawley, Paul Roetzer, and Ann Hawking, and Pawan Deshpande.
5.) Content Marketing World was the vision of Content Marketing Institute founder and CEO Joe Pulizzi, a native Ohioan who calls himself the "Godfather of Content Marketing" and a content marketing evangelist. He readily admits he branded something that companies like John Deere and Jell-O had started doing more than a century ago.
6.) Pulizzi has not only written four books on content marketing, including "Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successfully Businesses" released this week, but his CMI crew has also created the first documentary on the history and future of content marketing, "The Story of Content: Rise of the New Marketing," unveiled at the opening ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
7.) Content Marketing Institute, the organization that teaches companies how to attract customers and turn them into brand evangelists, not only produces Content Marketing World, it ranks No. 1,545 on the Inc. 5000's list of America's fastest-growing private companies.
CMI grew 264 percent in the last three years, and raked in $7.1 million in 2014.
8.) The 235 speakers at Content Marketing World 2015 include local experts such as: Jeffrey Rohrs from Yext; Craig Coffey from Lincoln Electric; Scott McCafferty from WTWH Media; Mickey Mencin from OnBase by Hyland; Rick Neiman from Avery Dennison; Paul Roetzer from PR 20/20; Jon Stahl from LeanDog; Amanda Todorovich from The Cleveland Clinic; Kristie VanAuken from Akron-Canton Airport; Leslie Carruthers from The Search Guru; Jeff Herrmann from Fathom; and Cathy McPhillips, Monina Wagner, and Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing World.
9.) Convention attendees, using the trending hashtag #CMWorld and the Twitter handle @CMIContent, already have sent 2,600 tweets and generated more than 50 million impressions, as well as 71 Instagram posts and 26,000 impressions. And that was just half-way through the week.
10.) Registration fees, which run as high as $2,495 for on-site sign-ups, include most meals, snacks, coffee and beer -- much of it orange because it's the event's theme and Pulizzi's favorite color. That includes orange doughnuts with orange sprinkles, Orange Crush soda, SunChips Harvest Cheddar chips, orange M&Ms, orange hummus with carrots and other orange vegetables, and orange breath mints.
11.) In addition to the convention center's on-site Levy Catering, CMWorld also spotlights offerings from Cleveland companies including Rising Star Coffee Roasters to Great Lakes Brewing Co. beer. Levy Catering is donating all leftovers from the event to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
12.) CMI is sponsoring the 38 Bedford High School students from digital marketing instructor and DECA advisor Melanie Kirin and 22 students from Lutheran West High School's business management and entrepreneurship classes in Rocky River, along with Tom Ford, the school's director of strategic partnerships.
In addition, students from the Bay Village High School Music Boosters helped stuff 175,000 items into 3,500 convention bags.
13.) NPi Audio Visual Solutions spent four weeks building a 30-foot high Hollywood Squares game show set from 80 pieces of lightning truss held together with 400 bolts in the convention center main floor, where live games will were held Wednesday and Thursday. The structure weighs more than 5,000 pounds and requires 75 chain motors to hold up everything.
14.) The overall event required five local production companies, more than 100 channels of wireless microphones, more than 30 high-definition video projectors, and hundreds of hours of stagehand labor.
15.) Pulizzi and his wife, Pam Kozelka, vice president of operations for the Content Marketing Institute, have launched the nonprofit Orange Effect Foundation, to raise money for research, speech therapy and early intervention for children with autism. They were inspired by how much such treatment helped their son after he was diagnosed.
Two local artists from Go Big Fundraising are assembling a 25-foot by 12-foot orange sculpture, assembled from puzzle pieces paid for with donations to the Orange Effect Foundation, in an effort to raise $150,000. Contributions can be made to www.gobigfundraising.com/orange-effect-foundation or on site at CMWorld.
Tremont Scoops created a limited-edition Orange Effect orange sherbet for the event, and handed out scoops in exchange for donations to the Orange Effect Foundation.
Next year's Content Marketing World conference is scheduled for Sept. 6 to 9, in Cleveland.