A few weeks ago I made the trans-hemispheric haul from Melbourne’s sultry beginnings of summer to Chicago’s sub-zero emerging winter. A brisk minus 17 degrees Celsius to chill your bones and for the uninitiated (like me) a chance to test whether or not one’s ears do in fact ‘burn off from frostbite’ if walking more than three blocks without a hat! (please, don’t ask).

Chicago is an enchanting city and ‘must see’ destination. As I was only in town for eight days I had little opportunity to really explore, nonetheless I was determined to make the most of it.  I managed to steal away from the office for a few hours to visit The Chicago Art Institute and with snow everywhere on the street, decided it made more sense to lose myself amongst the warmth and inspiration of the windy city’s amazing art collection.

Prior to leaving Melbourne I connected with internet entrepreneur Bradley Will, having seen an Unstrappd interview he did recently with Gary Vaynerchuck. Knowing he was based in Chicago it made sense to look him up, however what unfolded was a totally spontaneous series of events which I could never have predicted and to say the least, was totally awesome!

I met Bradley and his business partner Gabe Strom on the night I arrived in Chicago and there was instant rapport and lot’s of ‘aha’s’. Over dinner we talked about the future, the challenge to businesses to become more social (and I don’t just mean managing a Twitter persona but genuine, real-person dialogue and connection online); and the notion of ‘trusted influence’ and all this entails as businesses learn to leverage new digital economics beyond social media… to be more transparent, authentic participants with the online community.

We decided to meet again at the end of the week in the lobby of the James Hotel, where I was staying. I was invited to guest present on their show which led to a Ustream internet broadcast of Social Media Altitude live from my hotel room. All in a day, I say…

The guys are awesome and the videos below are well worth viewing, at times funny, and you may even learn something. I sure did! Oh, and following the show I embraced Chicago’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ with friend David Armano who we joined for some die-hard popstar antics. But that’s a whole other story.