@Midwest grew out of a series of meetings between various professionals in the Bloomington-Normal area to discuss the best practices of social media marketing.

It quickly became apparent that there was a need to learn more about practical, results-driven business applications of social media in a broader sense. From that realization Marty Vanags, Erik Anderson, Mark DeKeersgieter, and Scott Arnold started forming the vision of @Midwest as a one-day forum to put experts in a room with a professional audience that was hungry for more than just high level talk about social media marketing.

It is the goal of the @Midwest Board of Directors to see that all attendees gain real-world, practical knowledge of how to leverage social media to achieve their professional goals.