I recently had the pleasure of watching my Co-Creative Director, Bob Cargill, honored with the prestigious 2009 NEDMADirect Marketer of the Year Award. The festivities took place on Wednesday evening, May 6 with a dinner and ceremony at the LaCava Center at Bentley University in Waltham, MA.

With Bob as the honoree, I think it’s fair to say that social media was on everyone’s mind who attended. Bob has been an evangelist for blogs and social media channels for over five years, and his dedication to this rapidly maturing trend has clearly influenced NEDMA and its members’ success: Bob had just finished leading an all-day workshop on “How to use a Blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Delicious to Build a Better Brand” just a few hours before the dinner. It’s no surprise that his lectures and workshops are some of NEDMA’s most popular.

It was personally gratifying to speak with attendees of the dinner who have been profoundly influenced over the years by Bob’s expertise and creativity in direct marketing as his co-workers, colleagues and friends. At Nowspeed, I have the privilege of experiencing this influence every day. This post I’m writing, for example, is part of our Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets blog inspired and directed by Bob. Our new website, nowspeed.com, aggregates our activities on the blog, and we’re close to incorporating our Twitter and Delicious feeds as well.

Bob’s commitment to transparent two-way communications with clients and prospects helped spark the founding of our own Nowspeed Network with informative, in-person seminars and groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Our talented web developer, Beth Hauck, has already started working on own website’s interface for the Nowspeed Network. Thanks to Bob, I now see the future of the social web clearly in relation to Nowspeed’s services offerings and my own work.

These few examples are just the tip of the iceberg. To experience what I’m talking about for yourself, well, I guess you’ll just have to work with Bob (if you don’t have a strategy for social media yet, the sooner the better). On behalf of Nowspeed and his teammates, I offer him my congratulations and thanks.