On Tuesday, Lenox-based ThoughtLead, led by our friends Steve Haase and Sam Rosen, organized the shortest virtual marketing conference ever — the Influencer Project.

This magical hour of online content, sponsored by HubSpot, Marketing Profs, Anne Holland’s Which Test Won, Rack Space, Winstanley Partners, and ReadWriteWeb featured 60 brilliant minds in the marketing field who spoke for 60 seconds each.

The Influencer Project was developed for a very interesting reason. When we talked to Hasse, he explained that the project was actually a bit of much-needed marketing for his company.

“It’s a funny thing, because it was born from a pretty high-pressure situation,” he admitted. “Basically, our business needed a hit. We needed to grow in a hurry, since we had only recently launched our web presence after spending lots of time and money on a software platform that wasn’t panning out. We spent time doing services after that, but had transitioned away from those as well. So we were in a tight spot, but endlessly optimistic.”

The Influencer Project was designed to inspire virtual attendees and empower them to grow their online influence. Haase and Rosen said, “We know so many people who are up to amazing things but aren’t getting the kind of traction or attention they deserve. So we created this event to deliver all the tools and perspective someone would need to make a big difference using the Internet.” (more…)