Today is a huge day. My last full-time day at Converseon after 3 brilliant years… though I’m not moving very far.

Almost exactly 3 years ago today I turned up at Converseon’s NYC HQ straight off a 24 hour flight from Australia completely unsure how my new social media career in the USA would turn out. This was after a 3 month blog world tour, a phone interview from a balcony in Florence overlooking the Duomo, and receipt of my offer letter, alone, in a youth hostel in Venice.

In my offer letter my CEO Rob Key said “As I lay this out, I can say with confidence that I can’t imagine another opportunity that will provide you with the same type of frontline and innovative social media work with such great brands … in a very fast moving, innovative environment that really is doing extremely cutting edge work“. And he couldn’t have been more right.

If I could turn the clock back 3 years I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve had the chance to be a part of long-term social media programs with huge brands like Graco, Telstra, Kohler and many more. I’ve moved up the ranks from Senior Account Executive to Senior Account Director. I’ve been deeply involved in programs that have won more awards than you can poke a stick at – a Forrester Groundswell, a WOMMIE, a Webby, SNCR (twice) and PR News to name a few. We’ve made a real difference with our clients and these efforts have been noticed.

But the reason I can look back with such pleasure is the people I’ve had the good fortune to work with.

Firstly, our CEO and Founder Rob Key – a bloke who has become a really good mate and a constant inspiration. Working closely with Rob has been a blessing, especially since he consistently looks 3-5 years into the future. He’s a brilliant CEO and has continually surprised me with the accuracy of his foresight, as well as his ability to think big for huge brands about how social can change their business.

No less important, a mentor and one of my best mates, the Batman to my Robin, Constantin Basturea. 5 yeas ago when I started up in the blogosphere there was nobody I respected more than CB and he was the main reason I winded up at Converseon to begin with. We’ve been so close over 3 years you could barely fit a cigarette paper between us, and I can testify that his huge reputation in the industry is absolutely deserved.

I could name drop all day, but to pick out a few more I’ve got to say that Mike Moran has probably been the most influential in changing how I think about online communications, online reputation guru Bryce Tom has been my best mate to work with, our CTO Jeff Doak has regularly astounded me with his thinking on influence and online intelligence,  Lindsay Lebresco has been both one of my favorite clients and coworkers and more recently Craig Daitch has inspired me with his passion and brilliant thinking.

Happily for me, I won’t be moving too far away from Converseon. Rob has named me, along with SEO Guru Ted Ulle, as a ‘Converseon Fellow’ and in that role I’ll continue to offer strategic support to our clients.

However, my move away from full-time work here means there are some shoes to fill – so if you’re a social media rockstar (or ninja) let me know and I’ll be happy to intro you to the team. We’re hiring across the board and I guarantee you’ll be working with some of the smartest in the industry.

As far as my next steps… you’ll have to subscribe to this blog and stay tuned .