Last week we surrounded ourselves with over 6,000 of the world’s best digital marketers, leaders, and industry experts for Connections 2013. There's no comparison to the buzz created when thousands of energized marketers come together in one place. It sparks new ideas, guides you to undiscovered answers, and leaves you with a renewed passion for the work you do. The following tweets were selected out of thousands because they best describe the transformation of marketing, leadership, and technology.

3. Life is like a river and what gives it
meaning is not what you take out
of the river but what you put into it
@WalterIsaacson

4. Compromises may not make great
heroes but they make great
democracies, and that is an
element of leadership, too.
@WalterIsaacson

5. Being imaginative and creative is
what you're born with. To harness
within is what makes great leaders
@WalterIsaacson

6. If you truly have a passion for what
you do, you will care even about the
parts unseen.
@WalterIsaacson

7. Steve Jobs' "reality distortion"
tactic "don't be afraid, you can do
it" used to motivate teams to
extraordinary acts.
@WalterIsaacson

8. There is an importance in having
focus and providing simplicity in
your products or services.
@WalterIsaacson

9. You harness creativity by standing
at the intersection of arts and
sciences.
@WalterIsaacson

10. Beauty and technology should be
connected.
@WalterIsaacson

11. Be passionately curious.
@WalterIsaacson

12. Einstein knew what was inside of
the box before he thought outside
of the box. Knowledge precedes
creativity.
@WalterIsaacson

13. The good we can do together
exceeds the good we can do
separately.
@WalterIsaacson

14. What's more important than
building a great product is
creating a company that builds
great products.
@WalterIsaacson

15. Creativity without knowledge is
dangerous. Know what is in the
box before thinking out of the box.
@WalterIsaacson

16. Great marketers identify what
people will want before they know
it exists.
@WalterIsaacson

17. Being fixated, obsessed and
curious on what the rest of us
deem mundane created the likes
of Einstein, Jobs and Franklin.
@WalterIsaacson

18. Preserve core values and purpose,
change cultural & operational
practices, specific goals & strategies.
Jim Collins

19. Don't confuse your CAREER with
your PURPOSE.
Jim Collins

20. Single most important leadership
skill: people decisions.
Jim Collins

21. If your company cannot be great
without you as its leader, your
organization is not great.
Jim Collins

22. Ask yourself, how will some
people's lives be different & better
because you were here?
Jim Collins

23. Real discipline is not in what we
do but in what we do not do. There
are only 24 hours a day.
Jim Collins

24. Real discipline is not what we do,
but what we do not do.
Jim Collins

25. Everyone has a to do list. The real
question is do you have a do not
do list.
Jim Collins

26. Who do I want to work with? Who
do I want to allow to mentor me?
Think first about who not what.
Jim Collins

27. The difference between a good
leader and a great leader is
humility.
Jim Collins

28. You build culture by getting the
right culture.
Jim Collins

29. Be of service - make a contribution and
a distinctive impact on people.
Jim Collins

30. Ego and ambition is channeled
into the cause of a company = true
humility as a leader.
Jim Collins

31. It is very dangerous to study
success. We don't study success.
We study the contrast between
success & failure.
Jim Collins

32. There is a tremendous opportunity
for you to lead during times of
inflection. That is how you build
something great.
Jim Collins

33. It's more about what we do to
ourselves than what the world
does to us.
Jim Collins

34. Discover what you are WIRED to
do. Discover what you like to do.
Discover what you can get paid to
do.
Jim Collins

35. Great teams have people with
VERY different personalities but
shared values.
Jim Collins

36. The most important and
transformative type of luck is
"who luck" not "what luck"
Jim Collins

37. Find a cause or object that you
are willing to be in service of it
and not the other way around.
Jim Collins

38. The greatest leaders build
organizations that, in the end,
don’t need them.
Jim Collins

39. Spend less time worrying about
how to be successful and more
time worrying about how to be
useful."
Jim Collins

40. If you breathe you're creative.
What's rare? The ability to marry
discipline and creativity.
Jim Collins

41. Mediocrity is found in chronic
inconsistency. Know where you're
headed and do it day after day.
Jim Collins

42. Good is the enemy of great.
Jim Collins

43. Leaders don't go in with the
attitude that things are bad. They
find a way to lead with a sense of
optimism.
@CondoleezzaRice

44. Think first about who not what.
Who do I want to work with? Who
do I want to allow to mentor me?
Jim Collins

45. Charisma is a liability for great
leaders. Great leaders get you to
follow the cause, not them.
Jim Collins

46. If you remember that today's
problems are rarely associated
with legacy... you will build a
quality organization.
@CondoleezzaRice

47. Mobilizing human potential is
about focusing on the future and
not the past.
@CondoleezzaRice

48. Technology is an accelerant, but
not the cause. We live in a
interesting time but can still use
accelerants for good.
@CondoleezzaRice

49. We share a creed that it doesn't
matter where you came from it
matters where you are going.
@CondoleezzaRice

50. If you cannot allow people to do
their jobs... nobody with
substance and creativity will work
for you.
@CondoleezzaRice

51. Bring the people you trust with
you. They are the truth tellers that
will help you lead through
troubled times.
@CondoleezzaRice

52. The further you go up the chain.
The harder it gets for people to tell
you the bad news before it is too
late.
@CondoleezzaRice

53. Lead from a sense of optimism--
nobody wants to follow a sourpuss.
@CondoleezzaRice

54. You can never ask others to do
something you would not do. That
is integrity.
@CondoleezzaRice

55. Every good leader is part manager
and every good manager is part
leader.
@CondoleezzaRice

56. People don't respond well to "hair
on fire" mentality. You have to be
right with yourself and people will
follow
@CondoleezzaRice

57. When leading don't go in with the
attitude that things are bad. You
have to find a way to lead with a
sense of optimism
@CondoleezzaRice

58. Don't fall prey to the idea that
women lead differently.
@CondoleezzaRice

59. It isn't that you choose to lead
during challenging times; very
often challenging times come to
you.
@CondoleezzaRice

60. You do a disservice to young
people if you tell them to only find
mentors who look like you.
@CondoleezzaRice

61. It doesn't matter where you've come
from, it matters where you're going.
@CondoleezzaRice

62. You've got to lead not from a sense
of negativity in hard circumstances.
You've got to have optimism &
integrity.
@CondoleezzaRice

63. You can't control your
circumstances, but you can
control your response to those
circumstances."
@CondoleezzaRice

64. You can never ask others to do
something you would not do.
@CondoleezzaRice

65. Leaders understand and remain
focused on the essence of what
they're trying to accomplish.
@CondoleezzaRice

66. In order to do anything well, you
have to find something you're
passionate about.
@CondoleezzaRice

67. If someone treats you badly
because you're a woman, it's your
fault, not theirs.
@CondoleezzaRice

68. Marketers are in the forefront. We
used to be the first people laid off.
The value of marketing has been
realized.
@kevingespinosa

69. There is only one boss – the
customer – and he can fire everyone.
Sam Walton

70. Listening usually points to data
gathering. It needs to be
something that transforms your
company. It is a relationship.
@lebrun

71. Inspiration is more meaningful when
you actually take action on it.
@spatrizi_

72. We are entering into a new age.
The customer now controls the
medium and eventually the
message.
@kevinc2003

73. The digital marketing shift is
continuous. We are not transitioning
into a new phase but into a new age.
@kyleplacy

74. Leverage the wisdom of the
crowd. Do not sit in a meeting
room and build strategy. Ask your
customer and engage.
@kevinc2003

75. "We've always felt that the customer
is the additional person in the board
room."
@Sony/@Playstation via @ExactTarget

76. CMOs should be the interface
between the company and
customer. Not only
communication but product and
sales.
@tbkopp

77. If you make a bad decision... You
are just lazy. All of the information
is in your back pocket.
@JAYBAER

78. The difference between helping and
selling is just two letters.
@jaybaer

79. Relationships are created with
information.. Not just people.
@jaybaer

80. All social is a mix of personal and
brands. Your friends are not
buying ads to reach you. We are
being forced to compete with
friends.
@jaybaer

81. Customers do not go shopping
anymore. They are ALWAYS
shopping. Searching. Sharing.
Collaborating.
@rjtalyor

82. To become a customer company,
you must create contextual
experiences on the mobile device.
@rjtalyor

83. Customers do not go shopping
anymore. They are ALWAYS
shopping. Searching. Sharing.
Collaborating.
@rjtalyor

84. Be a farmer not a hunter. Your
customers want you to help them
not just sell them.
@jaybaer

85. Be a farmer not a hunter. Your
customers want you to help them
not just sell them.
@jaybaer

86. Marketing is delivering an
outcome called experience.
@rwang0

87. Math is the new creative. Data
beats opinions. Build strategy
around data.
@DeloitteDIGI_US

88. Experience is everything for a
brand. Building a great
experience and then capturing it
in the form of data to continue it.
@DeloitteDIGI_US

89. We must move from numbers
keeping score to numbers that
drive better actions.
@DavidWalmsley

90. Traditional strategy development
has many black holes.
Collaborate to erase the holes and
build a more agile system.
@DeloitteDIGI_US

91. Kill the annual plan. Do annual
objectives and weekly plans.
Build SCRUMS over the weekly
plans.
@DeloitteDIGI_US

92. The digital marketing shift is
continuous. We are not
transitioning into a new phase but
into a new age.
@smccorkle

93. Produce as much rich media as
possible to build a digital media
library to help map your
customer's brand journey.
@ExactTarget

94. Anytime there is significant
innovation occurring in
infrastructure.. it ultimately
becomes disruptive to commerce.
@KennyTomlin

95. Once you inspire and understand
the essence of your brand, it is
also important that you react and
engage.
@JKRohrs

96. Kill the annual plan. Do annual
objectives and weekly plans.
Build SCRUMS over the weekly
plans.
@edpric

97. You must allow your customers to
share your story. Your customer
IS your best salesperson.
@kyleplacy

98. Email forms the digital mosaic of
your customer.
@mspielman

99. Not all insights are actionable.
Not all data is insightful.
@mspielman

100. “To lead the orchestra, you must
turn your back on the crowd.” –
Max Lucado
@ExactTarget

101. Interesting though – instead of
big data… make use of small data.
@eprugh

102. People overestimate what they
can do in a year, and
underestimate what they can do
in a decade.
@benioff