My colleague Melyssa and I are listening and learning at the Forrester Consumer Forum down in Dallas. So far we’ve checked out a Tweetup (photos available courtesy of Jeremiah Owyang) and caught up with many former colleagues in marketing on both the client and vendor sides.

The theme is “Keeping Ahead of Tomorrow’s Customer” and I’d argue that there’s an air of: how the heck do we even keep up. While tried and true marketing tactics remain important, understanding how to reach today’s consumer is a developing digital competency. Cameron Death of NBC Universal was compelling on this point — realize the value of branded communities, but be aware and partner to understand all the places consumers are gathering and influencing.

To follow this conference, you can view the keynotes streamed by Forrester. If you’re interested in a Twitterstream of all the <140 character updates from attendees (aka, the firehose), you can follow the #FCF08 hashtag on Twitter search.