SxSW Panel Rejected? Here’s a second chance

There are a lot of reasons panels get rejected by SxSW. Some don’t even make it into the panel picker, while others just aren’t ‘pimped out’ hard enough to garner sufficient votes.  Some are really, really fantastic ideas, but miss the mark regarding timing.  Some are just bad (note: if it’s bad, you have no second chance unless you rework it).

Whatever the reason your panel was rejected, here is your second chance to present your talk with your panel on the afternoon of Tuesday March 16, 2010. So submit your panel to us in the comments below (make sure everyone can be there still) and we will, at our sole discretion and judgment, select two (2) or three (3) panels which will receive 30 minutes each to live stream to our global audience from the Social Media Clubhouse beginning around 3pm.

We have this fantastic venue 20 minutes from the convention center, a shuttle bus and a live musical performance we are putting on from Kole Christensen starting at 5pm as part of our KUT Live series.  We also have a daily recap show to produce on Tuesday at 6pm with TechZulu. But we don’t yet have a Summit booked, or a sponsor for it other then Social Media Club, which has a pretty awesome announcement to make this week </teaser>.

So let’s go for it and share some knowledge together. If you get it, we will stream it!

Suggestions

• If it’s a commercial pitch, forget about it, you should have signed up as a sponsor
• If you want more immediate attention, tweet it @socialmediaclub with a link to the panel submission elsewhere online and make sure to use the #SMCH3 hashtag
• We are looking for topics that are interesting to our Social Media Club members from around the world, so if you have a strong case why it would be, present it in the comments (or on your own blog post)
• Don’t contact me personally, please. Especially if you know me personally. I just dont have time to deal with all those extra communications while we are in the midst of producing #SMCH3
• The ‘application’ we choose will be notified by Sunday night so there is time to prepare on MON
• Ummm, well, if you have something to talk about regarding media literacy and how to create more of it, or anything to do with our core missions, that, well, that might get some preferential treatment.

Social Media Timidity In UK Women

Do you often ponder about the finer points of culture? Or more specifically do you consider how our backgrounds and our personal social conditioning (sociological phenomenological process of inheriting tradition and gradual cultural transmutation passed down through previous generations) plays its part in our every day life?

You see, I do, and I do this regularly – I am an academic by trade, nature, mistake, chance, purpose. I’ve never actually gotten in to ethnography in a meaningful studied way, though I regularly research, quantify, dig deep for the answers, I’m one of life’s observers I guess. I’ve always been skilled at looking at the big picture, taking a step back and casting my inquisitive eye over the whole, or as much as the whole as one can see at any point, again depending on social conditioning, expectations, experiences and various other influential conditions.

So why am I starting this Blog post with such reflection, why am I asking you to join me in my reverie?

Well, I’m currently in the development cycle for our second Social Media in Business Conference, and one of the things we are experiencing is, and I have to be careful how I phrase this, an apparent timidity in UK women when speaking opportunities come along. That is way too generalised of me, on many levels, naturally it could just be my own social circle (funny how we use that phrase commonly now) that is lacking, perhaps my circle is male dominated? – I know it is not though.

Just by way of example, we ran a Social Media Mafia MediaCamp, as part of Social Media Week, in NYC last month, and all but one of the sessions that day were held by women. Of course this is a crude comparison as there are far too many variables to draw any proper scientific outcomes, though the “feeling” I got, and of course “feelings” are a large part of social media it seems, was that women in USA (or is it just NYC?) are all over social media like a rash, – sorry bad term! But the women I know in USA adopting social media, really are enthused and very very active and ambitious.

I asked Twitter and Facebook this morning to get some feedback from my friends:

Joanne Jacobs is an Australian living in London, she’s fairly active in some of the London social media niches.

So I asked her: “So what makes an Aussie girl different from an English girl? I’m keen to get to the bottom of this.”

See this is great insight, as that is certainly not the case in UK, to my knowledge.

Anna Hill, from UK, suggested that perhaps schooling, or the differences between boys and girls approaches to the sciences and technical subjects could be the cause of this apparent timidity. I must admit it, having worked in sound engineering for a long time, that industry is heavily weighted with men, it simply doesn’t attract the girls, in general. That could include all sorts of peripheral reasons like a bad career choice for such things as a desire to have a family, sound engineering is not particularly “social” hours, and certainly not a nine to five. I do know many more women that are not interested in the sciences than are, though So.Me is a kind of blend of technology, a new medium, but at its core it’s just people talking – a very naturally female trait, no?

Kerry made a great point, which got me thinking:

And then we have Mitzi Szereto’s comment which oozes studied psychology:

The conversation in Facebook really start picking up some traction.

Jo Jordan made a great comment.

A good comment, though of course no distinction between USA and UK women. Still, an interesting view point, but is that even gender specific?

Some of the big take-away’s following my very non-scientific research:

• Generally speaking women in UK compared to USA are less inclined to put themselves forward for speaking opportunities
• Differences in background and social conditioning have an obvious influence
• UK schooling does not encourage the questioning of authority
• Women in general find speaking a low priority compared to other activities (though this does not concur with my experience of USA)

But what about you, I’d love to hear your views?

Enter to Be Our Resident VJ for Social Media Club House during SxSW

I am really thrilled to be writing this blog post. Over the past two months we have been busy organizing the logistics and finding partners for our Social Media Club House down at SxSW. Just yesterday, everything really started to fall into place – just as everything came together for Social Media Week San Francisco recently.

We won’t be publishing the calendar of livestreams from the club house or event dates just yet, but I can tell you its not a bloggers lounge, and its not a place where a lot of people will be hanging out.  We will be dropping by the TechSet Bloggers Lounge for that ourselves, so we will hopefully see you there (and hopefully in my Core Conversation with John Biehler on Friday March 12 at 330 called “Do the Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” </plug>.

The idea behind the club house is still the same as when we did it in Las Vegas in 2007. There are a lot of folks in our community who go to the same conferences and we wanted a place where we many of us could stay together, make media and have a shared experience of it with each other. This creates opportunities to get to know each other, to learn, to see more of the conference through each others eyes, to be social and to create content.

After resurrecting the idea in Paris, France just a few months ago with the Social Media Club House at Le Web 2009, we are doing it even bigger and better down in Austin, TX.  Inspired by Real World, Forbes and our own experiences, the Social Media Club House is a mashup of epic proportions (just enough to match the grandeur of SxSW itself I think so we are psyched to kick it off here).

Its one part group housing, one part live stream studio.  It’s where Social Media Club will be reporting on SxSW and sharing our observations with our global community members. Its where we will be hosting some serious conversations like the Synaptic Web Summit and the Engagement Summit. It’s where we will host some special and intimate musical performances.  It’s where Social Media Club will host its local leadership celebration for SMC organizers from around the world with a big BBQ from Salt Lick on Friday  March 12 from 12-2pm. And it’s where Social Media Club and TechZulu will produce its daily recap livestream of what is happening in Austin throughout SxSW in conjunction with Justin.tv, Hootsuite and other media partners still to be announced.

And this blog post is your chance to join us in person as a resident of the Club House! It’s also a ’save the URL’ for Social Media Club members to tune into the reporting and live streaming we will be doing during SxSW from http://socialmediaclubhouse.com/, (new site and schedule coming early next week).

The Contest.

Starting today, we are looking to find one or possibly two Resident VJ’s for the Club House (yes video jockey’s, to call it a blog jockey would be NSFW). The chosen VJ will join myself and the other residents and reporters. In exchange for producing content on the Social Media Club House blog each day and contributing some video to our live stream and hopefully a bit more, we provide a sweet place to stay with a bunch of cool people and an experience to remember for a life time. It’s also a chance to break through and show you have mad skills, so be creative, this is your moment to shine.  It’s not quite American Idol, but it will put you in a position to meet a lot of cool people and put your talent on display. More details on the terms of the contest are below.

When I was originally thinking of the contest, it was going to be open to paying Social Media Club members only, as a membership benefit. But after tweeting with Eric Berto I realized we should make it open to anyone over 21 who is willing to agree to our Club House terms below. I don’t want to be the guy saying pay 100 bucks so you can enter the contest and then maybe not win – that’s not the sort of membership experience anyone should have. In the future though, we will have some things open to only members (ie, this same opportunity). But that will only be after we can show you the value we will provide in our new members web site and we complete our upcoming reorganization (or initial organization as some of you may be thinking – ha).

Look, this contest is really simple, we want to have you producing great media with us each day out of the Club House. For that, you get to stay there with us and some other really cool people who will be announced very soon.

How to enter.

Shoot a video that is under 3 minutes (bonus for being awesome and doing it under 1 minute) telling us why you would be a great Resident VJ in the Social Media Club House. Send us an email to socialmediaclub at gmail dot com with your name, social url’s, phone number, the dates you are going to be in Austin, a link to your video entry online (please also tag it #SMCH) and a link to some blog posts you wrote from another conference you attended (whether live blogging it, summarizing a session, summarizing the experience, writing about the party scene, whatever it might be that you think would be relevant.)

DO THIS BEFORE 23:59 EST ON WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2010

If you want to, you can also tweet at us with a link to your video and we will retweet it for others to see from the @socialmediaclub account.

The winner be chosen at the sole discretion of the Club House producers, a full list which will be published on this blog in the coming week but right now it includes me.

What we are offering is a chance to be our roomie for SxSW for either interactive, music, or possibly both.  What we are asking for is that you serve as the resident club house VJ, reporting everyday on whats happening in Austin.

It’s gonna be fun.

Here is a simple statement of the general terms:

We provide you a bed in Austin, TX with a roof over it between March 11th-21st in this really cool house (ok, its a mansion, really) we rented on Lake Austin. There will be about a dozen or so other people staying there, maybe a couple more on some nights as a place of last resort for our friends and misplaced celebrities. Chances are several of the meals will be covered like the BBQ we are hosting for our Social Media Club chapter leaders, but you should be prepared to spend a little money here and there for food, transport and having fun. You cover your own travel (unless we get a last minute travel sponsor) to and from the Club House from wherever you are in the world. Winner must be 21 years of age or older so please don’t submit an entry if you are not. We are planning to have some transportation to and from the convention center daily as the house is 15 minutes away, but we can not guarantee it to be on call and it will not be available around the clock.

The bottom line is we think it would be cool to make some content together and we wanted to do a talent search to find someone to do it with us. Perhaps that is you…

Please Note: We would love to be more open with the Summits and other things we are doing in the Club House, but there are just some physical constraints that don’t allow for us to open it up to a big group. It’s intended to be more like a private studio then an event venue.  The other thing is, the house is in a residential neighborhood, so out of respect for the house’s owner we just can’t do any public events here.  So instead, the summits are essentially invited guests in an executive round table format to discuss the topic and stream it to the world.  We are still seeking sponsors to offset the huge costs though, which is another way to participate.

Be our first TJ! Enter to win pass to Twiistup

When I was looking at the idea of doing a contest for giving away the free pass to Twiistup this Thursday and Friday July 30-31, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA I was really inspired by what the Rubicon Project did in creating a ’scholarship’ program.  They did something much more meaningful then a viral contest giveaway which created a win-win-win for Rubicon Project, Twiistup and the scholarship winners. While we don’t have as much time (or money) to pull this off since this is a last minute thing, I think we have an interesting and meaningful idea for you.

So here’s the deal, if you want a free pass to go to Twiistup this week, you can apply to be the TJ (that’s Twitter Jockey) for the @socialmediaclub account during the conference portions of the event.  What that means is that you will be running the live Twitter account for @socialmediaclub keeping our 54,000 followers up to date on what is happening at Twiistup. So you will get a chance to introduce yourself and if you do a good job, perhaps get some new followers – but of course we have a no-spam rule and expect basic journalistic standards to be applied.

In order to apply simply tweet @socialmediaclub with the most compelling and creative reason about why you should be chosen to be our TJ during Twiistup.

The winner will be chosen solely at my discretion based on all entries submitted to us by Wednesday July 29, 2009 at 1pm PST.  You can enter twice, but don’t go overboard with it – no one likes Twitter Spam. To be clear, this is only for the conference pass, the winner will need to be in LA area or be able to travel there at their own expense.  That said, the TJ will be hanging at some cool parties, meeting some fantastic people and learning some valuable insights about emerging technology companies.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone in LA later this week!

Social Media Coverage Opportunity in Amsterdam

I am curently seeking two online content creators (blogging, video, audio, photo) to cover an event in Amsterdam. Locals only, and two tickets are provided for two people to cover the event utilizing as many coverage tools as possible to include:

• interviews with panelists
• photos of the event and the expo
• live blogging
• video coverage of as much as possible

Not requirements above need to be met, but candidates that can provide as many of those mentioned will be considered first.

The event is June 2nd, WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2009

Send your information HERE for consideration. Please include equipment you have to cover the event, availability, and links to blogs and other content you’ve created that highlight the work you’ve done.

Online Community Unconference: SMC Member Discount

The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community and social media practitioners – managers, strategists, developers, business people, tool providers, investors – to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities and social media. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, metrics and ROI, implementing new social media programs, business models, and legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information comes from open collaboration among smart and experienced online community and social media folks that attend our events. The Online Community Unconference is the biggest online community focused event that features a low-cost, high-value day of learning and collaborating on social media and community strategies and incredible networking opportunities.

The Online Community Unconference is inspired by the emerging “open space” conference format. (For an excellent description of our most recent unconference in New York, February 2009, see this Huffington Post article.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View is a unique venue with plenty of parking and WiFi. Lunch and tasty snacks will be provided, and the Museum exhibits will be open to the group during the breaks.

An extensive FAQ has been posted here: http://www.forumonenetworks.com/ocu_faq

For more event information, or information about sponsorship opportunities contact Bill Johnston: bjohnston@forumone.com.

Registration link: http://ocu2009-smc.eventbrite.com
Discount Code: socialmediaclub
Discount amount: $25 off

How do you know if your social media vendor gets it?

As Social Media Club gets set to present the result of its Social Media Buyer’s Guide Survey at Web 2.0 on Friday, April 3, the SMC editorial board convened to mull one of the questions that wasn’t quite asked: How do you know that people know what they’re talking about with social media? In the spirit of our motto: If you get it, please share it, we’d love your thoughts and examples:

Social Media Club Question of the Week:

Does your vendor understand social media? And how do you know ?

Please tag your response #SMCQ3

Social Media Buyers Guide Ver 1.0 Sneak Peak

The results are coming in from the Social Media Buyers Guide Survey and there are definitely some valuable nuggets of gold we are finding.  We are keeping the survey open to get your responses, so if you haven’t contributed yet, the survey is still waiting for you to weigh in and share your own insights.

As a little sample of some of the stuff we are preparing to go into the presentation next week at Web 2.0 Expo, we wanted to share a bit of the more helpful information we are collecting.  For starters, we thought that since this is a buyer’s guide, we would share some of the key questions people reccomend asking of any service provider, media company or techynology vendor.

We asked respondents to recommend the top three questions buyers should ask any social media technology or services providers before closing the deal and here is what they shared with us:

• What does the technology accomplish that can’t be accomplished without it?
• How secure will our info be?
• How will you help me achieve my business objectives?
• How will you measure the results you have promised?
• Can you explain why you are on each of these platforms and what is your strategy for engaging with others on each platform?
• Can I see your case studies? Have you performed these services for more than yourself and one other client?
• Can you provide references?
• Is it robust?
• Will it deliver my requirements?
• Do we own the data?
• How accurate is the reporting?
• Will it let me have two way conversations?
• Our goal for this project is X. How does your service/technology help us achieve that goal?
• How sophisticated is your analytics package and what makes it unique?
• What do you like about our current infrastructure?
• What do we need to improve in order to be better positioned?
• What technology is relevant to our situation and what do we need to do in order to leverage it?
• How are you going to manage my brand’s good name?
• How popular is the site?
• How easy is it for people to respond to posts?
• How easy is it to manage?
• When would you NOT recommend this?
• What is your SLA?
• How stable is your operation?
• What needs does your tool/service specifically meet?
• What training will my users require to be able to use this effectively?
• Do you have business consulting experience?
• Have you established alliances with market leaders in the social media arena?
• How long have you, as a company, been involved in social media?
• What have been your biggest hurdles/what have you learned from them?
• What is your niche/specialty?
• What do you know about MY audience in terms of tech savvy, resources and current trends?
• What can they do to bring value to your customers?
• What will we do if this doesn’t work?
• How do you use social media in your everyday personal or professional life?
• How are you different than the free alternatives to your service, and why should I pay for your service?
• Is your product or service’s use case or value proposition clear enough that I can explain it to others in my organization and they will immediately see the same value that I do?

If you would like to contribute to help other people benefit from your experience, please fill out the survey!

Also stay tuned for updates on the Buyers Guide presentation at Web 2.0 on Friday, April 3!

Finally, big thanks to William Gaultier and E-Storm for helping make this happen.  They have been excellent partners and friends throughout this process.

Social Media Week New York

Most people think of the Bay Area as “the” hub of Social Media activity. But, during the week beginning Feb 9th,  New York will be hosting the Social Communications Summit (update: register with discount code “SMC” to save $50), The Shorty Awards, NYC Twestival, Online Community Unconference (update: register with discount code “friendofhoward” to save $25),  Social Media Breakfast, plus O’Reilly’s Tools for Change.

To help people navigate this overload, SMC NYC friend Toby Daniels and a board of other folks in the community created Social Media Week NY. The site features a calendar of the events above, plus additional events being put on, unconference fashion, all around town.

Toby says:

“Much like Internet week, Social Media Week will bring together the New York community and draw attention to the incredible talent, innovation and entrepreneurial endeavor that exists in the city.  Individuals, groups and organizations will be invited to program their own events and schedule their own activities.”

SMC NYC is proud to support this effort that is helping put some focus where it belongs, on the the Media capital of the world

Please follow @socialmediaweekny on Twitter for real-time updates, and we hope to see you in NYC next week.

(If you can’t make it until 2/24, please join Social Media Club NYC for our monthly meeting.)

More conferences to put on your calendar

In addition to the conference/events I just posted discounts for, there are several others we think are super and you should add to your calendar to attend:

• NCDD 2008 Conference: October 3-5, 2008 in Austin, TX – NCDD’s dynamic conferences bring together leaders and future leaders in public engagement, conflict resolution and related fields to share resources and strategies, build lasting relationships, increase the visibility and effectiveness of their work, tackle challenges we face, and initiate collaborative projects.
• BlogHer Reach Out Tour: October 11, 2008 in Boston, MA – One-day conference that will feature a broad range of topics and speakers, cocktail parties for networking and socializing, and a little bit of local flavor. We’ll be focusing on topics that seem to resonate strongest in these cities, and looking to local bloggers to help lead the discussions.
• BlogHer Reach Out Tour: October 13, 2008 in Washington, DC - One-day conference that will feature a broad range of topics and speakers, cocktail parties for networking and socializing, and a little bit of local flavor. We’ll be focusing on topics that seem to resonate strongest in these cities, and looking to local bloggers to help lead the discussions.
• Blogwell – How Big Companies Use Social Media: October 28, 2008 in San Jose, CA -Unprecedented insight on social media from Cisco, Intel, Wells Fargo, Walmart, UPS, Kaiser Permanente, Graco, and Home Depot. Measuring ROI, managing teams, legal issues, BtoB, working with agencies and creating great content. This is the best opportunity available for anyone looking to get started or improve their corporate social media efforts. Learn from the world’s top companies who are already doing it well. Get practical, how-to advice, a lesson on tricky disclosure issues, and loads of ideas and examples for just $200. From GasPedal and Blog Council.
• 3rd Annual Society for New Communications Research Symposium & Awards Gala: November 14, 2008 in Cambridge, MA – This very special event will feature the presentation of the Society’s Fellows’ latest research projects and winning case studies from around the world through the Society’s Excellence in New Communications awards program.

Conference Discounts Available to SMC Members

I am pleased to pass along discounts provided to members of the Social Media Club (SMC) community for the following events:

• AMA – Viral Marketing – Is it right for your firm?: September 25, 2008 in San Francisco, CA – The right viral campaign can turn a small company into a household name and can even generate coverage in traditional media. Indeed, the successes of viral campaigns by companies such as Ford, Kodak, Trojans, and BigFix have triggered the rise of hundreds of viral marketing companies in recent years. But not all viral campaigns succeed. How can you evaluate whether viral marketing is an appropriate tool for your firm? Discount Available: $15 off standard non-member ticket price of $50. Use discount code fall08.  Side note: I am moderating this panel, which should make for an interesting evening as this is the first time I have ever been handed the microphone to lead a session.
• Social Media Marketing Summit: October 1-2, 2008 in San Francisco, CA – Yamaha, Best Buy, Cisco, Ticketmaster and Wells Fargo are just some of the major case studies to be presented at Social Media: The Marketing Summit, along with presentations by some of the biggest names in the industry: Charlene Li, Shel Israel and Brian Solis among them. If you want to know how to get results with blogging, YouTube or Facebook, don’t miss this event. 12 in-depth sessions, 23 experts, over two days. This is the only new media marketing summit you need. Discount Available: Passes available for $495 (onsite reg. $1,295). Use discount code w3ace2.
• SMX East New York: October 6-8, 2008. SMX East delivers the most comprehensive educational and networking experience conceivable — whether you’re just starting in search marketing or you’re a seasoned expert. Your All Access registration pass gets you in to the more than 50 search marketing sessions. See the complete agenda. Discount Available: 10% on their badges at all levels. Use discount code smx10smc (case sensitive).
  
• Executing Social Media – Interactive Conference & Roundtables for Internal and External Communications: October 15-16, 2008 in Atlanta, GA - In two, jam-packed days, you will learn the business opportunities and risks presented by the new technologies, including blogging, podcasting, RSS, YouTube, Twitter, social networks, and virtual communities. You’ll learn how each of these work and how to put them to work in your organization. Discount Available:  $200 off the registration fee. User discount code ESM08SM.
• Social Media Summit – How To Use Blogging, Podcasting & The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Engage Your Employees, Reach Your Customers & Build Your Brand: October 20-23, 2008 in New York, NY -Attend this conference to learn how to use Social Media, and leverage the latest interactive tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. Discount Available: $200 off registration. Mention Social Media Club when registering.
• Forrester’s Consumer Forum 2008: October 28-29, 2008 in Dallas, TX – Join Patricia Seybold, Vivi Zigler, Paco Underhill, and other marketing experts for “Keeping Ahead Of Tomorrow’s Customer.” Through keynotes, track sessions, and one-on-one meetings with Forrester analysts, you’ll learn proven strategies for winning customers’ dollars and loyalty today and in the future. Discount Available: Call +1 617.613.5905 or email events@forrester.com and mention SMC to save $400 off the full conference rate. Discount applies to new registrations only and cannot be combined with other offers.
• Searchnomics Social Media Strategies Conference: October 29-30, 2008 in San Francisco, CA - Premier event for CMOs, Social Media Managers, Online Community Managers, Corporate Communications, PR, Marketing, Advertising, and Recruiting Professionals. This Conference will focus on how organizations can leverage Social Media to achieve their business goals by using technologies such as blogs, micro-blogging, wikis, podcasts, video, RSS, forums, social networks, online communities, and social bookmarking. Discount Available: $150 off registration. Use discount code smclub.
• The Marketing & Online Communities Conference: November 5, 2008 in New York, NY – The Marketing & Online Communities Conference is an invitation-based event that will bring together thought leaders from the marketing and online community sectors to discuss marketing challenges and unprecedented opportunities – in online communities. Discount Available:$100 off registration. Use discount code smcmoc9.
• Social Media for Internal Communications – How To Engage Employees, Drive Change & Improve Your Bottom Line Using BLOGGING, PODCASTING & The Latest WEB 2.0 Technologies: November 17-20, 2008 in San Francisco, CA – Attend this conference to learn how to use Social Media, and leverage the latest interactive tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. Discount Available: $200 off registration. Mention Social Media Club when registering.

Conference Notes

There are a few conferences coming up that we thought you might be interested in sinking your teeth into:

National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation: October 3-5, 2008 in Austin, TX – NCDD’s dynamic conferences bring together leaders and future leaders in public engagement, conflict resolution and related fields to share resources and strategies, build lasting relationships, increase the visibility and effectiveness of their work, tackle challenges we face, and initiate collaborative projects.

The New Marketing Summit: October 14-15, 2008 in Foxboro, MA  - Bringing together the best speakers, most relevant topics and best tools and demonstrations on what’s next in online marketing and social media.

Communitelligence Executing Social Media: October 15-16, 2008 in Atlanta, GA  - In two, jam-packed days, you will learn the business opportunities and risks presented by the new technologies, including blogging, podcasting, RSS, YouTube, Twitter, social networks, and virtual communities. You’ll learn how each of these work and how to put them to work in your organization. Social Media Club members will receive a special $200 discount off the attendance fee by using promo code ESM08SMC when registering.

Under the Radar Social Media & Entertainment

Our good friend Debbie Landa from Dealmaker Media is offering Social Media Club members $100 off their upcoming Social Media and Entertainment event in Moutain View, CA on June 3 at the Microsoft Campus. I am hoping to be there myself as this looks like a great event. You can read more about it on their blog or simply go register following this link for the $100 discount.

The Fireside Chat… Breaking Down the Door to Madison Avenue – Hear from R/GA, JWT, AKQA and GLAM MEDIA

PRESENTING COMPANIES:
33Across – Identifies influential online users
Animoto – Create personalized, professional-quality videos from images and music, offering a new alternative to traditional online photo slideshows
AudioMicro – Stock music and sound effects licensing platform
Aviary -Suite of web-based applications for people who create and a marketplace to sell that content
BigStage – Animate yourself with cutting-edge virtualization technology
Comedy.com – aggregated comedy entertainment site
CrowdSPRING – crowdsourcing of creative talent.
Curse – MMO gamer community.
Dizzywood – A virtual world that allows kids to dress up 3D avatars, play games, explore worlds and meet new friends in a safe environment
ffwd – Organized, multi-platform, video content delivered via a browser, with social network awareness, and predictive recommendations.
GumGum – A licensing and distribution platform for online content
Hollywood Interactive Group – A mass casual mmo based on reality TV concepts and Hollywood stardom.
Jacked – Browser-based “second screen” for TV viewers, which provides synchronized content and a real-time interactive experience that complements what they’re watching on TV
Jygy – Mobile social networking with SMS
Keibi – Moderation and classification of user generated content (UGC)
Kontagent – Next gen social analytics
Kosmix – Categorization engine that crawls billions of Web pages in a unique manner to create algo-generated home pages
Lil’Grams – Tracking your babies memories in real time.
Loomia – Social recommendations bridging established social networking sites with media websites
Loud3r – Aggregating and publishing semantically searched content
MediaForge – We’ve got widgets comin’ out our ads
Mochi Media – Provides independent game developers with analytics, distribution, tools and monetization while providing advertisers with turnkey opportunities to reach the one in three Internet users who play online games.
MovieSet – Platform that brings behind-the-scenes filmmaking online, giving fans authentic access through its proprietary toolkit for Producers.
Mytopia -Social gaming community for Web, Mobile, Smartphone and TV
Nesting – Organizing family activities; scheduling, networking and more
Overlay.tv – video commerce platform that overlays contextual information directly onto online video content
Pikum – A new kind of betting game
PluggedIn – Enjoy stunning, broadcast-quality music videos from your browser
PutPlace – Media storage all the way from Ireland
SocialMedia Networks – enables developers of social media applications to monetize their traffic
Sometrics – Social Analytics and Social Ad Platform
Verismo Networks – High quality video over broadband without a pc.
Vivaty – Brings together your friends, photos and videos into a personal virtual scene, in your browser
Vusion – HD Quality Video over the internet
Wetpaint – Wiki powered websites
Xumii – Take all your contacts from your social networks with you — on your phone!

JUDGES:
Jack Kennedy, EVP Strategy & Corporate Development, Fox Interactive
Bradley Horowitz, VP Product Management, Google
Dan Schiappa, GM – Strategy & Business Development – Entertainment & Devices, Microsoft Marty O’Keefe, Director – Business Strategy & Development – Entertainment & Devices, Microsoft Joshua Newman, Director – Digital Media, Twentieth Century Fox
Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, Wall Street Journal/All things D
Charlene Li, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Dave McClure, Startup Advisor & Angel Investor, 500 Hats
Lewis Henderson, SVP, William Morris Agency
Peter Chane, Group Business Product Manager – Open Social, Google
Scott Sangster, Director of Strategic Planning and Development, Walt Disney Internet Group
Jason Oberfest, VP of Business Development, MySpace
Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital
Robert Scoble, Editor, Scobleizer
Chad Kinzelberg, Partner, Scale Venture Partners
Rick Bolander, Partner, Gabriel Venture Partners
Vineet Buch, Partner, BlueRun Venures

SMC Discount for Search Marketing Expo Advanced, June 3-4 Seattle

Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced, June 3-4, Seattle

Social Media Club Member discount – receive 10% off registration with this code: smx10smc

Seattle in June – with leaders in search and interactive marketing – and no box lunches –that’s SMX Advanced.

SMX Advanced is a two-day conference for search marketers who want to stay ahead in the fast changing world of search. The conference is organized into several tracks: Organic SEO, Paid Search Advertising, SEM Business, and SMX Developer Day (June 4.) See the complete SMX Advanced agenda here.

There will be two keynote sessions: Kevin Johnson, President of Microsoft’s Platform and Services Division will discuss the company’s aspirations in search and online advertising; and Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, will take questions from the audience in the ever-popular “You +A” session at the end of the day.

At SMX Advanced you’ll find that speakers from one session will be your peers in another. We’ve designed the conference to encourage as much interaction as possible, including carefully planned networking events. At SMX conferences, we know why you’re there, and we’ll take care of you — right down to lunch on plates, with real silverware.

Register now – Last year’s show was a sell-out, so don’t wait! “SMX Advanced was a resourceful and engaging conference consisting of intelligent speakers and an intelligent crowd.” — Julie Sun, Senior Manager of SEO, MTV

SMC members take 10% off the prevailing rate when you use this code: smx10smc

Upcoming Conferences & Discounts

Seems conference season is in full swing, so we wanted to let you know about some of the ones that got our attention and several have graciously offered discounts to our Members and friends.

We also want to make sure you are aware of the Social Media Club local events that are happening near you, so scroll down to the end if you are interested in getting together in your neighborhood.

CONFERENCES:

NewComm Forum 2008: April 22-25, 2008 in Sonoma, CA ( USA)

New Communications Forum is the premier conference that brings together thought leaders and decision makers from around the globe to discuss the impact of social media and new communications on media, marketing, journalism, PR and advertising, business, culture and society.

Use the discount code NCF8SP and save $250!
More information at: http://newcommforum.com/2008/

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SMX Social Media Marketing: April 22-23, 2008 in Long Beach, CA ( USA)

SMX is where internet marketers will learn to harness the power of user engagement. You’ll be a master of social media marketing after attending SMX Social Media!

This show is for internet marketers who want to engage the unique and difficult-to-reach audiences at social media sites like Digg, del.icio.us, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Wikipedia. These and other social media sites are serving new and fast growing audiences that want to discover information based on community interests, voting and sharing.

Use the discount code smx10smc and save 10%!
More information at: http://searchmarketingexpo.com/social/

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Web 2.0 Expo Blogtropolus Bloggers Lounge : April 23-25, 2008 in San Francisco, CA ( USA)
Presented by The Conversation Group

Blogtropol.us is the dedicated media and networking lounge for bloggers, content producers, and journalists during Web 2.0 Expo 2008. In a private suite, in the middle of the conference action, Blogtropol.us is designed for you to host and share conversations among digital influencers – both online and offline.

Open to all digital media-makers attending Web 2.0 Expo, Blogtropol.us is the social hub for creating media and discussing conference happenings. Daily live streamed and on-demand video shows will be broadcast to cover the most important conversations of the conference for online discussion and sharing.

In order to participate you must have a Web 2.0 Expo Pass or conference pass AND you must register for access into the lounge at – http://blogtropolus.eventbrite.com. Space is limited!

Free Expo Pass: Use Discount Code websf08fr

More information on Web 2.0 Expo: http://en.oreilly.com/webexsf2008/public/content/home

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SOBCon08: May 2-4, 2008 in Chicago, IL ( USA)

The SOBCon08 program guarantees to send each attendee home with a Business Action Plan that can be immediately executed for measurable success. The “mastermind” teams in which attendees will be interacting will provide uniquely deep working relationships that are more meaningful than the business card trading found at other conference/networking events.

More information at: http://www.sobevent.com/register/

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Communitelligence Executing Social Media: May 21-22, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA ( USA)

The preeminent event for PR, marketing and corporate communications executives to network, learn best practices and make decisions about deploying social media for their organizations. An interactive conference balanced between strategy and tactics, between corporate communications, marketing, PR & HR, between panels, roundtables, unconference discussions, and good ole presentations with PowerPoint.

More information at: http://www.communitelligence.com/content/index.cfm?spgid=274

SMC members can also get a $300 discount by using promo code la08ch

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Social Media Summit: June 9-12, 2008 in Chicago, IL ( USA)

This conference is a must-attend event for all those who are committed to using social media to engage their employees, reach their customers and build their brand to achieve real business results. Learn how to use blogging, podcasting & the latest Web 2.0 technologies to engage your employees, reach your customers & build your brand.

Let them know Social Media Club sent you and save $200!
More information at: http://www.aliconferences.com/conf/socialmedia_summit0608/index.htm

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BLOG POTOMAC: June 13, 2008 in Falls Church, VA ( USA)

BlogPotomac is this year’s premiere social media marketing event for greater Washington DC. Attendees can expect a one-day event with nationally renowned speakers and advanced discussion of best social media marketing practices.

More information at: http://www.blogpotomac.com/

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UPCOMING SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB GATHERINGS:

• Louisville, KY ( USA) – April 15th
• San Francisco, CA ( USA) – April 21st
• Dallas, TX ( USA) – April 24th
• Seattle, WA ( USA) – May 1st
• Cincinnati, OH ( USA) – May 3rd
• Boston, MA ( USA) – May 8th
• Phoenix, AZ ( USA) – May 8th
• Minneapolis, MN ( USA) – May 14th

To keep track of the upcoming events, please visit the SMC events page.

If you would like to volunteer to help manage the local events in your neighborhood, or you would like to get one started (or re-started), please send us an email to socialmediaclub at gmail dot com and we would be happy to get you connected with the right folks.

Be well. Keep learning. Keep sharing.

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