Next weekend is going to be busy. Very busy.
On Thursday I leave for Las Vegas to attend the BlogWorld & New Media Expo. It is so full of excellent speakers and exhibiters I won’t actually be able to attend every session I’d like to. In fact, in a couple of instances I’m going to leave the decision until I’m actually there, see who I meet, and see if anyone has any opinions on what I should attend.
Friday, September 19th is the Entrepreneur and Executive conference day. It’s sort of an extra day for us non-blogger types who are really trying to figure out how to use blogging and social media for business purposes. Here’s my agenda for the day:
- 8:45am – 9:45am | Opening keynote speaker Dave Taylor
- 10:00am – 11:15am | Corporate blogging myths and reality
- 11:30am – 12:45pm | Micromedia: The next big, small thing
- 12:45pm – 1:45pm | Keynote luncheon (a girl’s gotta eat, right?)
- 2:00pm – 3:15pm | Finding your new media voice
- 3:30pm – 4:45pm | Implementing blogs and social media for business
- 5:00pm – 6:00pm | Closing keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuck
- 6:00pm – 7:00pm | Get myself ready for a night on the town
- 7:00pm – 8:00pm | BWE Tweetup at the Hilton
- 8:00pm – 11:00pm | TechSet party at Bare at The Mirage
Um, yeah… that’s a full day and will likely require the use of some Full Throttle – 2 or 3 cans ought to do it. I am super excited and fully intend to seek out a few specific people that I’d love to meet, whether at the conference itself or at the TechSet party.
Chris Brogan – social media guru from CrossTech Media
I subscribe to his blog and like to read just about every word he writes. It fits right in with my morning news. Love it! He’s also leading the Bloggers & PR session I want to attend.
Geoff Livingston – CEO of Livingston Communications and writer of the Buzz Bin
Another interesting social media expert I follow on Twitter. He’s also all about his ducati just recently. Seems like an all ’round nice guy too.
Lee Odden – CEO of Top Rank Online Marketing
He’ll be leading a session on SEO, SEM and Social Marketing for the Executive track. His blog is ranked one of the top online marketing blogs by Advertising Age
Darren Rowse – aka Problogger
Darren is all about blogging for a living and teaching others to do the same. That’s all there is to say. He often has profound and interesting things to say on both his blog and on twitter. He also takes a mean photograph. I’m hoping to get to his session on How Not to Use Social Media.
Deborah Micek – aka coachDeb
Deborah just came to my attention recently. She is a new media consultant, author and entrepreneur – co-creator of blogi360.com – living in Hawaii. Rough life.
Rebecca Bollwitt – aka Miss604: Vancouver Blogger
Miss604 is, from what I can tell, the most influential Vancouver lifestyle blogger. She is also very involved in the Vancouver tech scene.
Shannon Yelland – Online Marketing Manager for Sitemasher
Sitemasher is a Vancouver based company offering a CMS on a SAAS basis. I’m interested in their product, even though it seems to be a little difficult for my non-programming mind to grasp.
Brian Solis – Principal of FutureWorks PR and social media agency
I subscribe to Brian’s PR2.0 blog and plan to attend his Bloggers and PR session.
Arieanna Schweber – Entertainment Editor, b5media
Another Vancouver powerhouse, Arieanna is a full time blogger I follow on twitter.
Rohit Bhargava – Blogger, Author and Digital Media expert
He’s just super interesting and has a lot of great things to say. He’s actually the keynote speaker for Sunday morning, so I hope I’ll get out to hear him.
Lisa Bettany – Blogger, MostlyLisa
Another Vancouver blogger who has interesting things to say. I follow her on twitter too.
Mark Davidson – Social Media Manager/Internet Strategist
There is too much to say here. Mark is just an all-round interesting guy I follow on twitter. You have to check him out to see what I’m talking about. He’s like the cool kid in school.
Jason Billinglsley – Co-founder of Vancouver-based Elastic Path Software
Elastic Path is the e-commerce provider for VANOC and the publisher of the #1 E-Commerce Blog: GetElastic. I won’t be attending his session on monetization, but I’d like to meet him just to say Hi. I regularly attend Elastic Path’s webinars.
Linda Bustos – Emerging Media Analyst for Elastic Path Software
Linda, aka @roxyyo, is a brilliant mind and writer for Elastic Path’s blog GetElastic. I love reading her blog. Everything she writes just makes sense in a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kind of way. I also happen to know her IRL and look forward to getting to know her a little better if time permits.
There are also plenty of other folks I’m excited to meet. Especially those I “know” from twitter. It’s cool to put a real life face to a screen name.
Then Saturday, the actual BlogWorld & New Media Expo begins will look like this:
- 8:45am – 10:00am | Opening Keynote on exhibit floor
- 10:00am – 11:00am | Check out the exhibits
- 11:00am – 12:00pm | Twitter: Connections that drive traffic
- 12:15pm – 1:15pm | Bloggers & PR
- 1:15pm – 2:45pm | More exhibits and lunch somewhere
- 2:45pm – 3:45pm | Search engines and findability
- 3:45pm – 5:00pm | More exhibits
- 5:00pm – 6:00pm | Creating customer loyalty with social media, OR
- 5:00pm – 6:00pm | SEO, SEM and New Media (totally torn as to what to see)
- 6:00pm – 7:30pm | Eat something and get myself ready for another big night
- 7:30pm – 9:30pm | BlogWorld Conference opening night party
- 9:30pm – 11:00pm | Check out a little more of Vegas and lose some money
Yeah, I have to do a little gambling while I’m there. I’m super stoked to have just received a surprise cheque in the mail from my health insurance company. Oh yeah… there’s my mad money. I’ve also been told I have to check out the fountains at the Belagio.
Sunday, the final day of the expo, will be just as jam packed with super speakers, but I’ll probably be ready to drop dead by then. I’m going to do my best to get through these sessions, though I may just not get started until the 11:00am session… that would mean I’ll just miss one keynote.
- 9:00am – 10:00am | Opening keynote on exhibit floor
- 10:00am – 11:00am | Exhibits and networking
- 11:00am – 12:00pm | High performance business blogging, OR
- 11:00am – 12:00pm | Marketing on Facebook, OR
- 11:00am – 12:00pm | Social Media in the Newsroom (no idea which)
- 12:15pm – 1:15pm | Maximize ROI on corporate blogs
- 1:15pm – 3:00pm | Networking reception on exhibit floor
- 3:00pm – 4:00pm | Avoiding disaster: How not to use social media
- 4:00pm – 7:30pm | Late check-out, wait at airport
- 7:30pm – 10:20pm | Flight home
Monday I plan to sleep. A lot.
