Luncheon Keynote Presentations

Wednesday, October 21 12:00-1:30 pm

Power Forum on Social Media and Blogging: What's Next?

Join us for this thought-provoking power forum where some of the top names in Blogging and Social Media will weigh in with their opinions about the future of blogging and social media. First, you’ll hear from Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything, speak about the history of blogging and the impact its had on business and our culture. Then he’ll moderate a lively discussion on what the future of social media may hold.

You’ll get to hear insights from our prestigious panel about such questions as:

• How do I know whether to use a blog or Twitter, MySpace or Facebook?
• How important is it to keep up with each new "flavor of the month" platform?
• How do we earn and grant trust on the new networks?; Is there such a thing as too much communication online?
• Where is the social-networking field headed, and how do we prepare for its future?

SPEAKER/MODERATOR:

Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon and author of Say Everything

Scott Rosenberg is a writer, editor and website builder, as well as the cofounder of Salon.com. He is the author of Say Everything - How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming and Why It Matters and of Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest For Transcendent Software. At Salon, Scott served as technology editor and, from 1999 to 2004, as managing editor and vice president for editorial operations. He also started the Salon Blogs program in 2002 and began his own blog as part of it. Before leaving Salon in 2007 to write SAY EVERYTHING he conceived and prototyped the Open Salon blogging community. Before Salon he wrote on theater, movies, and technology for the San Francisco Examiner and was honored with the George Jean Nathan Award for his reviews. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wired, and many other publications. Today he blogs at wordyard.com.

PANELISTS:

Peter Shankman, Founder, Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking,” and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.” An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and ingenious worldwide connector, Peter is recognized nationally and globally for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, Marketing, Advertising, creativity, and just about everything else. Peter is perhaps best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year has become the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 100,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporterout.com each week. In addition to HARO, Peter is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched as a website in 1995, both comments on and generates news and conversation. Peter is also the author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.

Andy Sernovitz, Author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking

Andy Sernovitz teaches word of mouth marketing. He's the author of "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" and teaches at Northwestern University. His company, GasPedal, teaches word of mouth techniques, and runs the Blog Council, a peer-to-peer support group for the pioneers of social media at very large organizations. He taught Internet Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business, ran a business incubator, and started half a dozen companies. He created the Word of Mouth Marketing Association around the latest revolutions in blogs, buzz, and word of mouth, and in the dot com days ran the Association for Interactive Marketing. His fantastic blog is called Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That