It’s a sunny day in DC, the office is hot as spring seems headed toward us here on the east coast. And as everyone knows, aside from flowers and birds, Spring is the season for conferences and marketing events to kick into high gear. There are lots of events in the coming two months that I will either be attending, watching, or helping to promote. So for this Friday – as we head into maybe the first weekend of Spring – here’s my list of events that Ogilvy PR (and me, personally) will be participating in over the next two months. I’d love to see you at any of these events … particularly if you are interested in joining the very fun and innovative Digital Influence team here at Ogilvy PR.
March 6 | PSFK Conference
This promises to be a great day of speakers and new thinking organized by Piers and the guys at PSFK. Drop me a line if you are going to be there and want to try and connect. Registration for the event closes this Sunday and apparently there are still a few spots left. Register at https://psfk.eventbrite.com/.
March 6 to March 8 | New Communications Forum
This is one of the largest of the New PR events focused on the evolution of the PR industry and features some of the best minds and innovators in PR from Shel Holtz to David Weinberger (Author of the Cluetrain Manifesto). John Bell, founder of our own Digital Influence group here at Ogilvy PR will also be leading a great session on how you can craft a great Corporate Social Media strategy. Check out his post on the event and use his promotion code (612SHN) for a discount on registration.
March 8 to March 18 | SXSW Interactive/Music/Film
As part of our efforts for a soon to be announced client, I will be attending this annual independent artist festival on the music side and hope to make it to a few days of the interactive event as well. I’ve already been in touch with a few folks who will be there – so let me know if you’re on that list and will be in Austin. If you’re keen you still might be able to find a slot and register at www.sxsw.com.
March 27 | Citizen Marketers: Special Client Event with Jackie Huba
This an event we will be running for just our clients and held in our NY offices. For the session, we have Jackie Huba coming into to speak to the team about citizen marketers, her new book and the trend of consumer generated content and co-creation. We’ll be sure to share some insights from the talk with the wider audience, but attending this event is unfortunately just available to clients of Ogilvy PR. If by chance you are a client, and didn’t get an invite yet – please email me directly and I can arrange access for you. This event is part of Ben and Jackie’s book tour – which you can learn more about on their website.
March 28 to March 30 | Social Marketing University
Run by Nedra Weinreich, author of the Spare Change blog (among other things), this event is a wonderful introduction to the world of social marketing, as well as a rich source of new ideas for the practicing pro. It’s in the DC market, a very smart choice when it comes to social marketing events, and you can get a discount on registration by using the code "IIM75" – but don’t wait, the last word I had from Nedra was that the event is nearly sold out.
March 29 | Web Manager’s Roundtable: Creating a Social Media Strategy
John Bell will be teaming up with Pierre Wielezynski from the World Bank to talk about creating a social media strategy for your organization. This is a great local event for DC folks and costs just $10. The event will be held at the World Bank offices, but seating is limited to just 100 folks so if you’re thinking about going, you better register soon.
April 10 to April 13 | Search Engine Strategies NY
It’s amazing how quickly this event has grown into an international phenomenon and become one of the real A-list events in the world of interactive marketing. Lots of my peers in marketing as well as search marketing specialists will be there, and I have been having a few discussions with conference organizers about the upcoming Social Media Optimization panel that will be a part of the event. No formal agreement yet, but we’ll see what happens. I have finalized with Danny and the conference organizing team that I will have the chance to moderate the panel on Social Media Optimization. This will be my first speaking opportunity on SMO at a search engine conference and I am joined on the panel with lots of authoritative folks that I have had the fortune of conversing with over email as SMO has evolved. (Updated 03/15/07)
April 17 to 18 | WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Basic Training
Womma’s hugely popular series returns, this time for an event held in New Orleans next month. We are members of WOMMA and will be actively participating in this event – though there are no details to share quite yet. Regardless, somehow due to previous commitments, travel or vacation I have managed to miss just about every WOMMA event last year. This one will be no different, as the dates for the Millenials conference listed below conflict with WOMMA once again. Well, perhaps one day in the future I’ll finally make it to a WOMMA event, but in the meantime, Ogilvy PR will be well represented there and we’d love to see you.
April 18 | Millenials Conference
Put on by the folks over at Digital Media Wire, this event is shaping up to be a really strong panel of folks all talking about how to reach and engage the elusive demographic group of youth known in marketing circles as the millennials. I am still discussing being involved with the event with the team organizing and hope to finalize shortly. I will be moderating the panel on "Harnessing the Power of User Generated Content." Again, the panel is shaping up to be a strong group and I am looking forward to meeting them. Full Disclosure: My blog posts are also republished on DMW as a guest contributor. (Updated 03/15/07)
April 24 to April 26 | Ad-Tech San Francisco
I put together a very exciting panel for this event focused on using social media tools like blogs, podcasts and vlogs to demonstrate your brand identity. It’s going to be a very popular panel, with confirmed participation already from Karl Long of ExperienceCurve and Nokia, Jeremiah Owyang from PodTech, Steve Hall from Adrants, and another soon to be
announced panelist. This is a huge event at Moscone and there will be some other very exciting things happening there which I can’t talk about quite yet – but are worth waiting for. Visit www.ad-tech.com to register and be there for the event.
If you’re going to be at any of these events, I’m looking forward to meeting you. I’ll have plenty of business cards …
