I'm flying out later today to head to Athens, Georgia first to take part in Connect 08. It's an event hosted by the the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication. The idea behind Connect 08 is a cool one—to assemble speakers with perspectives ranging from traditional PR to corporate social media practitioners to academics to discuss social media and the broader implications it is on communications. Check out this link for the full agenda.
I'll be teaming up with Elizabeth Albrycht to kick off the first session on Saturday morning around the topic of engaging customers (and potential customers) through social media. Thanks to Dr. Karen Russell who reached out to me months ago via Twitter (gotta love social media in action) to get me involved. I'm really looking forward to it.
Update: Speaking of Twitter, you can follow the discussion on tomorrow's session by following @UGAconnect or tracking the #connect hashtag. More details here.
Then, on Sunday, I'll be flying out to Las Vegas to join the fun at Blog World Expo 08. Though I won't get to spend much time there, I'm pumped to be part of a panel called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Business Blogging," along with Facebook's Carolyn Abram, Yahoo's Nicki Dugan and Kodak's Tom Hoehn. Our panel will be moderated by LinkedIn's Community Evangelist Mario Sundar. I just have to work it in that our panel is part of the Bleeding Edge Track.
If you're going to be there at Blog World Expo and are interested in attending, our panel will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008. Room U202, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.