Conferences and workshops tend to blur together when you travel and speak as frequently as I do, so I’m always glad when I am involved in an event that’s focused far more on education and intelligent discourse than on selling products or services, either from the podium or the exhibit hall. Don’t get me wrong, those conferences can be valuable and I’ve learned quite a bit attending those sort of events, but as a former research scientist, there’s much I prefer about getting together with a few hundred of the best people in the industry and exploring best practices and opportunities together.
That’s why I am delighted to share that I am not only going to be enthusiastically attending the upcoming Blog Business Summit in Seattle, but that I’m also going to be offering up a keynote talk on findability.
In fact, the line up of speakers for the Summit reads like a who’s who of sharp thought and influence leaders in the blogging world, including Buzz Bruggeman, Halley Suitt, Jason Calacanis, John Battelle, Jory Des Jardins, Mary Hodder, Robert Scoble (and his wife Maryam), Chris Pirillo (and his partner Ponzi), Steve Broback, Tris Hussey, Steve Gillmor, Matt Mullenweg, Kevin O’Keefe and DL Byron.

The first day of the conference is going to be “Business Blogging 101” and I’ll be co-hosting it with my good friend Steve Broback. We’ll start with me talking about Findability, then Steve will talk about “What blogs are and why they’re taking over” (it’ll be fun to see if we agree on what a blog is, actually. Stay tuned for that), then we’ll both show how to get started blogging; it’s pretty darn easy to get started, even for people unsure of their writing skills.
The afternoon I’ll be on the podium again, talking about how to get involved with the blogosphere beyond just writing your own blog (hint: comment on other blogs!) then we’ll have the great advantage of hearing Robert Scoble and John Furrier explain how you can easily get started with podcasting and video blogging (aka “vlogging”).
Last up on that first, pre-conference workshop day, will be Buzz Bruggeman who will talk about the legal issues surrounding blogs (and I can say that not a fortnight goes by that I don’t hear from a lawyer, so there are definitely lots of people – and companies – paying attention to that side of things too!)
The entire event will be at the beautiful Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle, and the hotel for the event is the Seattle Waterfront Marriott, which I’m delighted about because it means we’re in a great area of the Seattle waterfront with lots and lots of cool places in easy walking distance. Lots of chances to sit down with the cast of luminaries and really share what you’re doing, what you want to do, and how they suggest you proceed.
So that’s just the pre-conference. When the conference gets into full swing on Thursday, the 26th of October, Jason Calacanis will have a must-hear keynote talk on his experience selling Weblogs, Inc. to AOL and how he’s moved into the world of AOL’s subsidiary, Netscape. You just know it’s going to be controversial when authenticity and integrity are in the title of the talk!
Later on Thursday afternoon, I’ll be sharing the spotlight with two super-sharp bloggers, Mary Hodder and Halley Suitt, as we share our own strategies for monitoring the blogosphere. I plan on taking notes, personally! Of course, we have tough competition as the exhibitionist panel “Mixing personal and professional on your blog” panel runs in parallel, with lots of doubtless hilarious stories from blogging couples Robert and Maryam Scoble and Chris Pirillo and Ponzi Indharasophang air their, um, dirty laundry, with Jory Des Jardins (think BlogHer) as the ostensible lion tamer moderator.
Friday we have even more great folk speaking, including Ben Edwards of YouTube talking about branding, Steve Gillmor joining a gang of smart folk to talk about podcasting best practices, and, someone I’m eager to meet, John Battelle sharing his view of Google and the world of search (his talk will doubtless be a splendid companion to my opening keynote speech on findability, actually). Then John and I will be sharing our Blogging SEO Strategies which will be a must-hear for anyone who is blogging to gain eyeballs or mindshare through search engines.
Finally, three more splendid speakers will wrap up the entire Summit by talking about the future (or at least, their vision of the future!) of blogging: Matt Mullenweg, DL Byron and Liz Lawley.
Then we’ll all collapse into a heap, crawl back to our hotel rooms, and blog like lunatics about all the great talks and wonderful people we met. 🙂
So what are you waiting for? If you’re already blogging for your business, want to get into the world of business blogging, or just want to go to a blogging event where there’s a professional focus and discussion of measurement, profitability and accountability all in the same room, there won’t be a better event this year than the Blog Business Summit.