Yup, that’s where I’m off to tomorrow… and very excited about it I am too. The event kicks off tomorrow morning with a pre-conference workshop entitled The A to Z of New Media Jargon. Since I’ll be missing this, I can only hope that by now I know more than a fair bit of the jargon in question.
A few of the sessions I’m particularly looking forward to are:
- Assessing Affiliate Marketing And The Instant Global Sales Force It Creates – Eric Edelstein (Eric’s a lively speaker who knows how to keep audience attention, and affiliate marketing is something I haven’t really investigated in any kind of depth yet.)
- Adopting New Technology Platforms In A Healthcare Environment – Jon M. Bishop (Healthcare, insurance, second-hand-car sales, they’re all generally considered “boring” industries – we have a couple of clients in “boring” businesses just like this, and so I’m always keen to find out what other people have done to attract and keep attention.)
- Effectively Capitalising On Your Target Market By Identifying Mobile Trends In South Africa – Arthur Goldstuck (I haven’t had much opportunity to investigate mobile trends, and I’m keen to learn as much as I can.)
- Exploring The Role Of “Consumer 2.0” – The New Role Of The Content User And Its Consequences For Content Providers – Vincent Maher (It doesn’t much matter to me what Vincent’s talking about – his sense of humour (which he’ll deny having, no doubt) makes any topic interesting. But as it happens, this topic does interest me, so it’s a double win.)
- Engaging The Youth Of Today Through Social Media – Tyler Reed (I’m not technically young enough to be considered part of the youth anymore (unless you apply very loose standards indeed), and I find the idea that this world of incredibly rapid change and obligatory multi-tasking is the only world they’ve ever known to be deeply fascinating.)
More than this, I’m really looking forward to meeting some of my Twitter and Facebook friends for the first time. When I was younger I was always encouraged to have penpals – well, I have plenty of them now, only we converse in real time, and don’t post one another scented envelopes and postcards. 
Oh Dear! Now you’ve set an expectation that I have to be lively!
See you tomorrow….
Never mind Eric, 8 to 10 cups of coffee before delivering your presentation should do the trick…
LOL, as it happens I’ll er… not be talking about consumer 2.o but thanks for the vote of confidence, looking forward to it. I predict this is going to be a smoking conference judging by the speaker line-up and how much the speakers and delegates seem to care about this one.
Turns out it was a good thing I said “It doesn’t much matter to me what Vincent’s talking about”… Yes, there does seem to be a lo-o-o-ot of buzz around this conference; perhaps new media marketing is just an easy thing to get passionate about – in contrast to, say, agricultural machinery or town planning.