Find out answers to all of the above and more at the Social Media Workshop sponsored by Network Solutions in Richmond, VA. Key learning points from this half-day FREE workshop include:

• Advantages of social media marketing over traditional tactics
• How to start blogging with WordPress?
• How to turn Twitter into a customer service tool?
• How to increase your Google ranking with Search Engine Optimization tricks?

Speakers to include:

• Doug Meacham Managing Consultant – Retail Delivery at IBM
• Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Strategist, Network Solutions
• Randall Windsor, Web Marketing Manager, Network Solutions
• Priya Ramesh, Director, Social Media Strategy, CRT-tanaka

Event Details:

• DATE: Friday, Nov 20th, 2009.
• VENUE: CRT-tanaka, 101 W Commerce Rd, Richmond, VA 23224
• TIME: 8:30AM – 12PM

Agenda:

• 8:30AM – 9:30AM: Light breakfast and Networking
• 9:30AM – 10:00AM: Intro to Social Media Best Practices (Doug Meacham)
• 10:00AM – 11:00AM: Maximize Customer Satisfaction Via Blogs and Twitter
• 11:00AM – 11:30AM: Importance of Search Engine Optimization
• 11:30AM – 12:00PM: Q&A

Sign up today! Limited seating available. Don’t forget to bring you laptops to take your first steps in blogging. Attendees will learn how to use the Network Solutions WordPress Hosting package for free!

What is INNOVATIONS 2009?

INNOVATIONS 2009 is an event designed to educate attendees on how to grow their opportunities and enhance their skills by gaining a better understanding of how to leverage today’s new and emerging technologies.  Attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to connect with technology experts and prospective teaming partners, clients, investors, employees, educators, and service providers.

Promoters: The Chamber, GMU, Media, Exhibitors, and S&T Council members

Registration: You can register on eventbrite and it is FREE for all attendees

AGENDA

2:00 – Open Doors

2:00 – 2:15 – Attendees Assemble in Bull Run Hall to Network and Explore Displays

- Exhibitors may man exhibit or send in materials ahead of time to set on their table

2:30 – 3:15 – Workshops Round One

1. Using Social Media to grow your business (Shashi B, Network Solutions)

2. Understanding the benefits of Cloud Computing (Carl Tidwell, ATCC)

3:30 – 4:15 – Workshops Round Two

1. Cyber Security, protecting your most important asset – your company data (Joe Yanda, Websense)

2. Current and Future States of Regional Advancements and Opportunities in Biotechnology

(Panel moderated and opening remarks by Ron Carmichael, GMU PW Campus Administrator)

- Dr. Chip Petricoin, Co-Director of Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine at GMU

- Thomas Seoh, former CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals

- Joe Reilly, of Theranostics Health, LLC (tentative)

4:30 – 5:00 -  Keynote Address

4:30 Welcome by Chair – Purpose of the S&T Committee – Thanks all sponsors and volunteers – Introduce Platinum sponsor

4:32 Platinum sponsor introduces Keynote speaker

4:35 Keynote Address (Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions)

4:30 – 6:30 – Exhibits, Networking, and Cash Bar

- Exhibitors displaying their technologies and intern matchmaking station (GMU staffed)

Attendees are directed to approximately 20 exhibitor tables in the main entrance hall lined up with the front window.  Also present shall be light fare and high top tables with stools.  S&T Committee Ambassadors will be floating about assisting attendees, soliciting feedback/comments, and snapping pictures. One business card shall be drawn for the door prize and an award shall be presented to one exhibitor at the end of the program.

6:10 – Last call for cash bar is announced

6:15 – Draw one business card for door prize and present award to best exhibit

In case you hadn’t registered, here is the page to sign up. See you there!

What is INNOVATIONS 2009?

INNOVATIONS 2009 is an event designed to educate attendees on how to grow their opportunities and enhance their skills by gaining a better understanding of how to leverage today’s new and emerging technologies.  Attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to connect with technology experts and prospective teaming partners, clients, investors, employees, educators, and service providers.

Promoters: The Chamber, GMU, Media, Exhibitors, and S&T Council members

Registration: You can register on eventbrite and it is FREE for all attendees

AGENDA

2:00 – Open Doors

2:00 – 2:15 – Attendees Assemble in Bull Run Hall to Network and Explore Displays

- Exhibitors may man exhibit or send in materials ahead of time to set on their table

2:30 – 3:15 – Workshops Round One

1. Using Social Media to grow your business (Shashi B, Network Solutions)

2. Understanding the benefits of Cloud Computing (Carl Tidwell, ATCC)

3:30 – 4:15 – Workshops Round Two

1. Cyber Security, protecting your most important asset – your company data (Joe Yanda, Websense)

2. Current and Future States of Regional Advancements and Opportunities in Biotechnology

(Panel moderated and opening remarks by Ron Carmichael, GMU PW Campus Administrator)

- Dr. Chip Petricoin, Co-Director of Applied Proteomics & Molecular Medicine at GMU

- Thomas Seoh, former CEO of Faust Pharmaceuticals

- Joe Reilly, of Theranostics Health, LLC (tentative)

4:30 – 5:00 -  Keynote Address

4:30 Welcome by Chair – Purpose of the S&T Committee – Thanks all sponsors and volunteers – Introduce Platinum sponsor

4:32 Platinum sponsor introduces Keynote speaker

4:35 Keynote Address (Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions)

4:30 – 6:30 – Exhibits, Networking, and Cash Bar

- Exhibitors displaying their technologies and intern matchmaking station (GMU staffed)

Attendees are directed to approximately 20 exhibitor tables in the main entrance hall lined up with the front window.  Also present shall be light fare and high top tables with stools.  S&T Committee Ambassadors will be floating about assisting attendees, soliciting feedback/comments, and snapping pictures. One business card shall be drawn for the door prize and an award shall be presented to one exhibitor at the end of the program.

6:10 – Last call for cash bar is announced

6:15 – Draw one business card for door prize and present award to best exhibit

In case you hadn’t registered, here is the page to sign up. See you there!

1. Get an opportunity to network with small business owners and entrepreneurs – learn and grow your business at the same time!
2. Gain insight – including tips and strategies – from more than 20 of the nation’s top small business experts.
3. See Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail and Free, as the conference keynote.
4. Walk away with executable, cost-effective ways to market, promote and grow your business.
5. Find out what others are doing to weather the current economic storm – and pick up strategies and tactics you can apply to your own business.
6. Learn how to navigate your way through what can be a financial maze from people who have done it – and succeeded.
7. Expand your marketing arsenal – figure out how to enhance your current promotional efforts by integrating social media.
8. Score lots of free stuff – including a free domain name from Network Solutions®, a copy of Chris Anderson’s best-selling book, Free, and business planning software from Palo Alto Software.
9. TODAY ONLY, REGISTER TO RECEIVE TWO ADMISSIONS FOR JUST $99 TOTAL – A SAVINGS OF NEARLY $500! But, you have to act fast – the offer is only good on Wednesday, September 9 from 12 a.m. EST to 11:59 p.m. EST. REGISTER NOW by using the promo code: GSB999 and clicking here!

The GrowSmartBiz Conference will be held September 29, 2009, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was created to highlight the findings from the Small Business Success Index (SBSI) – an ongoing measurement of the overall health of small businesses commissioned by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Network Solutions, and to provide small businesses with tips, information and network opportunities that will help small businesses thrive in the current economy. The conference will focus on key areas of business that small businesses view as critical to their success according to the 1,500 small businesses that were interviewed for the Small Business Success Index.

For more information or to register for the event, visit the GrowSmartBiz Conference site.  Don’t forget to turn in your small business success story for the chance to have it posted on the GrowSmartBusiness Blog and to receive FREE admission to the GrowSmartBiz Conference. For more details visit: http://tinyurl.com/gsbiz.

Pop!Tech 2008:
Scarcity and Abundance

October 22-25

For the twelfth year, the Pop!Tech Conference will again convene a network of 600 remarkable thinkers, doers, leaders and global change agents in science, technology, social innovation, business, environmentalism, globalization, media, education, and many other fields for a four-day exploration of ideas shaping the future.

This year, we will pay particular attention to the 21st century dynamics between systems based on scarcity and those based on abundance, in areas ranging from digital social networks to environmentalism, from biology to business, from peacemaking to politics. We’ll chart the core scarcities that humanity will face in this century, and how a wealth of new innovations, new bottom-up approaches to collaboration, and new insights into collective wisdom might hold the key to addressing them.

As always, there will be incredible performances, jaw-dropping technology demonstrations, spirited discussions, formal debates and surprises throughout. We will leave Camden with an inspired sense of our challenges, our potential, and the dynamics of positive change.

The conference begins with our special Wednesday sessions.

I am attending this conference this year and I am looking forward to meeting the 600 plus smart people who will talk about technology and how it makes a difference. I am also looking forward to running into Chris Anderson , Malcolm Gladwell and Michelle Riggins of BatchBlue.

If you’ve been enjoying the events that we’ve been bringing you, then you will NOT want to miss this one! This one requires no travel you can attend it from the convenience of your office or home! We’ve created a free video conference that’s jam packed with insights & online marketing tips for small businesses!

Mark your calendar because on October 29 at 1 pm we’re providing the Solutions Stars Video Conference! Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone, & Network Solutions Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda met with 32 top bloggers at BlogWorld Expo. We asked them to share their insights & tips on online marketing for small businesses for you. It was all captured on video & now we have a conference features nine different documentary style video sessions:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

In addition to the Solutions Stars Video Conference site, please visit the event pages on Facebook and Upcoming.

Here are the steps:

a) Bookmark this page – http://www.solutionsstarsvideo.com/

b) Create a calendar event for themselves

c) Choose the event time

d) Come up with good questions for the chat room

We’d love it if you’d grab a badge for your blog or site.

There were many sessions and the one with Shashi was titled “Making Social Media Make Money”. Here is a great write up from Zac Johnson who attended the conference as well:

The “Making Social Media Make Money” panel, which I did not expect too much from, actually ended up being the best panel of the day, in my opinion. To start it off, each speaker had their own slides to run through, instead of an open panel discussion, like the previous sessions. The speakers on the panel were Jay Berkowitz, Shashi Bellamkonda and Larry Bailin. Jay Berkowitz went through 50 slides in roughly 10-15 minutes, but he had everything memorized in his head, so it was an awesome run down of many sites and how they are banking and taking advantage of social media. Shashi, from Network Solutions also gave his views on social marketing and how his company it using it to interact with customers. Lastly, Larry Bailin was up and his presentation was also great. In addition to being a great speaker, Larry had some great content to share as well, along with a short video he created for a client (which was in-turn also used for social marketing).

Other excellent resources recapping the event include the Affiliate Thing podcast, where Lisa Picarille and Shawn Collins recapped the recent social media conferences including this one. Also, on Shawn Collins’ blog, there is also a mention of Shashi’s work here Network Solutions bringing in tools like Twitter to really help customer server.

It looked like a very informative and productive day for attendees. Plus, Shashi got some great photos of the event. Check them out below in this new slideshow:

The post in question was a Washington Post blog article titled “Washington’s Twin Tech Towns“. It described that while the Northern Virginia Tech Council (NVTC) was having their “Hot Ticket Awards” event at a beautiful house in McLean with 300 people from the “Old Guard” of technology integrators and government contracting firms, in DC at a hip club in Dupont Circle there were a different group of 300 “New Guard” people from the Social Media and Web 2.0 scene there to meet well-known Web guys Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble.

Personal Perspective – Walking Between the Two Worlds

To give you some perspective on these two worlds, I was one who actually works with both and navigates quite well between these two worlds. There is good and bad from both type of groups. I was involved with the NVTC for years as a startup and was able to connect with many large integrators or contract firms that would have been great if I was a software development shop or recruiter. I found it challenging to find new clients through the “old guard” of the Washington DC tech community. Sure you get a few successful startups that are recognized as “hot” after they have been around for 3-4 years and are making tons of money. That is where the previously mentioned “Hot Ticket Awards” comes from and why they have the party every year at Bobby Kilberg’s house.

In the other world I have met many people who kept moving with the trends after the heady days of the dot-com boom. These “New Guard” people live a world of Social Media (e.g., blogs,podcasts,wikis,social networks) and develop hot new companies utilizing Web 2.0 technology (e.g., Ruby on Rails, AJAX). It is an ecosystem full of innovation but, in most cases, with very little funding. I can clearly see that within 24-36 months it will be established as the go to group of thought leaders that all other companies will be looking to for advice and leadership to help them break the chains of the government contracting cycle and diversify beyond the beltway.

Successful Party and the Beginning of a Regular Event

This stirred up alot of conversation and of course, another blog post. This one discussed whether we might all get along together in one room. Peter Corbett, who runs a local Web consulting company called iStrategy Labs, has been the catalyst to create an event that brought everyone together in one place. On Thursday, at District club Local 16, more than 600 people from both the local Web 2.0 scene and the more established technology companies that dot the Beltway came together to drink, be merry and exchange business cards/facebook profiles.Also in attendance was Sarah Lacy, who famously interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, at SXSW, was in attendance to launch her User Generated Book Tour.

It was well attended by those in t-shirts and shorts and by those in suits and ties. It was very hot outside but the free beer courtesy of the long list of sponsors made it all better. I would have to say that the only bad thing about the event is that it went too quick. There 600 people there and I think I talked to about 30. Peter didn’t just put together and event, he literally put together a conference.

I believe this is the beginning of a regular event that you could probably do once a quarter. My suggestion is that you find a better location that make it easier to network. In fact, Peter, if you are listening, this could become an annual conference with lots of networking and tracks that teach the respective “Tech Town” about the things they are doing and how they can help each other. Because if there was one thing I definitely got out of this event is that we all need each other and if we actually begin to work together this will be “The Town” to work in the technology industry.

Here are some pictures from the event: