Bear Rock Cafe - Westlee
2200 N. Westmoreland St.
Arlington, VA 22213
(703) 532-0118

Adam and Shireen are still looking for sponsors. Contact Adam at aazrock [at] yahoo.com if you are interested!

1. There is a happy hour the night before. Why not take advantage of the opportinity to mingle with BlogPotomac keynotes Beth Kanter and Shel Israel? Details are here.
2. A “wake” for BlogPotomac — a.k.a. post event happy hour — is being organized by Shireen Mitchell and Adam Zand. We will post the details as soon as they become available.
3. Wear jeans, sweaters, or similar casual wear. It is a social media unconference, and as such you should not be surprised by a somewhat nonchalant open culture, including dress.
4. Because it is a modified unconference format (see past post explaining format), audience members should be ready to participate. If you are new to social media, please do not ask what an RSS feed is, or if Twitter really matters. We assume a 101 level of knowledge for this event.
5. This particular BlogPotomac focuses on the future of online media, so get ready!
6. Doors open at 8, and we will get on our way by 8:45. A full agenda can be found here.
7. All attendees will receive a copy of Shel Israel’s Twitterville. He will be available to sign copies during the morning sessions.
8. Lunch will be served by DC Central Kitchen’s Fresh Start catering service! We’ll have coffee in the morning, too, and a mid-morning snack provided by Cabot Cheese!
9. The State Theater will open a cash bar for the final two sessions. So if you want to get an early start on Happy Hour, please do so!
10. The Theater is located here at 220 N. Washington
    Falls Church, VA 22046. The following is a map of the State Theater via Google Maps.

We look forward to seeing you on Friday!

BlogPotomac Keynotes Beth Kanter and Shel Israel will join organizer Geoff Livingston as guests of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network at the White House on Thursday. The sold out event precedes the BlogPotomac Happy Hour on Thursday at BusBoys and Poets on 5th and K (register today, it’s free!).

Could the mighty O make a random appearance? Who knows, but what a way to begin festivities for the final BlogPotomac series of events. Thanks to our friends at YNPNDC for this wonderful opportunity.

Here are five reasons why you should:

1) Value: Instead of charging you $500 or $1,000 for a verticalized social media event like many of the Government or social network specific events that roll into town, BlogPotomac is not for profit. We charge estimated costs ($95) and donate any profits to charity.

2) Charity: Speaking of, this year we’ve already given $500 to DC charity Miriam’s Kitchen, and have purchased more than $4,000 from DC Central Kitchen’s Fresh Start catering service.

3) Scope: A professional communicator knows they have to use multiple channels to communicate, and doesn’t rely on one social tool. In fact, most communicators realize that social media continues to evolve and with past networks Second Life, MySpace and Friendster already fading to yester year, they want to remain current with developing trends. The Final BlogPotomac moves from Twitter and Ning to mobile networks and the geoweb. This conference still offers the most comprehensive program of any social media conference in the region.

4) Quality While created by locals for locals, it’s not like the event doesn’t have some of the best talent in the nation! Consider just some of our keynotes and speakers:

• Our first keynote Beth Kanter, the top-ranked changeblogger, will discuss how nonprofits are using online media to innovate and affect change.
• Renowned social media chronicler Shel Israel will offer the second keynote and discuss his book Twitterville, including the future of the red hot social network. Everyone will get a copy of his book.

Additional sessions include:

• Imangi Studios Natalia Luckyanova discusses mobile phone applications.
• Shane Lennon, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Management at GyPSii®, will discuss location-based mobile social networking.
• crayonista and ace strategist Jane Quigley will discuss future Internet media forms, such as the semantic web and other new forms she’s watching.
• FortiusOne CEO Sean Gorman will talk about the impact location based technologies and mapping are making on the web.
• Ning’s Peter Slutsky (http://twitter.com/pslutsky) will discuss the evolution and future of niche social networks and communities.

5) Community: Most importantly, BlogPotomac really is DC’s social media conference, created for the community. From highly interactive unsession formats to some of the most brilliant minds in the region, BlogPotomac will enrich and deepen your immediate social network with great contacts.

Continuing our informal series of interviews with BlogPotomac speakers at the Final BlogPotomac (October 23, at the State Theatre, register today!), our keynote Beth Kanter answered our questions about the future of social media. Beth is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media , one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits. A frequent contributor to many nonprofit technology web sites and magazines, Beth has authored chapters in several books, including “Psychology of Facebook Applications,” edited by BJ Fogg, Stanford University and “Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders,” edited by NTEN both to be published in 2009.

BP: What social media application or network is really exciting you today and why?

BK: Right now I’m not excited by any one specific social media application or network, but the result of connectedness that these tools provides. I heard Jerry Michalski use the metaphor of the global brain. He mentioned that we were halfway through a transition process where we are renegotiating social contracts and connecting with people in a way that we haven’t before. The benefits innovation and creativity to be sure.

I get excited now that in a couple of clicks that I can go to site like slideshare and see ideas on a topic some of the best thinkers on that subject and recreate my own meaning of it or collectively recreate meaning with my friends. Or that I can send out a question on Twitter and get back lots of new ideas.

The point is that knowledge is now externalized in our global brain of connections with colleagues and other organizations. I think that this connectedness will thread together both individuals and make the boundaries of nonprofit organizations very porous - so that we’ll have colonies of organizations working together on issues/causes versus isolated islands. This melting of boundaries will happen from inside out through individuals working in nonprofits using social networks to connect across silos and organizations.

BP: In your mind, what’s the biggest barrier facing corporate adoption of social?

BK: A lack of understanding about how the social contracts have changed and what it means. Changing this in organizations that have a decades or centuries of experience doing their work in a particular way is difficult. It means giving up control, being more open to being, well open, and a faster way of working. It means being a learning organization. That transition can be a big barrier. It doesn’t have to be - the right conversations inside about worst case scenarios, adjusting our expectations about failures, and having contingency plans - this can mitigate adoption issues.

BP: What current or future technology do you see impacting social the most over the next five years?

BK: Hmm .. I’m preparing a virtual keynote for the week after I speak at BlogPotomac - and I’d love to know what you and other readers think. With that said, I think real time web and mobile social will have tremendous impacts over the next five years. I think there will also be changes in “humanware” - where we’ll see more and more people who have grown up with the Internet come of age in terms of leadership of their nonprofits - this will an impact.

BP: Do you think social media has positively or negatively impacted society and why?

BK: Well, both. I think there are many benefits that we can take way from the age of connectedness - creativity, innovation, leveraging and much more. Today I was a training with a long-time activist from the 60’s who told me that her organization’s goal is to reach a wider audience and engage them - but can’t do that without being engaged on social networks. Movement buildings need to happen both online and off and social media a big part of that. There is also a dark side that we need to acknowledge - issues of security, privacy, and
identity.

How many social media events — or for that matter — any event can boast that it has PRSA-NCC, AMA-DC, IABC-DC, SMC-DC & DC Media Makers all as media sponsors? Sure enough the final BlogPotomac has united DC’s social media community (image by Network Solutions).

Just two years ago when we conceived of BlogPotomac, PRSA and SMC were the two organizations behind us. While the others have certainly recognized the value of social over the past years, to have this kind of support for what was once considered a wonky kind of thing to do is just amazing. And it shows how far social media has really come.

Continuing our informal series of interviews with BlogPotomac speakers at the Final BlogPotomac (October 23, at the State Theatre, register today!), crayonista Jane Quigley joins us to discuss the future of social media. She is the lead for the afternoon sessions, and has one of the sharpest minds in the business.

With more than 14 years in the interactive marketing space, Jane has a true excitement for all things Social Media. She has implemented a number of social technology applications and campaigns for her client’s marketing and media schedules, including white-label social networks, corporate blogs, mobile campaigns and more.

BP: What social media application or network is really exciting you today and why?

JQ: I’m really enjoying Posterous. It’s even easier than Tumblr - the original mobile blog. All posts are done over email, the iPhone app or a “Share on Posterous” bookmarklet. It’s really the first mobile blog that is really “set it and forget it” = I never worry about formatting issues.

Also - I have a lot of respect for the Posterous team (Garry Tan and Sachin Agarwal). I’ve had mine for over a year and have been really impressed by the consistent performance and feature updates. The right features at the right time - no feature bloat. And they really use their own product. Not only do they each have a couple of Posterous blogs, which they consistently update, but they comment and favorite other user’s posts each day.

BP: In your mind, what’s the biggest barrier facing corporate adoption of social?

JQ: I don’t think there’s that much of a barrier anymore - most companies see the need to connect more intimately with their customers (and their employees). Where I see the disconnect is that most social media consultants don’t see the Big Picture. It’s not “where does social media fit into my marketing plan” but “how can I infuse conversation into all of our marketing”. 

It’s so much more than a tactical plan - it has to start with strategy.

BP: What current or future technology do you see impacting social the most over the next five years?

JQ:I think it’s whatever is the easiest - that’s why Twitter works over Friendfeed, and Facebook over Orkut and the rest. The KISS-methodology works every time.

Besides that I’m keeping an eye on the localization of social - Foursquare and Gowalla, as well as a Techcrunch50 entry, CitySourced, which looks like a social/mobile Neighborhood Watch.

BP: Do you think social media has positively or negatively impacted society and why?

JQ:I think that the effect has been mostly positive - but I also think that too many people take many posts and reports at face value. Not many people are taking responsibility for fact-checking or researching what is true and what is opinion. Opinion is not fact. We can’t afford to be lazy.

Continuing our informal series of interviews with BlogPotomac speakers at the Final BlogPotomac (October 23, at the State Theatre, register today!), here’s one with the author of Twitterville (available on Amazon), Shel Israel. BlogPotomac attendees will receive a free copy of Twitterville this Fall instead of the usual T-Shirt. Shel has agreed to sign books at the event.

Shel is a good friend and co-keynote of BlogPotomac with Beth Kanter. he describes himself as a social media storyteller. He is co-author of Naked Conversations, and The Conversational Corporation. Read more about him here. Here are his answers to the standard four BlogPotomac questions.

GL: What social media application or network is really exciting you today and why?

SI: Boy is that easy: Twitter. Because it allows people to behave online more like we do in real life than anything that came before it.

GL: In your mind, what’s the biggest barrier facing organizational adoption of social?

SI: Organizations feel safe, with proven, refined practices. Social media  is very often disruptive to doing what has always been done. Some people are uncomfortable with that.

GL: What current or future technology do you see impacting social the most over the next five years?

SI: I’m not good with predictions. I love the surprises of technology. Currently, my view is that we are now completing an unprecedented round of innovation in the hip-joined areas of Web 2.0 and social media. The coming years very well might be dominated by the refinement of all the new stuff that has erupted on the Internet.

GL:  Do you think social media has positively or negatively impacted society and why?

SI: Both. Overwhelmingly it has been positive. But through history, wherever decent, hard-working honest folk have gathered, scammers, snake-oil salesmen, get-rich-quick artists, and sex merchants have followed trying to fleece the good people. That’s what’s happening in much of social media. Like crime in real life, this can be controlled to some degree but it is nearly impossible to stop altogether.

This begins an informal series of interviews with the people who are speaking at the Final BlogPotomac (October 23, at the State Theatre, register today!), and what better person to begin with than the emcee? Shonali Burke is the incoming  president of IABC-DC, and adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Her 13+ years of experience include a stint as the ASPCA’s award-winning Vice President for Media & Communications. In 2007, PRWeek named her to its inaugural “top 40 Under 40” list of U.S. public relations professionals.

GL: What social media application or network is really exciting you today and why?

SB: Twitter. I think we saw a sea change in attitudes earlier this year with more people moving from the "I don’t get it" bandwagon to the "I can really make this work for me/my business/my cause," though the first of those will probably still pop up for a while to come.

What I love about Twitter is the way it has opened my world to new people, ideas and relationships; and it’s also increased my engagement with folks I know "IRL" but probably didn’t get a chance to talk to all that much. As a relatively new blogger, it has done more for my blog traffic than anything else I could have conceived; since I started blogging after I was extremely comfortable on Twitter, I had a built in network to disseminate my posts among. Finally, it’s been amazing as a way to begin conversations that help build my consulting business and speaking engagements.

GL: In your mind, what’s the biggest barrier facing corporate adoption of social?

SB: Since I don’t work in a corporate setting, I can’t speak from in house experience. What I’ve noticed, heard, been told and read about, though, is that there is still some element of fear of releasing control over messaging.

Here’s a news flash (not): you may have thought you had control with carefully crafted messages in press releases, etc., but the minute they were out the door, you had no control over how that messaging was disseminated, ultimately ended up in the public eye and impacted your business objectives or perception of your brand. Seth Godin had a great post today on not controlling the conversation, but trying to organize it, and that’s what I think they need to understand.

The other thing I think is really important for corporates (or any organizations) to remember is that every single employee is potentially your biggest brand ambassador. If you try to clamp down on social media, you’re ignoring a huge opportunity to empower your employees as evangelizers.

Almost everyone is engaged in some social media network or other; instead of trying to dictate to them what they can or cannot do on a social media level, why not educate them so that if they do have an opportunity to engage in a conversation about your company, they can be your ambassadors? Certainly, you should help them understand the do’s and don’ts of personal v. professional engagement. But if you invest in it, this could potentially open up a huge new customer base for you as it humanizes your brand.

GL: What current or future technology do you see impacting social the most over the next five years?

SB: Ha, this is the second question in a row I almost started with "I don’t…" ! Speaking as a non-techie, quasi-geek (I say "quasi" because of the afore-mentioned non-techiness) I think the technology that will really take off is the kind that lets people connect more quickly, more seamlessly and in a more integrated fashion over several networks. I have no idea what that is in tech-speak.

GL: Do you think social media has positively or negatively impacted society and why?

SB: For the most part, positively. It’s broken down barriers that folks may not ever have dreamed of surmounting. It’s allowed people from different walks of life, backgrounds and time zones to meet each other and engage in dialog, and has the potential to harness and focus energies that were previously restricted.

You just have to look at any of the hugely collaborative non-profit campaigns that have used social media, such as the Pledge to End Hunger, to see how social media can have an extremely positive impact. Beth Kanter writes about these all the time.

Of course there is a danger of letting your online "life" take over your "real" life, but I think that’s more a function of a world that’s evolving minute-by-minute on a technological level, and understanding how to adjust to that. At the end of the day, we’re human, and that’s how and why we connect; stop being human, and you’ll stop connecting. Social media is a great point of connection, and humanizing it is what makes that connection rich.

Thank you to the few parties that have reached out to either help support or co-own BlogPotomac in the future. As many of you know, this autumn’s event is being promoted as the Final BlogPotomac. At the time of announcement, I listed two reasons:

1) A desire to recapture some of my personal life, and not become shackled by what is supposed to be a gift back to the community.

2) For me, I find the social media communications early adopter/innovation period to be over, and am starting to look at verticalization in green and nonprofits, as well as mobile.

Number two has been well-debated, and the market has shown that continued demand for social media best practices exist. That includes the three parties who have expressed an interest in helping to facilitate future BlogPotomacs.

My first reason is still my first reason. One thing I know about social media: It can swallow up your life, change your perspective, and morph you with hopes or the reality of nano-fame. At some point in the process you either abandon the old for the new, or you draw a line and restore balance in your life.

This is not to judge others’ successes. My happiness lies in balance, and mindfully choosing which media and events to participate in. My experience is that I can maintain presence with more qualitative social media choices, and at the same time, restore time to my personal life.

Sacrificing BlogPotomac remains one of the harder choices. I designed it as a not-for-profit knowledge exchange, so there’s no money to be gained. It takes an enormous amount of time to plan and execute. The personal reputation points are nice, but, given the vast amount of time it takes, I would rather spend it with family and on future initiatives.

Plus, how many times can I reinvent the same conference? The first two were very similar in scope, and while the third one will be different with a much stronger focus on future communications media, reprogramming and keeping it fresh with new information was challenging. I did it for this October’s event (check out our agenda), but it seems that a truly new blogging conference in 2010, 2011, 2012, well, was dated.

So, when the lights go out on October 23 at the State Theater, it truly will be the Final BlogPotomac. Expect it to be great.