The Interactive Marketing Council is a great group of eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing leaders from an array of different companies. I always learn a lot from the other members when we get together for these face-to-face meetings. Forrester is constantly innovating ways to make these meetings better and more interactive. I am looking forward to seeing several friends and colleagues I have not seen in many months.

The Forrester Consumer Forum is one of the best conferences I attend every year. The insights on the consumer landscape, social web marketing, interactive and integrated marketing are outstanding. I am looking forward to filling my brain with new ideas, data and tactics we can use to reach our Newell Rubbermaid consumers.

The theme for this years conference is “The Three Dimensional Consumer: Creating Breakthrough Multichannel Relationships.” This fits in well with my thoughts and theories around the social web ecosystem and integrated marketing.

The hashtag for the Forrester Consumer Forum 2009 is #FCF09 and they have a very cool iPhone app that you can download from iTunes or get here developed by ThoughtWorks. The Twitter id is @Forrester.

Here is a summary of what to expect at the forum:

“The Web has come a long way — but not far enough. Many transactional and even brand Web sites began as outgrowths of the catalog or phone channels. As a result, most online experiences are one-dimensional and treat all customers the same, and most sites support buying experiences but fail to engage customers before and after they make a purchase or brand decision. Executives seeking to create profitable relationships must evolve online channel efforts to support three-dimensional consumers. In short, it’s time for the Web to grow up and serve as the center of the relationship that companies have with their customers.

Three-dimensional consumers have needs, interests, and questions. To please these demanding customers, earn their repeat business, and have them recommend you to their networks — offline and online — you’ll need to effectively engage them as they plan their purchase or brand decisions, help them find the most relevant value as they’re buying, and support them during and between their purchases and interactions — all across multiple channels. At this Event, leading Forrester analysts will present research on how evolving consumer online behavior demands that firms step up efforts to engage them, and executives will share their companies’ best practices for creating breakthrough multichannel relationships.”

I will also be the Day 2, October 29, 2009 Keynote Speaker at eM9 eMarketing Conference Atlanta 2009. I will be discussing Newell Rubbermaid’s eBusiness, eMarketing and Social Web Marketing strategies and tactics.

I am very excited and honored to have been asked to deliver a presentation at this conference again. I last presented at eM7 in 2007.

The hashtag for eM9 eMarketing Conference Atlanta 2009 is #eMAtlanta and the Twitter id for the event is @eMAtlanta. Looking forward to seeing everyone at this conference.

Jennifer Leggio, also known as Mediaphyter, is a co-host with Aaron Strout on BlogTalkRadio Quick-n-Dirty Podcast.

The keynote speaker is Chris Brogan (his blog: chrisbrogan.com) and I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him. He also autographed his new book for attendees: Trust Agents – Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

Here are pictures of Chris Brogan, with Stainless Steel Sharpie in hand, and I taken by Jenny DeVaughn and Jennifer Carter:

My panel was titled: Are You Ready For Social Media?: Preparing Your Teams to Listen, Engage, Measure & Adapt

Bert DuMars, Peter Fasano, Seth Miller (and TBSVeryFunny, MostlyMuppet) with Jeff Turner moderating:

Managing an effective social networking campaign is both an art and a science. This panel will give you insight into the tools and techniques used by several large companies in their efforts to engage their customers using Social Media.

Also, I came in 5th during the special Chris Brogan/New Media Atlanta TwitterINGO game. I will be hosting TwitterINGO on September 29, 2009. Hope you can play, should be a challenging set of words.

So many great Atlanta friends in attendance it is difficult to list them all. But you can follow everyone’s tweets at #NMATL.

September 26, 2009 Update:

Stacy Williams wrote a thoughtful post on the Backnoise channel at New Media Atlanta. Well worth the investment of your time to read the post and the comments. Unexpected Learnings: BackNoise Can Be Toxic

September 27, 2009 Update:

Another excellent blog post on New Media Atlanta – Blog: New Media Atlanta and Chris Brogan by Ilyce Glink

And another: New Media Atlanta – Social Media Rockstars by Jenny DeVaughn

September 28, 2009 Update:

More blog posts that are excellent reads on New Media Atlanta and the backchannel noise on BackNoise:

Do Backchannels Know No Boundaries by Jason Keith

Who Can Be Brogan by Matt Fagioli

He Said, She Said Volume 5 (and here) by Todd Schnick & Stephanie Lloyd

Snarkiness, anonymity, and backchannel conversations at professional conferences by Paul Chaney

September 29, 2009 Update:

What I told them at New Media Atlanta by Chris Brogan (includes some comments and video of presentation) – Interesting, Insightful and Fun

Here is a summary of the presentation:

Panelists and audience debated the value and impact of social media communications.

The hashtag for the conference is #connect. You can also find out more about the conference, speakers and discussions at the following locations:

Twitter: @UGAConnect
Blog: ugaconnect2009
Flickr: ugaconnect09
Delicious: UGAConnect2009
YouTube: UGAConnect

The panels included the following:

Is Social Media Transformational? – Panel Discussion
Melanie James – University of Newcastle (Australia) (via Skype)
Dan Greenfield – Bernaise Source Media, Atlanta, GA
Aaron De Lucia – Porter Novelli

Integrating Social Media in Non-Profits Panel
Tom Watson – Bournemouth University (United Kingdom) (via Skype)
Richard Waters – North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Sara Valkova – Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA

Integrating Social Media in Business and Industry Panel
Jeremy Pepper – Palisades Systems, Los Angeles, CA
Toby Bloomberg – Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing, Atlanta, GA

Speaker: Lauren Fernandez, Public Relations Blogger, Dallas, TX

Legal Issues with Employee Blogging
Perry Binder- Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Integrating Social Media in Government Panel
John Tedesco – Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Lt. Connie Braesch – U.S. Coast Guard, Washington DC (via Skype)

Speaker Bios can be found here and here.

The nice thing about this conference is that it is small enough for the audience to actively engage and debate the presenters. Nothing is taken for granted and controversial perspectives on the theme are not held back

• Bonin Bough of Pepsico
• Richard Binhammer of Dell
• John Andrews of Collective Bias
• Aaron Magness of Zappos

I am honored to have been interviewed with these other very strong players in the social media and social web ecosystem.

In addition to this article coming out today, Newell Rubbermaid was also featured in a Wall Street Journal article discussing our Twitter recruiting efforts. “A New Job Is Just A Tweet Away” discusses how we use Twitter to find untapped talent. The Newell Rubbermaid Twitter recruiting id is @CoolJobsatNWL.

Pokens swap a virtual business card by doing a High-4 (see the four-fingered hand in the picture at left). Touch two Pokens together and they will send each other the virtual business card. You can then connect them to your PC or Mac and upload the collected cards to your Poken card database. Pretty simple and fun.

I wonder how Pokens will do as Apps like Bump proliferate on Apple iPhones — another way to swap virtual business cards. I have used Bump and it is ok, but the connections were a little touchy.

So, I am looking for a Tweetup, Meetup or Poken Party in the Atlanta area. Please leave a comment if you know of an upcoming event.

Here are some more articles on the Poken (@poken):

What We Can Learn From Poken – Josh Bernoff, @jbernoff, Forrester Research, Groundswell Blog

Wikipedia Poken

Poken: Tiny RFID Thingies That Share All Your Personal Data With Others

Vlogger Sarah Austin’s “Back in SF” Poken Party – San Francisco Chronicle

And you can join Poken network groups on Facebook and Ning.

And here are a couple of videos that provide more detail on Poken:

Poken: The Movie

Wall Street Journal Video on Pokens

All information is here: http://ignite-atlanta.com/

Backchannel conversation is here: http://backnoise.com/?IgniteATL

Presentations:
#1 – 9 Really Dumb Mistakes People Make in Business – @davideckoff
#2 – No Adult Left Behind – @HeathWilkes
#3 – Common Sense – @Corvida
#4 – Sustainable Overclocking – @gomeler
#5 – Beauty For Change – @juliesquires
#6 – Welcome To Atlanta – @AmericanMaglev
#7 – Science and the Importance of Chit-Chat -
#8 – Why Can’t Our Space Program Be Like The iPod – There is a lot of Space to Explore
#9 – Secrets of Sand Skink (Sand Fish) Swimming in Sand
#10 – The Meaning of Life – Random Slides, Random Speaker (Birthday Gag)
#11 – The Hydrogen Myth – Stephen Fleming, Vice Provost Georgia Tech
#12 – A Case Of The Mondays – @MondayNight – Craft Brewing http://mondaynightbrewery.com/
#13 – HDR Imaging for n00bs - High Dynamic Range – @Stammy
#14 – How To Identify A Social Media Douchebag - @tessa
#15 – Posting Economy – wtf – Ignite Denver representative
#16 – Mil-OSS – Military Open Source Software – @simplehuman
#17 – Parallel Entrepreneurism – How to have 5 startups and not work very hard – joke presentation – 4-hour Work Week Satire – @pfreet
#18 – Deliverance – Keith McGreggor -”Singularity is a point where we can’t see past it.”

Ignite Atlanta has been a very interesting and entertaining event. There probably needs to be a few more rehearsals before the day of presentations, but overall the presenters did a good job for the first event in Atlanta.

Additional blog posts:
Ignite ATL – A Mini TED of the Southeast - @yanekm - my perspective: “I would not go that far, but it has the opportunity to turn into something special”.

You Can’t Handle The Truth - @JennyDeVaughn

Here are some of the fun and interesting bloggers who attended:

Chad Rothschild – @chadrothschild – Blog: http://chadrothschild.com/
Marisa Sharpe – @marisasharpe – Blog: http://marisajaffe.com/
Jenny DeVaughn – @JennyDeVaughn - Blog: http://socialprecision.com/
Wendy Parker – @wparker - Blog: http://inkdrainedkvetch.wordpress.com/
Taryn Pisaneschi – @tarynp - Blog: http://tarynp.com/

There were 20+ more who attended as well. Looking forward to the next one I am able to attend. As an FYI – next Meetup is scheduled for Oct. 7.

The panel includes:

• Karen Koser, President and CEO of KPK and Company and KPKInteractive
• Steven Piejak, Southeast Sales Manager for LinkedIn
• Hope Dlugozima, Vice President, Director of Community and Social Networking, Mother Nature Network
• Laura Bellinger, Social Media Manager and Communications Consultant, Blogger at CARE: I am Powerful

Should be a fun and interesting social media panel with a how-to-get-started focus that is environmentally friendly.