Later next month, the Web 2.0 Expo Europe conference and exhibition takes place in Berlin, Germany.

A joint venture from TechWeb and O’Reilly Media, this event is the conference and tradeshow for everyone looking to embrace and build on the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies (says the website’s about page in one of the most succinct descriptions of an event I’ve seen).

It’s also a companion event to the Web 2.0 Summit and the US Web 2.0 Expos in San Francisco and New York.

So Berlin is the place to be from October 21 to 23 if you want to listen, look and talk about who’s doing what about creating a better web ecosystem.

Especially interesting from my perspective as a communicator (and one with a keen tech interest) is a programme just starting that aims to create a community of influence across Europe comprising independent bloggers and members of the conference organizers, with the broad goal of talking up the event and creating some buzz which hopefully will lead to people signing up for paid registrations.

You can read the detail of this outreach programme by Suw Charman-Anderson in the UK who, together with Nicole Simon in Germany and Stephanie Booth in Switzerland, is organizing it all.

Suw’s post is also cross-posted on the event blog.

I’m participating in this programme – hence this first post about it – thanks to an invitation from my friend Nicole Simon.

In an email to me, Nicole outlined her vision for the programme:

I want to bring closer the European community of Web 2.0 and all the other areas, and learn a lot more about the different countries. As such I find the week in Berlin a great way to come together and make something great of it. Also, if you are interested, there are going to be more than just a few events, starting with an international Barcamp (still 75 spaces reserved for international visitors) and several evening events and parties. ;)

Also I want to make sure that this is a triple win as they like to say in buzzword bingo: you have something, the expo has something – but also your audience gets something out of it instead of just dumb advertising.

Nicole and I enjoyed a great conversation yesterday during which we talked about the Expo and specifically about this blogger outreach programme – how it came about, how Nicole and her colleagues are identifying and reaching out to influencers, and what they expect from it all.

I recorded our conversation and you can listen to it right here:

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Or feel free to download the MP3 file if you prefer.

What’s in it for the bloggers? you may wonder.

In a nutshell, a free pass to the event (worth some €800) plus some good exposure in the blogosphere and probably beyond given the high profile of the event.

Each blogger also gets a discount code to offer readers. (I don’t have the code yet; I’ll update this post with it when I know it.) When you register online, using the code will get you a 35% discount off the full price. And note the early-bird price valid until September 25.

If you want to take advantage of a 35% discount, here’s my discount code: webeu08gr32. Just follow the instructions on the registration pages and enter that code.

Now, I can’t go to Berlin on the dates that the Expo takes place – I have another commitment – which is why I’m displaying a generic badge in this post rather than one of the spiffy “I’m attending” badges.

So I will have a free conference pass up for grabs.

I’m thinking about running a contest on the FIR podcast with the free pass as the prize. Not sure what the contest will be yet (your ideas most welcome), so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, take a listen to the podcast with Nicole; some very interesting thoughts on blogger outreach.