As we’re about to head into the second quarter of 2006, I’m reviewing my schedule for conferences and workshops I’m involved with as a speaker/presenter.

I invest a great deal in time and commitment to spreading the word about the value of social media in organizational communication by getting involved with a range of conferences, seminars and other professional development events around Europe and in the USA. So far this year, I’ve been part of two successful events – the New Communications Forum in California earlier this month, and Delivering The New PR conference in Manchester in February.

More to come – I’m very pleased to be actively involved in presenting and speaking at these events during the coming three months:

• This one’s immediate: later today in fact – my podcasting partner Shel Holtz and I are the featured keynote speakers at Where Content and Technology Meet, a 2-day conference organized by the IAOC taking place in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, USA. Shel is physically there and I’ll be participating via Skype and video. We’ll be speaking about “Communicating on the Read-Write Web.” Our session will be audio-recorded and we’ll be making that available as a podcast at For Immediate Release. In June, Shel and I reverse our roles at the similar IAOC event taking place in Brussels.
• Enhancing your Intranet with New Technology: How to Make the Most of Social Media. Manchester, UK, 30 March and London, 6 April. For these one-day Melcrum workshops, I’m partnering with intranet expert Dave Wallace where we’ll be helping participants understand how to use technology to enhance their intranets, develop effective new channels and maximize the effect of their internal communication efforts.
• Blogging 4 Business. London, 4 April. At this one-day conference, I’m part of a panel that will discuss that question oft-asked by businesses: “Why Blog?” Together with fellow panelists Guillaume du Gardier, Olivier Creiche and someone from Stormhoek Wines (the South African vin plus ultra of the blogosphere) we’ll be helping set the scene for the overall event, hopefully with some intelligent commentary as well!
• Summit for The Future on Risk. Amsterdam, 3-5 May. Part of a session on corporate governance, political and economic risk, I’m billed as a ‘catalyst trend watcher.’ I’ll be contributing commentary and opinion on social media in the business and communication context.
• Delivering the New PR. London, 12 May. The third one-day conference in the series organized by the University of Sunderland, it’s great to be teaming up once again with Philip Young, Elizabeth Albrycht, Tom Murphy, Stuart Bruce and Chris Rushton to tell the continuing story of RSS, blogs, podcasts and other social media. The last two such conferences in the UK were sell-out events, so book now if you want to be sure of a place.
• IABC 2006 International Conference. Vancouver, Canada, 4-7 June. I’m leading a 3-hour panel-based workshop that will address the topic “Organizational Communication 2.0: The age of social communication.” Likely to be a lively session as it will address themes that are all about disruption and loss of control in communication. Can’t wait! Also for the conference, Shel and I will be producing a series of podcasts for IABC, and I’ll be contributing as a blogger to the brand new conference blog that will be online in early April.

Do let me know if you plan to be at any of these events. Plenty of opportunities for get-togethers.

In the planning pipeline are some other events I’ll be speaking at; info/links will be included in the Speaking Engagements page in this blog.