photo credit: BuzzShift

Last year at BlogWorld & New Media Expo (this year’s iteration is October 14-16 in Las Vegas and I’ll be there), I led a panel titled “Social Media: The Bad and the Ugly” with Amber Naslund, Robert Scoble and Wayne Sutton.

On the panel, we talked about trends in social media that concerned us and that we felt could harm the growth of the medium as a whole. These are also trends that could harm your brand, scare people away and damage your reputation. We highlighted six trends in all.

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In May, I spoke in Raleigh, North Carolina at WordCamp Raleigh and led a session titled “Building Community Around Your WordPress Blog.” That talk became the basis of the three part series I did here on building community around your blog.

The SitePoint Podcast, which I co-host, held it’s first ever live show at the conference. It all went really well and was a great experience. A big thank you to everyone who made it so.

If you were looking for or are interested in reading the full recap, it has now been posted over my on personal blog.

photo credit: Hôtel Concorde Berlin

I was curious about this, so I thought I’d ask: what do you think are the most important events for online community professionals?

And I want to qualify that question a bit by saying I mean those who manage structured or hosted, on site communities, as opposed to those who maintain a Twitter profile, Facebook page, use social media listening tools, etc. People who do that (myself included) are managing a community, as well, just in a different context and I want to try to focus the answers down a bit.

Why am I asking? For one, I want to know and I’m curious. For two, I’m booking speaking engagements for this fall and winter (and 2011) and want to know where I should be. Please leave any and all answers in the comments. I appreciate it.

I have been busy booking speaking engagements for the late summer, fall and early winter and as some of them are coming up, I thought that I would share all of them with you, in case you have any opportunity to attend. I hope to have even more to announce soon.

Modern Media Man Summit (Atlanta, September 9-11)

I’ll be delivering a solo presentation, “Jack Bauer’s Guide to Managing Online Communities,” at Modern Media Man Summit at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia on September 10. The conference runs from September 9-11.

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For the second consecutive year, I’ve partnered with BlogWorld & New Media Expo to promote the event on the iFroggy Network.

I have attended and spoke at the conference for the last two years and I believe it to be one of the most beneficial blogging, social and new media based conferences that exists today. I’m glad to be back this year to attend and speak once again as the event moves to Mandalay Bay (where I hope to be staying).

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photo credit: bionicteaching

I was just pondering what I wanted to write about today and I thought it’d be a good idea to ask you: what would you like me to write about? What would you like my thoughts on? What can I help with? I want to know.

Please let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading ManagingCommunities.com and for considering this question.

I’ve been working on booking speaking engagements for 2010. I’m talking to a number of different parties and hope to have more announced soon, but as I have a pair that are fast approaching, I thought I’d mention them as I always like to meet people at the events I attend. Not only will I speak at the events below, but I will be attending them each and every day.

On March 13 at 12:30 PM CT, I will be co-leading a Core Conversation at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive with Twanna A. Hines. It’s called “Shameless Self Promotion Without Looking Like an @#$%^&!” Here’s the short description:

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As part of my work on my new about and speaking pages, I wanted to create a profile on SlideShare and upload all of my past presentations, making it easier to share them and share the style of my slides.

Just in case anyone is interested, my username is iFroggy. Here is one of the presentations that I have uploaded, from one of the panels that I was on at Social Media Business Forum 2009:

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photo credit: BuzzShift

For what seems like forever, I’ve been working on my just launched about and speaking pages. Probably the biggest reason I did it was because I’m hoping to speak more. Since finishing “Managing Online Forums,” I’ve done 11 engagements at 7 different events.

While this doesn’t make me a veteran, it means I’m not just starting out, either. So, I’m hoping to get more serious about speaking and I would like it to become a slightly larger part of my life.

When I speak, I tend to focus on the value of social media and online community to individuals and businesses and how best to participate in these areas as a manager/owner, marketer or user/member.

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photo credit: kiewic

It was two years ago today that I launched ManagingCommunities.com. Once you reach a certain age, time just seems to fly by!

In light of this milestone, I wanted to take a moment to thank all my loyal readers. I appreciate your support and your contributions. I hope that I’ve provided value to you through useful information and advice. I look forward to seeing what this next year brings.

Thank you for reading ManagingCommunities.com.