We are just 4 weeks away from the Online Community Unconference in Mountain View. We still have open seats, and I can honestly say that this will likely be one of the best events about online community and social media this year. The price to value equation is hard to argue with as well – only $195 for a full day of sessions, lunch and networking for what is likely to b 300+ online community and social media professionals. You can register at: http://ocu2009-ocr515.eventbrite.com

Who is coming?
There is a really diverse mix of organizations coming, including: Autodesk, Cisco, CollabNet, Executive Networks, Get Satisfaction, Google, Intel, Intuit, LinkedIn, Microsoft, NetApp, Twine.com. Walmart.com and Yahoo! (to name just a few).

So, how does this work?
The premise of our Unconference series is that the best source of information on the topic of online communities is the community of practitioners building and managing online communities. The Unconference format provides a venue for folks to lead discussions about topics they are most passionate and knowledgeable about. At the end of the day, attendees walk away with new ideas, perspectives, and a long list of new professional connections.

One of the most amazing parts of the day at our Unconferences is the topic selection process. We are fortunate to have Kaliya Hamlin guiding us through the process again in Mountain View.

The topic selection process starts the Unconference, when any attendee who wishes can come forward, announce a topic, and claim one of the 50+ open slots on the grid.

Within 35-40 minutes the grid fills up with topics and the first session kicks off. It’s really inspiring to hear all of the topics that are suggested, and to see so many great ideas come together on the grid.

If you would like to see an example of the great content that comes out of an Unconference, please check out the Online Community Unconference 08 wiki. I would encourage you to spend some time looking through the session notes, as there is a lot of great content.

Potential Sessions Include:
• Online Community Metrics
• Enterprise Communities: Opportunities and Responsibilities for organizations that want to host “their” part of the conversation
• Myths of the Online Community World – What we’ve learned in the past ten years
• The evolving role of Community Manager
• Ideas: Are they a first class citizen in your community? Why not?
• Lessons Learned: Pitfalls and Best Practices in Community-Building
• For Beginners: Laying a Solid Foundation for the Best Community
• Security: Best Practices for Community Moderation
• What to look for when hiring community staff
• Leveraging the “Wisdom of the Crowd” to Energize Your Community
• The Role of Online Facilitators and Champions in Community-Building
• The Importance of Building Collaborative Ecosystems for Community-Building
• Marketing your online community
• Best Practices for Inviting the “Right” Type of People Into the Community
• Building Community in a Support (Q&A) Forum
• What Defines Success in YOUR Community?
• Communities of Collaborative Development
• Engaging community members – how do you get people to participate and not just lurk
• Searching for a white-label community platform vendor
• How to sell community to marketers
• Ideas for making community engagement take off
• How to grow competitive communities
• Making a product roadmap for a young community: how do you pick what to do?
• How to grow leaders within a community
• How to deal with community trolls
• Balance between destination and distributed community
• Cross-organizations collaboration and tools to “grow together” vs compete
• What NOT to do in social media for social ventures: a question of focus & impact
• “Mission aligned Twittering” – balancing resource constraints and breaking silos
• The value of contests and voting versus issue fatigue and micro-spam

Again – we still have seats available for the Unconference. If you would like a seat, register here.

A note to potential sponsors
We have sponsorship opportunities for the Unconference starting at $1000. If you would like to get your product or brand in front of 300+ online community and social media pros, many of whom make or signigantly influence purchase decisions, please contact me – bjohnston@forumone.com .

A note to those looking for work
If you are an online community pro that has recently been laid off and you still want to attend the event, please let me know and we will do our best to work with you.