The Online Community Summit will be held October 8th & 9th in Sonoma, CA. It is hard to believe that the Online Community Summit is now in it's eight year!

The Summit was originally convened by Jim Cashel of Forum One in October of 2001 as a unique invitation-based event, bringing together thought leaders from business, government, finance, academia and the media, who despite different positions share a keen interest in online group collaboration. Each year we gather a select group of senior online community professionals to discuss topics addressing business strategy, emerging technologies, key trends, as well as many tactical issues during the breakout sessions.

This year, I will be hosting the Summit, along with co-host Joi Podgorny, Head of Community at Mind Candy. Joi is an online community expert with areas of expertise in virtual worlds and online experiences for children.

What makes the summit so special?
In short: the people, the conversations, and the location. The Summit is attracts senior and knowledgeable online community experts from the commercial and non-commercial sectors. Our session format is structured in a very unique way, in that two expert session leads present 30 minutes of prepared comments, followed by a facilitated discussion with the attendees. The location of the Summit is Sonoma, California, a nexus of world class food, wine and leisure. In addition to sampling the best ideas in community and social media, we will be sampling the fruits of Sonoma Valley with outstanding food, wine and socializing on the beautiful ground of Ramekins Culinary Academy and the Sonoma Plaza.


A Few of the session topics:

• Turning to the Crowd: Ideas and Contest Sites


• What You Need to Know About the Mobile Communities Revolution


• Social Marketing & Advertising


• How Online Communities are Reshaping News


• Social “ME”dia: Employees as Brand Advocates

Session leads include:

• Kevin Bertram, Distributive Networks


• Lila King – CNN.com


• Erika Kuhl - Salesforce.com


• Paul Levine, Current Media


• Miles Orkin, America Cancer Society


• Bruce Smith - Answers.com

If you are a senior online community professional interested in participating in the Online Community Summit, and you haven't received an invitation, you may request one by writing me here.

Please note: We restrict attendance of platform and service vendors to those sponsoring the event. IF you would like information about sponsoring, please drop me a note.

Event tag is #ocs2009