We’re geaing up for our first event of 2010, the Online Community Unconference East, on February 10th in New York City. We expect 250-300 online community and social media professionals to attend — making this our largest east coast unconference yet! Additionally, we expect to have 40-50 collaborative sessions.
Current attendees include: Cisco, IBM, The Humane Society of the United States, Answers Corporation, Medidata Solutions, Consumer Reports, Knowledge Alliance, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, CafeMom, CFA Institute, Impact Interactions, Optaros and more.
To register at the early bird rate of $145 ($195 after 1/10 edited to correct date) please go here: http://ocue2010-ocr1203.eventbrite.com
For an excellent summary of last years Online Community Unconference East, check out this Huffington Post article, An “Unconference” for Online Communities.
Last year’s Unconference featured approximately 40 sessions on key topics including:
Best Practices – Busting the myths of online community management
The idea of the session was to drive discussions regarding many of the common ideas around community that have been published/promoted/blogged about as if they were absolutes rather than the experiences of a few.
Twitter for Business
A discussion of how different companies are using Twitter.
Best Practices for Content
Strategies and best practices for company and user-generated content.
Social Networking in the Enterprise
A discussion around how companies are using social networks and social media.
The Online Community Unconference East is being held at the Digital Sandbox in NYC, which is centrally located in the financial district and provides plenty of breakout space to support a full day of learning and fun. Lunch and snacks and WiFi will be provided.
You can see pictures from the 2009 Unconference here
If you currently drive the community or social media strategy for your organization, and you are in (or will be in) the NYC area on 2/10, please join us for a highly energetic day of learning and collaborating.
We have several sponsor opportunities open for this Unconference. If you are looking for a cost-effective way to reach NYC community and social media professionals, please contact me about our sponsorship options.
We’re just under four weeks away from our 8th annual Online Community Summit in Sonoma, CA, on October 8-9. We have a fantastic speaker and session line-up that I’ve detailed out below. 
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. 
One of the most exciting things about the Unconference format is the fact that there are so many sessions running simultaneously. This can also be on of the most frustrating, as it is impossible to be everywhere at once. Thankfully, participants generally try to take thorought notes of their sessions to share back with the group.
