New Media Academic Summit 2008

As Edelman’s President and CEO Richard Edelman says,

This year’s program has 11 in-depth sessions addressing how new media affects corporate reputation; the traditional media industry; the regulated health industry; how NGOs engage their stakeholders: and the US Presidential Election, among other topics. Each session features a panel of noted experts and a moderator … who will facilitate an open discussion between you and the speakers. Recognizing your own expertise on the issues presented, we intend to make the program to be as interactive as possible, so please feel free to ask questions, and make comments.

Though I am definitely looking forward to learning from the guest speakers at the sessions, I’m looking forward even more to the face-to-face networking that we’ll have with practitioners and educators. There’s even an informal meetup planned with one of my favorite bloggers and podcasters, Neville Hobson of For Immediate Release fame. It will be interesting meeting him in person, after the numerous hours I’ve spent listening to him and Shel Holtz during my 100-mile-a-day commutes.

• Brands: Engaging Customers Through Social Networks
• NGOs: Advancing Issues and Galvanizing Support Using New Media
• Global Perspective: How New Media is Changing Communications Outside of the U.S.
• Corporate Reputation: How Companies are Using New Media to Protect Reputation: The Role of Wikipedia; Employees as Spokespeople; Search Engine Optimization
• Traditional Media Companies & the Media Industry: How are Traditional Media Companies Changing their Business Model to Adapt to Social Media
• Health Industry: How Regulated Industries are Using New Media to Connect and Educate Consumers and Create Communities
• Elections 2008: Best and Worst Uses of New Media during the U.S. Presidential Race
• Monitoring and Measuring Conversations: Defining Convergence between Traditional and Social Media, Best Practices in Measurement
• Teaching Social Media: Best Practices
• New Media in 2012: What jobs will the class of 2012 have?

As the Summit proceeds, expect to see my thoughts and observations at Twitter. If we’ll be live blogging the Summit, I’ll update this posting to point to the live blog site.

PS: Thank you, Edelman & PR Week, for hosting this Summit at no cost to the educators.