BlogWell is going to be making a stop in Cincinnati on April 7, 2010 and Cincinnati Social Media will be partnering for the festivities.  If you aren’t familiar with BlogWell, it is a great event put on across the country by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council.    As they describe it:

Duke Energy, AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Tyson, Dell, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, and Rogers Communications share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal.Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours for $250.

With this great event coming to town, Cincinnati Social Media is hosting a Tweet Up the night before Blogwell Cincinnati. We’ll have details soon, but all speakers and attendees are invited to attend and get a jump start on the networking.   And equally exciting, members of Cincinnati Social Media are going to get a special offer for 20 percent discount off admission to BlogWell Cincinnati. If you’re not a member of #CincySM, head over to our LinkedIn Group to sign up. You’ll find the discount code in the Discussions section of the group.

At the 2010 DICE Summit, Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, gave a stellar presentation on how the world of game development is transforming popular culture.  As Jesse states in the presentation, games have “crept out and they are going everywhere.”  My favorite quote on this trend is his explanation of geo-caching:  “Because it’s cooler to go walking in the woods if there is a treasure chest at the end.”

The transformation of gaming from a niche audience to an influencer of popular culture is something that should be on the radar of every Brand Marketer.  The below embedded video is a great place to start in learning why.

Read more: http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation#ixzz0gwDevhbm

It’s not rocket science but I love this graphic that shows how Social Media will amplify great content.  As more companies realize that “brands = publishers“, this is important thing to keep in mind.  The key is making your content easily sharable, using great enablers such as Share This and the Digg Widget.

Tod Sacerdoti, CEO of BrightRoll, sent me a note today about a new presentation his company just released that details why marketers should about attention to the online video advertising market.  Called “POV: Point of Video“, it includes some great stats such as:

  • Video is larger than Search (33 billion video views vs 15 billion searches)
  • Online Video Advertising will be a $4 billion dollar market in less than 4 years
  • Almost 178MM unique users watch online video each month in the US

Definitely a worthwhile presentation for anyone thinking about online advertising.  Plus Tod deserves credit for actually sending the email himself instead of relying on a PR agency to do his dirty work.  That wins big points in my book.

The full presentation is embedded below for RSS readers.

It has been awhile since I posted a presentation up on Hard Knox Life.  Luckily my friend Kevin Dugan is helping me put an end to that drought with this great presentation on the state of media relations in regards to the impact of social media.   Provocatively called “Hack vs Flack“, I wish I had a chance to see him present this in person.

Hack vs. Flack…a social media point/counterpoint