Back in the dark days of winter, we started planting seeds that that will bear new fruit beginning May 30 at the 2012 SoMeBizLife Conference, or “Social: Media, Business & Life Conference,” at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA.

In my closing comments at the 2011 SoMeBizLife Conference I emphasized the power of relationships. I shared that if we didn’t build stronger business and personal relationships based on what we experienced with each other during that event then it was all a waste of time. I can assure it was not a waste of time!

Social business relationships, whether started at an event and nurtured through ongoing contact in social media, or started in social media and further developed in person can be very powerful. In fact, social media can supercharge your business and professional relationships. The opportunity for everyone at the 2012 SoMeBizLife Conference – and the conference theme is: “Discover Your Social Super Powers.”

For this year’s conference, I’ve had the opportunity to work with six tremendous professionals – and really nice people – Cari Sultanik, Don Lafferty, Kim Graziano, Mike Krupit, Rick Toone and Steve Levine who are serving as track moderators who have helped me put together this fantastic lineup of speakers and topics. While there are still a couple of speakers unconfirmed for this year’s program, the program is largely complete and totally wonderful, thanks to the moderators and speakers.

The following is a narrative of the conference.

At 7:15 a.m., doors will open for registration and networking with continental breakfast sponsored by Elite Sponsor BrickSimple. This is a great time to get to know your fellow participants before the program kicks off.

At 8:30 a.m., the program will open with Mike Maney, head of influencer management at Alcatel-Lucent and a Bucks County resident, will share his personal experiences of social networking both online and in person in the local community, throughout the U.S. and around the globe. Following Mike’s presentation, local journalist and unstoppable social media sharer Christina Kristofic will interview local author and speaker Jim Donovan and social media, public professional Amanda Walsh on the ongoing evolution of traditional and social media. At the end of this session, track moderators will give 1-minute overviews of their tracks, then we’ll take a brief break as everyone heads to their choice of breakout sessions.

At 9:45 a.m., the six tracks will kick off with their first sessions. Participants are welcome to attend whichever sessions they choose and will not be required to stay in any one particular track during the day. The kickoff sessions will be as follows:

Fundamentals of Social Media: Rod Hughes of Oxford Communications will provide an overview of social media for business, including examples of social media is helping businesses achieve better results.

Business to Consumer Social Media: Don Lafferty, a full-time social media consultant and trainer, will present “Connecting with Your Customers through Social Media.” This session will provide an update of the social media landscape, and offers insight into the customer behaviors that all businesses need to consider when setting out to create a social media strategy.

Business to Business Social Media: Marketing researcher and strategist Steve Levine and new media manager Kara Hinrichs will share their diverse perspectives on B2B social media – large vs. small, corporate vs non-corporate, and national vs local. Participants will learn how understanding customers and their demographics, then how applying this intelligence will benefit business relationships.

Social Media for NonProfits: Karen Graziano of Villanova University will moderate a panel of three nonprofit professionals who are successfully using social media to serve their nonprofit missions. Beth Baker of Deserving Décor, Larry Brown of Doylestown Fire Company, and Jamie Haddon of Bucks County United Way will share practical steps and best practices for building and growing relationships using social media tools including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blogging.

Social Media Professionals: Jessica Cohen, media researcher, strategist, ghost blogger and founder of foundthemarbles.com will moderate a panel of social media professionals, “Yes, You Can Make a Living as a Social Media Professional.” Panelists are independent social media consultant and copywriter Jen Phillips April of Philly Social Media Maven, social media consultant and trainer Kristin Kane of Kane Partners, and social media consultant Eric Lepping of Sherpa Lab.

Social Media Entrepreneurship: Veteran entrepreneur Mike Krupit who is the general manager of business incubator Novotorium, will lead track participants through a review of several entrepreneurial social media businesses and discuss what it takes to grow a business from idea to successful business.

At 10:45, the second session of breakout tracks will begin with participants having the option to attend any session of interest:

Fundamentals of Social Media: Cari Sultanik, director of interactive account management at FulcrumTech, will provide an overview of Facebook for business. Participants will see examples of powerful uses of Facebook and learn best practices for using Facebook for their own businesses.

Business to Consumer Social Media: Jen Cohen, a dynamic speaker, presenter, professor and blogger who focuses on marketing, social media and relationship building through meaningful engagements, will present “B2C Facebook – Get the 800 Pound Social Media Gorilla Working for You.” This session is intended to help people already familiar with Facebook learn how to take the next steps with Facebook.

Business to Business Social Media: Mitch Lapides, president of Fulcrumtech, will help particpants better understand the connection between social media, website content, lead development and ongoing email marketing.

Social Media for Nonprofits: Kelcey Meadows-Lucas, volunteer fundraising chair for the Friends of Doylestown Dog Park and Director of Philanthropy for The Humane Society of the United States and Joe Simek, founder of Sano Agency, will share their experiences of using social media for the Doylestown Dog Park.

Social Media Professionals: Mike Rubillo of AbsorbtheNet and Mike Thomas of TrestlePoint Health Care Marketing Consultants, will share best practices for listening in social media, with approaches ranging from Google Alerts to new listening tools that are just now coming to market in their presentation “Pushing the Limits to Listen Intently in Social Media.”

Social Media Entrepreneurship: Social media startups will demo their products and discuss their opportunities and challenges.

At 11:45 a.m., all participants will break for lunch on their own. Participants may bring their own lunches or purchase lunch in the Delaware Valley College café adjacent to the meeting rooms. Lunch is not provided with conference registration.

At 12:30 p,m,, Lynette Young a social media speaker, trainer and coach of Purple Stripe Productions, will present a special session on Google+. While many people have not yet started to take advantage of Google+, Lynette has now connected with 1 million people on Google+, placing her in the very top percentile of all users of this new platform.

At 1:15 p.m., the third session of breakout tracks will begin with participants having the option to attend any session of interest:

Fundamentals of Social Media: Participants who are newer to social media will have the opportunity to learn more about Linkedin and how they can use it for career and business development.

Social Media for Consumers: Blogger and social media consultant Cecily Kellogg will present “B2C Content Creation – Create Compelling Content without Busting Your Budget.” Those who know Cecily will tell you that participants are in for a candid, no holds barred presentation of what it takes to create great content for social media.

Social Media for Business: Pinterest is one of the hottest social media platforms today. While many people consider it to be a business to consumer platform, in this session we’ll explore some interesting business to business uses of Pinterest as well.

Social Media for Nonprofits: Marlo DelSordo, director of marketing and communications for Philabundance, will share what her organization is doing with social media and how they integrate traditional and social media to meet their organizational mission.

Social Media Professionals: Bucks County Attorney Catherine Cavella will provide an overview of intellectual property issues in social media in her presentation “An Intellectual Property Lawyer’s Perspective on Social Media: What Your Mother Didn’t Know to Tell You.”

Social Media Entrepreneurship: Social media startups will demo their products and discuss their opportunities and challenges.

At 2:15 p.m., the fourth session of breakout tracks will begin with participants having the option to attend any session of interest:

Fundamentals of Social Media: Consummate networker Jamie Broderick, founder of Network Now, will share how she blends face-to-face and online social networking to build powerful personal and professional relationships.

Business to Consumer Social Media: Neal Wiser, a digital marketing and social media professional, will speak on the topic “Integrating Social Media with Traditional Marketing Tools and Mobile Apps.” In this session we’ll demonstrate some examples of using geo-location technologies and social media channels to drive and reward customer loyalty through check-ins.

Business to Business Social Media: Matt Levy, a career coach who was one of the most popular speakers at the 2011 SoMeBizLife Conference, will present “How to Manage Your Career Using Social Media.” Matt will offer practical ways that including social media in job search and career management is vital.

Social Media for Nonprofits: Hunter Boyle of AWeber, will present “Brother, Can You Spare Some Real-Time Social Change?” This session will explore how social media is being used for social change — and how it could be doing even more. He’ll share successful real-time web projects and models, and spark ideas for social good in a few areas – social services, arts and humanities, and education – where underserved populations could greatly benefit from fresh thinking.

Social Media Professionals: Professional freelance writer Cookie Biggs, independent marketing and public relations professional Maria Martino Evans, and video expert Rick Toone will participate in a panel discussion, “Making the May-September Relationship of New Media-Old Media Work for Your Clients.”  As veteran content producers our three panelist have worked their way through the ranks and worked in every content format you can think of. The guiding principal of knowing your audience still prevails but creating content, while easier today than in years past still leaves us working til midnight to reach each market correctly. Come listen to the reasons content matters and how content distribution has changed from Edison to YouTube.

Social Media Entrepreneurship: Business incubator Novotorium leader Mike Krupit along with design and usability director Maria Collins and technical director Alberto Janza will hold a fishbowl session with social media entrepreneurs who would like to receive authentic and constructive feedback on their products in their current state. Participants will all learn as insights regarding new products are shared.

At 3:15 p,m., participants will leave their track sessions and return to the main room for a brief networking break before the closing session.

At 3:30 p.m., New York Times Best Selling Author and Bucks County Resident Jonathan Maberry, will discuss the art of storytelling and audience engagement in media ranging from novels to comic books, to Facebook and twitter. Jonathan writes a on a range of topics including zombies, terrorism, international intrigue and tales of super heroes. He is also an avid participant in social media, directly engaging his fans every day.

At 4:30 p.m., the SoMeBizLife Conference will adjourn.

At 5:00 p.m., participants are invited by Maxwells on Main, @MOMsDoylestown on Twitter, to join with fellow participants at an after party on Main Street in Doylestown. Happy Hour special drinks and food will be available for purchase.
Registration is now open for the 2012 SoMeBizLife Conference to be held May 30 at DelVal College in Doylestown. Register before May 1 for $49, will save $2 0 off the regular $69.

I hope you’ll join us at the conference!

— Chuck Hall, SoMeBizLife Producer