All Aboard! This month's Social Media Club Austin panel focuses on how new innovations in social media are impacting all aspects of the transportation industry. Whether you travel by car, cab, bus, rail, plane or train, we all have places to go and people to see! Our panelists will share some of the innovative ways they are using social to reach customers and make our journeys easier.
 

In addition to hearing from our panel, attendees at this April meeting will have the opportunity to win a free conference pass to the Word of Mouth Crash Course in Austin on May 10, courtesy of WordofMouth.org.

Even if you don't win, they have two special offers for us. 1) You can use the code SMCATX to get $200 off the conference fee. 2) Or, even better!  Join as a Professional member of Social Media Club or renew your existing membership, and you'll get $350 off the conference fee. This basically gives you a FREE membership AND an additional $50 off. Now that's a sweet deal! Simply join or renew as a professional member between April 20 and May 9 (Redeem by emailing your membership payment receipt to editor@wordofmouth.org to get a special code.)

The crash course includes 12 how-to classes, 12 case studies, 6 authors, and keynote from former Southwest Airlines President Colleen Barrett. Learn from brands like Dell, Discovery Communications, Threadless, Maker's Mark, Rackspace, Noodles & Company, Costco, Movember, Domino's, and Boeing.

Panel Lineup:

MODERATOR: Elizabeth Quintanilla (@equintanilla)

Elizabeth is a Marketing Gunslinger, Business Detective, collaborator, consultant, and speaker who focuses on understanding the customer perspective. She founded EQ Consultants Group, LLC and consults on a variety of topics, which include web technologies and strategies, social media and business, product management and marketing. She has helped her clients with market research, identifying and gathering stakeholders with their inputs, developing messaging and social channel strategies, and understanding the impact of emerging business trends and their implications for her customers. Additionally, she enjoys coaching small businesses through their marketing concerns and speaking at various events. Elizabeth actively serves as a City of Austin Commissioner on the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission. Previously, Elizabeth has volunteered as a Board Member of ProductCamp Austin and a Social Media Ambassador for the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GAHCC).

Chris Nielsen (@CapitolCruisers)

Chris Nielsen is CEO of Electric Cab. As a longtime resident of Austin since 1996, Chris saw the need for green transportation. From this need Chris created Electric Cab of Austin. Electric Cab is a 100% green transportation option for the last mile of transportation downtown Austin. As Electric Cab is franchising and expanding, Chris remains true to his passions. He enjoys helping others in various ways including providing zero emission transportation to the community in East Austin and patrons of the Downtown entertainment district. Chris also attends meetings of various community action groups and gets involved with advocacy networks providing transportation and logistical support as well as assisting in the planning and promotion of local events. Chris started Capital Cruisers in 2008, a business using low-speed vehicles as taxis in the downtown area. Capital Cruisers is now Electric Cab of Austin, soon to be Electric Cab of your city. He studied Government and Anthropology at Texas State University.

Erica McKewen (@emckewen)

Erica is interim communications manager for Capital Metro, where she’s responsible for public, media and employee communications. She helped Capital Metro join the social space in 2008 with the creation of its first blog, and spent the next two years expanding Capital Metro’s social presence, developing policy, and generally building internal support and awareness of the incredible potential that social media holds for the transit agency. On the horizon? Integration of the customer service call center functions and social media. Erica has 14 years of public relations experience. When she’s not evangelizing transit, you can find Erica in the garden or on the dance floor.

Joseph Kopser (@GoingMyWayLLC)

Joseph is Co-Founder and CEO at GoingMyWay LLC. GoingMyWay, a smartphone App that will be coming out later this year, will integrate social media into the transportation business. GoingMyWay is working directly with Electric Cab, CapMetro, Car2Go and a few other options to fully integrate a ride-share app that will reach all segments of travellers as long as they have a smartphone, including a tool to find a ride. Previously Joseph served in the military as a West Point Aerospace Engineer, Career Army Officer and Iraq Veteran. He is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School and is a Strauss Center Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

RSVP ON OUR EVENTBRITE PAGE HERE.

A special thanks to our sponsors: AT&T, Capital Metro and Austin's Pizza