If you haven't yet seen it, we have a heck of an impressive lineup already for Social Media Club's 1st annual conference and membership meeting happening from November 10-12 in Orlando, FL. While there are still a few more speakers to be announced and we haven't yet published the final schedule, we are excited to say that we have some of the brightest minds in social media coming to share their insights with you.
But, I have been having a problem with the naming of the conference. I have always intended to name our annual conference Social Media University ever since I registered that domain back when we started SMC. But now it seems many people think the name might be for online classes, or even be an actual school/degree instead of a conference. The other problem is that a lot of other people since have created their own programs called social media university, so the 'namespace' is a bit crowded.
So I have reached out to some good friends to get their feedback like Howard Greenstein, Todd Defren, Adam Helweh and Todd Vanhoosear among many others. Through these discussions, Ike Pigott came up with what I think is a good idea for a name with SMU 501 and then I immediately thought we might do SMC 501 (we registered the domains already). But they have their own challenges. For those of you not familiar with the university course registration system, the 501 designation is usually the first level of coursework as a part of a Graduate Degree, or Masters program, as opposed to the 101 designation which is an introductory level. I like it, but I am not sure.
So this is where we turn to you to get your opinion in this poll, and or to share additional name ideas in the comments and vote on the choices below (Social Media University, Social Media Masters, SMU 501 and SMC 501) and help us pick a better name for this very important step in Social Media Club's growth. Beneath the poll I have included some additional background on the conference and links to the current web site.
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For some additional background:
During the conference and our membership meeting, we are broadly talking about social media as a profession, with some emphasis on what we should be doing to improve, protect and enhance "social media" as an industry. This is not going to be your typical conference. The speakers will be diving deep beyond the typical social media 101 sort of material, with a program that will help accelerate your deep understanding of social media as it applies to your organization, and its role in bringing markets together as communities.
John Hagel wil set the stage for the conference as the keynote to kick off the day talking about the findings of his latest book, The Power of Pull and how the big shift is forever transforming our socioeconomic structures and the very notion of 'the firm'. We also have David Meerman Scott, KD Paine, Tara Hunt, Jason Falls and several other great speakers and quite a few opportunities to enjoy the family friendly fun Orlando has to offer while networking with Social Media Club members and supporters from around the world.
Regardless of the name, we hope you join us and encourage you to register now before the price goes up towards the end of August.