I’d want to attend Monitoring Social Media 09 in London on November 17th, 2009 – will try to  make it happen, one way or another, as the conference has the right focus and mix of speakers and topics – it appears to be a one day meeting to survey  progress in Social Media Listening platforms.

Strangely enough, you’d think a conference like this would have happened in New York, there are so many conferences here – but many of those I’ve attended (go to a lot of conferences) seem to be stuck on trying to tell people about Social Media and how to start campaigns – and maybe, some simple ideas about how to measure them – Monitoring Social Media 09, is talking about the tools of the trade – Radian6, BuzzMetrics, Techrigy, Collective Intellect, etc, etc …. and how the tools/platforms deal with things like sentiment analysis – it sounds like I should be there, perhaps, even speaking.

So …. we’ll work on that …. and I’ll write them … today, now, in fact -and propose to be a speaker, or press.

Here’s the program -(at this point, I have absolutely no affiliation with Monitoring Social Media 09, and no discount code to offer) – I’m simply telling my readers about a conference some of “us”  in the Analytics and Social Media Community ought to support, and if we can, attend.   Here’s some more details …

What we’ll be discussing:

• Social Media Monitoring: The state of the industry – past, present and future.
• Sentiment Analysis: automation vs human intervention.
  
• Influence: Knowing who matters most
• Real-time Monitoring: The best tools & techniques for instant results.
• Case studies from leading brands and campaigns.
• The Truth About Data: sources, selection and anomalies.
• Monitoring Technology: The latest tools & techniques.

Who’s speaking?

Speakers [to date] include:

• Marshall Madson - Director for Digital Strategy, Edelman UK
  
• Neville Hobson - blogger and podcaster, The Hobson & Holtz Report
• Alan Moore - Author, Communities Dominate Brands, Social Media Marketing
  
• Giles Palmer - CEO, BrandWatch
• Paul Alexander - CEO, Beyond Analysis
  
• David Cushman, Director of Social Media, Brando Social
  

Who’s coming?

• PR & Marketing Professionals
• Account Managers
• Directors
• Consultants
• Bloggers and journalists
  

What’s included?

• A full-day conference featuring many of the leading SMM companies
• Live demos
  
• Conference handbook
  
• Lunch and refreshments
• Post-event drinks & networking

I have some friends in London and Devon (including one of the speakers, Alan Moore – who invited me to Cambridge next time I’m in the UK) I’d like to catch up with – and I have  never been to the UK, so I will try to attend, (my “gut” tells me I should attend – and my instincts are usually right) and lend my voice to it – as Monitoring Social Media 09 has the right focus – and perhaps, there hasn’t been a meeting of the minds to compare different platforms with each other.

Maybe one day isn’t enough – If I make it to London, I will certainly stay the better part of a week, or more, that’s for sure.  A Tweetup will happen, of course.  Considering I’m also thinking of attending LeWeb 09 this year, in Paris (that’s not a certainty yet, either) I might be in Europe a few times in the next couple of months – if things go the way I’d like them to.

Also, I’ll be in Minneapolis next month, speaking at MIMA MIGRATE 09 which has some interesting new additions to the program.   I’ll be speaking as part of the Strategy track

Storytelling: Actionable Insight from Analytics
Jennifer Veesenmeyer, Vice President of Analytics, Stratigent (Warrenville, Ill.)
Jason Rapps, Senior Web Analyst, Motorola (Tamarac, Fla.)
Joel Wright, Dell (Round Rock, Texas)
Marshall Sponder, Founder, Webmetricsguru.com

I spent 5 years of my life in Minneapolis (1981-86) but haven’t been back to the Twin Cities since, it’ll be interesting to return for a few days, next month.  BTW, Seth Godin is keynoting this conference.

By the way, in case any of my readers haven’t figured it out, I’ve been freelancing doing  Social Media Measurement for Public Relations Agency Porter Novelli since leaving Monster.com a few months ago – figuring out Social Media Metrics for PR is an interesting place to be …  I’m excited.

I decided not to make a formal announcement

I’m  at Porter Novelli supporting @StephanieAgreata, known as Internet Geek Girl and a team she is forming – around  Social Media for PR; Metrics  is a hot topic, and I’m right in the middle of it!   How to show a client their PR campaign worked?

You’ll see more posts that focus on making PR work, measuring Social Media for PR because that’s what I’m working on right now.

On a related note, I’ve been in recent contact with Philip Sheldrake about the Influence Scorecard meeting he talked about having in New York next month; I first heard about it through K.D. Paine (@kdpaine); it appears that’s going to still happen, but the date is not yet clear – and to be honest, Monitoring Social Media 09 and Influence Scorecard meeting seem to me, as if they should be sister conferences – Monitoring Social Media 09 deals with getting the technology in place while Philip Sheldrake’s idea of a conference takes it to the next level with a meeting about what kind of Marketing Dashboard for Influencers we want to build.

Interesting times – and I’m very much looking forward to the rest of this year and the conferences coming up – particularly for Social Media.