What’s up with October? I don’t attend any conferences since South by Southwest Interactive in March and now, all of a sudden, I’m going to three in the month of October. I’ve already mentioned that I’ll be attending Blog World Expo (Las Vegas, October 15-17) and Social Media Business Forum (Durham, NC, October 23). Now, I’ll also be attending IZEAFest in Orlando from October 1-4.

It’s a single track conference with a solid lineup of speakers including Chris Brogan, Wendy Piersall and others. The last day of the conference is a day at SeaWorld, as well. Coupled with the friends in attendance, it should be a fun experience. I managed to win a pass from Elizabeth Edwards of Table for Five, so a big thank you to her.

If you’re planning to attend and would like to meet up, please let me know. I’ll see you there!

Shortly after I get back from Blog World Expo 2009, I’ll be heading to Durham, North Carolina for the Social Media Business Forum at the North Carolina Central University School of Education. It’s being organized by Kipp Bodnar of Howard, Merrell & Partners, Wayne Sutton of OurHashtag, Ryan Boyles of IBM and Jeff Cohen of OurHashtag.

My specific presentation(s) are not yet set, but the speaking lineup looks really cool and includes people like Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer, Wayne, Kipp, Jason Keath of Social Fresh, Angela Benton of BlackWeb20.com, Laurie Smithwick of kirtsy and others.

If you’re interested in attending, the early bird registration of $125 runs through September 18. After that, it’ll be $250. I look forward to seeing you there.

It’s that time of the year again! The SXSW 2010 PanelPicker has opened and, with it, 2,219 proposals are up for consideration for the Interactive portion of the conference. I am on 7 (yes, feel free to giggle) of these.

Online voting accounts for 30% of the decision making process (30% goes to the SXSW staff and 40% to an advisory board). Anyone can vote and registration is required. I would appreciate any and all consideration and, if you feel any of my sessions are worthy, your vote. I have spoken at South by Southwest twice, but both were solo book based presentations. I’ve never been on a panel or done a normal solo presentation. I’m hoping this is the year I can break in, with your help and I appreciate your support.

Here are the proposed sessions that I am a part of, along with a description and my fellow panelists on each (click on the title to vote):

Back in June, I mentioned how I had submitted or was included in a few proposals for Blog World Expo 2009. Today, they released the schedule and I’m happy to say that I will be speaking at the even (I’ll be doing a book signing for “Managing Online Forums,” as well, but that is not yet scheduled).

On Friday, October 16 at 5 PM in Room 288, I’ll be participating in the “Social Media: What’s Not to Like” panel, which also features Amber Naslund; Director of Community at Radian6 and blogger at Altitude Branding, Wayne Sutton; Partner at OurHashtag and blogger at SocialWayne.com and Robert Scoble; Managing Director at Building43.com at Rackspace and blogger at Scobleizer.

Here is the description we came up with: We love social media. It’s helped us meet new people, to further our careers and even to speak at this conference. But, that doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses, either. There are tactics and social trends that, frankly, worry us because we want social media to grow and for more people and companies to participate.

Beyond just worrying us, though, they can hurt your brand, scare people away and damage your relationships. From the mob mentality to self entitlement, we’ll tackle some of the most troubling and how you can avoid them.

And the takeaway: A better understanding of the social media landscape and how to participate with respect toward others, while also having a beneficial experience, both personally and professionally.

A big thank you to everyone at Blog World (Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin, Jim Turner, others) for having me. It should be a ton of fun. If you want to come, you can use the discount code IFROGGYVIP for 20% off. I look forward to seeing you there.

As you may have noticed, the blog has been a little quiet for a couple of weeks. I took a vacation! I’m sorry I didn’t provide more notice. Truthfully, I didn’t expect to be so out of touch. But, I’m back now and I’m tackling the monumental pile of messages and tasks sitting in front of me. Hopefully, I’ll be back on top of things this week.

It’s good to get away (from your online communities) some times and that’s something I’ll be writing more about soon.

Before I hit publish on this post, I wanted to highlight a couple of posts that were made on blogs I monitor, in the time that I was away. First, I enjoyed “Community Netiquette: How to Avoid Stepping on Virtual Toes,” by Jake McKee. It talks about “the basics of conducting yourself properly when engaging on behalf of an organization within the existing Social Web,” something that I certainly enjoy talking about. It’s a wonderful article.

The other post is “The Power of New” by Jason Falls. Jason (like Jake) is a friend and has made the leap from corporate job to business owner. He’s a great guy and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish him the best in this endeavor.

From November 18, 2005 through January 20, 2007, I hosted The Community Admin Show, a podcast about random community management related issues. I tackled all sorts of issues, talked about resources and even had some fun features, like what we can learn from Jack Bauer and Dr. Gregory House about community management.

Another great part of the show was the interviews. I talked to experienced community administrators and other smart people, including Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, Cynthia Mosher of MotheringDotCommunity, Jeremy Wright of b5media, Pete Murray of ScubaBoard, Jonathan Bailey of PlagiarismToday and others.

As the podcast site was taken offline a while back, the shows no longer appear to be online for listening. So, I thought that I might start posting them here, episode by episode. Is that something that anyone would want? Please let me know. Thanks.

In addition to the Facebook fan page, I’ve just added ManagingCommunities.com to the NetworkedBlogs Facebook application, making it possible to receive notifications of new posts at ManagingCommunities.com through Facebook. If you are a Facebook user, please consider a subscription.

Thank you for reading and for your support.

I would really like to do more mailbag type features here on ManagingCommunities.com. I’d like to answer your questions in a post, provide you with some information that you are looking for and link to your site in the process (if you have one – totally optional). Anonymous questions are welcomed, as well, if you’d rather I didn’t include your info in a post.

So, if you have something you’d like answered, please let me know.

I’ll be attending the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2009 conference in Austin, Texas, from March 13 through March 17. So, things will be a little quiet around here at this time. I appreciate your patience.

On Saturday, March 14 at 12:30 PM, I’ll be speaking, giving a presentation called, “The Art of Responding to Feedback From Your Community.” After the presentation, at 12:55 PM, I’ll be doing a book signing for 20 minutes at the SXSW Bookstore. I’ll probably sign whatever stock they have, so if you miss the signing and still would like a signed copy, please stop by the bookstore!

But, even if you can’t make it to my session and would like to meet up, just let me know. Probably the best way, after March 11,  is to send me an @ reply on Twitter. My Twitter name is patrickokeefe. I look forward to seeing you there!

I did some testing today and I am hoping to stream my SXSW Interactive 2009 talk, “The Art of Responding to Feedback from Your Community,” live online via Ustream.tv. The presentation starts at 1:30 PM ET, but I’ll probably try to start the stream a little earlier. You will hopefully be able it on the ManagingCommunities.com Show channel.

Please keep it in mind that it may not be possible. It will depend on the wifi connectivity as well as the available bandwidth. Fingers crossed, we’ll make it happen! Even if I am not able to pull it off, I will still be taking video that will be posted online at some point.