There’s still a few good names and companies to announce on the agenda and sponsorship fronts but we thought we’d give you an update as to how Social Media Influence is shaping up.

Bernhard and I have been having a great time shaping panels and working up the themes that our corporate  clients and delegates tell us they are interested in learning more about.

So, here’s how the agenda looks today. Stay tuned as we flesh it out more and add more great speakers.

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE AGENDA – JUNE 4, CAVENDISH CONFERENCE CENTRE, LONDON

9.00 – 9.30

INTRODUCTION – THE NEW INFLUENCERS

Matthew Yeomans and Bernhard Warner, Directors of Custom Communication

The media game has changed and a new breed
of activists, consumer advocates, opinionated customers and an
increasingly influential online trade press are influencing your brand.
Here’s how to listen to the most influential new voices talking about
your company.

9.30 AM – 10.15AM

MORNING KEYNOTE

Antony Mayfield – Head of media and content iCrossing UK

COFFEE – 30 MINS

10.45AM – 11.30AM

PUTTING THE PUBLIC BACK INTO PUBLIC RELATIONS

 The role of PR isn’t about managing and
handling a group of key journalists or third-party validators. It’s
about recognising, understanding and
conversing with a diverse and growing army of opinion makers, all of
whom have the ability to influence the reputation of your company
brand. When it comes to crisis communications, the blistering speed
(and lack of accountability) with which the interconnected web of
online influencers disseminate and spread bad company news can be
terrifying and also awe-inspiring. This panel will provide a guide to
navigating the fast-moving consumer currents of Facebook, YouTube and
the blogosphere.

Neville Hobson – communicator and social media consultant, Guillaume du
Gardier – New Media Manager, Ferrero, Bernhard Warner – director Custom
Communication and columnist The Times Online

11.30AM – 12.15PM

MEASURING INFLUENCE AND AUDIENCE

The explosion of real people’s
conversations online has created both a huge risk and opportunity for
business. But who do you listen to and how do you measure influence and
social conversation? Can a computer algorithm interpret the sentiment
and trends of human conversation? Is social media monitoring now as
important a measurement as a media clipping service? And can the
unstructured, often opaque landscape of blogs, newsgroups and social
networks really provide the benchmarks and competitive analysis that
marketers and companies demand before committing to an "engagement"
budget? This session will analyse how social media measurement is
helping consumer-facing companies understand their customers, and it
will help identify the best practice
and best approach in this newest sector of online metrics.

Alexander Burmaster - Nielsen Net Ratings, Flemming Madsen – founder and managing director, Onalytica, Matt Rhodes, Head of insight, Freshnetworks,  Ian Jindal, editor of Internet Retailing.

12:15 – 1.15PM

LUNCH

1.15 – 2.00PM

Afternoon Presentation – To be announced 

2.00PM – 2.45PM

MARKETING 2.O – IF YOU BUILD IT, WILL THEY COME?

Do you know where your target
market spends their media time? We live in a era where customers
increasingly choose niche media to stay informed
about their personal interests, seek out peer-gnerated product reviews
and personal referrals to make informed choices. Oh, and they skip the
TV ads thanks to Sky+ or have abandoned the telly altogether. Yet too
many marketers still generate product pitches that are tone deaf to the
conversations taking place among their target audiences and in the
media channels they frequent. This panel will show how you to
participate in online customer forums and how social media marketing -
be it SEO-friendly publishing or Facebook community building – can help
you reconnect with a market that is leaving the old ways behind.

John Goodbody, Digital Director Tribal DDB, Joanne Jacobs, Director of Xenial Media – creators of Mothercare’s Gurgle.com, Matt McAlister – head of the Guardian’s development network and former director of Yahoo Developer Network, Georgina Atwell, Online Director DK & Rough Guides at Penguin UK

2.45 – 3.15PM – COFFEE

3.15 – 4PM

IN THE WORKPLACE & BEHIND THE FIREWALL

By now, the corporate Intranet
and its control-heavy, alienating mode of communicating should well and
truly be dead. Wikis and social network
are revolutionising communication and collaboration in the enterprise,
breaking down internal walls, organisational structures and
geographical barriers. Yet, at the same time, your interns are
mobilising on Facebook. Some embarrassing snaps from the company
holiday party are still circulating on Flickr and a spoof of the big
brand campaign is attracting a crowd on YouTube. Welcome to the
workplace in the Web 2.0 era where what once stayed behind the firewall
is now being played out for all the world to see. Is this forum of
individual assertiveness a platform to discover tomorrow’s leaders or
could it sink the company’s image? This panel will discuss the
essential components required for the successful adoption of social
software in practical business settings and identify the pitfalls of
allowing the self-expression of social media forums into the workplace.

Struan Robertson, Editor, Pinsent Mason’s OutLaw.com, Lee Bryant, Director, Headshift, Niall Cook – author of Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work, Richard Dennison, Senior Manager Social Media, BT
 

4PM – 4.30PM
FLOGGED TO DEATH – HOW THE NEW UNFAIR TRADING LAWS WILL REIN IN FAKE ONLINE MARKETING & ADVERTISING

On
May 26 the new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act
will clamp down on the creation of fake blogs, misleading seeding of
consumer forums and other dark arts of Internet marketing. We’ll
present a rogue’s gallery of spectacular flogs along with a guide to
how the new legislation will affect corporate marketing and
communications.

Speakers TBA

4.30PM – 5.15PM

HAS VIDEO KILLED THE BLOGGING STAR?

Okay, we’re joking…..sort of.
But be it video-snacking, YouTube resumes, digital video activism or
live-streaming to the web from your mobile
phone, the world of Web 2.0 is being driven by the moving image. This
panel will examine the role video is playing in shaping communication
techniques within companies as well as helping reach new consumer
audiences.

Panel – Robin Hamman, Senior Community
Producer, BBC, Matthew Yeomans, Custom Communication and online media
tutor, Cardiff University, Robert
Andrews, Editor Paid Content UK, Mireia Fontbernat, Qik.com