Happy New Year from all of us at Social Media Group!

A new year ’round here means new speaking engagements- and we’re excited! If you’re in a city, town or county near; Greensboro, Waterloo, San Francisco or Tampa come on out and introduce yourself to Ms. Maggie Fox! Calgary? Say hello to Leona Hobbs!

And in case you want to hit the road with us here is the detailed long term forecast- okay, mostly January and pretty much just until March. And there is sure to be a few more dates posted soon. Please bare with us and stay tuned! You can check out the events section of our website for regular updates to speaking engagements.

January 13th, 2010
Greensboro, North Carolina
Maggie Fox, Keynote
WithIt Technology Symposium; Corporate Strategy, Integration & Investment in Digital & Social Media Technologies
In a practical, hands-on workshop style discussion, Maggie will talk social media planning and strategy, running participants through a five step Social Media plan using a few real world examples from our client work. Your ultimate deliverable? The steps you need to take to get to forward thinking, long term strategies and plans.

January 15th, 2010
Waterloo, Ontario
Maggie Fox, Keynote
Epcon; Social Media
Epcon is a technology conference in RIM’s hometown so you know it’s going to be big. Maggie will be giving a keynote on Flock Behaviour and Social Media. Leaders lead and followers follow, right? Not always. Researchers in bird behaviour have identified that a few well-placed, coordinated “followers” can shift the direction of a flock of hundreds. Maggie will discuss the implications of that for business and online communities undergoing change while entertaining the question “can followers lead”? Other companies speaking are Google, IBM, EA, Cisco, Rogers and Infusion. The conference promises to bring together North America’s leading tech guru’s to tell you where technology’s going next and it has tech competitions called ‘Elympics’. While the torch is still being run to Vancouver, why not get in the games?

January 19th, 2010
Toronto, Ontario
Maggie Fox, Featured Speaker
Wired Woman Event: Managing Your Digital Career Lifecycle
Social media requires you to act as curator, cultivator and manager of your personal branding message. This session will highlight the fundamental strategies necessary to protect your online reputation and will underscore techniques to monitor your business and personal web presence. Know where you are in your digital career lifecycle and make the most of it.
Register here.

January 26th, 2010
San Francisco, California
Maggie Fox, Moderator
OMMA Social; Brand as Media Company: Building Out Powerful Distribution Channels in Social Media
In the city that techies are born in or flock to, Maggie will moderate a discussion on building distribution channels using social media an exploring how advertisers can act more like broadcasters in building their social media channels. The panelists for the discussion are: Jonathan Anastas, VP, Head of Marketing, Atari, Dave Armon, VP, Strategic Accounts, Context Optional, Ido Leffler, Co-Founder, Yes To Inc, David Shearer, SVP, Executive Creative Director, MRM Worldwide, San Francisco.

February 8th, 2010
Tampa, Florida
Maggie Fox, Keynote
Social Fresh
Maggie will be giving a talk here along with these other cool cats. Stay tuned for more details but start packing your sunscreen.

March 9th-10th, 2010
Calgary, Alberta
Leona Hobbs, Keynote
The Canadian Institute; Managing Social Media: Practical Solutions and Legal Strategies for Maximizing Success and Minimizing Risk
If you didn’t get the tickets you put on your wish list, there’s still time. In this talk Leona will cover proactive approaches to handling crises online so your ‘OH NO’ is more like, ‘oh no, good thing we got this covered’. She’ll also talk about correcting inaccurate or misleading statements about your brand online, using social media to protect your brand and defend your business and using social media to be a part of customer conversations rather than a passive bystander. More details here.

And that’s all for now folks. 2010 is looking good and I can promise a heavier speaking schedule is to come.