Syndicate Conference Kicks Off Next Week in San Francisco; Event shows how RSS, blogs and podcasts are transforming the way businesses do business

Business Wire, Dec 8, 2005

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- IDG World Expo, the leading producer of world-class tradeshows, conferences and events for technology markets, today previews the upcoming Syndicate(TM) Conference, scheduled to take place December 12-14, 2005 at the Hilton San Francisco. At next week's program, industry leaders Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google and many others will discuss how syndication and social media tools such as RSS, blogs and podcasts are transforming the way businesses do business.

"It's only six months since the first Syndicate in New York, and already the whole field has grown enormously," said Doc Searls, Syndicate conference chairperson. "There are more than 20 million blogs now. Podcasting has gone mainstream. "Tagging" is a hot new topic that will grow and change just in the three days at Syndicate. Syndicated "Live Web" search is booming, and diversifying with each new service that enters the field. Publishing, broadcasting, website management, advertising, PR, corporate communications and countless other fields are being changed rapidly by syndication."

Keynotes and Featured Speakers

PR guru Larry Weber, Chairman and CEO of W2 Group, and Jonathan Schwartz, President and COO of Sun Microsystems, will deliver the keynote addresses. Joining them as featured speakers are industry leaders Scott Gatz, Senior Director of Personalization Products, Yahoo! Inc.; Jessica Perry, Senior VP, Business Development & Marketing, Dow Jones; Jeremy Allaire, Chairman and CEO, Brightcove; Scott Anderson, Director, Enterprise Brand Communications, HP; Stephen Lovett, General Manager, Windows, Microsoft Corp.; and conference program chairman Doc Searls, Co-Author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and Senior Editor, Linux Journal.

Conference Track Topics

--The Syndicated Media Environment: Explores how syndication works, how it's being applied by old and new media companies, how and why different media companies choose to free or lock up their content, what syndicated content search engines are and how they differ from traditional search engines, and how to follow audience and topical trends in real time.

--Syndicated Company & Product Environments: Discusses how companies of all sizes (from corporate titans like GM to your neighborhood book stores) are syndicating all kinds of content in pursuit of real business goals - and how companies take advantage of both corporate and individual blogs to relate more closely to their customers - and allow their customers to relate more closely to them.

--Syndicated Technologies & Trends: Explores new syndication technologies, standards, trends and practices. Subjects include: mobile RSS, tagging, structured blogging, wikis, vertical market syndication, attention tracking, social software, IRC, and new areas where hundreds of million dollars of venture money are flowing.

--Syndicated Public Relations: Shows how leading PR pros are using blogs, podcasting, RSS, and a new crop of search and tracking tools to build relationships with a new group of influencers while finding innovative ways to stay in touch with established target audiences and communities of interest.

Conference Speakers

Among the many speakers at the Syndicate conference, there are C-level's, president's, senior VP's and founders from organizations such as: CNET Networks, Yahoo!, Washingtonpost.Com, Blogads, Google, E-Loan, PubSub, Technorati, Knight Ridder Digital, Burson-Marsteller, Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing, Ketchum, Microsoft, ZDNet, Pheedo, SimpleFeed and many more.

Sponsors and Exhibitors

The companies at the forefront of these new syndication tools are sponsoring and exhibiting at Syndicate. Cornerstone sponsor Yahoo! is joined by Platinum sponsor Microsoft. Silver sponsors include: Attensa; Feedster; KnowNow; NewsGator; Pheedo; Pluck; PubSub Concepts; and SimpleFeed. Bronze sponsors include: Acquire Media; Cymfony; FreeRange Communications; inclue!; LookSmart; Marqui; PRWeb; Spearhead Innovations; and WhatCounts. Associate sponsors include: Five Across; Google; Gritwire; I/PRO; Moreover Technologies; Silverpop; Technorati; and Top 10 Sources. Association sponsors include: AdMonsters; American Business Media; Online Publishers Association; SF Advertising; and Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Networking Opportunities

An opening night networking reception will be sponsored by Yahoo!, and all Syndicate attendees, sponsors, media and speakers are invited to attend. The reception will take place following the day's final keynote address on Tuesday, December 13 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Syndicate's RSS Feed

To subscribe to the event feed, visit http://subscriber.simplefeed.com/syndicateconference.> Syndicator Blog

To read the Syndicator(TM) blog, visit http://www.syndicatorblog.com.

For more information about Syndicate or to register for the event, please visit www.syndicateconference.com.

About Syndicate

As the premier event for content syndication trends, Syndicate(TM) (www.syndicateconference.com) is a B2B Conference providing awareness, clarity, education, deal making and strategic business opportunities surrounding the emergence of online media syndication. This program will focus on emerging technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication), for content owners and producers, new media executives, marketers, advertisers and public relations professionals.