Looking over the speaker lists and prompted by this discussion on Biznik about women bloggers, I noticed that we’ve got more women speakers than men. I think that’s a first at a tech-related conference. There are

13 women and 12 men speaking. One male keynote and one female keynote.

And that was done without even trying. It just happened without a editorial effort and represents the diverse nature of the event and Biznik itself. I’m proud to be a part of it.

Conference Will Focus on the Essentials for Growing and Sustaining a Successful Small Business; More Than 400 Independent Business People in Seattle to Participate

Note from Dan: Here’s a copy of the press release announcing BizJam, which went out this morning:

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire - May 27, 2008) - Biznik, a business networking community that
connects independent business people, today announced that it will be
hosting its second annual conference, BizJam Seattle 08, on July 9-10 at
the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle. The keynote will be
presented by Lisa Johnson, author of “Mind Your X’s and Y’s,” and CEO of
The Reach Group. Other speakers include D.L. Byron, author of “Publish &
Prosper: Blogging For Your Business”; Eric Weaver, vice president of
Edelman Digital; Whitney Keyes, host and producer of online TV show and
blog, “The Biz Bite”; and Mikelann Valterra, founder of the Women’s Earning
Institute.

The two-day conference will focus on the essentials for growing and
sustaining a successful small business, including: practical uses of Web
2.0 social media, creative ways to network, and innovative marketing
strategies. Session titles include: Blogging For Your Business, High
Impact/Low Cost Marketing, Small Business Law Q&A, Demystifying Metrics:
Using Google Analytics and Other Tools to Understand Your Traffic, and Set
& Raise Your Rates with Confidence.

“With over 5,000 members in Seattle, Biznik is the largest networking
community of small business owners in this area,” said Dan McComb,
co-founder of Biznik. “BizJam Seattle 08 is the largest local event focused
entirely on the needs and interests of the small business community. This
year our speakers have prepared some of the most compelling and timely
materials that will provide a wealth of information for any independent
business owner who is looking to be better connected and better educated on
opportunities for running their company more profitably.”

BizJam Seattle 08 is focused on entrepreneurs, freelancers, independent
contractors and small business owners. According to the most recent U.S.
census data, nearly 20 million people are running their own small
businesses. BizJam Seattle 08 will include a day of educational workshops
and networking opportunities, followed by a party celebrating small
business.

“Last year’s BizJam conference was an exciting forum for me to teach
entrepreneurial accounting,” said Madeline Bailey, author of “Radical
Accounting.” “As an attendee, I networked with cutting-edge speakers,
formed a lasting, mutually-profitable business relationship, and came away
with new ideas and opportunities for growing my business.”

This year’s conference will include the use of Pathable Name Badges.
Pathable’s proprietary matching algorithms analyze the profiles of
conference attendees to proactively identify potential business matches
prior to and during the event. The Pathable Name Badges will be color-coded
by business type and there will be networking activities designed to bring
those together who work in the same industry. The use of Pathable Name
Badges will add a whole level of networking to BizJam Seattle 08 that
attendees will not find at other conferences.

More information on registering for and/or sponsoring BizJam Seattle may be
found at: www.BizJamSeattle.com.

About Biznik

Biznik is based on a simple idea: connecting small businesses to each other
for mutual business benefit. Biznik combines powerful social networking
technology with face-to-face meetings and education, in a community that
serves the unique needs of entrepreneurs and personal businesses. Biznik is
a free service with opportunities for members to pay for enhanced features
and more visibility. Membership levels include Supporting, Active and
Basic. Biznik offers a variety of services for each member at each
membership level, with new programs and resources being added on a regular
basis. More information on Biznik may be found at www.biznik.com.

Does your business have a social media marketing strategy? What is “social media,” anyway? And how does it affect your business?

These are questions we’ve been hearing a lot lately, and as we began planning the sessions for this year’s BizJam, we realized we simply couldn’t answer enough of them in one day. So we’ve teamed up with DL Byron and his firm, Textura Design, to add an entire second day (Thursday, July 9) to BizJam dedicated to answering your questions about how best to understand and tap the power of social media to grow your business faster and make it more profitable.

What is social media? Here’s how Wikipedia (which is itself an example of a social media) defines it:

Social Media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

In the context of Internet marketing, the term is used to refer to blogs, discussion boards, photo and video sharing sites, and social networks like Biznik. Other examples include sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and tools like Google Groups.

The additional day will help you understand how to tap the power of social media to:

• Make new connections
• Raise your profile and build your reputation
• Improve your visibility on Google
• Market your business in online communities
• Build community around your brand
• Enhance your brand
• Monetize your niche market
• Promote your business on social networks

And much more. We’ll be posting speaker bios and more information about specific workshops soon.

Biznik is proud to announce the date for Seattle’s 2008 BizJam event on Thursday, July 10, 2008.

BizJam 08 is Biznik’s second annual “indie” business conference. The event includes a day of educational workshops and organized networking opportunities, followed a fun social networking soiree in the evening.

Target audience: Entrepreneurs, freelancers, consultants & small business owners.

Expected attendance: 350+

Speakers at BizJam 07 included:
- Scott Bourne, president of Podango Productions and founder of Netradio
- Ron Sukenick, founder of Relationships Strategies Institute and co-founder of the Indiana Business Network, currently known as BNI
- Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation (O’Reilly 2007)
- DL Byron, author of Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business (New Riders 2006)
- Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti-9-to-5 Guide (Seal Press 2007)

Statistics: 4000 members of Biznik in Seattle, 8000 world-wide; an average of 40 new members joining per day. Current web traffic: 340,000 pageviews per month; 60,000 visits per month, 33,000 unique visitors per month.

Reach small business people and indie professionals by SPONSORING BizJam 08.

Networking events, online advertising, hands-on demonstrations and onsite marketing promotions are available, along with a limited number of exclusive corporate sponsorship opportunities.

Detailed list of benefits will be available soon. Please contact Lara Feltin - lara (at) biznik.com - for more information.

We teamed up with filmmaker Len Davis during BizJam last June to create this video, which explains what Biznik is all about and features footage from BizJam Seattle and interviews with many event attendees. Check it out!

There’s an old business saying that goes something like: “Never eat lunch alone.” If relationships are your most valuable asset in business, and I believe they are, then that’s great advice. But how do you find someone to grab lunch with when you’re self-employed? Biznik member (and BizJam volunteer) Brian Dorsey has an idea: he’s created a website that makes it easy to find a lunch partner for those of us here in Seattle. Here’s how it works: enter your email address into the site, select the date you’d like to have lunch, and use a nifty Google map to draw a circle of how far you’re prepared to travel to have lunch. Then sit back and wait for the site to put you in touch with someone matching your criteria.

But Brian himself does a much better job introducing this service in this five-minute video, shot by Bryan Zug (thanks Brian!) during his Ignite talk at BizJam on June 9. Check it out:

We’re not quite ready to start posting podcasts of the BizJam sessions that were recorded on June 9th. But Joe Shirley, who hosted “Ditch Your Vision, Launch a Revolution” at BizJam, made a recording of his own, and has posted it on his blog, where it’s a 13 MB download. We’ll begin releasing podcasts of sessions ourselves here, once we receive them from the production company, which will be no later than July 9th.

BizJam was the first full deployment of Waggle Labs’ Pathable name badges, and bloggers are buzzing about them. Here’s a few links to blog posts about the Pathable badges that we used at BizJam:

Pathable at BizJam: It Works!

Pathable In-Person Social Matching

Social software applied: Pathable

So what we’d like to know is: What do YOU think of them? Let us know by posting your comments here.

I’ve posted the first photos taken by official event photographer Malcolm Smith on ShareMyAlbums.com, which is the official photo sharing site for BizJam. Here’s the link:

http://events.sharemyalbums.com/PublicEventView.php?event=28&u=2247144826

You can also join the Biznik group on ShareMyAlbums.com, and upload your own photos. We’d love to see them! You can join from the event page link above.

BizJam would not have been the success it was without our awesome volunteers who showed up at 7am to move tables and chairs, worked the registration tables, moderated the rooms, set up the evening venue, and cleared the remnants of a good party at 3am.

Heartfelt thank you to all contributed in this way - you’re awesome!
Alim, Natasha
Belknap, Holly
Butler, Colleen
Carney, Dolores
Carver, Joe
Chappell, Karen
DeJong, Paul
DiStasio, Cat
Dixon, Ben
Dorsey, Brian
Eachus, Penny
Eizen, Sara
Gardner, Christa
Gormezano, Keith
Gorrin, Karen
Haldimann, Nadja
Hale, Jessica
Heath, Sarah
Hussain, Sandy
Johnson, Sarah
Kallock, Emillia
Kaplanian, Lee
Maling, Monica
Mamane, Rachael
Mathern, Bryce
Mooradian, Bethany
Nachbar, Rob
Sayles, Jacob
Sekendur, Banu
Sinclair, Scott
Stanislaw, Jody
Stauffer, Adrin
Veraguth, Viviane
Williams, Gwen