This session will include: Leveraging blogging, social networking and online video to drive traffic. Emerging trends in digital media and online content delivery. Harnessing the power of community interaction with sports bloggers and pro athletes.

Democrats and Republicans broke new ground when they invited a few bloggers to their political conventions in 2004. Four years later, bloggers and new media mavens are everywhere in the political arena, both inside and outside campaigns. What are their roles, how do those inside and outside the campaigns interact with each other, and how, if at all, have new media experts changed American politics?

A few years ago, daily newspapers laughed off "pajama-clad bloggers" as a passing phenomenon. In the last couple of years, though, many newspapers have changed their tune. The average big-city daily now hosts at least a dozen staff blogs. In total, there are now thousands of newspaper staff blogs, producing tens of thousands of posts annually – and therein lies a revolution. Our panel includes those on the front lines of the newspaper blog revolution, as we look at how the post form is joining the article form in everyday journalism – and what that means for writers and readers.

With content spanning across social networks, miro communities, and media aggregators, comments, conversations, and responses are taking place on and around the original blog post. This panel will explore distributed conversations, fragmented expertise, and also the challenge of being everywhere - and whether or not it's not only necessary, but also feasible.

Web 2.0 and social media have blown open the doors of communication in the entertainment industry. Now that the veil has been lifted, what does this mean for celebrities and the entertainment Industry as a whole? On this panel, we will be discussing examples of celebrities and entertainment businesses that utilize the concepts of openness and conversation to communicate with their fans and customers, refute rumors, take control of their image, transform their image, endear themselves to the public, manage their reputation, transform their reputations.

We will explore what the entertainment industry, and big brands in general, can learn from these practices in the greater context of corporate Online Reputation Management.

Case studies: The Roxy Theatre, Jennifer Love Hewitt, The Office Cast, Wil Wheaton, Good Charlotte

American public discourse has become harsh and unhealthy. This is especially true of political discourse. Unfortunately, many have "cursed the darkness" as though it would serve as an antidote to the problem. John Mark Reynolds, public speaker and director of the Torrey Honors Institute, will address some of the problems of internet discourse, what Godbloggers can do to raise the level of conversation on the internet, and we all can move productively forward in conversation and debate.

The mainstream media and the political establishment like to portray the political blogosphere as one monolithic beast. But like the United States itself, the political blogosphere is a mixing bowl of diverse personalities with niche audiences and different approaches. Some focus on specific states, others on the national scene. Some blog for themselves, others for institutions. Get your own ideas from this mixing bowl of panelists.