As we all continue to network 24/7, how about a conference all about social networking in San Francisco, CA?  Userplane is sponsoring the upcoming Social Networking Conference event held on July 10 - 11, 2008 at the Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF in San Francisco, USA.  The event agenda includes a lineup of speakers such as Motorola, Twitter, Steve Wozniak, Piczo, and many others!  Userplane’s very own Mike Jones, Shane Hall and Kyle Ellis will be networking at the event and presenting our new and exciting Mediaplayer and our soon to launch (July 21st), Boards!  Visit Userplane at booths 104 and 105 and join in on the social networking too

Userplane will be a sponsor and exhibitor at the 5^th annual Social Networking Conference, taking place in Miami, January 31 - February 1, 2008.

Scheduled topics are: new technologies, revenue models for social networking, mobile, venture capital, social networking and online personals marketing, social networking software, online personals software, global business strategies, partnerships, legal issues and payments. Historically, the Miami event has been the most significant and the largest. Converging at the Miami event are senior executives in the social networking and social media industry from several continents, including growth markets such as China and Europe.

While the Social Networking Conference is taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center , the Internet Dating Confernce will also be taking place down the hall. Registration to the Social Networking Conference also gets you complimentary admission to the dating conference.

Let us know if you plan on attending and would like to meet up! For more information on the event, please visit their website: www.SocialNetworkingConference.com

The Userplane staff will be attending the Facebook Developer Garage tomorrow night in Los Angeles.

The last Facebook Developer Garage in LA, held at the Mahalo office, was very informative. Attendees listened to presentations ranging from “How to Market your Facebook App” to “Best ways to Monetize a Facebook App”. We even recorded the Facebook Professor, Meagan Marks, presenting developer tip and tricks (we’ll post the video later this week).

About tomorrow’s event:

Red Bull headquarters in Santa Monica will serve as the meeting grounds for the first Los Angeles Facebook Developer Garage. If you’re interested in sharing your newest application, looking for people to help you polish up an exisiting application or just want to meet with some very like minded Facebookers, this first installment will give you the opportunity to talk Platform with people from the Los Angeles area.

This is a perfect place to ask questions, share ideas and do a little partying Red Bull style. Come and meet with the current Platform developers and pick their brains about how to make your very own app climb the download charts.

So come enjoy some good tunes, good food, good people, and good times over a cold can at Red Bull’s North American Headquarters.

Schedule (All times are displayed in PST - “Red Bull Time” meaning flexible)

7:30-9:00: Cocktails
9-10:00: Featured App Presentations
10-11:00: 5 Minutes of Fame (Application/Idea Presentations)
11-?: Halo2 tourney in Room8… let us know you are interested.

All of “5 Minutes of Fame” prezo slots will be assigned in the traditional Bar Camp manner - first come first serve.

Attending iDate SF allowed me to witness innovative ideas from successful social networks striving to go mobile. Listening to key speakers, panels and exhibitors including representatives such as Mark Brooks, Bebo, Dogster, Nokia, etc. worked up an appetite where Mark Lesnick prepared an amazing luncheon and mixer. Thank you everyone for a great time. We at Userplane look forward to iDate Barcelona and 2008 events.

Janet Hyunh
Userplane Account Manager

Tonight was another well executed and informative mixer event held by the paidContent team. The ContentNext Digital Media mixer was held at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills and featured a great panel of speakers. The style was open and free flowing as topics ranged from Myspace vs. Facebook to the potential digital media impact of Joost.

Panel Speakers:
– Deanna Brown, President, Interactive, Scripps Networks
– Greg Clayman, SVP of Mobile, MTV Networks
– Mitch Lasky, General Partner, Benchmark Capital
– Ross Levinsohn, former president, Fox Interactive
– Brian Weinstein, CAA

An interesting discussion was based on what were the “it” web companies of the past few years ( Myspace - 2005, YouTube - 2006, Facebook - 2007) and what would be next… Emergence of the killer mobile media app? Joost?

Ross Levinsohn, the man behind the News Corp acquisition of Myspace, thinks that the power of super niche content and social networks could be disrupter in 2008.

An example niche site would be Dogster, a social network where dog lover’s can create profiles of their pets. With their super targeted content, sites like Dogster are successfully taking a small portion of traffic and advertising away from the larger web publishers. One cannot make the claim that Dogster alone is a disrupter, but thousands on niche content and social networks can be very powerful.

What services on the web will benefit from the rapid growth of smaller niche content and community websites? Advertising companies? Widget providers? Social network platforms like KickApps or Ning?

I think the application providers that help power these micro-sites will play a very major role in the growth of this content of the web. In fact, Userplane has been a important cog in the rise of small targeted communities by providing tools that help sites further engage their audience and monetize their traffic. Over 5000 sites add our products monthly!

Personally, I am excited to see what will be the next big “buzz word” in 2008. Facebook may be it in 2007, but will 2008 be the year of micro communities?

Userplane will have a booth at the iDate / Mobile Social Networking conference in San Francisco - please let us know if you are attending!