We will be sending out a detailed email next week but in the meantime we’d like to provide you some initial information.

What you need to know:

• Free parking  in the ramp next to the Midtown Exchange Building (courtesy of Allina) for those attending the event. Bring your ticket in with you and we’ll validate it when you check in.
• Lunch will be provided to attendees free of charge.
• Caribou coffee drinks, breakfast options and snacks will be available for purchase in our conference space.

Important information about your ticket:

• Tickets to the conference are non-transferable – meaning you can’t give them to a friend.
• If you are unable to attend, please email us and we will release your ticket to someone else who needs one.
• Allina is a secure location and needs all names of attendees submitted prior to the event. Drop ins will not be admitted.

How you can give back:

• We are happy to announce we’ll be featuring the Read Indeed charity for the conference this year. Read Indeed is a 501c3 nonprofit literacy organization and the vision of Maria Keller, a book-loving 5th grader who wants to make the world a better place—one book at a time. Maria’s goal is to collect and distribute 1,000,000 books to needy children by the time she’s 18. She has been collecting and distributing books since she was 8 years old—touching the lives of thousands of children around the world.
• If you would like to bring new or gently used children’s books to the conference we can help Maria meet her goal!

Picture perfect:

• Mandy Dwyer of Glimpses of Soul Photography has volunteered to take a limited number of professional headshot photos for attendees during the conference!
• The cost will be $30 and Mandy will be donating all of the money to the charity.
• This was a popular offering last year and we are grateful Mandy has volunteered to do it for us this year!

Were you hoping to speak at the Minnesota Blogger Conference? Have an idea for a topic you think would appeal to bloggers? Here’s your chance to throw your hat in the ring!

We’ve been holding onto one final spot on the agenda for just this purpose. Here’s the process:

• If you have an idea for a 45-minute session, please Email Us your idea and a brief description as well as three things bloggers can learn from your session. (Please review the current sessions and topics scheduled).
• You must submit ONLY for yourself and not someone else (and you need to be available to present at the event).
• We’ll take your submissions through the end of the day Monday, Sept. 5^th.
• On Tuesday, Sept. 6th we’ll take the submissions and run them by the MN Blogger Conference attendees for a vote via Survey Monkey (after all, who better to tell us what they want to see than then attendees themselves!). The idea with the most votes will be selected.
• We’ll announce the final session Tuesday evening!

Presentations must be limited to 1 to 2 speakers (no panels).

Need not be currently registered to submit for a session.

Off topic or otherwise irrelevant session proposals will not be presented for vote.

We are happy to announce that Lee Odden will be our featured keynote speaker this year.  Lee is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and editor of Online Marketing Blog which is rated the #1 content marketing blog by Junta42 and a top 10 blog by Advertising Age.

Lee routinely speaks internationally on Social Media SEO and Content Marketing and has participated in top conferences including ad:tech, Intel’s Social Media Summit and SES, where he serves on the board of advisors.

As a 14-year online marketing veteran, Lee has been cited by numerous industry publications and books including The Economist, DM News and ‘Marketing in the Age of Google’ by Vanessa Fox. Additionally, his first book, ‘Optimize’ will be published by Wiley in 2012.

See what Lee will be speaking about >>