About

The Fall 2011 conference date is set for September 10 — you can keep up with the latest news on twitter at @MNBlogCon.

There is a tremendous blogging community in Minnesota. We have bloggers who write about politics, parenting, food, sports, fashion, technology, communications and even weight loss! You name it, we have it covered.

The first conference in September 2010 was a big success! We also had a great mini-conference event in January, 2011. Everything about the conference was developed with your input via survey and committees, and we focused the speaker panel to Minnesota bloggers to keep our focus on the wonderful talent within our community.

 Organizers

Missy Berggren @marketingmama

Melissa (Missy) Berggren is a marketing manager with Allina Hospitals & Clinics, focused on brand and advertising. She blogs on marketing and business at melissaberggren.com and on the rest of her life (parenting, family activities and health topics) at her primary blog Marketing Mama. Named one of the top 11 Tweeps of the Twin Cities, Top Ten Titans of Twin Cities Social Media and Top 50 Women of Twitter, Missy isn’t far from any online discussion and regularly appears in local media. She is also a contributor to MinnPost.

Arik Hanson @arikhanson

Arik Hanson is principal of ACH Communications, a digital communications firm focused on serving as strategic thought partners to financial services, health care, not-for-profit and other organizations. With more than 14 years of marketing and communications experience, Arik has spent the last few years focusing on the world of digital PR and blog marketing. Arik blogs at Communications Conversations and has played a lead role in many social projects and initiatives online–both locally and nationally–including: founder–Help a PR Pro Out Day; Organizer/speaker at BlogWorld (2009, 2010); Founder of the PR Reader’s Choice Blog Awards; Co-founding the B2B Voices blog; and a regular contributor to Ragan.com, PR Daily, the PR Breakfast Club and MinnPost.

Suzi Magill @SuziMN

Suzi Magill is the Suzi behind RedefiningSuzi.com (formerly pinkvanillacupcakes.com), a blog about work life balance topics, living in Minnesota, getting healthy, social media and technology trends including the latest techie gadget to obsess about.  She works for Thomson Reuters as a team lead in Education Training and Development and is part of their Social Media Advisory Board. She lives in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Beth Rubin-Gabor @whereitblooms

Beth is the principal of Where it Blooms where she provides both marketing and design services to small businesses and non profit organizations.  Beth frequently writes on marketing and design topics from her blog A Blooming Life.  Additionally, she blogs at A Little Bloomer featuring The Good, Bad and Funny of a Girl with Aspergers.

 

Bridget Nelson Monroe @BridgetMonroe

Bridget is an account executive at Bellmont Partners and co-founder at Mediamazing. She is an active member of several industry organizations, holding leadership roles with the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) and the Minneapolis Content Strategy Meetup. Bridget lives in North St. Paul.

Josh Braaten @jlbraaten

Josh Braaten is an Online Marketing Manager at Rasmussen College responsible for SEO, Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization. Josh lives in St. Paul and blogs about Internet marketing and Squarespace on his blog, BigPictureWeb.com.

 

 

Bill Van Cleaf @bvancleaf1

Bill Van Cleaf is a marketing communications specialist with Allina Hospitals & Clinics, focusing on hospital marketing and strategic communications.He is pursuing an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, with an emphasis on health care marketing and consulting. Bill lives in Brooklyn Park and spends his free time grilling (and tweeting about his grilling) and riding his bike.