With Early Registration for the 2012 annual conference open, we want to remind you to include the LMD Marketing Section breakfast scheduled for Tuesday morning, July 17, at 8AM. In addition to our virtual Swap-n-Shop, we have an exciting panel discussion planned, Using Social Media to Promote Libraries and Librarians. We’ve asked three extraordinary individuals to lead the discussion, building on their successes over the past few years, so that we can benefit from their unique perspectives as:

Social Media Marketing guru Melissa Giovagnoli, President of Networlding

Corporate Media Marketing officer Roger Tye, Director of Consumer Engagement at Allstate Insurance Co.

Our own Connie Crosby, Crosby Group Consulting.

As always, we thank the Advertising and Marketing Division (AMD) as a co-hosting SLA unit, and look forward to having their members participate in a lively discussion.

If you’d like to inspire others by having your marketing materials included in the virtual Swap-N-Shop, please use the online form to let us know that you’d like to contribute. Even if you are only thinking about contributing, please complete a form so that we will know what we might expect, how much material, and what we need to do at the breakfast to make this accessible to our members. It’s your contributions that make the Swap-N-Shop special!

We need final submissions by 1 May 2012.

We now have two great panellists lined up for the Marketing Section Breakfast and Swap-n-Shop, to be held at SLA conference on 17 July 2012, 8:00-9:30.

Melissa Giovagnoli is founder and president of Networlding, a social media consulting, coaching, implementation and integration firm. Melissa has spoken and published widely; her latest book is Fifty Ways to Better Social Media: Making Solid Connections That Create Dynamic Opportunities.

Connie Crosby  founded Crosby Group Consulting in 2008. Connie has a background in law librarianship, and teaches at iSchool Institute, University of Toronto, and SLA’s ClickU. Connie’s personal blog recently featured her ‘Top 5 Tips for Businesses Using Social Media‘, including ‘start small’ and ‘don’t build an “empty disco”‘.

There’s still plenty of time to submit your virtual and social-media based marketing materials for the Virtual Swap-n-Shop, that runs alongside the breakfast. Register your interest by December 31, 2011, and deliver your final submissions to us by May 1, 2012, to be entered into a drawing to have their marketing efforts reviewed by an expert in the field!