It looks like I’m only doing one conference this Fall, but it’s a good one! Lavacon 2.0: The Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies will be in San Diego this year from September 29th to October 2nd. I’ll be giving a talk called “From Nothing to YouTube in 60 Minutes or Less: Software Training Using Adobe Captivate” – it should be a lot of fun! And the speaker list is phenomenal, I’m going to have a tough time choosing which sessions to attend.

In addition to the new name, Director Jack Molisani is implementing a bunch of interesting new features:

–A “wall” (similar to Facebook) right on the lavacon site where people can leave comments for others to see. So far, it’s all glowing testimonials from speakers and attendees of prior LavaCons, but I bet if new or potential attendees wanted to post questions, they’d be answered promptly and honestly.

–Each of the almost 60 sessions has a community page where anyone can rate the topic, contact the speaker, or leave comments. There are also links for sharing on Facebook and tweeting on Twitter. Check it out, leave comments (and if you want, you could leave me a 5-star rating!)

–Lavacon Live lets you see who is talking about Lavacon right now, with a map of visitor traffic. People are literally logging in from all over the world!

–Speakers can offer discounts to their friends (and followers). This is a great way to encourage attendance and to track which speakers draw more attendees. To get $50 off your registration fee, use code BHUTTNER when signing up. And of course, the earlier you sign up, the better – rates go up quite a bit after August 31st.

–A new location! This conference has traditionally been held either in Hawaii or New Orleans, but this year’s venue is the Omni Hotel, Gaslight District, San Diego. The Omni Hotel has just been ranked highest among 15 upscale hotel brands by J.D. Power and Associates, so I’m really looking forward to a great stay.