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Hollywood, Capitol Hill and Music Industry Converge at World’s Largest New Media Conference Oct. 14-16

BlogWorld & New Media Expo , taking place October 14 -16 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, announced today that it has added keynote speakers and panelists to its all-star line-up, including Mark Burnett , Emmy-award winning producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”

Mr. Burnett will participate in a keynote discussion with Brian Solis , one of the prominent authorities on new media and Principal at FutureWorks, a new media agency. The discussion will cover the convergence of media and the future of unscripted drama on the web. Mr. Burnett will also discuss his current project, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” a new eight-part documentary series about Ms. Palin and her home state.

Just weeks ahead of the mid-term elections, BlogWorld also announced that the conference will feature Hugh Hewitt , host for “The Hugh Hewitt Show” and Reid Wilson , Editor-in-Chief of The Hotline. Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Wilson will join Mark Penn , CEO, Worldwide of Burson-Marsteller & CEO, Penn Schoen Berland, and Karen Hughes , Worldwide Vice Chairman, Burson-Marsteller, in a conversation about the State of Digital Communications in Politics.

BlogWorld also confirmed that Dermot  McCormack, Executive Vice President of Digital Media for the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, will join in a keynote discussion on the Future of Web Video. Mr. McCormack will join a panel that includes Susan Bratton , Co-Founder & CEO, Personal Life Media; Dick Glover , President & CEO, Funny or Die; and Jim Louderback , CEO, Revision 3.

BlogWorld is the first and only industry-wide conference and expo dedicated to the business of blogging, new media, social networking and online broadcasting. Earlier this week, BlogWorld announced that its industry-leading conference has returned with the exclusive Social Media Business Summit, a business and enterprise-focused three-day conference, presented by social media thought leaders and corporate professionals from Fortune 100 companies.

More than 300 speakers will lead over 120 sessions throughout the conference. Many of today’s thought leaders in social media, representing Corporate America’s most recognizable companies, such as Ford Motor Company, Southwest Airlines, RIM, Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, Sony, and YouTube will be on hand to discuss how they use social media to advance their business objectives.

The just announced keynote speakers and panelists include:

Thursday, October 14

• 2:45pm PDT: The Convergence of Media and the Future of Unscripted Drama on the Web
  • Mark Burnett , this British-born entrepreneur is a pioneer of American reality television, producing the unscripted mega-hits “Survivor” and “The Apprentice,” among many others. While participating in an extreme race called Raid Gauloises in the early 1990s, he decided to film the event, then presented the footage to ESPN, who aired it; thus began Burnett’s showbiz career. Within a few years, he had rocketed to fame and fortune as the producer of “Survivor,” which was based on a Swedish reality show. Burnett would go on to be nominated for more than 40 Emmys and has been listed in Time Magazine’s list of the most influential people in the U.S. His entrepreneurial spirit helped pioneer the success of the reality ‘unscripted’ drama series and brought it to mainstream television.
  • Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. Author of the acclaimed new book on social media and business, Engage!, Solis is also ranked as one of the leading voices in the Ad Age Power 150 index of worldwide marketing bloggers. Solis is also the publisher of bub.blicio.us, a popular lifestyle and technology blog, and is also a contributor to BusinessWeek, Ad Age, Harvard Business Review, and Mashable.

Friday, October 15

• 9:25am PDT: State of Digital Communications in Politics. Hugh Hewitt, radio talk show host for “The Hugh Hewitt Show” and Reid Wilson, Editor-in-Chief of The Hotline, will join Mark Penn, CEO, Worldwide of Burson-Marsteller & CEO, Penn Schoen Berland, and Karen Hughes, Worldwide Vice Chairman, Burson-Marsteller, in a conversation about voter interaction in the digital age.
  • Hugh Hewitt is a lawyer, law professor and broadcast journalist whose nationally syndicated radio show is heard in more than 120 cities across the United States every weekday afternoon. Hewitt writes daily for his blog, HughHewitt.com, which is among the most visited political blogs in the U.S. He is also a weekly columnist for The Washington Examiner and Townhall.com. Professor Hewitt has been a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News Network, and MSNBC, and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He has received three Emmys for his work as co-host of the ground-breaking Life & Times program, a nightly news and public affairs program that aired on the Los Angeles PBS affiliate, KCET, from 1992 until 2007.
  • Reid Wilson  is Editor-in-Chief of Washington’s premier daily briefing on American politics. His reliably accurate analysis of the national political environment is featured in his weekly column, On The Trail, which appears on www.nationaljournal.com. Reid is also political contributor to Sirius-XM Radio. Before becoming Editor-in-Chief, Wilson was editor of Hotline OnCall, one of the leading political blogs in Washington, D.C. He has also served as a staff writer at The Hill newspaper, the largest-circulating of any Capitol Hill newspaper, where he covered Congress, politics, campaigns and elections. He has covered the Supreme Court, the Federal Election Commission and top political races as they develop across the country. Reid spent the 2008 election cycle authoring a popular political blog at RealClearPolitics.com, where he covered the presidential caucuses in Iowa, the primaries in New Hampshire and several debates around the nation.
• 5:30pm PDT: The Future of Web Video. Dermot McCormack, Executive Vice President of MTV Music Group Digital will join moderator Susan Bratton, CEO of Personal Life Media, Dick Glover, CEO of Funny or Die and Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 in a conversation about the newest growth areas for online video, the future of video entertainment and consumption in the digital and mobile world, growing communities around content, interactive engagement using social media and more.
  • Dermot McCormack , Executive Vice President of Digital Media for the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. Dermot provides strategic oversight in digital for MTVN brands including MTV: Music Television, MTV 2, MTV Tr3s, VH1, VH1 Soul, VH1 Classic, CMT and Logo. In this role McCormack is responsible for setting strategy and vision and charting the course on how the Music and Logo brands evolve in today’s digital world. Since stepping into this role in January 2009, Dermot first reorganized the digital team and then revitalized the digital properties through refocusing efforts on organic traffic growth, innovative products, social media integrations, and strategic partnership, including serving as the architect for cross platform deal with Warner Music Group. As a result of his direction, MTV Music Group rose to the web’s most visited online music destination with more than 53 million unique visitors, a 165% year-over-year uptick in visitors.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2010 is sponsored by premium brands such as: Southwest Airlines “Official Airline of BlogWorld & New Media Expo,” Sony “New Media Lounge Sponsor” and more.

Additional information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo, including session descriptions, exhibitor list and registration details, is available at http://www.blogworldexpo.com. The online interactive conference schedule, powered by Sched.org is available at http://2010.blogworldexpo.com