I’ve been in my role as Web 2.0 Expo’s community manager for almost a year now. Three Expos and a Web 2.0 Summit under my belt, I can honestly say my interactions with this conference have taught me a great deal, making me way smarter today than when I started - heck, smarter than who I was yesterday.

When people asked me who I was, what I did, I responded by saying I was a community scout, curator, and brand evangelist.

My response today: I’m a curiosity-seeker.

Today, I’m doing what everyone else is doing - gathering insights, digesting trends, testing new tools, evaluating best practices, learning from people / companies / brands / products … in an attempt to make intelligent decisions about the direction of this industry, of our marketplace; growth and development.

I’m genuinely curious about all of these things and constantly seeking out the answers to my questions around social media.

We’re set to get our scheduler up soon, with additional sessions, workshops and speakers being announced in the upcoming weeks. But in the meantime I created a little cheat sheet for myself on the sessions that I thought could bring value to me (as a social media, dare I say… maven), and to my team.

Maybe you’ll find these sessions relevant to you too?

MARKETING & COMMUNITY
Beyond buzz: On Measuring a Conversation
Kate Niederhoffer
As our media model transforms, how do the metrics evolve? Moving beyond buzz levels, the presentation offers new methods to gauge the depth of interactions and emotional connections online, offering a new model of ROI.

Case Study: Setting Content Free at Ford Motor Company
Maggie Fox (Social Media Group), Scott Monty (Ford Motor Company)
Most enterprises treat communications assets like product, tightly controlling distribution to a select few. But enterprise-level marketing and communications functions deal in information, not product. What happened when one of the world’s largest companies recognized this new reality and decided to kick down the walls, aggregate their digital content, embrace Creative Commons & set it all free?

Micro-Interactions
David Armano (Critical Mass)
We live in a world where the little things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro-interaction that makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds up to how we feel about a particular product, brand, or service.

The Whuffie Factor: The 5 Keys for Maxing Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities
Tara Hunt (BarCamp/Citizen Agency)
Everyone knows about blogs and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. And they’ve heard about someone who has used them to grow a huge customer base. Everyone wants to be hands-on, grass roots and interactive. But what does this mean? And more to the point, how do you do it? The Whuffie Factor will provide the strategic map and specific tactics for success the world of online communities.

Why Social Media Marketing Fails - and How To Fix It
Peter Kim (Dachis Corporation), Charlene Li (Altimeter Group), Jeremiah Owyang (Forrester Research)
Social media usage by individuals has gone mainstream, but marketing efforts by brands are ⌘-c, ⌘-v of old content into new channels. This session will propose answers to critical questions on the table today - measurement, scalability, organization - and help marketing think through the issues to make social media marketing matter.

WWCMD? What Would the Community Manager Do?
Micki Krimmel (Sugar Packet Inc.)
What makes an effective Community Manager? We will work together to create a list of best practices and then discuss what we might be able to learn from them. How can we apply the Community Manager’s approach to all aspects of running a business?

Effective Twitter for Communication & Product
Sarah Milstein (Self)
Twitter is a great way for small companies and big brands alike to connect with customers. This session will look not only at businesses that are using Twitter for effective customer-facing communication, but also at companies that are integrating their products with Twitter.

DESIGN
Pimp My Slide
Nancy Duarte (Duarte Design)
Spending time watching a presentations is not at the top of many “favorite things to do” lists. It’s not the problem of the application, it’s because until now, there’s been no best-practices in developing content and visuals in a world-class way.

Be a Mobile Design Hero: Transform your Web Design Knowledge into Mobile Design Skills
Kim Lenox (Adaptive Path), Rachel Hinman (Adaptive Path)
This workshop is for web designers interested in shifting their careers toward designing for mobile devices. Kim Lenox and Rachel Hinman of Adaptive Path, will describe what makes mobile different from the web and how to design for mobile context of use. Join Kim & Rachel for this workshop and learn how your current web design background can be leveraged to design compelling mobile products.

(OK, so it’s a 3-hour design workshop but I’m really into Mobile anything so I snuck it in.)

WEB MONITORING
Watching Websites: A report from the frontlines of web monitoring
Alistair Croll (Bitcurrent)
This session looks at what web operators need to monitor, from performance and uptime to analytics, usability, communities, and competitors. In an Internet filled with mashups, RIAs, and mobile devices, the task of watching websites is increasingly challenging. Fortunately, a variety of new technologies and approaches help us keep watch on our websites and our Internet presence.