This year at AIM is all about change. New speakers, new structure, new location – even new time of year.  I admit having that extra six months allowed us to see AIM differently and go at this year refreshed and with a clearer outlook on how to improve it.

But along with all that other ‘new’ we also decided to make two new websites. One – the regular AIM site will launch (finally!) in a few days, and is awesome. The other – the AIM Workshop website will launch soon after with complete workshop descriptions.  On these sites you’ll see a lot of new faces, and you’ll also be able to attend AIM in a new way – for just 1 day, if you want.  We hope this opens AIM up to a lot of smaller businesses, as well as business owners and executives.  See you there!

We’re excited about this one. Julien Smith is a New York Times bestselling author, and well-known social media force. Co-author of Trust Agents (with Chris Brogan), Julien has been heavily involved in online communities for over 15 years– from early BBSes and flashmobs to the social web as we know it today.  Julien has spoken all over the world, from New Zealand to Iceland, Korea, Mexico and beyond, to organizations as large and important as Microsoft.

Julien’s been described as irreverent. CC Chapman, co-author of Content Rules describes Julien as “A creative individual who not only thinks outside the box, he puts his foot down and crushes it.” Chris Brogan, co-found of Podcamp has even higher praise for Julien saying, “Since meeting Julien, I’ve come to rely on him to be the voice of what is truly worthwhile in this space.”  Sounds awesome.

Talk about big brand experience. Colin Douma is the Global Digital Planning Director for Gillette at Proximity Canada and BBDO NY with the task of helping Gillette build their social, digital and innovation capabilities in cross discipline marketing and advertising around the world. Collin’s background in taking major brands to the digital marketplace extends over 16 years and includes strategic consulting and planning with the Ford Motor Company, Motorola, Coca Cola, Pontiac, Buick and GMC. Colin is a frequent speaker at marketing conferences – and sure to be a favorite at this year’s AIM.

This year will see a lot of new faces at AIM.  After having many of the same (and best) speakers return for several appearances, we want to make a change.  But we did select a couple of outsiders from past events that we particularly liked to invite back and one of these was Molly Holzschlag.  Molly presented at AIM 2009 and was a favorite.  We had her scheduled again for last year but her travel schedule was heavy and she came down with a bug and had to cancel.  This year, Molly is doing less traveling but says she loved her time in Halifax and the people she met here (not to mention the lobster) so may make an exception.  We’ve agreed to talk in a few weeks and for now have her down as a definite maybe.  We’ll keep you posted.

I had heard all kind of good things about Carmen Pirie (award-winning marketer from Kula Partners) as a compelling speaker with crazy insight and ideas about how social media is changing the world, before he came to AIM last year, but I wasn’t able to see his talk.  Too bad for me. He stood out on feedback sheets as being one of the most engaging and though-provoking at the conference, right on par with most of our “come from away” speakers, which is a rare feat.  Glad to have him back – and I for one will make sure to catch him this year.

Having moved all workshops to one day, the AIM Strategy Summit on the SECOND day of the conference ends up with a greater concentration of invited and special speakers – including authors and experts from larger centers that rarely or never speak in Halifax outside of AIM.   The Strategy Summit, this year on October 28th, 2011, is also offered as a 1-day pass, ideal for executives who want to see the strategies that work today, but who can’t afford to take 2-days away from the office.

Feedback is crucial.
Out of our focus groups after AIM ’10 – one of the ideas we heard a few times was to have more workshops with a practical focus.  From this we came up with the idea to have the first day of the conference be all workshops and selling 1-day tickets for those more interested in just the workshops. The AIM Workshop, on Thursday, October 27th now becomes an ideal day for someone to pick up crucial skills and tools to take their social media or web marketing to a higher level – skills that they can apply (and that will make a difference) right away.

Last year we brought Eric Karjaluoto in from Vancouver based on his impressive portfolio with smashLAB, his very cool blog (www.ideasonideas.com) and his insightful book “Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal”.  Eric’s unapologetic and sometimes brutal clarity, humour, and sharp insights into what is and isn’t good marketing, made him hugely popular in AIM feedback.  And though I don’t get to see as many sessions as I want to, I have to admit he was also my own favorite speaker from last year’s event.  So we’re excited to have persuaded Eric to come back for AIM 2011. This time we plan to get him to talk more about some of his design work – as well as his insights into strategy and process.  A really knowledgeable speaker – and fun.  Looking forward to it!