San Jose, CA - August 25, 2009 - Engage Digital Media, a leading provider of social media, game and user engagement-related media announced today that team members from consumer electronic retailer Best Buy, Inc.'s social media team will deliver a keynote at the Engage! Expo, taking place September 23-24, 2009 at the San Jose Convention Center. Engage! provides insight into the best practices, current trends, and effective strategies of social media and user engagement.

The world’s largest specialty consumer electronics retailer's most recent social media activity is Twelpforce, a collective force of hundreds of Best Buy technology pros offering tech advice on Twitter. Twelpforce is the latest addition to Best Buy Connected, billed as the voice of the Best Buy Employee.

In a session entitled Implementing Best Buy's Social Media Strategy, Gina Debogovich, Community Manager, Best Buy Co, Inc. and Jason Parker, Community Analyst, Best Buy Co, Inc. will share the keynote stage on September 24 at the Engage! Expo in San Jose and discuss what is working and why in one of the broadest deployments of social media from a major retailer.

"Best Buy is leveraging social media across the entire corporation, rallying hundreds of employees across the country to engage with consumers online," said Christopher Sherman, Executive Director of Engage Digital Media. "We are pleased to have key members of their social media team joining us to keynote the upcoming Engage! Expo and share how they are implementing this remarkable strategy."

Gina Debogovich provides strategic direction for the enterprise's online community engagements. Her team of Community Connectors moderate Best Buy's bilingual community forum - http://forums.bestbuy.com. She engages directly with customers on Twitter; appears in Best Buy's vlogs; and writes “Best Living,” one of Best Buy's blogs http://tinyurl.com/Gina-BBY.

As a part of the team that launched Best Buy into open dialogue with customers online, Jason Parker has been able to watch the enterprise grow in transparency and openness. As Community Analyst, Jason provides insight to help grow the enterprise, engage customers across many channels, and maintain Best Buy's online presence as a concerned and connected retailer.

About Engage! Expo

Engage! Expo gives attendees an opportunity to learn from the top social media marketers and app developers. Sessions span all the major platforms and the latest marketing and monetization techniques. The Best Buy team are joined by more than 90 speakers that span major brands (Wal-Mart, Intel, Kodak, H&R Block) to major venture capital firms (Lightspeed, Redpoint Ventures) to social networking platforms and apps (MySpace, hi5 Networks, RockYou, SGN) to major virtual goods related companies (Viximo, Offerpal Media, Habbo, Gaia) and more, covering a variety of subject areas at Engage!  View the full schedule here and speakers here.

Tracks at Engage!

Social Media Strategies - The social media track seeks to help businesses understand the best practices, current trends, and effective strategies of social media and user engagement. Hear from major brands including Wal-Mart, Intel, H&R Block and Kodak.  Plus, join us for experts on using games as marketing tools, building a Viral Metrics Infrastructure and The State of Social Media, Market Size and Key Trends and more.

Virtual Goods Conference - Microtransactions have broad implications for businesses, including companies involved in the social networks, mobile industry, virtual worlds and games. Here we will lay out how to maximize virtual goods opportunities for your business. Hear from companies generating revenue from goods today:  Social Gaming Network, Gaia, Habbo and more.

Digital Law Conference - Here we provide a detailed examination of the legal and business issues raised by games, social media, virtual goods and virtual worlds and offers key insight into where the industry is headed and what the associated legal implications are. 7 credit hours of CLE accreditation has been applied for in MCLE states. More here.

3D Training, Learning and Collaboration - 3D virtual worlds have broad implications for business not the least of which is cost savings and energy conservation. This event will provide the information necessary for 3DLTC implementation in your organization. Speakers include experts from Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Cornell University, ThinkBalm and more.

About Engage Digital Media

Engage! Expo is owned and operated by Engage Digital Media. Engage Digital is a leading producer of trade events and media that focus on social media, virtual worlds, user engagement and games. Events include Engage! Expo, Engage! Expo San Jose, Digital Law Conference, Virtual Goods Conference, and 3D Training Learning and Collaboration (3DTLC) Conference. The company also publishes timely market research and leading industry news blogs www.VirtualWorldsNews.com and www.VirtualGoodsNews.com.  Engage! and Engage! Expo are trademarks of Engage Digital Media. More information can be found at www.EngageDigitalMedia.com. 

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