Local Social Summit is very excited that Stephen Leighton owner of leading UK coffee roaster, Has Bean, has agreed to come speak at LSS@Social Media Week on 4th February 2010.

We are planning to have a conversation with Steve about how as an artisan coffee roaster he is utilising a proliferation of Social Media channels to build engagement with his customers and the coffee community in general.

In reality, we’re fanboys of Steve (and without saying the amazing coffee Hasbean brings back to the UK) and would be happy if he just comes along and shares his wonderful passion for coffee and with that his direct trade approach with growers (actually, here’s hoping we get some of that because when you think about it, that’s still Local Social).  Regardless of what Steve talks about, our hope is that those who come along to LSS@Social Media Week will agree with us by the end of the evening when we say, we believe Stephen Leighton is coffee’s rising answer to Gary Vee.

To get a taste of why we think that, here’s a video from In My Mug, Steve’s weekly video show:

To fully get an understanding of how Steve is using Social Media in furthering the success of Hasbean, we suggest you:

• Read his blog
• Follow him on Twitter
• Check out the photo stream on Flickr
• Watch episodes of In My Mug or check out the Hasbean Vimeo channel
• Not forgetting the Hasforum

You can read more about the LSS@Social Media Week event by clicking here.  Go to the eventbrite microsite or start the booking process below:

Paul has been active in the local+social space for the last five years, which has included creating a pioneering video website introducing city neighbourhoods. Now a digital strategist at Imagination, his recent #sixweeks project used social media tools to challenge basic assumptions about consumer behaviour and saw a number of companies pay him for being their customer.

You can find him on:

• His blog: http://www.paulmccrudden.com
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/crudden
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-mccrudden/0/7b/935

Local Social Summit Speaker Biography Footnote: As set out in this post, our policy is to publish Speaker Biographies as is.

Please feel to comment here, on the LinkedIn group or via Twitter.

Social Media Marketing  – The Rules are Changing
With the rise of social media and powerful self-publishing tools (Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc etc) the conversation between brands and consumers has changed forever. In this session we will explore the new rules and what this means for advertising, marketing and PR. All of which have been changed in a flash and forever. We will also dig into what engagement, the conversation and the attention economy really means for marketers.
Moderator: Mike Weston, VP International wunderloop/Blogger – Sandlines.net
Panel:

• Sokratis Papafloratos, CEO TrustedPlaces
• Paul McCrudden, of the #6weeks project
• Carolyn Watt, Profero
• Nathan McDonald, Managing Partner – wearesocial