Last year I spoke at the 140 Conference in LA. It is very weird to watch American Idol now and know that I was on that same stage just a few months back. Jeff Pulver continues to grow the series of 140 Characters Conferences around the globe and they are coming back to where they started in New York City on April 20th & 21st. Besides a variety of great content, Jeff took a drastic step and one that I think was VERY needed. He slashed the prices.

It use to cost almost $1000 to attend a 140 Conference. So many people who wanted to attend just could not afford that so Jeff took the risk on making it much more affordable to attend. I asked him about this and his plan is to find quality sponsors who want to get in front of some the most influential people in the space to cover costs. If you wrote off the conference because you couldn't afford it in the past, check it out again because now you can. Also, if it is a fit for you find out more about becoming a sponsor.

I'm most excited because I'm going to be moderating a panel called Where Am I? How Location Changes Everything with the CEO of both Gowalla and Foursquare on the panel. I need your help because I'd very much like to add a senior member of the Google Buzz team or the CEO of Yelp to the panel and I'm hoping someone out there will read this and be able to help.

This is not going to be a panel discussing which service is better. I want to focus on why I (and the panel) believe that location is a key part of everything going forward. It is something that every business from the smallest corner sandwich shop to the largest retailer in the world needs to pay attention to and I hope this panel answers some of the questions everyone has.

If you have a connection feel free to introduce them to me. My e-mail address is cc.chapman@gmail.com