Dave Balter, author of Grapevine and founder of BzzAgent, is up to something intriguing. Today he launched a new company blog called The Bento Box (my favorite thing to have for lunch at a Japanese restaurant).

Take a look. It's kind of a blog as performance art. (Be sure to click on the image to listen to the audio segments.) BzzAgent has hired two high profile contributors to create the blog: John Butman, a professional writer and author; and…

I'm speaking at Melcrum's 2006 Strategic Communication Management Summit in London. Topic: The bigger picture: making blogs part of your strategy.

DATE: Wednesday Oct. 18th 2006

TIME: 4:30 - 5:20 PM following "Afternoon Tea" as it's billed in the program.

You can download a PDF of the agenda here.

I'm arriving a day early so I can attend Neville Hobson's pre-conference workshop on Oct. 17th:  How to use social media to create genuine employee engagement. I hear it's wildly popular and has already sold out.

I'm presenting a 90-minute interactive seminar for Melcrum. More info and sign up here. Note the time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 Eastern; 3:00 - 4:00 PM London.

I've worked with the Melcrum folks before and I have to say I think they're great. This is a warm-up for my presentation in London on Wednesday, Oct. 18th at Melcrum's 5th Annual Strategic Communication Summit. 

Apologies for the ridiculous gap since I last posted a podcast. No excuses really. But here's an update: starting Nov. 14th, 2006, I will be hosting "The Corporate Blogging Show" on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business. More info TK including the guests I'll be interviewing.

Live Internet talk radio - Tuesdays at 12 noon Pacific 

Here's a preview of my host page on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business where you can tune in live or listen to archived shows.  They'll also be posted as podcasts on this page.

Update: with a gentle prod from commenter Brian Brown, I changed "viral marketing" to WOMM (word of mouth marketing). That's what I meant to say.

Oh and started to post this a few days ago. It's been a busy week. I went to the Michigan/Wisconsin football game last weekend in Ann Arbor, MI.

Wow. (Full disclosure: I don't go to Big 10 games that often so I was, well, wowed...)

You can see that Wisconsin is holding off Big Blue at 10…

But really Hugh... there's a bit more to it than that, isn't there?

Everybody has been emailing me this cartoon this week. Hmmm...

In the 'IF YOU'RE REALLY COOL' Department

Order one of Hugh Macleod's gapingvoid business cards. Choose one of his cartoons for the front. Put your info on the back. I'm a sucker for these.

I've also got Hugh's new cartoon widget on this blog. Scroll down and look in the right-hand column.