We are really pleased to announce them as speakers on the Saturday afternoon for a short talk.

We all know there is a lot of comedy in technology (not all of it is intentional)  Morgan and Ben manage to walk that tightrope in their weekly podcast show.

“The Discourse Weekly Show is New Zealand’s best podcast. It’s also New Zealand’s favourite podcast.”

“Ben Gracewood, you’ve heard the name, and you’ve probably heard the voice too, but have you heard him constantly interrupted and talked over?

If not, and if you like that sort of thing, then The Weekly Show is definitely the place for you.

Morgan Nichol, a face that launched a thousand ships (and a thousand websites, and a thousand bad ideas), a singing voice that makes angels cry (and dogs whimper).

He brings it, and he brings it hard, every single time. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

So expect the un-expected and don’t miss these guys. Depending on timetable we should be able to fit in 2 or more lightening sessions before adjourning across the square to Macs Brew Bar.

We reckon it will be a brilliant end to the afternoon.

This year we have a super panel discussion planned with Lance Wiggs and Richard MacManus as special guests. Julie Starr and John Ford will also be on the panel.

Richard is well known as founder of Read Write Web where he is widely recognized as a leader in articulating what’s next in technology and what it means for society at large.

Lance is best known in NZ for his role as Head of Group Digital at Fairfax Media NZ in 2007 New Zealand’s largest media company and before that as sole adviser to CEO Sam Morgan and Board Chair Richard Abbott on Trade Me’s sale to Fairfax Media for NZ $750m.

WordPress itself has in many ways been a game changer, firstly with bloggers and now as a content platform and framework. We know that like Lance and Richard many of you are game changers working at the edges of media and redefining your specialist areas.

• Where does blogging, community engagement and media all meet?
• What are the smart trends in this space?
• How does mobile and gaming fit in with blogging and social media?
• How is your life and business being impacted by new ways of communicating with friends, strangers, customers, partners and suppliers?
• What are your questions?

We invite you to write in some questions for the panel in the comment stream below.

Does blogging have a future ?

We got to talk about WordCampNZ with Glenn so along I went. It’s all one take and no script plus Glenn live mixes website shots and streams the show on ustream.

There is a tiny video camera somewhere near the microphone but Glenn is over to the left and so the challenge is to talk directly to him and try not to think about the camera.

P.S. Jayson Bryant of  WineVaultTV and Vaughn Davis are regular guests and have both been to WordCampNZ where Jayson presented last time.

That is Vaughn Davis’s back with orange hoodie. Courtney Lambert holding the orange on far right. Leanne Popovic sitting down and looking back. Vicky Teinaki with the command key (apple )I command SF MacWordld T-shirt. Jenny Wilmhurst in white cardigan. Are you in the photo? Let us know please.

Feed – Subscribe to the set “WordCampNZ 2010″ to view Kristinas’s photos by RSS.

1. Jayson Bryant – Winevault TV Getting your Video Blog Cranking
2. Rachel Cunliffe -  Cre8d Design Blog designer & Community site Designer – Custom Themes
3. Courtney Lambert – TV3 Social Media & Blogging for Corporates – @cjlambert
4. Michael Brandon SEO101 – search phrase selection, esp for WordPress
5. Richard Hollingum – TEDx Auckland Recommended for all – Making a Difference
6. Quintin Russ – Sitehost WordPress Security
7. Bill Bennett Writing for Blogs
8. Robert Popovic -LER09 BuddyPress Live & other advanced topics
9. Liz Quilty @RHLiz Advanced Hosting – VPS & Others
10. Alex Shiels – Automattic  Is My Blog Working Common problems and how to avoid them
11. Darren Wood Former Codeblack HTML 5 & CSS 3 & Why
12. Anthony Cole Custom Post Types in WP 3.0
13. Bren Faulknor- Murrell- (Mogul) Building Custom Plugins & Advanced WP
14. Dan Milward – Instinct WP e-Commerce Plugin – Inside the Tornado (with one of the worlds most popular WordPress plugins)
15. Suzanne Kendrick, Pippa Coom Community Management at Grey Lynn 2030
16. Sacha Dylan @kaupapa Who Are Your Audience
17. Justin & Sam VitalLink – Vital Gifts Facebook app
18. Matt Miller from Mogul
19. Jeff Ghazally Instinct
20. Jason Kemp DialogCRM
21. Vicky Teinaki who was not a speaker but took notes on twitter for everyone. Awesome work. We love that Jayson Bryant thanked her as one of the team. If we’d thought of that we would have to but actually she just did it. Luckily were able to find her some coffee and a Volt Espresso keepcup.  You can buy the reusuable cafe cups at Pyrenees Bakery / Deli / Cafe at 756 New North Road, Mt Albert.

Still a few sessions to go tomorrow but a great day. Thanks to all of you who came along and shared.

On Sunday morning we have Jeff Ghazally fresh back from WordCampUK, Matt Miller from Mogul & the wordcampnz editor Jason Kemp. Sunday Schedule here

We expect to drill into more live genius bar style specific examples and may even be able to fix, change or at least offer some pointers on the best options for actual sites. Enjoy.

Official kickoff is 9:15 am so you can sleep in a bit but if you want a great coffee – the coffee guy arrives at 8:15am and leaves by 10 so you may need to grab one on the way.

We trust that the speakers are enjoying their keepcups as a small token of our appreciation.

I’ll provide insights into our strategy on writing and managing a business blog as a team.

I’ll also cover the evolution of our blog , starting with our own custom publishing tool and the eventual switch over to WordPress, detailing how and why that resulted in a fundamental shift in our relationship to customers.