Mike and I are proud to announce that two of the panels crafted in-house at Carrot have been selected for further voting by you, the lovely interactive community. With your help we can collect all the gold rings, green mushrooms, fire spitting flowers, and flying feather things to defeat Bowser and deliver two riveting presentations in Austin.

Mike will be speaking on how the reigning sports leagues like the MLB, NFL, and NBA can help their athletes leverage social media to connect with their fans on a more direct level. He’ll also touch upon our own client experiences with some of the most influential athletes to play the game, in addition to the controversy surrounding fake athlete accounts, and how they can lead to far-reaching a PR nightmare if left to an amateur.

Myself, PepsiCo’s Director of Digital and Social Media, Bonin Bough, and Josh Karpf, Social Media Manager at PepsiCo, will be speaking on how large corporations can reach an entire new generation of digital consumers by embracing their social consumption behaviors and facilitating genuine communication through a brand’s core messages.

Help us beat Bowser—it’ll not only be a victory for Mario fans worldwide, but also for every one of us who live, eat, and breathe social media.

This article is copyright © 2012