Hammock is a sponsor of Podcamp Nashville, which takes places tomorrow at the Cannery Ballroom. Podcamp is a free event, one that brings together bloggers, podcasters and marketers along with newbies to collaborate and learn about how to embrace and implement new media. Rex, Megan G and I will be there so please seek us out if you'll be there too! I'll report back early next week with my highlights from the event.

I'm in Austin the first part of this week for the Niche Magazine Conference: Creative Business Strategies for Niche Publishers. Over the next two days I will attend seminars and workshops focusing on small-and medium-sized publishers. These sessions include ad sales management, integrated sales, circulation, e-marketing, custom publishing and events. More to come tomorrow once the conference begins.

I'm back from Austin, ready to put into practice all of the ideas I took away from the Niche Magazine Conference. I know it's a challenge to carve out time to attend events like these, but the investment in this case was well worth it.

During the two days of the conference, I attended workshops on creative strategies for integrated ad sales, e-marketing and special events. The message I kept hearing from multiple sessions was that more and more advertisers are asking for integrated packages that include digital advertising opportunities; magazines that fail to deliver those packages are often excluded from proposals. We've noticed this trend toward online advertising over the last few years, too, with an escalation in the last 12 months. To compete for precious ad dollars, a magazine must have a digital property with quality content and desirable ad units. It doesn’t matter which niche you’re in: You have to dedicate resources, time and attention to play this new media game.

Trip bonuses:
1. I enjoyed being in Austin as it set a record high on Monday—can’t beat 80 degrees in February!

2. I met our MRI sales rep Erica who works with us on subscriber studies for our clients.

3. I experienced some of Austin's best food, thanks to recommendations from Summer in Hammock’s Austin office. The next time you’re in Texas’ capital city, try The Salt Lick, Guero's and Amy's Ice Cream. You won’t be disappointed.