It’s been a whirlwind few weeks since we wrapped our freshman SheCon New Media Expo at the Miami Beach Convention Center, and we are extremely grateful to the sponsors and exhibitors who made our first event possible, to the speakers and panelists who made our event educationally valuable, and to the women (and men!) who invested their time, resources, and publishing voices to join us in Miami and spread the word about our conference.

With our professional backgrounds in the social media and Web space, Michael and I have a profound respect for the early adopters who make each business venture possible – for their time and voice in adopting a product, service, or – in this case – event; for their feedback and input that helps shape an initial startup idea into a viable business model; for their support through the ups and bumps of getting a new event off the ground.

It is because of this that Michael and I are pleased to announce our Founders’ Badges. For those attendees who participated in SheCon 2011, we are offering a lifetime VIP pass to all future SheCon events, with special perks, bonuses, and VIP access that we’ll be building on yearly.

Among the perks we’ll be including for our 2012 event will be:

- VIP designation and access to special events, sessions, and networking opportunities

- Free WiFi throughout the convention center

- Access to our VIP lounge for lunch, snacks, and beverages throughout the event

- Access to a VIP reception for SheCon Founders, Speakers and Exhibitors

Most importantly – these passes will remain 100% free for all of our founders. One of the most important pieces of feedback – and most valuable lessons learned from our freshman event – is that we need to charge for our conference passes to ensure accountability for registrations. While we would love to have our event remain free for all attendees, there were many passes that went unclaimed at our registration desk, and more than 80 women on our waiting list (and countless more who contacted us via email, Twitter, phone, or through social media) who were unable to attend because our event was “sold out.” To ensure accuracy in reporting for future events, we’ll be instituting the following ticket levels for SheCon 2012 and beyond:

- VIP/Founders Badge: This badge is by invitation only, and available only to those women who registered for and attended SheCon 2011. We’ll be announcing the full list of VIP perks for SheCon 2012 in the last week of August – stay tuned for more details!

- Full Blogger Conference Pass: This application badge will be available to bloggers who are coming to the event for educational or networking purposes on behalf of their blogs. Interested participants will be reviewed by our attendee panel (as attendees were for SheCon 2011), and accepted bloggers will be charged a fee of $99 prior to December, 2011, and $149 thereafter up through our 2012 event. This fee will cover catered lunch and WiFi access at the convention center.

- Full Marketer Conference Pass: We’ll have a limited number of marketer passes available for purchase in Spring, 2012 for those marketers who are interested in auditing SheCon 2012, who were unable to participate as sponsors or exhibitors for the event. These passes will be available for $249, and will include lunch and WiFi access at the convention center.

- Expo Hall Pass: For those attendees who are interested in touring our expo floor and meeting with sponsors, we have a limited number of free expo hall passes. These passes will grant access to the designated expo hall ONLY, and will not include lunch, WiFi, or access to any of the educational sessions or networking events throughout the weekend.

We’ll also be implementing a new requirement for registrants. We understand that conflicts arise, plans or finances change, and situations prevent attendees from coming to conferences. However, we ask that all attendees who register for a pass provide us with notice if they are unable to attend, so that we can accommodate one of our waiting list participants. Those attendees who register for passes but do not claim them at the registration desk (without prior notice) will be unable to register for the following year’s event.