Mark your calendars today for the Knoxville Social Media Association's Fall Networking Mixer, to be held at the Crown and Goose in Knoxville's Old City on September 22 (from 6-9 pm). The event is sponsored by The Tombras Group.

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Our speaker for our fall event will be Rusty Coats, VP for Content and Marketing with E.W. Scripps, addressing the topic of how social media is impacting the newspaper industry's business model. This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from and talk with a national leader in the rapid evolution of the traditional media model. Rusty isn't just a theorist, though, he's on the front lines of ushering one of America's truly iconic media companies through this disruptive transformation, and he's got a lot of very interesting things to say about what he thinks the future holds.

From the News Sentinel article announcing Coats' recent promotion within Scripps:

Coats has worked in interactive media for 15 years, first as a reporter covering technology, then leading Web sites for The McClatchy Company. The Newspaper Association of America named him Digital Innovator of the Year in 2005, and he now serves as co-chair of the Newspaper Consortium, which includes nearly 800 newspapers in partnership with Yahoo!

He is married to Janet Coats, a vice president and executive editor at the Tampa Tribune, and is the father of Carly and Cassidy, and stepfather of Sam, Rachel and Luke.

The KSMA fall event is open to the public. Light refreshments and drink specials will be offered. Come on out and hear (and meet) a national thought leader in interactive journalism and social media, and also meet other Knoxvillians interested in digital community and conversation. Our Spring Mixer had a great turnout, and we expect an even bigger crowd for this event.

You can keep up with the Knoxville Social Media Association on Facebook or Twitter. Or you can email us for more details on the event at KnoxSocialMedia@gmail.com

-Katie Allison Granju
KSMA