If you are not familiar with the term, “crowdsourcing” is broadly defined as the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or independent contractor and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.   For example, through crowdsourcing, (and a site like crowdspring.com) you can have 23,000 designers in 140 countries design your next logo or website---for as little as $100 or any other price that you name!

CrowdSPRING is a business that has exploded on the marketplace due to its effective use of crowdsourcing and social media.  In the past 12 months, they've won WIRED magazine's small business competition, they were an official honoree at the Webby Awards, they were a featured speaker at South By Southwest in Austin Texas and just last week, they were honored with the Illinois Technology Association's Newcomer award. 

In his talk, Pete will cover how crowdSPRING - a startup functioning out of a cold basement in Chicago - that hasn't even reached its one year anniversary - has been able to use the power of crowdsourcing, combined with social media, to build a brand that has been featured in everything from Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal to Advertising Age and Forbes.  Come hear how they did it (and you can too) by using nothing but blogs, Twitter, email and even your own website to build a brand in a rapidly changing Web 2.0 world.

Daliah Saper, principal attorney at Saper Law Offices, will conclude the Seminar with a brief overview of measures that businesses should take to protect their brand online.  This includes securing domain names, buying the right keywords and sponsored ad listings, monitoring competitors’ use of keywords and text in sponsored ad listings, and generally being vigilant with respect to trademark and copyright infringement.

Last month’s seminar sold out fast so be sure to sign up today.