First Round of FinCon12 Speakers Announced

If you get the Wise1000 Newsletter you probably already know this. We’ve got our first set of speakers to announce. I’m excited to announce that we’ll have Liz Weston, J.D. Roth, and Adam Baker as speakers for the 2012 Financial Blogger Conference.

Liz Weston – Liz Weston is the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. She’s an award-winning, nationally-syndicated personal finance columnist who can make the most complex money topics understandable to the average reader. She’s authored several books, including The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy and “Your Credit Score“, a national best-seller. Read more about Liz.

I’ve known Liz since 2008 when I participated in the “Pay Yourself First” Challenge. She’s been an inspiration and big help to me ever since. I’m really excited that she’ll be speaking at the conference. Liz is as helpful to the blogging community as she’s is to her many readers. We’re still working out the details, but Liz will likely speak on her approach to reader Q&A, which has no doubt helped countless readers throughout her career. @LizWeston

Adam Baker – “Baker” is the creator of Man vs Debt, a popular site dedicated to helping you sell your crap, pay off your debt, and do what you love. That’s not an empty tagline. Baker is living that life. Baker is the author of Unautomate Your Finances, Sell Your Crap, and You Vs. Debt.

I’m excited to have Baker back for another FinCon. He did an incredible job last year, in what was one of his first times to hit the stage. He’s since spoken at Blog World Expo, and he did a TEDx talk. Baker is currently working on a documentary film about not settling for a mediocre life. Who knows, we may get a sneak peek in Denver. @ManVsDebt

J.D. Roth – J.D. Roth is an accidental personal-finance expert, a regular guy who found himself deep in debt. After deciding to turn his life around, he read everything he could about money and finance. In 2006, he started the award-winning website Get Rich Slowly, which Money Magazine named the Web’s most inspiring personal-finance blog. Over the past four years, Get Rich Slowly has grown into an active community where 500,000 readers each month share ideas on how to improve their financial lives. He’s the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual.

Given his contribution to the growing world of financial blogging, it was only fitting that J.D. open up our conference last year. He delivered, giving a great talk entitled, “Why We Write.” This year, I’m hoping J.D. can give us a deeper dive into how to build a community of dedicated followers (check the GRS comment section if you don’t know what I mean). We’re also tossing around the idea of him giving a talk entitled, “Predictions for the Future of Financial Blogging”, which would be a lot of fun for sure. Maybe we can have him do both? @JDRoth

This is a fantastic start to what will surely be a solid lineup of speakers and topics for the 2012 conference.

I’m hoping to make more speaker announcements by the end of the month. Stay tuned!