Formerly a rocker in Nashville, Milam Byers is now Lead Agent at The Speakers Group. Milam reached out to me in June to ask if I'd consider being a part of the social media roster at The Speakers Group. Since then, the group posted a list of ten hot speakers in the social media realm - all of them were men and the group got some backlash as a result. In this interview we talk about how they dealt with the fallout, what they are working on as a company and Milam's own personal journey with his new son, Gunnar (pictured with Milam, above).

Tell us a little about you, how you started with The Speakers Group.

I was introduced to Shawn Ellis, the founder and president of The Speakers Group, by a mutual friend. The bulk of my professional experience comes from the music industry (like most of Nashville). I was a performer/recording artist and later worked for a firm in the agent role (booking and day to day management). I was in a rock band (played guitar, songwriter); we put out albums on a major label and toured all over the world for 8 years-still not a household name though. I love downtown Boulder too - we played Boulder Theater some time ago. One of my fave spots ever was the Fillmore in Denver. Most people think of country music when they hear Nashville but there is really a great rock scene here as well (Superdrag, The Raconteurs, Kings of Leon, etc).

What is the purpose of The Speakers Group?

We can provide you expert advice on how to select the best speaker for your audience, your budget, and your program objectives. We can advise you on how to maximize the value of your speaker booking, so you're doing more than just filling that 10am keynote time slot.

The value in our service is not in the access we provide (we can help you book any one of thousands of speakers), but in our ability to help you find the right speakers(s) for your unique situation.

You and I were already in talks about getting my bio (which is now) up on The Speakers Group site when TSG released a list of the top ten social media speakers - they all happened to be men. Can you talk a little bit about what followed?

Yes, I think we had been communicating over the course of a couple of months at that point. We were excited to launch a campaign to promote the social media topic to meeting planners and we were confident in the core group of speakers we had - which just happened to be men - and we knew we were going to keep adding to it (with speakers like you, for example).

So, we went with it without having any idea we were going to cause such an uproar. Things were fairly quiet for about a week, but then someone tweeted that we published a "top ten" without one woman and things pretty much exploded from there. At the time of our post, without our knowledge, a hot debate was already happening over the fact that women are often overlooked in the tech and social media world (particularly at a Gov 2.0 event). So, we stepped into a firestorm that we didn't know was happening and we learned a lot of lessons.

What was created as a blog for our clients and potential clients to learn about the speakers we represent (and helpful tools for meeting planners) became a much more authoritative platform overnight - & not the way we expected. I think the intent of our blog is very transparent, we've never tried to hide that fact.

In an interview with Jennifer Leggio Shawn, the founder of The Speakers Group, refers to "the dark side of social media." How do you think The Speakers Group is working to shed light on this dark side of the social media world?

Revealing the 'dark side of social media' is really not our platform. What we are trying to address and shed light on is the value we offer to both meeting planners (outside the tech/social media conference world) and social media speakers. We help them work effectively together because they come from two different worlds - as Jeff Hurt effectively pointed out.

Social media speakers don't look like "regular" professional speakers - in terms of their speaking styles, promotional materials, etc. - so part of our job is to help "mainstream" corporate and association meeting planners understand how to effectively evaluate social media speakers, and to help introduce social media speakers to these "mainstream" meeting planners.

I can immediately think of one example (without mentioning names) -- he's a "rock star" in the social media world, but his "resume" of speaking engagements is primarily a bunch of social media/tech events. He's not on the radar of many planners in the corporate world, but he has great expertise and insights to share with them. So - referring back to my answer above - the value of our service is not in the access we provide to social media speakers (by the nature of their work, they're easily accessible) but in the way we can help point meeting organizers to the right speakers for their unique situation, and then help them evaluate those speakers further.

What do you think are some best practices for individuals or brands that come under attack in the social media world?

Well, we do not claim to be authorities or experts on best practices - we defer that to our speakers. Some things that we learned, 1) you have to listen; 2) Don't think that you won't be noticed - once its out there, its out there. We are fortunate to be in constant communication with many 'experts' and 'authorities' that know us far beyond one blog post. We listened to them and tried to pick ourselves up and move on in the best way that we saw fit.

For those companies and individuals just starting out - whether they want a speaker or not - what would you tell them about social media/the social web?

I think it is amazing - it is absolutely essential right now. It's becoming increasingly relevant to people and organizations in all sorts of industries and professions, and it's a complex landscape, so it's best to find some good teachers (whether in the form of speakers or books or whatever) and try to learn from them. As a small business we saw how quickly things can go wrong. I would advise anyone to learn from authorities and experts how to implement best practices - both internally and externally. That was the catalyst in building this niche of speakers because we really believe in its relevance and importance. We also believe that people like you play a vital role for companies to put their best foot forward.

It's the end of 2009 - you look back and say, "I'm so thrilled with this year because..."

we're now seen as a valuable partner to some of the greatest social media authorities. And, meeting and event organizers think of us as a destination of choice to find the right social media speakers to help their organizations and their meeting attendees. And personally, 2009 started out amazing when I welcomed my son Gunnar to this world January 6 (our first!). Being a parent has completely rocked my world - in the best of ways.

Brush with fame in Nashville?

I took my wife to a movie several weeks ago and Tim McGraw was in front of us buying popcorn. He yells across the lobby (not many people there) to Faith, "Hey, you want butter on your popcorn?" in a very 'southern' way. She yells back, "yeah." I thought that was funny. That is part of what makes Nashville great. You see people like that living a normal life - something they couldn't do a lot of other places. People here respect that and don't bother them.

For more information on TSG, visit http://thespeakersgroup.com. And for those of you who don't know about Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, possibly the sweetest love story in country music, watch this video. The first time I saw it I thought it was a little cheeky but now I'm like: aww, dang. That's just adorable.

Faith HIll "Like we never loved at all"