Social media in business topic of Saturday summit

While it took about a half century for the radio to reach 50 million people, it took three years after its 2004 founding for Facebook to do the same.

A group of local educators, business owners and media professionals will gather at the University of Nevada, Reno on Saturday for the second-annual Nevada Interactive Media Summit for discussions on coverage of Nevada politics to using Facebook as a business tool.

"Whether we like it or not, interactive media is a huge influence in most people's everyday lives - at work, in our schools, in our politics and in our personal lives," said Tracy Viselli of Reno, who blogs under the name Myrna the Minx and is one of the summit founders. "It's changing the way we communicate with each other, the way we get our news - even the way our government operates."

The sold-out event will give participants a chance to network and discuss how interactive media is changing the way they do business.

Erin Kotecki Vest, the director and producer of special projects at BlogHer, Inc., (whose Twitter feed @QueenofSpain has 17,000 followers), will give the event's keynote address. She'll discuss why social media should no longer be considered just a fad, especially among professionals.