“When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town, down around San Antone’….” ahhhh, who doesn’t love the Doobie Brothers? Their hit “China Grove” still kills it to this day, almost 40 years after its release. Take a quick dance break, and watch it here – you know you want to!

What’s interesting about the tune is this – singer/guitarist Tom Johnston wasn’t completely aware that he knew a “China Grove” when he so named his sleepy little town. He said this in an interview: “The funny thing was that I found out in 1975 in a cab in Houston that there really was a China Grove…..in 1972 we were touring in Winnebagos, and we were driving into San Antonio. And there is a China Grove, Texas, right outside of San Antonio. I must have seen the sign and forgotten about it.” A case of subliminal messaging perhaps? If China Grove had been a brand instead of a town, its marketers would have died and gone to heaven.

San Antonio, Texas is where we start our tour today, and where the annual Eduweb Conference is held – this year on August 1st to the 3rd. This internationally recognized event for the higher education community attracts those who are involved in online strategy, marketing and technology. So, it makes sense that Radian6′s Director of Community Lauren Vargas will be there, as well as Account Manager, Business Development, Barry Pope, and Salesforce.com Account Executive Joseph Kogut. Radian6 is proud to be among an incredible lineup of sponsors for this important event.

Continuing our music theme, we keep spreading the news, and on August 8th Radian6 VP of Strategic Alliances Ed Sullivan, and Manager, Strategic Alliances Bob Faigel head to the Big Apple for CRM Evolution. If you’re attending also, you will come away with strategies that will help you streamline business processes, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, prepare for customer trends that are reshaping the marketplace and leverage the latest technologies that will change customer relationships. And heck, you get to do all that in one of the greatest cities in the world.

And what would a little music/event roundup be without a hat tip to the city that started a revolution in contemporary music? The birthplace of grunge, Seattle spawned such talents as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, to name just a few. And Seattle is where you’ll find Blogwell, on August 9th. You’ll also find Tom Hasselman, Product Marketing Manager at Radian 6, and Shannon Hofmeister Sr. CSM, Strategic Accounts. We’re thrilled to be able to help sponsor an event that, according to some past event attendees, is “A great forum for social media professionals to collaborate and learn from each other’s lessons and successes.” and “The most valuable source for staying current on B2C and B2B social marketing techniques in Fortune 500 companies.”

So that wraps it up for this edition of Where in the World is Radian6. In the spirit of all that is great in music, as well as the astounding pace of change and innovation that those of us in the social media world live in daily, we leave you with this quote:

I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else.  ~Lily Tomlin

Tags: BlogWell, China Grove, CRM, CRM Evolution, Doobie Brothers, Eduweb, Frank Sinatra, New York, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Salesforce.com, Seattle, Social Media, Soundgarden