Hammertime at Harvard, Next Week

You run into some pretty powerful thinkers at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, but how many of them have more than a million followers on Twitter?

Multi-platinum-selling rap star MC Hammer will be at the club next Monday for the Gravity Summit on using social media for marketing initiatives. Hammer, star of the A&E reality series "Hammertime," will talk about how he has used technologies like Twitter to "revitalize his brand and his businesses."

Other speakers include Gary Vaynerchuck, the "social media sommelier" who runs Wine Library TV; execs from Dunkin' Donuts, Southwest Airlines, and EMC; and Troy Kelley, chief digital media officer at Arnold Worldwide.

Gravity Summits have been held three times out in California; this is the first one on the east coast, according to organizer Rodney Rumford.

You can either pay $489 to be there in person; watch it streamed live on CNN for free; or go to the "Tweetup" gathering afterward at the Charles Hotel, starting at 5:30 PM.

The other big marketing conference, coming up in October, is the Inbound Marketing Summit, organized by New Englanders Chris Brogan and Justin Levy. It takes place October 7th and 8th at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. That one has a bit more local flavor, with folks from Mzinga, Crimson Hexagon, HubSpot, Name Media, IDC, Blue Sky Factory, and Advance Guard on the agenda. Gary Vaynerchuck will speak at that event, too, to promote his book "Crush It!" (out in October).