Hot on the heels of TIME magazine naming "You" as the Person of the Year in 2006 and Newsweek declaring 2007 to be "The Year of the Widget," the consumer-generated content explosion online is about to be amplified, says Freewebs.

CEOs and marketers from leading companies and agencies like JWT, Clearspring, Digitas, Google, Warner Bros. Pictures, WidgetBox and RockYou! will meet for a full day of discussions to talk about engagement marketing, the widget evolution and successful case studies, says the company.

"WidgetCon 2007 is the start of a conversation between publishers, marketers, agencies, technology and measurement partners about marketing through distributed content and how increasing the level of engagement a user experiences will impact the media landscape and advertising practices," says Shervin Pishevar, president of Freewebs. "WidgetCon 2007 is an effort to promote collaboration between all businesses affected by engagement marketing, through sincere dialogue and meaningful networking, whose collaboration is essential to nurture widgets and engagement marketing and develop expertise."

Freewebs recently named Michael Burke as director of ad sales. Burke will work closely with Chris Cunningham, Freewebs' VP of advertising, to help drive the company's advertising and widget sales strategy.