The Greater Washington Board of Trade is presenting a timely breakfast program on Oct. 11 at the National Press Club that will focus on the challenges facing businesses in the blogosphere and in social networks. Experts will discuss social media trends, including corporate blogging, and how small and large businesses can most effectively engage in and benefit from these new communications vehicles.

The program, moderated by Dan Beyers, Local Business Editor of The Washington Post, runs from 8 to 10am; $35 for Board of Trade members, $50 for nonmembers. Register here.

According to the Examiner, Crowe has spent a good part of the fall in Maryland and other areas around Greater Washington. And it should be no surprise to anyone that Washington is a common set for lots of major motion pictures.

But does anyone realize that film production has a huge economic impact? When people think of economic development, they think of recruiting or retaining companies that will increase the tax base and create jobs. But filmmaking is economic development and marketing at its best.

Consider this: when a production company chooses a location to shoot a film, it usually brings with it an entire crew of workers, actors, etc. Sometimes the company hires local professionals as well. These people stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, take advantage of public transportation. The production company rents office space and uses local businesses for services. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are dropped into that location’s economy. And they don’t require the location to build any infrastructure (roads, utility lines, etc.), additional schools, or provide any additional services such as garbage collection. In fact, some production companies invest in construction and improvements at their cost to make the location fit their needs.

So when they leave 3-6 months later? Most of the time, they leave the location better than when they arrived.

And what better marketing than to see your skyline, Main Street, local barber shop, and bicycle trails featured on the big screen? You couldn’t pay for that kind of advertising.

So the next time you’re frustrated because a street is closed and there are a bunch of crazy teenagers drooling over Russell Crowe, remember that this is economic development at its best - and the cost to us is minimal.

Other than bragging rights to the official title of “headquarters,” Greater Washington is fortunate in that most of the 4,000 employees of AOL in Northern Virginia will remain. And the #1 reason why AOL says it will keep its strong presence in Greater Washington? The educated workforce.

GWI issued a press release just last week touting the fact that recently released U.S. Census data show Greater Washington leading the nation in educational attainment (see blog entry below).

This is a smart business decision for AOL, who has reinvented itself over the last decade to stay healthy and remain as one of the leading technology companies in the world. And Greater Washington should want AOL to stay healthy. If AOL continues to thrive, we will reap the benefits, as AOL’s presence here will grow along with it.

And don’t be fooled by those that think this announcement will dampen Greater Washington’s reputation as a leading technology region. Our technology workforce is larger than that of San Francisco-San Jose and three times larger than the national average. Greater Washington has more than 7,500 IT firms, or roughly 148 firms for every 100,000 residents. This concentration is twice that of the New York and Chicago metro areas and three times that of Los Angeles. What’s more, an increasing number of these firms focus on innovation and programming, employing nearly 100,000 computer programmers and designers. In fact, the region employs six times the national average of computer scientists, and four times the national average in computer software engineers specializing in systems design.

Greater Washington is doing just fine, thank you.

Greater Washington also has the highest percentage of people with advanced degrees, at almost 22%, again ahead of San Jose which has 18%. This is an increase of 3% since 2000.

This data is consistent with and reinforces the fact that Greater Washington is a leading talent capital. In March, the Greater Washington Initiative released a study, titled “Human Capital: Greater Washington’s Knowledge Workers,” which showed that Greater Washington boasts the nation’s highest concentration of knowledge workers among all metro areas with more than one million residents.

In addition, the Greater Washington Initiative’s 2007 Regional Report showed that 44% of Greater Washington’s foreign-born population of 25 or older has a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

Greater Washington has more than 50 colleges and universities based in the region, with approximately 400,000 residents enrolled (29% in graduate programs). Greater Washington ranks first among major metropolitan areas for attracting and retaining recent university graduates – performing 60% better than the national average.

It’s no wonder that smart people make smart regions, and that’s why Greater Washington continues to recruit and retain the best and smartest companies.

Say what you may about Beltway bandits and insider deals, but if a billionaire with a major stake in the technology sector has a hard time setting up meetings without a full-time presence in Greater Washington, it’s a sign that your company might need a Washington office. Especially if you want to provide some of the $55 billion in goods and services the federal government purchases annually from businesses in Greater Washington.

Though Google is presently concerned with some FCC regulations and access to the wireless market, the Defense Department is the largest spender in the area. Here’s a breakdown of 2006 procurements:

• Greater Washington: $31.1 billion
• Dallas metro: $16.3 billion
• Los Angeles metro: 13.4 billion
• Boston metro: $8 billion
• New York metro: $6.9 billion
• San Francisco-San Jose metro: $6.5 billion
• Philadelphia metro: $4.2 billion
• Atlanta metro: $3.0 billion
• Chicago metro: $2.1 billion
• Miami metro: $1.0 billion
• Source: Department of Defense, SIAD, 2006

So does this make us workaholics? Or are we leading the way in establishing a new work culture?

The Examiner article also highlights this tidbit from the study: “58 percent of Washingtonians check mobile e-mail in bed in their pajamas and 58 percent check it in the bathroom.”

Think about that next time your boss sends you an email from a BlackBerry.

We soon discovered that there’s a blog, whose name is unspeakable here, for romance novel fans who took offense. Although the blog’s name labels the genre as “trashy,” the fans, including author and Greater Washington resident Nora Roberts, began emailing and calling our office to let us know how they felt.

Their passion filled the blog’s comment boards and helped generate media coverage in the New York Times and the Washington Post, giving the ad’s message much broader distribution.

GWI certainly did not want to offend anybody, but the media success surrounding these ads corresponds to the Geico Caveman ads — only there aren’t any cavemen around to get offended at those ads.

USA Today fact: Even if you live in the DC area, you might be surprised to know that USA Today is a home-grown company based in McLean, Virginia.

This news probably won’t upend Google’s dominance on the web, but it might help change some attitudes about whether Greater Washington is a home for innovation. Companies like Google and Microsoft have helped their hometowns establish themselves as centers for innovation. But despite the presence of companies like AOL, XM Radio, Lockheed Martin and legions of researchers and scientists engaged in cutting-edge work, Greater Washington is more often perceived as a place for plodding bureaucrats and Beltway bandits.

What do you think? Is there hope to turn around this perception? Or are federal images of the region too strong to overcome?

Paris Hilton was on “Larry King Live”

“But a lot of people don’t know that I’m a businesswoman, and I run several businesses. And I like to go out, as well, and socialize.” — Paris Hilton

That’s well and good, but I wonder how well she’d stack up against the many women executives in Greater Washington. As we reported last month in the Regional Report, the DC metro area has 274 women in C-level jobs per 100K residents, the highest concentration in the nation.

This fact is still making the news circuit. Bloomberg TV aired a segment yesterday (we’ll get you a copy soon) that includes interviews with some women execs in Greater Washington. And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a nice piece today with the headline: Washington, D.C., area boasts highest ratio of female execs.

Also today, the Washington Post cites GWI’s study in a front-page article on job opportunities for newly-minted CPAs and the concentration of financial services professionals in Greater Washington.