Planning. It’s what separates us from the animals. Except ants and squirrels. They save stuff for the winter. And wolves, they plan their hunts. And spiders, they do a lot of work to put up those webs. OK, planning separates us from some animals, like the sea cucumber.

So for the non-sea cucumbers out there, I’m telling you about a set of cool New Media Workshops coming up Monday, July 31 to Thursday, August 3, at SFU. You’ve got to plan now if you want to attend.

Some of the speakers:

• Robert Scales on web trends and standards
• Kris Krug on the top 20 online social networking sites
• Weston Triemstra on managing digital identity
• Avi Bryant on web applications
• Steve Kellas on writing for multimedia and the web
• Travis Smith (hey, that’s me!) on branding, positioning and designing for the web
• Haig Arman on css and design
• Will Pate on integrating blogs into your business
• Darren Barefoot on monitoring the blogosphere
• Susannah Gardner on working with bloggers, forums and building community
• Robert Ouimet on podcasting and vidblogging
• Paul Sullivan on making money on the web
• Alexandre Brabant on search engine optimization
• James Sherrett on how to measure successful online campaigns

You can come for one day, or all four days, for about $200/day — I recommend day 2. :) Full details here.