I'm beaming, because today I get to announce that Stacey Foreman, with whom I've worked off and on since the Wired days, is joining FM as our Director of Conferences and Events.

Those of you who have been reading the FM blog for some time may recall this post, where I was looking for an Office Manager. I described Stacey, who was one of my first employees at The Standard, thusly:

Back when I was starting the Standard I hired Stacey as my assistant. She was employee number two or three, as I recall, and clearly ready to do more than file and handle my schedule. That's why she left her job at a larger company to join a startup - she knew just about everything would be thrown at her, and over the course of the next four years, that proved true. From the very beginning, Stace not only handled administration, she also handled the front office, getting an office, coordinating new hires, managing our interface to lawyers and investors, overseeing our early rooftop parties, sorting out the phone and IT systems - basically, if it were not for Stace, the company would never have gotten off the ground. She was (and remains) whip smart, incredibly cheerful, always ready to go the extra mile. She was also willing to call a spade a spade, and when I or others were too demanding or simply too full of ourselves, she'd call us on it.

As the Standard grew to 500 folks and beyond, she became one of my most trusted lieutenants, first as my Chief of Staff (managing the Board and key relationships inside and outside the company) and later as a senior manager in the conference division. Now she's running her own business and thriving at it.

Well the business she was running was in conferences, she later became a partner at Modern Media, a media services business, running their conference management business. Now, she will be doing the same for us here at FM. Stacey has been producing high-touch, high quality events and conferences for more than a decade, starting with my first conference - The Internet Summit - at the Standard. Stacey manages operations for Quadrangle's annual CEO-level Foursquare events, and has managed events for brands such as RFID Journal, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Always On Network and more. Prior to The Industry Standard, Stacey held business development and corporate marketing positions at Wired magazine.

I'm so thrilled Stacey is joining FM. Her job will be to help our authors execute great events that help them build stronger and deeper relationships with their audiences, marketing partners, and contributors.

Expect to hear exciting news out of FM's new conference group very soon!

Welcome, Stacey!