My friends Dion and Mark at Persuasion Arts & Science suggested we get together and offer up a panel for SXSW next year. So we did. Our theme is "Manners for the Modern Brand." As Dion puts it, "Brands have to start behaving themselves, just like the rest of us. Now that the relationship between brand and customer has been turned inside out, there’s no other choice. But what is the new social contract? This panel argues the options."

And we've wrangled one heck of a moderator: Valeria Maltoni from the blog Conversation Agent.

Here's a couple of the kinds of questions we're hoping to discuss in the panel:

Are brands true members of society?

Do/can the rules of society apply to brands?

Is there a universal set of rules for brands to follow?

What are the consequences for ignoring or breaking the rules?

Would this theoretical rule book constitute a new model for brands to follow?

Can we as citizens use these rules to hold back the encroachment of intrusive marketing?

What are the rewards for brands that “behave?"

Is it every brand for itself, and to hell with the rules?

How far can the rules apply, beyond digital marketing, to the entire behavior of brands?

Who will win? The rude or the polite? Why?

PLEASE VOTE FOR OUR PANEL ASAP! We very much need your help to get on the official SXSW scorecard. Voting closes this Friday.

(Of course, to vote, you need to register.)

We're working on assembling an awesome team for this discussion, including a variety of professionals for whom etiquette and manners equals money, equals sales. We're also thinking about bringing in someone for whom etiquette is the devil. 

Heck, maybe we'll even hand out copies of this awesome book from my childhood.

Please pass the word. We appreciate any enthusiasm you can muster for this idea!

Register here. Vote here.