By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

Wbc2011 Later today I'll be heading south on I-95 to attend this year's Wine Bloggers Conference later this week in Charlottesville, VA.

It's been a few years since I've attended WBC but I'm looking forward to catching up with colleagues from coast to coast and to exploring Virginia wine country again.

The agenda is jam packed with wine, wineries and informational sessions, but there are a few things that stand out as the can't-miss parts of the programming.

First at the two keynotes, Friday's given by none other than Jancis Robinson and then Saturday's offered by Eric Asimov from the New York Times. These are two 'traditional' wine writers who have embraced not only the Internet but social media as well. They "get" it and I can think of no better folks to speak to the gathered masses.

Beyond visiting some Virginia wineries on Saturday and tasting their wines throughout the event, another can't-miss session is a panel discussion titled, simply, "Drinking Local." Of course it is can't-miss for me because I'm one of the panelists, but I'd attend that one anyway.

It will be moderated by friend and Virginia wine blogger Frank Morgan and my fellow panelists will be Drink Local Wine co-founder Dave McIntyre from the Washington Post and Remy Charest, a member of the TasteCamp board and blogger at The Wine Case north of the border. I have a feeling this will be a lively discussion — we're all friends on the panel and we're all passionate about the concept of drinking local, even if we come at it from different angles.

I'll be partially offline for the next couple of days en route, but I know that the rest of the NYCR team will keep the content coming. Look for a report early next week on the proceedings.