A perusal of the agenda for the upcoming FSTA summer conference turns up a very familiar face in the middle of Day 1 who will be delivering a different message.

Dr. Kim Beason has long been a regular presenter at the semi-annual Fantasy Sports Trade Association gatherings, talking through his latest results in fantasy consumer research. Before he gets to that this time, however, Beason will be joining Peter Schoenke of RotoWire to discuss “changing trends in fantasy football.”

“Have you ever wondered how popular IDPs and team QBs are?” the agenda teases. Yes, actually, I have quite a bit. I will be very interested in hearing what Beason has to say here.

Other points of interest include:

– a session with Andrew Brandt, current president of the National Football Post who formerly handled player contracts and salary-cap management for the Packers, to discuss the realities of the NFL’s current labor unrest and how a potential lockout might impact fantasy companies

– a “one-on-one” with Mickey Charles, president and CEO of The Sports Network

– a screening of Fantasyland over lunch on Day 1

– a two-room split on the conference’s second day, dividing into panels geared toward technical aspects and those focused on business; the latter ends with a session on shedding the “gambling” perception, an issue we’ve been particularly focused on around FSB.com recently.

The conference will take place June 9 and 10, with the fantasy football draft kicking things off the night before.

The FSTA also announced Tuesday a blog that will carry posts by Sara Holladay, the Fantasy Football Librarian, throughout the conference. Of course, you can also count on FSB.com for all the news from the Chicago event.

(Correction: A previous version of this story referred to Brandt as a former president of the Packers. He never held that title.)

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Sports Illustrated announced this week that it partnered with game developer Watercooler on a multi-platform fantasy football product. Team management and game connectivity will be available to users via SI.com, Facebook and SI Mobile.

– Nando Di Fino of The Wall Street Journal this week used Yankees middle reliever Alfredo Aceves’ ownership numbers to illustrate differences in the user bases for fantasy games at Yahoo!, ESPN and CBS.

– Andrew Garda, proprietor of ThunderingBlurb.com, contributor to Draftguys.com and Fantasy Sports Channel host, will join the Footballguys.com staff this season.

– As Mother’s Day approaches and threatens to get many of us guys in trouble, FF Librarian Sara Holladay announced on her blog Thursday night that she’s due to have her first child (a son) right around Week 3 of the coming NFL season. This guarantees that she’ll need multiple bye weeks, and a skeptic might wonder if she’s building in an excuse for failing to reprise her Super Bowl trip-winning fantasy play of 2009. Of course, we don’t think that way here at FSB.com, so we’ll just say congratulations and good luck.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

It might not be the ultimate measure of who can offer you the best fantasy advice, but with so many “experts” floating around the industry these days, it’s always interesting to see how they (or we) fare in direct competition. Share your “expert” league/contest results with us, and we just might pass them along to our readership.

These items (and others) can also be found on the FSB News page.

– What did your last victory in an “expert” league (or home league, for that matter) get you? Pride? Some online publicity? A little money? Well, Sara Holladay — better known as the FF Librarian — will be heading to the Super Bowl next month thanks to her win in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bloggers League.

– Jeff Thitoff of 411Fantasy.com has put the wraps on another season of the Experts Contest that be brought from his days with The Columbus Dispatch. The 2009 title went to Thitoff’s 411Fantasy colleague and fellow Dispatch veteran Adam Conn. Although you’ll find my name tied for second in the Week 17 rankings, you’ll have to scroll down farther in the full season edition to find me at 12th. (That’s no place to boast about, but I will at least say that I know of some prominent competitors who finished lower.) A lesser man might call shenanigans on a contest won by one of the hosts. Fortunately, I’m above that.

– The fantasy football draft that opened last June’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association summer conference filled three leagues, which were won by Fantazzle’s Ryan Parr, a RotoWorld team represented by Rick Wolf and lawyer Glenn Colton and Team RapidDraft, piloted by Yours Truly (with draft help from former colleague Caitlin Morrall). The most surprising note, however, has to be that none of the three championship squads sported Tennessee’s Chris Johnson.

As always, send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

With the first pitch of baseball season just a few days away, it’s become apparent that our initial post on the FSTA baseball accuracy challenge was a bit lacking in specifics and clarity.

Just to restate, the challenge is being put on by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association in conjunction with FantasyDispute.com, the Fantasy Football Librarian and TheMostCredible.com to recognize fantasy outlets that provide the most accurate player stat projections for the coming season.

The baseball version of this challenge that originated in the 2008 football season differs in that participants must provide specific projections rather than just player rankings.

“We decided that you just couldn’t do the player rankings as easily with baseball as with football so we’re looking at projected stats for specific players instead,” said Sara Holladay, the FF Librarian and one of three judges for the challenge.

Those interested in participating should download the rules sheet and the official entry form from the FSTA’s site. Completed forms should be sent to Holladay (fflibrarian@gmail.com), Bill Green (greenbill@fantasydispute.com) and Donnie Campbell (dc@themostcredible.com).

Entries will be welcomed throughout the season, as long as participants can verify that their projections were published before the start of the MLB season.