With crowdsourcing and crowdfunding becoming increasingly popular, a number of companies and organizations are holding events to help clarify the dynamics behind crowd-driven initiatives.

Earlier this week, for example, Crowdsourcing.org founder Carl Esposti (second from the left) appeared at Brazil’s Crowdsourcing Conference: Co-Creation and Collaboration 2012. The conference featured a number of distinguished speakers, including Jeff Howe, who coined the term ‘crowdsourcing,’ Irene Greif, head of group collaborative user experience at IBM, and Pia Erkinheimo, head of crowdsourcing at Nokia.

Not all enthusiasts need to plan a trip to Brazil to attend an informative and interesting crowdsourcing conference – there are plenty of events happening across the U.S. and online. To keep our readers on top of all things crowdsourcing, we are compiling a list of some of the events that are taking place in the near future.

Is Crowdfunding Right for Your Business?

On Tuesday, July 10, Crowdsourcing.org will be streaming a roundtable discussion between Michael “Hutch” Hutchinson, noted speaker and the Chief Revenue Officer at CommunityLeader and members of the CommunityLeader executive team on what crowdfunding can do for various businesses. The CommunityLeader team will be on board for a simultaneous live chat with the audience to answer questions about the discussion. To pre-register for the webinar, which will take place at 11am PST (2pm EST), please click here.

Why Atomization is the Key to Success in Open Innovation

Also on Tuesday, July 10, open innovation company TopCoder will be hosting a webinar on open innovation and atomization – breaking up a project into many pieces and running highly specialized competitions to solve the individual parts of a problem. The webinar will take place at 10:30 – 11:15am PST (1:30 – 2:15pm EST); to register, please visit this page.

Wikimania 2012

Wikimania is an annual international conference for those interested in all things wiki. This year, it is taking place July 12-15 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The conference has actually already kicked off in New York City, with events taking place throughout the weekend. But the conference officially starts on the 12th, with a number of presentations, workshops, and sessions taking place throughout the end of the week and the weekend. Online registration has already closed, but on-site registration is available July 10-14.

CfIRA's JOBS Act Symposium

On Friday, July 13, the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CfIRA) will hold a symposium on crowdfunding and the JOBS Act in Washington, D.C. The event will bring together lawmakers, crowdfunding advocates, and regulators in order to discuss the rules that will oversee equity-based crowdfunding. A few of the many topics on the agenda include fraud protection, what advice crowdfunding portals may give to issuers, and the right of portals to refuse certain offerings. The event is closed to the public, but for those interested in the symposium, Crowdsourcing.org holds regular live chats with members of CfIRA to discuss the latest developments on the JOBS Act regulations.

Las Vegas Startup Weekend

Startup Weekend is a “global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs.” The events bring together a large number of developers, designers, managers, and startup enthusiasts to pitch, develop, and launch startups – all within 54 hours. The next US-based Startup Weekends are taking place in Seattle and Las Vegas on July 13-15. The weekend conferences are a great place to meet new people, validate business ideas, and learn new skills. To purchase tickets for the Las Vegas event, visit this page; tickets for the Seattle event are here.

NineSigma Innovation Leadership Summit

On October 1-3, the open innovation company NineSigma will host its 4th innovation summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The three-day conference and workshop will feature a number of prominent speakers representing companies like Unilever, Kraft Foods, General Electric, and Quirky, among others. This year’s conference will focus on “global mega trends and the impact they have on organizations’ innovation agendas.” To register for the summit, please visit this page.

CrowdConf 2012

Finishing the roundup is CrowdFlower’s 3rd annual CrowdConf conference, which will take place in San Francisco on October 23. The event is still several months away, and the specific agenda will not be announced until August. Interested individuals can complete a speaker proposal form until the end of July for a shot at addressing conference participants.