Your boss however good his intentions is bound to be thinking also about his organisation without you so you have to factor that in - why not ask him for a year long sabbatical and also work out a way that you can possibly still be there to answer questions if they get stuck in your absence. If the company that you are with are this worried about you going then it is probably time they faced up to not building a business around one person and also you can help them transition to to time without you there
work out if you trust them, work out what is the worst that could happen (i.e. ending up sleeping on friends floors back home if it all goes wrong) - if that is acceptable then go
Your friends can always visit
“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go in business because we’d be cynical: ‘It’s gonna go wrong.’ Or ‘She’s going to hurt me.’ Or ‘I had a couple of bad love affairs so therefore …’
“Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss life. You’ve got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.” Ray Bradbury (Note: do not try with actual cliffs!)
This is a minefield! see forbes article on being forced to hand over your facebook password to employers: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/03/22/employers... . I can see the potential conflict in refusing but it might be pragmatic solution to set up a 'corporate you' face book account making it clear that it is set up for work and simply being used in this way. That way you are not being forced to 'personally' endorse products which is the real issue but equally are not putting yourself in a difficult position and refusing your employer.
These have all been taken on board no - thanks again, if you ever want to set up an event in the future please let me know and I'll make sure their are no system fees.