2 Great Events in One Week

Ever since Boston Tweetup was created, I have found my calendar filling up really fast. Some people might not enjoy a full calendar but I really love it. Although I don't go to every event that I find or throw into my calendar, I try my hardest to attend them all. To tell you truth I don't know how Joseline Mane (@JoselinMane) and Rachel Levy (@BostonMarketer), creators of Boston Tweetup, are able to attend all the events!

Last week I attended 2 well hosted events, Mass Innovations Nights and a panel on Integrating Social Media Across the Big Brand hosted by Social Media Club Boston and Hill Holiday. Although they were two different types of events they had one thing in common, good networking.

Mass Innovation Night is held once a month at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, MA. This location is easy to access coming from Cambridge and there is inexpensive parking. MassInno night gives Massachusetts-based innovators the opportunity to showcase their products. The innovators this month were, AllFocus, Blitz Innovations, Inc., Clickhealth, IBM/Lotus, Hubunity, Mixandmeet, Nexiwave, Pixily, and WherePhone. These companies innovations were all very different from a social network available for school communities by Hubnity to a phone conversation transcription service by Nexiwave. One innovation that blew my mind was Clickhealth. This company provides cell phones to doctors in 3rd world countries allowing them to take photos of infections or conditions that they are unable to diagnose, upload the photo and information to a message board, where doctors who have Internet access and resources can provide consultation. Having been to an orphanage in South Africa, I have seen first hand the limited resources that doctors in these countries have, and I can see how this will be useful to them. I have a few questions for the company, I'm hoping to speak them shortly to do a longer blog post about this great idea. Check back here soon for it!


The night after Mass Innovation Night, the Social Media Club of Boston organized a panel on Integrating Social Media Across the Big Brand hosted by Hill Holiday. There were 5 panelists: Terry Lozoff – President, Street Attack, Ken Peters – Vice President, Text 100 Public Relations, Vicki Rellas – CMO, Mom Central, Mike Spataro – Vice President, Client Strategy & Channel Partners – Visible Technologies, and Sean Corcoran - Analyst, Forrester Research. The night started off with networking, presentations by the panelists, pre-written questions, and questions from the audience. A few takeaways from the panelists were, "mistakes in social media with big brands are really public and costly, this needs to be understood" and "to understand social you need everyone involved." "Are brands better off working with companies who specialize in social media marketing or with integrated agencies that have social media capabilities?" was a really good pre-written question, asked by panel moderator by Mike Proulx, Vice President, Interactive for Hill Holliday. The best panelist comment of the night was, "Social media is A1 sauce not the steak. It's a supplement not a substitute."

If you missed these events, don't worry, you can attend new ones, next month thanks to Social Media Club Boston and Mass Innovation Nights. Looking for other upcoming events? Check out the often updated calendar by Boston Tweetup.

The Best Restaurant Outside of Boston (for special occasions)

Two times a year in Boston and outer Boston, restaurants offer three-course prix-fixe lunches and dinners for less than $35 per person. The best restaurants to eat at are the expensive restaurants that you would never think to visit.

During Restaurant Week last year my fellow and I dined at Bistro 5 in West Medford, Massachusetts. After we sat down we were waited on hand and foot by an entertaining sever, Angus (not the meat that was his name). When Angus told us that everything on the menu was made from scratch, we knew we were in for a treat. We were allowed to try some of the wines from the extensive list before we were pulled a generous glass or two. I started my 3 course menu off with a melt in your mouth black lobster ravioli, followed by mouth watering salmon, ending with a pot of warm hot chocolate mouse. My counter part at dinner was able to soak up every last drop of his Muscles with their home made bread and dip his bread in the red wine reduction from his steak. Each course came out on time and the glasses on the table were never empty.

Last but not least that I would like to comment on is the ambiance in the restaurant. It was extremely romantic and beautiful. The walls are dark red with Jester art, dark chairs, metal butcher tables, and candles lit everywhere. The restaurant is not loud, allowing you to have a private conversation with the person sitting right across from you.

One tip I do have is don't try to dine here without a reservation, you will either wait or while or have to sit at the bar. The other tip I have is dine here! You will receive great service, great food, and a romantic dining experience. We loved it so much that this year my Birthday surprise was another night at this restaurant.

Better Late Than Never

I am finally getting myself together to do this blog post. I apologize for the delay....

This year was the first time I was able to attend to SXSW Interactive, and let me tell you, what an experience! Not only did I meet amazing people but I learned so much that it just blew me away. I have to thank two people for helping me get to SXSW, Jeremiah Owyang and Hugh Forrest. I would not be there without you so thank you!

So here is what I experienced...

The first day I arrived in Austin I was so excited and overwhelmed at the same time. Austin was beautiful and everyone there was just so nice. As soon as I arrived at the convention center I was able to attend my first of many keynotes. The first keynote was Groundswell co-author and Former Forrester Analyst Charlene Li. It was an great pleasure to see her on stage again. The topic of Charlene's keynote was "The Future of Social Networking." She talked about 3 things that can make Social Networks like Air: 1) Identity 2) Your contacts 3) Activities. If you achieve any of these 3 things in your Social Networks it can be the life supply to every person using that network. She also said that if you are able to help manage friendships in Social Networking then you are way ahead of the game!

The Is Spec Work Evil panel was intense thanks to the following panelists; Mike Samson - crowdspring.com, Jeff Howe Editor - Wired Magazine, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Chief Creative Officer - skinnyCorp/Threadless, Jeremiah Owyang Analyst - Forrester, David Carson - davidcarsondesign, and Lydia Mann - AIGA. I walked into the panel not knowing which side I wanted to side with, still pretty much in the grey area. And of course the first person who sat down next to me was the CTO of Threadless.com, Harper Reed who asked me right away, "So are you for or against spec work?" I had no idea who he was so I honestly admitted, "I don't know yet."

Well let me tell you at the end of the session I strongly felt that Spec Work is another area that allows designers and customers more options. David Carson did throw out a few zingers at Mike Samson Crowdspring.com causing a few people suck in their breath. Although no general agreement was reached by the panel itself it was good seeing the passion people had for this topic. So Mr. Reed my decision has been made: I think on Crowdspring.com does give designers the opportunity to grow, communicate, and design to its customers needs and wants. It also allows them to practice their abilities, share their expertise, and show what they can do while building their portfolio.

I also went to many more panels, core conversations, and got a chance to hang out at the Blogger Lounge. All in all, SXSW was an amazing, and hopefully not a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Photos from SXSWi

I just returned from a really great trip to Austin, Texas to attend SXSW Interactive. While I was there I took a lot of photos. So here they are, enjoy!

SXSWi Part 1

Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSWi

SXSWi Part 2

And the winners are!

After a very long day at Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator, the winners have been announced. Every presentation was well done and all the ideas were innovative and unique.

And the winners in each category are:

Online Music-Related Technologies

Popcuts - Berkeley, CA

Online Video-Related Technologies

Tubemogul - Emeryville, CA

Social Networking Applications

Weardrobe - Palo Alto, CA

Innovative Web Technologies

Ribbit.com - Mountain View, CA

Online Music-Related Technologies

Echodio - San Francisco, CA

This painless music manager sits in iTunes, allowing music fans to sync their tracks and backing up their music while on the go. To use this in iTunes, users just drag and drop their music into the Echodia playlist which automatically provides a backup. It also stores ratings, playlists, and tags, giving the music fan the whole package when backed up.

Gigotron- Los Angeles, CA

Gigotron’s presentation addressed one problem right off the bat: live music does not have one central location where everyone can find out about where bands are performing. This iPhone application lets users know what events are scheduled on a certain night, who is playing, and why they may not be able to find this information easily. Gigotron says this application for the iPhone “helps you get in touch with your music.”

A panelist asked, “How is this different from SongKic?” Gigotron responded “We have 40% more concert data than SongKick.”

Mugasha - Portland, OR

Magusha caters to dance music fans, allowing them to browse and stream DJ sets. Dance music fans can also rate the tracks and buy the tracks with little loading time. They work with smaller artists who allow them to do this, which helps avoid potential legal issues. The only problem that the judges commnted on was that users can see every music genre in the display list, and there is no filter for which music is available to stream.

Popcuts - Berkeley, CA

Popcuts says that they “Make music more like a relationship.” Users can look up Popcuts and find smaller artists and buy their music. If you buy a smaller artist’s music and they become a hit, you receive store credit and street cred. The panelists brought up that this sounded like a ponzi scheme, but Popcuts countered with “The real ponzei scheme is when the money floats to the top and the little guy gets nothing.”

Online Video-Related Technologies

The third category of presentations at Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator, Online Video-Related Technologies, has finished.

Here is a quick overview of who presented and their "big idea":

MotionNotes - Houston, TX

MotionNotes began their presentation by stating that “email is good for some things and bad for other things.” Their product does not replace traditional media, but enhances it. With MotionNotes users can create a site people can visit for sharing personalized media. Users can do multiple things with this web-based platform, including making online reservations, personalized Christmas cards, and image slideshows.

The main concern with the judges was that this presentation did state that the product is “…sometimes a replacement for email – sometimes.” The lack of clarity therefore confused the judges and could possibly confuse users.

PortalVideo - Wellesley, MA

PortalVideo rough-cut edits over the internet to cut digital editing time in half. Drag and drop methods allow users to take transcripts and video cuts and place them where they would want them to be in a film strip. Realtime plays are also available to users.

“What problem do you solve?” asked one judge. PortalVideo said they solve the problem of not having to use an edit suite to figure out what clips you want to use while shuffling around loads of paper.

Tubemogul

Emeryville, CA

Tubemogel allows content creators to upload their videos, and share them with all top video sharing sites. It also provides syndication, aggregated analytics, promotion and guaranteed viewership. Users can get rich audience analytics side by side with their syndicated analytics. The free product allows people to see reviews and ratings of their video, and the subscription allows them to see the deep gritty of analytics.

As mentioned, Tubemogel offers a guaranteed viewership, which can be done through a cost-per-view program. TubeMogel sends a video to featured spots; if the video is clicked on to be viewed, people pay each time it is viewed.

Spawn Labs

Austin, TX

Spawn Labs allows a gamer toplay their console games via a Internet-connected computer. This also provides game developers access to dev kits in real time. Users can plug the game controller into their computer, log onto their site, access their consoles and play straight from their computer. Users can also access your favorite television show if someone is hogging the TV.