Thrilled to be part of this New York event for women in startups! I’ll be at the fair helping answer questions on digital branding, website development and social media. Also sharing lessons learned in starting up your own virtual business. )

Location: NY Kids Club on 68^th & Amsterdam

Event Time: 7-9:30

Panel: 7:30-8:30

Resource Room: 7-9:30

Register now!

This awesome event is sponsored by In Good Company Workplaces (@ingoodcmpny) and Baby Bites (@babybites)!

See you there!

Workplace for women entrepreneurs

social community for moms to be

Join Advertising Age in a half-day panel session on Apps for Brands, September 23 presented by industry leaders and recognizable brands. After the session you will be able to better understand how mobile apps can be integrated into a brand’s digital branding strategy. What would make brands jump the band wagon using apps to communicate their message and reach out to their audience? What have early adopters learned?

Here’s a snippet of what you’ll hear from the discussion:

• Efficiently developing and deploying quality, robust mobile applications
• Distributing and developing supporting marketing tie-ins for your apps
• Measuring your success and developing realistic yardsticks for adoption and usage patterns
• Packing value, be it utility or entertainment, into your app to outshine the competition
• Developing customer relationship management and utility concepts to fully engage an energized audience
• Leading customers along a trail of relevant applications and monetizing extended relationships

Learn more about the session Apps for Brands.

Hope to see you there!

~ jessica valenzuela

IF you have not caught the Internet Week New York bug yet, here’s why you should:

Gain insight. Even when you think you know it all, there is a lot to learn. As an entrepreneur, big consumer and evangelist of everything tech, digital and social media it is important to stay current and filter what is useful and relevant for our clients and community. A few events that I think are key and if you can register  would include Beyond Facebook: How will the students of today use the web of tomorrow, The Future of Digital Cities and Creativity and Technology (I am at this one today!).

Be inspired. Admittedly my first time at a New York Tech Meetup event last night, I was inspired by the products showcased. Will certainly make this event a part of my monthly repertoire. My personal favorites:

• UpNext offers a 3D view and local search or your city (currently just New York). It is available on the iPhone!
• Centrl offers a new way of connecting with people on the go. Available on the BlackBerry and iPhone.
• Livestream formerly known as Mogulus. I believed in their product when I discovered it last summer. I didn’t realize how powerful the new Procaster tool – it is rad! I am so looking forward to dabbling in videos thanks to Livestream!
• Aviary bringing design and editing to the browser. I haven’t tried it, but will definitely encourage our team of designers to dabble in it.

Connect and reconnect. Internet Week New York creates an invaluable opportunity for people to connect and reconnect. Everyone who is passionate about the community, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, VCs, techies and creatives are engaging and making the effort to support the events and programs. Personally met a number of new key contacts simply by getting indirectly involved with a handful of events and being present at a number of them. It is tough to leave your desk knowing you’ll be back in a few hours with a foot more of work before you left. Yet if you are aspiring to start a company or pursue an entrepreneur career in the future this is one of those city program events that you can’t simply miss. The time is now.

Learn about new trends in tech from kids. At the ContentNext event last Monday, June 1 10 Kid Entrepreneurs To Watch were showcased on flyers. Here’s the roster MyYearbook.com, Whateverlife.com, MobilEdu, Uno, FEE Entertainment, Courses, InternshipIN, Dynamik Duo, Teens in Tech, Eclectyk.

Celebrate the people who make it happen. By participating in the events and programs you are helping celebrate and support the people who work hard to make it happen.

Enjoy and have fun! Have you checked out the parties? Quite an impressive list difficult to decide which one to hit…I’ve been going from one to another the past two days.  Unsure if I can keep up the entire week! The list of the fun events are also listed in the Internet Week New York schedule.

Now get out there! If you tweet, the official hashtag is #iwny.

~ jessica ~

Our friends at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco took the economic climate in careful consideration when planning this year’s expo. They have done a fabulous job producing with the power of less.  Kudos to Janetti Chon (@janerri) and team for their careful planning and top-notch program management. I predict this will be the best ever Web 2.0 Expo yet!

Register for a Free Expo Pass and get access to all this:

• Expo Hall
• All Keynotes
• All Government 2.0 Sessions
• All Sponsored Sessions
• Web2Open and Web2Open Hybrid Sessions
• Opening Reception (Sponsored by Palm)
• Booth Crawl
• All other networking events
• Launch Pad
• Tekzilla Live!
• Solutions Showcase Theater presentations
• Sunlight Hackathon
• Birds of a Feather Sessions

Register today (use discount code EXPOPASS).

from the Sound of Music

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somwhere in my wicked, miserable past

There must have been a moment of truth

Captain:
For here you are, standing there, loving me
Whether or not you should

Maria:
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

Somehow my mood this evening is inspired by a song from a classic favorite, The Sound of Music.

Still wrapping my head around the reasons why I would be invited on a Springboard Enterprises panel with luminaires like author and WOWOWOW CEO, Joni Evans and Z Weave CEO and President, Laura McCann. The significance of this event just hit home tonight after I received the invitation for a pre-conference call with the other panelists. The “other” panelists happen to be big bright constellations in the universe of accomplished women in comparison to my little star dust. Deeply honored and hope that my learnings and experience as the founder of Mavin Digital, Inc. a self-funded next generation digital media company will inspire imagination and creativity to those who are traveling the same path as I am and those who are about to take the startup leap of faith.

I hope you will join me at Springboard Enterprises Equity Matters: The Road To Nasdaq on April 3. Read about the workshop details and a link to 15% discounted registration here.

When @shefinds shared the information curiosity peeked my attention: an IBM tweetup? Hhhhhmmm. Not sure what to expect specially when you receive an email request after registration asking for your full-name as it appears on ID for security check-in purposes. The tweetup was held in big blue’s 12th floor high-rise offices on Madison Avenue. A nicely suited security personnel with somewhat of an English accent (i thought) greets you very nicely, checks your name on the list and sends you through. The tweetup was held at an open conference space with refreshment stations, including a wine, beer and soda station with a cheese and fruit station next to it. @sandy_carter overheard someone in the crowd say “this is the most formal tweetup” laughter ensued while @jowyang pretended to drop his suit jacket.

What is a tweetup? An informal gathering of members in the twittersphere wherein engagement is beyond 140 characters. There is no computing or mobile device required. Pure face-to-face interaction with people following you and their followers, the people you follow and their followers. A vibrant social scene brimming with ideas, innovation, insights or simple laughter and smiles. Then of course there are those twitterati who invite the non-Twitter users to the mix. I extended the invitation to two friends who are non-twitter users. At the end of the tweetup, one of them pledged to actively use their Twitter account which had been dormant upon registration for sometime now. Victory!

Overall, a well-attended and fun tweetup event. Shout out to new friends @shefinds, @shefindsrebekah, @bryanthatcher, @erikmichielsen, @lynnmcfarlane, @tomnixon, @billhunt and @jeneanchapman. If I didn’t meet you and you were at the event please say hi! I’m @mavindigital on Twitter.

Learn more about Sandy Carter

Learn more about Jeremy Owyang

Congratulations @sandy_carter and @jowyang! Let’s do it again!

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