Plancast, a simple and easy way to learn about events and plan for them.

In late May I went on this journey with the intent to kite, visit places I’ve seen and discover new ones. The main platform behind the travel agenda: kiting and meeting more techies in the West Coast. It has been a wild and windy summer 2010 which is coming to an end. Yet my journey has only begun. This Fall I may try to live a bi-coastal life. Not fully decided on the idea, but projects and life are bubbling on both coasts so why not give it a whirl?

You can check out events in my Fall line-up below or subscribe to Plancast <– great way to discover cool events and happenings in any space and place! I love how simple and easy it is to use.

Green Day and AFI, September 4, Mountain View, CA I love listening to live music! Admittedly not a pro when it comes to the music world, but I learn by listening to recommendations and listening to friends’ compilation, going to a handful of concerts and dance clubs.

Social Media Law Conference, September 9-10, Seattle, WA As a consumer and practitioner of social media, understanding the legalese around content creation and regulation is very important. I was invited by the organizers to cover, mingle and learn from the leading practitioners in the rules, regulations and policy surrounding social media in a variety of industries including entertainment, ecommerce, gaming, technology and more! The Agenda will specifically cover these areas:

• FTC regulatory initatives
• Emerging employment law risks in social media
• Expanding the market: The FCC’s Broadband Plan and net neutrality policy
• Compliance with international social media regulations
• The convergence of social networking and gaming
• Tools to prevent misconduct and site operator liability on social media sites
• Liability for user-generated content
• Trademark protection in social media
• Ethical dilemmas for private practitioners
• Regulatory and self-regulatory programs for advertising
• Privacy law issues

WITI Annual Women In Technology Summit, September 12-14, Silicon Valley, CA Why am I excited to be part of this event? It is one of the global recognizable trade associations for women in technology with a market reach of over 2 million! A power house key note speaker list including:

• Sandy Carter, VP, SOA & WebSphere Strategy, Channels & Marketing, IBM
• Bernadette Nixon, SVP Global Field Marketing, CA
• Nilofer Merchant, Entrepreneur, CEO & Chief Strategist, Rubicon Consulting
• Kathrin Winkler, Chief Sustainability Officer, EMC

I met Sandy Parker briefly at a tweetup in New York over a year ago with Jeremy Owyang. It was one of the first tweetups hosted by IBM. Am keen on hearing more about what Sandy has to share in the advancement of women in technology and how that is fast changing with the advent of new technology and social media. She is a recipient of WITI’ Hall of Fame! Congratulations Sandy!

Astia Investor Forum, September 22, New York City, NY. Over 10 companies are presenting in this year’s Astia Investor Forum. All are gearing up for an important milestone in their entrepreneur careers. Women entrepreneurs rock!

TechCrunch Disrupt, September 27-29, San Francisco, CA The hotbed for technology and innovation is hosting the second Tech Crunch Disrupt event — it is all about the startups in this show. Am psyched to listen, learn and have lots of fun while doing so!

Advertising Week, September 27-October 1, New York City, NY Am going to miss a few days of Ad Week, but that is alright. A smashing list of events — some of them are FREE so sign up and register even if you don’t have the budget to pay for the main events.

I’ll be adding more to this post as I decide on events to attend. You’ll also see wrap-ups on the events that I cover. So check back soon! If summer was wild and windy, Fall won’t disappoint! See you in the water, mountain or hopefully one of these techie and media events!

Using Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin as part of your research process to find the right contact is quite helpful. Does your networking end there? Not at all. Each social network that you engage and participate in should have its own use and purpose. Linkedin is where you find your professional connections, while Facebook is more friendly and familial, yet a great professional source too! Twitter on the other hand is used by many as a channel to share musings and nuggets of information.Then you have Tumblr which is great for visual messaging and Gowalla or Foursquare to share new spots you’ve discovered. While Plancast is a service to share events that you intend to attend in the future. Thanks to all these tools online to offline networking is much easier and fun! How do you put it all together? There is no real straight answer as it is relative to each individual’s purpose.

Am not being entirely helpful, but here are a few tactical items I use to help deepen engagement and expand my networking circles using online and offline tools and strategies:

Research. Find out where your audience flocks for information and which channels are they likely to use.  Is your audience stuck in forumnification? How do you reach out to this audience? Engage and behave like a frat boy.

Explore and test. What content is your audience likely to respond to? There is only one way to find out — share. Start with a microblog or a blog. It opens doors.

Select your events wisely. When I attend events I check the attendee list and the topics to make sure it is strategically relevant to the projects I am working on or future projects I’d like to work on. If yes, then I proceed in pulling together a list of the people I’d like to meet and set up appointments in advance.

Blogging gives you access. Obviously the quality of your content and the distribution has a lot to do with the type of people who will take notice and listen. In my experience, positioning myself as a media channel offers first review on a variety of new products and technology updates across mobile, consumer related technology, games, social media and more! The same companies that I write about are usually strategic contacts for my startup clients or an article opens doors to new business. Others who are challenged in expressing themselves in writing are not too appreciative of this channel, yet the value to those who can utilize the power of the blogosphere is priceless.

Invest in hobbies. Connecting with a network that could propel your business idea, book or film on the green, in the water or an art gallery could open wider doors for you than meeting them at a conference.

Read the dailies. Once I reached out to a successful New York based founder and entrepreneur who was featured in the New York Times for starting a new fund for startups in addition to managing his successful company. I happened to meet him at an entrepreneur event three months prior the article. Reached out to him with a link and an exploratory meeting was locked down. Read blogs and major publications that are relevant to what you do. It is peppered with valuable contacts and information.

Turn situations into opportunities. In every challenge there is a golden opportunity. This can occur offline and online. Once I was forwarded an email about an opportunity that my friend thought I’d find interesting. There were two listings, somehow my eyes diverted to the clean tech content of the message. I was immediately excited, emailed the program Chairman listed not realizing that the program was closed. My excitement and error was reciprocated with a welcoming “let’s chat!” Todate that connection is blossoming into opportunities. Even a possible legal confrontation could turn into an opportunity. By showcasing willingness to conversation and finding solutions that are positive for both parties then everyone wins. Remember all you need are two parties willing to give 80% on the table, while willing to lose 20%. Each party will walk away with 60% and everyone is happy and content.

Online to offline and back again. Online networking opens doors and is a great way to learn about individuals and groups. It can help sustain a connection and serves as an ice-breaker or a continuum depending on your online chemistry and similar interests when you get a chance to meet in person.

Using online to offline strategies to efficiently build your personal network and raise your social capital helps deepen and personalize engagement. Don’t get stuck in forumnification, online socializing and circling around circles you already know — get out there and effectively use the tools that can open your world to new opportunities.

Article first published as Raising Your Social Capital: The Two “O” Process on Technorati.

We’re in search for a Software Engineer for a New York based project. Please email your resume and links, if you meet the requirements or feel free to forward this post to friends who you may think could qualify.

Must be a ROCKSTAR in all or most of the areas below:

• ec2
• my sql
• javascript
• semantic technology
• NLP technology
• Hardcore Python developer who is comfortable delivering a CMS from from scratch while understanding Pinux

Development project cycle approximately 2 months. This is a paid gig.

Flying back to New York City in a cessna after a snowstorm

The project is New York based. Successful completion of the assignment could blossom into a senior technology post working directly with the startup founding team. Please email with your resume and links.

It is not a secret that I love kite boarding. The discovery of the sport led to another, then Just Kite It was born. Our content is user generated and highly experienced based shared through my personal kite travels and from kiters around the world. The original idea for Just Kite It is far from what we have today, yet I am quite pleased we took this route of gathering stories and experiences. Why? It brought us closer to the community, provided insight into the possibilities of the sport while learning more about the needs and desires percolating in the local kiting communities.

What I learned

• Creation, learning and execution are all interconnected parts of the process. Learning does not stop, therefore creation and execution continues.
• Getting to know your audience is very important.
• Build to scale from the beginning to make room for strategy shifts.
• Storytelling and sharing experiences is a great learning channel. Social media and technology has made this learning process much more accessible.

Just Kite It is ready for the next step! An exciting chapter to mark the second part of the journey.

In the meantime, our current position has given us the opportunity to support the kiting community’s bid to be part of the Olympics in Rio 2016. Sir Richard Branson, a globally recognizable name is behind the movement. We’d love your help to make this campaign a success! Get behind the movement.

Kite Racing, the next main event Rio 2016! Erin Loscocco Crissy kite racer and photographer speeding in Brazil!

The future of kiteboarding, Chris Brown and son makes a splash!

More photos on Flickr!

Presentations are an integral part of how we communicate. Sharing an idea? Closing a deal? Campaigning for a brand? Creating awareness? Selling a product or service? Educating? At some point in the creation process a deck or two or ten is produced. Did you know that there are 750 million people who use presentations, while there are 400 million copies of PowerPoint in the market? That does not include the pirated copies.

Throughout the presentation creation process didn’t you wish you could easily integrate a Twitter feed? Highlight a quote? Add assets from slides you’ve made previously without spending hours scouring your image libraries for that coveted graphic? Magically delete/replace an image or text in one sweep from all presentations available anywhere in your organization or the Internet that you no longer want associated with your brand? I bet the folks at Accenture wished they had access to such product when they decided to ditch Tiger Woods at the height of his personal (turned public) debacle.

I’m happy to share (if you have not discovered them yet), SlideRocket, a startup company that is changing the way presentations are created, maintained, distributed and measured – for good. I met the CEO, Charlie Dietrich under the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. Literally. Kiting has many benefits besides keeping you fit ~ it is a great way to network! Meeting Charlie has led to my discovery of Sliderocket a product that was launched over 19 months ago. Todate, they have thousands of paying accounts in the small business and Fortune 500 tier, users  include popular event SXSW and Google. While the startup also shares that they have hundreds of thousands of free user-accounts.

Sliderocket lets you create, maintain, distribute and measure presentations in the cloud.

Who should use Sliderocket? Anyone who creates presentations. From the big global ad agencies and brands like Ogilvy, DDB, BBDO and Y&R to my small startup. Presentations in the cloud is here to stay as the world moves toward embracing new technologies and a new approach to creation, delivery, maintaining and measuring impact. Here’s a sample!

First published Creating Presentations In The Cloud for Small Businesses on Technorati.

It is possible to launch a startup with a polished brand that showcases innovative technology, provides valuable consumer insight and a message that connects with your target market. It takes the right team to pull it off. At advertising agencies putting the right team together for an account is a viable aspect for winning a pitch or keeping $100 million dollar and over account in-house. The same goes for startups.

Inflated budgets can buy large teams at ad agencies. Startups do not have that luxury, yet knowing the key must have resources to launch a polished working prototype could make the difference in your product. Experience digital branding at it’s finest without breaking your startup dollars.

Creativity with credibility [creative, design and UX].

A resource may be a designer, but what does his or her design portfolio include? Here are variables you need to look for when selecting a well-rounded creative partner:

• Experience in brand development and design.
• Experience in visually translating the product idea and business strategy.
• Experience in executing design from a requirements document and creative brief.
• Understands the principles of search optimization and social media optimization.
• A wide portfolio range that showcases compelling execution for business-to-consumer to business -to-business campaigns, product packaging, rich media, gaming and mobile.

Innovative engineering and development [technologist].

Not all developers are made equal. There are developers who code, there are those who engineer and there are the rare ones who can do both. Which technologist would you like to have in your team? A well-rounded technologist can:

• Assess the project requirements and provide a thorough technical specifications.
• Can map and develop simple and complex databases that will be the source of your product’s DNA.
• Understands and can execute on a variety of programming languages and platforms.
• Understands and can execute on the front-end and back-end programming.
• Understands and can integrate social media platforms.
• Speed. How quickly can he or she implement and release versions of the product?
• Reliable. Will they disappear mid-stream in the project with all your code?
• An excellent technologist will always have an answer to a challenge. And if they don’t they will always try to find one.

Consumer insight, strategy, product and process work flow [planner and producer].

At ad agencies each of these areas represent a resource. For your startup team, one person could cover all the bases.

• Experience in creating, releasing and marketing a product.
• Experience in defining and building user workflows and operational processes.
• Strategic thinker who can warn you of possible inefficiencies and risk-dependencies.
• A producer who can deliver from start to completion.
• Understands and can execute an effective search engine  and social media optimization strategy.
• Manage your startup budget.

The above resources identified are typical for startup founders who are not ready to release co-Founder equity in exchange for services. Instead of seeking work for equity resources they choose to invest a small sum of money to release a working prototype of their product.

A number of Mavin Digital’s client base fall within this category. How can we help turn your idea into a viable product? Email us.

It started early spring, April 12 at Cibar wine bar in New York City. A week prior, a random email message from O’Reilly Organizers landed in my inbox. Didn’t know who it was from nor what the LBD Project was, but it said “A cocktail fund raiser in a Little Black Dress.” I thought, a cocktail on a Monday night in the Irving Park area, perfect. Monday is a great day for cocktails and making friends with strangers in New York City.

That is when I met Sheena Matheiken, creator of The Uniform Project and designer, Elizabeth Starbuck of Bright Young Things. Two remarkable and talented women who crafted the idea of sustainable fashion around one little black dress worn a million different creative ways. I wanted to be a part of it somehow. I wanted to participate.

Little Black Dress worn a million creative ways

So here we are, after a few months on the road with my macbook pro, kites, board and little black dress traveling with me from Key West, Miami and Maui, I finally hit San Francisco. My two-year old Cannon point and shoot camera died somewhere during the trip, so I had to wait a few weeks to find a replacement. With camera on hand, the San Francisco and California back-drop, my goal is to document, share and hopefully inspire with my personal rendition on the sustainable fashion and the Little Black Dress, from Bright Young Things.

Beginning July 14, Bastille Day witness my highs and lows in a little black dress during my 30-day wear-a-thon. Thank you Elizabeth for extending a piece of New York while I travel! Congratulations on the success of Bright Young Things! Thank you to new friends in San Francisco who are either helping with photography and styling!

Hi everyone! We’re very excited about our new client, a crowdsourcing start up coming soon to major urban centers. We’d love your help on a 10 question survey. This will help clarify previous assumptions and our discovery process.

start the new product survey.

Complete the short survey and we’ll include you in a thank you raffle for a massage gift certificate worth $100.00. The gift certificate will come from your favorite local spa!

Join the survey and win a FREE massage!

• Many are still afraid to dabble in the most basic format of social media as it could be viewed as a waste of time and a shameless channel for self-promotion.
• Many do not have a clue on the creative uses and applications of these channels to build their personal brand or their organizational brand. Creating a Facebook or Twitter account is not enough.
• Many simply do not care to understand and prefer to hide under a rock while “attacking” those who are “socially enlightened”.
• Many see social media as white noise instead of an opportunity to learn and engage.
• Many are afraid of going public. Transparency is not an easy pill to swallow.
• Many make privacy an excuse.

For the first time in my years of learning and sharing about the digital space professionally and as an digital media entrepreneur, I received “hate mail.”

As humans we respond to confrontation or negative information in varied behavioral patterns.  I chose to reflect rather than react. Why? There was no point in glorifying my “attacker’s” limited perspective and understanding on the powers of engagement. Unfortunately to many, engagement is equivalent to conversation. This is an incorrect notion.

Barriers To Entry

What challenges are brands facing in today’s social web?

• Fear. Many brands continue to fear true engagement as it leaves zero barriers for criticism and attacks. Setting up a Facebook or Twitter account and displaying this information in your store-front is not equivalent to true engagement.

• Champion. True engagement within an organizational brand thrives when there is someone leading the project idea and program.

• Proof of Burden. Lack of internal data and specific market data showcasing that true engagement works and directly translates to revenue.

I could list more, in my opinion these are the top of mind barriers and reasons why brands are hesitant to embrace true engagement.

Characteristics of True Engagement

• Ecosystem. From the moment a user steps into your web destination a connection is sparked up to the point he or she checks out of your site and returns. A great example of an engaged ecosystem is Toms.
• Market Appeal. Your audience flocks around your brand like a moth to a flame for a variety of reasons and influences. Market appeal can be created by attaching your brand to a cause. A great example is One Day Without Shoes.
• Transparency. Be open and honest about what your brand can do and cannot do at the moment.The more fluff in your message, the more traction you’ll lose in convincing your audience to engage with your brand.

Lastly, here’s a book from Brian Solis that could help lead your brand to the next level of  Engagement.

Article first published as Understanding True Engagement on Technorati.

As a media blogger, I receive a number of book review requests. It is quite endearing to receive emails from publicists writing if I would like a freshly printed copy. Of course am happy to receive a copy. I love to read and learn more about how others are using social media . Obviously, the risk and reward pendulum is something to consider before asking a blogger or media personality to review your work. You never know when a recipient will love it or hate it.

Blogging To Drive Business by Eric Butow & Rebecca Bollwitt is a thumbs up in my world for these  reasons:

1) It gives you the ABCs of blogging in a step-by-step easy to read concise and comprehensive format. Immediately right after the introduction the authors dive into the importance of blogs and its uses from promoting products and services, reaching people, pushing content, how to get people to read your blog, crowdsourcing and more. With proper implementation and resources to support the delivery process blogs can be a truly effective communication, marketing and people gathering tool. As websites are the epicenter of your brand’s existence – blogs are the epicenter of your communication strategy.

2) Peppered with examples, case studies and visuals. The authors made sure that each chapter is supported with examples. A ton of them! From successful blogs and varying applications to a variety of platforms and plug-in tools to choose from.

3) To have a successful blog, there are rules and methods to follow. Rule #1 Listen to your audience. Rule #2 Create a platform for two-way discussion — this is not all about you. Rule #3 Listening by sharing. Visual media is a great way to spark a conversation. Rule #4 Create tools for your audience to communicate with each other and you. Measure the the energy level of your readers’ engagement, experiment and make corrections along the way.

Blogging To Drive Business is a definite read for those who are considering to use blogging as part of their business communication strategy. As a social media and digital branding expert, I use this book to help educate my clients. Specially the small to medium business owners. Recently, it helped me close recent long-term new business.