Sir Richard Branson one of the international recognizable personalities of kiteboarding announced the partnership of Billabong and the BVI Kite Jam in 2011.

Kiteboarding as a recognized adventure sport has been around for a little over a decade. Once considered the most dangerous sport on the planet during its early years, today it is getting a second look from water, wind and outdoor sports enthusiasts. Why?

• The equipment and gear has improved through the years.
• Instruction for the sport is mushrooming in beach resorts from the coastlines of Brazil, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Australia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Maui, Florida, Oregon, North Carolina and practically any place you can find water and consistent wind. Definitely a revenue source for the local beach economy.
• A sport dominated by men with noticeable growth in interest from women and teens.
• Kiteboarding is an all year-round sport and has grown into multi-categories including kiteboarding/kitesurfing, snowkiting and landboarding.
• After the investment in lessons and quiver (collective term for kite equipment) all you need is wind, water, snow or sand to enjoy the thrill of the sport.
• Travel is a huge component. Kiters are known to visit exotic places to kite and plan all their vacation around their sport.
• Once a kiter there is no turning back. It is a lifestyle sport.

The kiteboarding lifestyle attracts a certain personality type. It is not for the mass market since it requires time and dedication to get the basics. A single brand new quiver starts at $1,000 and up. While lessons can cost from $450 to another $1,000 and more depending on your learning ability. So who are the crazies getting into the sport?

Professionals who have an average income of $75K and up and high net worth individuals. The sport attracts people from industries that are usually high-stress, high-risk and high-reward including venture capital, finance, medicine, technology and entrepreneurs.

Technology and social media is a big component of a kiter’s lifestyle. Kiters with jobs that allow them to remotely stay connected with their professional organizations live a mobile kite life. Bringing their source of income wherever they go. Still considered a niche community of over 200,000 worldwide in 2006 and expected to grow 20% each year, the kiteboarding community is definitely a movement to watch.

Learn more about the new geek hobos lifestyle on Just Kite It.

The advent of social media as a way to deliver and consume information has lifted personal and professional barriers. We’re more social as a species. Technology has disarmed our inhibitions or given us the space to be less inhibited. Like anything new we experiment and test. Run a variety of use case scenarios to discover if this is something you’ll want to have as part of your life rituals and for how long?

Does it diminish the depth of our social connection simply because we know we can FB or Twitter people anytime, any day? Does it bring me closer to the world at large and say…oh wow I didn’t know thinkers like that exist.

I really don’t have all the profound answers. As much as I am a big consumer both on a personal and a professional level, I wonder about the real connection it creates. I wonder if we are on a feeding frenzy?  Feeding on each others’ ideas, maligning them secretly or are we truly helping and inspiring each other?

I am in places like Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and now Tumblr. Some of my close circle of friends asks why do you care or they’ll laugh at me having posted photos from the previous night’s event. I guess my simple answer is I just do.

Secretly I hope that those who are in these social networks do care enough to be there and contribute. How about a cup of coffee with that?

@mavindigital

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 ~

A full list of workshops, networking events and conferences are available at Internet Week New York. There are so many great events to choose from so it will be tricky to juggle a consistently hectic calendar. As an entrepreneur in media and technology CaT: Creativity and Technology is certainly on top of my list.

Why Should You Attend CaT: Creativity and Technology?

• BE INSPIRED. With the BEST of the advertising creative universe gathering at CaT it will be a sumptous feast for the senses! Founders, top creatives, thinkers and technologists from The Barbarian Group, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Organic, First Born, R/GA, and a number of award-winning creative agencies will be sharing creative case studies and evolving ideas in the space. Learning from the best is inspiring.
• KNOW WHAT’S NEXT. CaT’s agenda showcases new ways of doing things in mobile, social media, search, production and development. Being on top of innovation certainly appeals to our clientele of ad agency partners, brands and startups. It certainly establishes our credibility in the market place.
• PARTICIPATE. As part of the New York technology and media ecosystem we are more than thrilled to engage in the festivities by being present in the many event opportunities. CaT: Creativity and Technology is a full-day event that promises new ways of delivery and engagement to anyone looking for fresh ideas in furthering the use of technology through creativity.

I highly recommend adding CaT: Creativity and Technology in your Internet Week menu of activities. Learn more. I hope to see you there and let’s connect via Twitter! You can find me @mavindigital.

About CaT: Creativity and Technology

CaT is a gathering of brand creativity professionals and tech-side development companies for a discussion of furthering creativity through technology. Both conference and trade show, CaT gives creatives, producers and marketers the chance to see what’s coming next, to get the big picture from thought leaders across a range of creative and technology areas — and learn, hands-on, about the latest technologies driving the best work.

See you soon!

~ 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).

When the Creative and Product Development Director, Jeff Bauer of Forbes.com approached me with the project in late December 2007 I had to think 10x. We recently reconnected after a 30-day hiatus from an intense summer courtship. I questioned the idea of working with someone I dearly admire and share an intimate closeness with. On the other hand I wanted the bragging rights to a Forbes.com project while showcasing our capability to deliver top-notch quality in a rapid development environment. It was the holidays who in the right mind wants to work on this project? We enjoy the challenge. Towards the end of that phone conversation with the CD/PD and my boyfriend at Forbes.com, I said “you must be desperate to ask me to work on this project.” [Laughter ensued from both ends of the line]

I’ve delivered work for Forbes.com in the past while freelancing for a boutique agency, Murphy & Co. during my first six-months in New York City. I am aware that Forbes.com enjoys arm wrestling their vendors to a whimper in exchange for the prestige of saying “I’ve worked with Forbes.com.” You’ll be happy to know that we didn’t arm wrestle over this project and there was no whimpering involved. My team and I jumped in on the opportunity. I am glad we were chosen to work on the Forbes.com America’s Sinful Cities assignment. It offered viral press and opportunity to showcase Mavin Digital’s creativity in digital storytelling, technology, programming and our solution-centric approach.

When a third-party partner recognizes the value of your idea, your product and your service it makes a big difference in your project experience and the finished creation.

Over a year later, the assignment continues to receive a significant amount of traffic. It continues to draw people. We continue to be relevant. One thing I would improve are the social media capabilities which am sure without the time constraints at that time Forbes.com would have wanted reader interaction features. It would be interesting to visualize how these rankings changed over time considering the current economic conditions and new administration. Do you agree with the rankings and methodology used? Did the visual help make the article more interesting and entertaining?

Flowingdata, April 10, 2008

Suspect Device The Blog, March 28, 2008

Newstin, March 28, 2008

Yelp San Francisco, March 18, 2008

Neatorama, February 29, 2008

Democratic Underground, February 28, 2008

Yelp San Jose, CA, February 27, 2008

Albert Mohler, February 22, 2008

Free Public Focus, February 20, 2008

Belize Web, February 16, 2008

City Data, No date on posts and reader comments

Connect

It is a great way to connect with people you would otherwise not meet or people you don’t have any intention of meeting and actually enjoy knowing them on Twitter. Hahaha!

Information

Whether it is for consumer insight, gossip, breaking news stories the Twitter community is a great source for the freshest and most relevant information. The secret: know who to follow. You can customize the information you receive based on who you are following.

Search

Which leads to my next point. Twitter has changed my search habits (a tad). As eloquently explained by @lewmoorman. Though I do not agree that it will lead to the demise of giant Google there still are areas that are not discussed on Twitter like arugula and beets.

Support A Social Cause

Twitter is great for rallying people around a social cause. Think Twestival.

The Awards and Drama

As in any community there IS drama. The Shorty Awards (it is happening tonight folks!) recognizing the best content producers in 140-characters. Apparently there were alleged incidents of vote buying and pranks by nominees as reported by the WSJ. It is quite an impressive event symbolic of our attraction to celebrity and fame. The masses have taken over! I personally am on the sidelines and not actively participating on this one. It is highlarious and good for the laugh.

Get Intimate With Brands

Should brands Twitter? A recent luxury brand that joined Twitter is @msprovocateur backed with other social tools as noted on Adrants. I find the move cute. Agent Provocateur symbolizes femme fatale, mystery and allure. It will be interesting to watch how teasing sweets will increase sales. Who wants to buy skiddies that range from $70 to $100++ during a recession?

Shameless Self-Promotion

True dat. A few entries in the many that I’ve found just to give you an example of the amount of shameless self-promotion that happens on Twitter. I too am guilty of shamelessly talking about my accomplishments as much as most of the community.

Tips Before You Dive In The Twitter Pond

• Etiquette. Learn the five etiquette do’s and don’ts from CIO.

• Know Your Tools. To confuse you even more there are many tools that provide insightful data about twitterverse or specific to your followers. It is always good to know who is following you. There are tools like Mr. Tweet, your personal networking assistant that recommends people you should be following. Twitter Grader is a tool to measure your marketing prowess on twitterverse. Then there is Klout that tracks your Twitter career from a lurker to influencer. Soon you’ll be wanting to send tweets from your smartphone. Twitterfon is great for the iPhone. More apps can be found on Twitdom. Here’s a glimpse of my flock of followers as shown on Twittersheep. It is a great way to customize your message. Make yourself relevant to your audience. However you decide to go about your Twitter experience enjoy it and have fun!

Web 2.0 Expo IS one of my favorite tech conferences! Here’s why:

Relevant

Learn how industry leaders are maximizing the power of Web 2.0 technology in a slow economy

Gain confidence to navigate the social media landscape

Use The Power of Less, our Web 2.0 Expo theme this year

Phenomenal Speakers

On the line up are Nancy Duarte, CEO Duarte Design, Charlene Li, blogger and speaker Altimeter, Will Wright, Electronic Arts; Vic Gundotra, Google and more!

Engage

Web 2.0 Expo is community centric (that is why I ). There will be many opportunities for you to converse and share in the main conference, workshops and more informal spaces including Web 2Open were attendees lead the discussion, BoFs were organizations and individuals with a common topic of interest can gather, converse and connect and lastly LaunchPad is an opportunity for five companies to enjoy five-minutes of fame after passing a strict VC selection process.

Web 2.0 Love Code

The folks at Web 2.0 always offer a special love code websf09trt2 which gives you $100 off any conference pass package or you can use it to register for a FREE expo pass. Here’s what you’ll get for a FREE expo pass.

Your conference budget and time spent IS worth every penny and second invested when you attend a Web 2.0 Expo. Join me there and REGISTER!

I’ll be sharing more Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco love (two conference passes!) in the next few days so make sure to follow @mavindigital and @w2e on Twitter and come back soon!