Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

I love promoting awesome people, great causes, events, and organizations/businesses that are doing interesting things. My favorite tech tool to help me do this is the Apple iPhone 3Gs.

There’s a reason the iPhone 3Gs is such a hot seller, it is a mobile promotion machine. I use it to check email on the road or at home when away from my laptop. I use it to take pictures that I post to my Twitter and Facebook status feeds and to various blogs. The built in video allows me to post to my YouTube Channel, post via email to my Posterous account, send short videos via 12seconds.tv, and to live stream using Qik.com and UStream. With this single tool, I can immediately share what’s going on with my life or at an event.

Here’s an example of how I used my iPhone for shameless self-promotion. A couple of months back, I noticed Nancy Rodriguez’s Twitter update where she mentioned that she and the crew from Q1047, the local Hip-Hop and R&B station, where going to be live broadcasting from a nearby McDonald’s. It was around 7am so I grabbed a fast shower then zoomed over to McDees. I had chatted with Nancy before via Twitter so it was great meeting her and the rest of the Rico and Mambo show. I took a couple of photos of them in action, posted the pictures to Twitpic and Twitter, spoke to Nancy, then headed back to go home.

Now, I’ve been listening to Q1047 since I moved to Ventura County and it’s my favorite station. So I was glad to post pictures and tweet about them on Twitter. But as I headed back to the car I realized that I could have plugged my new online blogging course. So I decided to grow a sack and went back to ask Nancy to send a shoutout to my BuildYourFanBase.com readers and she kindly did so.

Fifteen minutes after I left the live broadcast, I had uploaded the video shoutout to YouTube and had already tweeted out a link to my blog post on the event. Minutes later Nancy retweeted the link and gave my blog and new blog class an on-air shoutout.

Now that’s promotion at the speed of light!

Do you have any other mobile promotion tech tools that you swear by?

Gretchen Rubin presented her book “The Happiness Project” at Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena, CA yesterday.

What started off as a personal chronicle of one person’s shift towards happiness, has led to many Happiness Projects – a movement. I went to support my wife and friend who are starting their own Happiness group and to hear Gretchen’s story.

I streamed the event live to Ustream and here is the majority of the video. You may have to turn up the audio since I was filming from afar using my iPhone.

You can find Gretchen on Twitter at: @GretchenRubin.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been exactly one year since we first heard of the miraculous landing of flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River. The great hero of the Miracle on the Hudson was Captain Chesley Sully Sullenberger who managed to safely land the plane without any loss of life. Truly a miracle.

So much has happened since then. President Obama was sworn into office, the Twittersphere sprouted green avatars to support protesters after the Iran Election, and now we have the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

One thing these events all have in common is that important snippets first showed up on the picture sharing site TwitPic. Amazingly, TwitPic was created in a weekend by Web developer and master tinkerer, Noah Everett (@noaheverett on Twitter).

One of the most famous TwitPic pictures ever posted was by Janis Krums (@jkrums on Twitter) live from a ferry in the Hudson River just after the airplane crash.

Just yesterday, Noah Everett revealed in an interview with Andrew Warner (@AndrewWarner on Twitter) on Mixergy.com that shortly before the Miracle on the Hudson, he had planned on shutting down TwitPic because he was having trouble keeping the site up and running in a consistent manner.

I want to send Noah Everett a BIG “Thank You” for pushing through the tough times and keeping the site up. It’s an important global resource and it is greatly appreciated.

This is a MUST WATCH interview. Everett gives details on how he first started TwitPic on a spare server, the ups and downs of running a site that takes off like a wildfire, and shows you how he was able to direct TwitPic by focusing on being a nice business. There is also a transcript of the interview on the Mixergy.com site.

View the Noah Everett interview

Related Posts:

* Mashable: TwitPic Worth More Than $10 Million?

Animoto, the video creation company, has an iPhone application that allows you to create a video out of pictures on your iPhone. The iPhone version requires at least five images and an audio selection from the Animoto library then you are all ready to create the new video.

The iPhone application gives you the option of creating a 30-second or a Full-Length video. The 30-second video is free but does not allow you to include video snippets or post it to YouTube. I didn’t try the Full-Length video so I’m not sure if those features do show up there.

Unfortunately, the video you create on the iPhone does not show up on the regular Animoto.com web site under your account. They have a message saying that developers are hard at work on that.

Besides these minor limitations, the free Animoto iPhone app is easy to use and makes a great dynamic video.

Some great uses:

1) Great for photographers who want another way of presenting their photos

2) Realtors could snap a few pictures, add music, and create a great video for a home listing -ON LOCATION

3) Great for sharing pics from any event. You’ll be able to share something much sooner than by uploading and tagging pictures via Flickr

4) Mix in pictures of a loved one and a message then send it to them for their birthday. A nice surprise!

5) Great quick way to share the happenings at a political rally to keep people engaged.

The following video was created using the iPhone application and pictures I took on my trip to Denver. I used the “share” feature, emailed the resulting link to my email address, ran the video then used the embed code to place it on this post. Enjoy!

If you like this post you should totally either subscribe to the RSS feed, sign up for the email version, or leave me a juicy Comment below.

Well I did it, I finally joined the legions of people who have rushed out to see Avatar. There’s been more buzz on Twitter about this film than any other in ‘09.

I shot this super brief video in the theater, before the screening:

[Filmed using my iPhone 3Gs, posted directly to YouTube, then manually tweeted to Twitter]

In the following video, I give my initial reactions to the film. What do you think? Is this film a game-changer or is it just another step towards tech innovation? Leave a comment here or on YouTube.

Also, if you did your own review, leave a link!

[Recorded using YouTube's recorder off of my laptop's built-in web cam and an external microphone.]

Related Link:
* Why You Need To See Avatar (post by @smashadv, mentioned in the video)

It doesn’t matter if you’re going to a job interview, trying to impress your date, or going to a fancy business dinner, having a properly tied necktie will give you a confidence boost.

My dad showed me how to tie the “four-in-hand” style knot when I was in 7th grade and it was fairly easy to learn. I became a church lector at age fourteen so I had plenty of practice after that.

So when my nephew stopped by to borrow a tie and learn how to tie it for his interview, I thought this would make for a good tutorial to help others out. Stop on back and let me know how it goes.