Social Networking Kit

Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Social Media   and has   0 Comments

On my way to Albuquerque NM tomorrow to give a talk on Web 2.0 and Social Media at the Opportunity Finance Network Conference. I will be talking to beginners and marketing folks looking to leverage new digital strategies. I use this kit to do some speed networking to demonstrate how people are much more influenced by social media (tags, comments, user generated content, ratings) and the creation of this content is becoming second nature.

Social Networking Kit

The kit was inspired inspired by Jeff Pulver at the Social Media Breakfast last summer. I added the “speed networking component” and made the fancy little kits.

DEMOfall08 – Must attend conference

Posted on 15. Sep, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

DEMO has become one of my ‘must attend’ conferences. In fact I opted to attend DEMOfall08 over Techcrunch50 and the Web 2.0 Summit in NYC. Here are a few reasons I attend this conference:

  1. See the presentations: The technologies and solutions provide insight on trends and innovation that add invaluable perspective for me that I can use for consulting and shaping our offerings. I’ve suggested to many vendors and start-ups that they watch the DEMO presentation videos and develop the same presentation format. At DEMO each presentation is 6 minutes and PowerPoint is not allowed.
  2. Identify partners: For brands it doesn’t make sense to build most of the engagement technology that applies to their campaigns and business. Leveraging ‘off the shelf’ solutions and SAS components lowers risk and reduces time to market. In most cases provide greater quality and functionality than could ever be achieved in a reasonable amount of time and investment.
  3. Discuss business: Its a great opportunity to discuss business with like minded entrepreneurs. Regardless of what kind of product or service we are providing we all face similar challenges. Staffing, innovation, leadership, outsourcing, funding etc., a few ideas can go a long way. DEMO attracts very experienced and qualified people that have been around the block a few times.

There were too many great solutions to discuss in this article; I will go into more detail on some in the near future. If you are a die-hard technologist, investor, entrepenuer or media/PR person I suggest you register for DEMO09 – I’ll see you there.

Photos