What's a Toyota Driver doing co-hosting a Ford Meetup

My connection to Ford is through Scott Monty - Ford's Social Media Head who is a good friend ( except he promised to send me a model Ford Mustang for my toddler). I was in San Francisco recently for #Tbash the launch party for Shel Israel's Book Twitterville - How Business can thrive in New Global negihborhoods. The Thrifty Car Rental at SFO gave me a Ford Focus and I thought it drove well. When I returned the car I told Thrifty that it took some time for the A/C to start up and they promised to look into it. Thrifty is a great rental car company, I was in and out in less than 5 minutes . You can never judge a car by a rental but thats the only opportunity I get to drive other brands and find out features companies are adding to cars.

I am curious about Ford, They did not ask for bail out money and see to focus a lot on user feedback. I have heard good reviews of the newer cars they are making and want to check out the new Ford Taurus 2101. I also get a chance to meet Ken Czubay Ford Motor Company’s, Vice President, U.S. Marketing, when he's in Washington D.C. next Thursday September 3rd . If you are in DC and want to check out the new Ford Taurus and have a meetup;

Date:	Thursday, September 3, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:	Hudson Restaurant
Street:	2030 M Street, NW
City/Town:	Washington, DC Register here :http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124815332718&ref=ts

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wow ! I am on TV : NY1 | 24 Hour Local News | NY1 Living | Today's Unemployed, Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs

I was thrilled to see myself on TV in New York http://ny1.com/content/ny1_living/104146/today-s-unemployed--tomorrow-s-entrepreneurs/Default.aspx

This was coverage of the Unintentional Entrepreneur event held at For Your Imagination in New York . Kudos to Outright.com - you should try their free online bookkeeping tool , I use it.

Google Voice calls me names ! :)

Among the voice to text software I have used Jott and loved it till it stopped being free. Now I have been watching Google Voice send me my voice mail messages transcribed in an email.  Here is what Google voice calls me :

Hey Jessie
Hi Sashi
Hi Josh
Hey Sexy
Hi Saski

Coming to think of it maybe it’s not Google voice but the callers who are to blame. What do you think ?

Managing in Troubled Times - Real World CEO Perspectives

Roy Dunbar Chairman & CEO Network Solutions  is speaking at TiE DC event “Managing in Troubled Times - Real World CEO Perspectives”  on Sept 24th. Here are the details of the event from TiE:

TiE DC and American University's Kogod School of Business are pleased to host, Managing in Troubled Times - Real World CEO Perspectives, an interactive discussion of best practices and lessons learned from managing companies through a challenging economy. This event is made possible by sponsor Trevor Chaplick, Proskauer Rose.

September 24 6:00-9:00 pm

American University Katzen Arts Center       

4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington DC

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) will keynote the event to provide perspective on national policy and share details on creative strategies for success that he's seen within the business community.

The evening will include a panel of CEOs across a number of industries discussing their real world experience in leading their companies through a downturn. Moderated by AU Kogod School of Business Faculty the panel includes:

Roy Dunbar, CEO Network Solutions

Sandeep Sahai, President Headstrong

Bob Segert, President and CEO GXS

Register Today. Attendance is limited. Free for Charter Members and Members, $35 for non-members

The customer may be in the other aisle seat

I was on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco after #gnomedex when I glanced across the aisle and saw a young lady working on a Sunday and her papers had the logo of Egencia. Egencia is the  corporate travel management partner for businesses  and is owned by Expedia. At the first available opportunity I apologized for noticing the logo and identified myself as a customer of Egencia . She was thrilled and we spoke about the software and as usual i gave her all my suggestions on tweaks that would help make it better. I love Egencia and they are doing it right. I am also happy to have met a Egencia employee who enthusiastically told me about new features and listened to my suggestions.

Other company evangelists who I have cornered at parties and forced my ideas and suggestions are Yama @jyamasaki of Seesmic ( I love the Seesmic desktop) and Frosty @frostola from Hp ( I love their printers) . So if you are a company evangelist  I will not mind if you cross the road when you see me coming or walk in the opposite direction but if it is a full flight and you are sitting across the aisle seat from you you are a sitting duck. Did you ever think you could get customer feedback at 35000 ft. I proved it.

All that you have to do as a Social Media Evangelist #tbash

This is a great video from my friend Rich Greenberg @rgreenberg whom I met at a UnintentionalEntrepreneur.com event. He took this video at the launch party for Shel Israel's Twitterville book launch. Network Solutions was one of the sponsors of the event and we had T shirts that had "I am going to Twitterville ! Follow me" and we were printing transfers and Ironing them on the T shirts to customize them for the attendees. The TBashers loved the T shirts and we got help from some great volunteers.
This is just me showing off and actual credit goes to great volunteers and @newPR and @glfceo.

I am going to #twitterville follow me. Are you? #tbash

I am going to #twitterville follow me. Are you? #tbash, originally uploaded by ShashiBellamkonda.

Live blog post from the launch of Twitterville at the Hiller Aircraft museum in San Carlos CA.

Gnomedex 2009 : I won the Swami in a Cowboy Hat Award

Gnomedex 2009, originally uploaded by kk+.

Gnomedex held in Seattle is a great conference. Last year's talk by Kris Krug http://www.kriskrug.com/ inspired me to take more pictures and get better at them.

His presentation at the closing was hilarious with a lot of funny pictures and i got an award too :)

Hope you will never need these resources #gnomedex

I am at the Gnomedex conference and Mark Horvath is giving a great presentation which you can watch live here

IF you want to learn more you can visit and donate at http://invisiblepeople.tv/whrrl

social network for the Homeless http://homelessnation.org

StevenWalling "It's expensive being poor." #gnomedex

RomanSF 2 brief crucial stories at #gnomedex :  @carcamper is a homeless Tweetr, a 24yo investigatd stores "mobile-homeless friendly"

Knowledge for Breakfast -Tech Breakfast Club August 14th DC area

Do more with less… BY TAPPING PARTNER AND CLIENT “VOLUNTEERS” - Facilitated by Christine Banning, Vice President, Marketing & Communications SCORE Association

Today’s Web 2.0 world requires the support of partner, client and media “volunteers” to spread the word on goods and services.  How do you engage, motivate and reinforce such “volunteer” contributors? SCORE was awarded 2009 Interactive Media Award (IMA) for Outstanding Achievement for its involvement of women in the SCORE Women’s Success Blog, ranked by traffic in the top 1 percent worldwide. This national small business, mentoring association has engaged more than 11,200 volunteers and 125 media network experts, as well as partners in online and media outreach. Find out how you, too, can engage volunteer contributors, and equip them to spread your story and position your brand. 

Do more with less… BY MOBILIZING AND DISTRIBUTING CONTENT – Facilitated by Gregg Smith, CEO of Acuity Mobile

According to ABI Research, mobile marketing is projected to grow into a $19B industry in the next three years.  How are you mobilizing your content today? And, how can you position your organization to reach the fast-growing mobile marketplace?  Acuity Mobile’s patented eMAP (Embedded Mobile Advertising Platform) delivers and measures the effectiveness of targeted content – news, ads, offers, etc.  Learn how Acuity Mobile is supporting sizeable enterprises - including Navteq, the Washington Capitals, the U.S. Postal Service, Harrahs and the Maryland Lottery – with targeted, mobile communications strategies that may also benefit your organization. Bring your questions, and plan to brainstorm ways to mobilize existing communications programs.

WHAT: Tech Breakfast Club - Peer networking and idea sharing with experienced Tech Marketing & PR pros
WHERE: Sheraton Premiere - Baron's Room (at the back of Ashgroves Restaurant), 8661 Leesburg Pike (off Hwy 7), Vienna, Virginia 22182 http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/dining/index.html?propertyID=691
WHEN: 8:00 a.m-9:45 a.m. Friday, August 14

COST: Compliments of Tech Image, www.techimage.com<http://www.techimage.com>
RSVP: By Friday, August 7, to: Mary Eggbert 847-279-0022, ext. 224

Small Business Conference coming on September 29th

GrowSmartBiz Conference – a premier educational and networking event designed to help small business owners successfully grow their enterprises – hosted on September 29, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.  For more information on the GrowSmartBiz Conference, please visit: http://growsmartbusiness.com/small-business-conference/.

I love my own picture

I love my own picture, originally uploaded by ShashiBellamkonda.

To all the people who have adviced me about photography so that I can take better pictures of them - Thank you.

This is not a Camera Trick,

This is not a Camera Trick, Disneyland, originally uploaded by ShashiBellamkonda.

I took this picture as this enterprising guy did this trick which is very hard to do