America’s big pun events, an annual pun-off at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas.

I wish I had known this before the event has taken place. As usual the ROI for reading the Economist is the extent of coverage across the globe. Did you attend the Pun-off ? What other language oriented events are you part of? Was it punny ? http://bit.ly/dnyhoG

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GEL Conference 2010 : A good experience begins at home.

The GEL conference held at the Times Theatre in New York (April 29th to 30th) was unusual – a conference designed to give attendees an experience that they will carry back to their work. A brain child of Mark Hurst the entire experience gives you a feeling of being treated like an individual and a personalized experience.

From the Gelconference.com website : Gel ("Good Experience Live") is a conference and community, founded in 2003, exploring good experience in all its forms - in art, business, society, technology, and life.

As I entered the Times theatre I was glad to meet my friend Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents)ELIZABETH KIEHNER of http://www.thornbergandforester.com whose agency made some amazing videos for the Gel Conference, Ellen and Doug Rowan . The day started with a presentation by Eric Singer – Robots, Slime, propane and other ways to make strange Musical Instrument. He  demonstrated a robot guitar on stage. My next session was a Public speaking workshop with Erin McKean founder of Wordnik. After this conference all the attendees were given a choice of over 12 activities to take part in. They ranged from a visit to the Dead Horse Bay Island ( read Matt Haughey’s Blog post on the trip) to the world’s oldest subway tunnel in Brooklyn ( see pictures from Anna Sabino’s Blog on Lucid New York ), Concrete Picture Safari by Ben Hoffman, Founder and CEO of CityHunt and the Experience Retail Tour with my friend Rachel Shechtman, founder and CEO of Cube Ventures,I went to the The Dining Experience at Maialino  and Terry Coughlin, general manager of Maialino did a great job explaining the philosophy of Danny Meyer’s restaurants.

You can see the other activities here http://gelconference.com/10/

The team building and networking got us ready for Day 2 of stage presentations. If you want to skip ahead and watch the videos of the event please go here http://gelconference.com/videos/2010/ . I was impressed with Kevin Roose author of the "The Unlikely Disciple" and his video is below. Some of the other presentations were the The Ebony Hillbillies African-American bluegrass band, Randy Garutti Chief Operating Officer, Shake Shack talk, Louise Reilly Sacco Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director, MOBA (The Museum Of Bad Art )

I

 Kevin Roose at Gel 2010 (author, The Unlikely Disciple) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

This is definitely a conference worth checking. Other posts about the Gel conference:

• Noah Scalin

• Jeff Gothelf

• Jennifer König (scroll down below the cool photo to read her text)

• Matt Haughey on his Day 1 trip to Dead Horse Bay

• Anna Sabino

• My Flickr pictures

• Noah Scalin's photos of his Day 1 workshop at Etsy

• Ben Hoffman's CityHunt photos (see thumbnails at bottom)

del.icio.us Tags: gelconference,julien smith

TBD Brunch and Blogs Mixer

If you have not already heard the local media scene is hotting up with the impending launch of TBD.com .TBD.com is a a local Washington, D.C., news site for the company that owns Politico. Jim Brady  the former executive editor of the Washingtonpost.com is heading this new venture.

Just heard of their brunch at Mie N Yu on Saturday June 12 at 11 a.m

Hurry and RSVP if you are think you are -  “Bloggers, local news junkies, aspiring journalists, neighborhood activists, social media fans” there are only a few seats left.

You can follow @tbddc on Twitter or the head honcho himself @Jimbradysp on Twitter. Details of the brunch at tbd.com

See you there.

Easy to embed your tweets into a blog post by @kamichat

great find , i did not hear about it so I no longer have to screenshot it, http://bit.ly/9OaoLK

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Loneliness is more prevalent among the young than those past retirement age

This is an article from the BBC that talks about a study conducted on lonliness. But while many more of us may be living alone in cities, with some thought loneliness can be averted, the report suggested. "For example, Manhattan in New York has 50% lone households, more than anywhere else in the United States, yet its 'urban village' model sustains social networks because people habitually use alternative meeting places, including cafes and public spaces," the authors wrote. http://bit.ly/alQMcA

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Ignite Media @oliviahayes List of 50 Women Bloggers

This is a great list by Olivia Hayes and maybe this could be a list of bloggers period.I follow some of these folks and mentioning some of them here Shonali Burke, Corvida Raven, Adria Richards, Amber Naslund, Beth Schillaci,Jennifer Leggio, Shannon Paul ,Tamar Weinberg ,Thursday Bram ,Sarah Austin, Lisa Barone , Sonia Simone, Valeria Maltoni , Cheryl Contee, Julia Roy, Beth Kanter check out the list and comment on Olivia's blog if you have other suggestions. http://bit.ly/cVAhxM

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Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users #smplus #wv2010

This Pew report is very timely. At the two event I attended and spoke at in the past few weeks Webvisions 2010 and at the Social Media Plus conference I asked the audience if they had searched for themselves in search engines and maybe half the room raised their hands. It is a business requirement for every business. Your clients and customers are doing that anyway. http://bit.ly/9abn6o

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One-half of online women in the US were fans or followers of a company’s social marketing presence

http://bit.ly/b1FegR

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New ways to attract people to your tradeshow booth

AIGA_Avtr015.jpg, originally uploaded by Portland AIGA.

This is a picture of me taken at WebVisions by Portland AIGA (http://portland.aiga.org/). See the whole stream and the photographer Bryan Hoybook - bryanhoybook.com did a great job and for once I will say the photo makes me look better than real life. Today at the Social Media Plus conference I got my picture taken again and waiting to see how that comes out.
In the spirit of doing something cool and different Network Solutions created custom Tshirts for WebVision attendees by ironing their Twitter Ids on the T Shirt. What ideas have you see with Tradeshow booths

Rohit Bhargava keynote at #smplus

custom printing Twitter ids on free tshirts at Network Solutions Booth

wv2010 wv10

#wv2010 Luke Williams keynote rocking in #pdx

secrets of ipod design

@kk photo session at #wv2010

Great start to kearning at webvisions.Network Solutions is a sponsor

The way we are working isn't working @energy_project

I have heard Tony Schwartz speak at IABC World Conference 2009. I am reading hus bew book on my flights enroute to Portland OR and already think I know what to do after I finish tjus book or rather what not to do

Social media is a valid way to build a business - @shama The Zen of Social Media Marketing

A few months ago during SXSW I had the previlege of attending a book launch party of Shama Hyder Kabani ’s new book The Zen of Social Media Marketing. I knew @shama on Twitter and we met IRL for thr first time at SXSW 2008.

I am proud of being a friend of Shama who is in the BusinessWeek’s North America’s Top 25 Under 25 entrepreneurs for 2009. Her book is getting a lot of rave reviews.

My friend and colleague Steve Fisher reviewed the book in a GrowSmartBusiness Post.:

There is Much to Learn and This Book Delivers

As you move through the book you will notice many real life examples and case studies from real small businesses who have seen what works and what doesn’t. That approach makes a book real. Not a lecturing diatribe like some other social media books out there nor a 50,000 fly over of major sections with the usual toolbox suspects (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Digg). What I really like the most and what I think you will get out of this is that using social media is one part toolkit and two parts conversation/community. It is very clear that not everything will work for you and that you must find your own social media voice to create a solution that is successful for your small business. You will fail but I have saying “if you haven’t failed then really haven’t tried hard enough”.

Pam Slim another friend and author of  the great book for entrepreneurs ” Escape from Cubicle Nation”  (From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur) wrote on her blog http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com “It is a very pragmatic and useful book, intended for smart people who don’t yet “get” how social media is a valid way to build a business.” and here is Pam Slim’s Interview with Shama :

The Zen of Social Media Marketing with Shama Kabani from Pamela Slim on Vimeo

Add this book to your reading list. Congrats ! and good luck Shama.

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Webvisions 2010 is happening in Portland on May 19-21

I first heard about this webvisions from Stephanie Wagner at SXSW 2009. A conference of web designers and developers with a view to discuss creativity and the future.I have heard a lot about Portland OR from friends like Julie Parrish, Bryan Rhoades, Amber Case, Marshall Kirpatrick and Lorelle Van Fossen. I am glad everything came together and Network Solutions is a proud sponsor of Webvisions 2010.  Another good friend Kit Seeborg is one of the Executive committee members and helped make this happen along with Stephanie Wagner.

if you are in Portland I would love to say hi over coffee. I am presenting a session on personal branding . The entire schedule can be found athttp://www.webvisionsevent.com/schedule/ for the amazing speakers. I am definitely interested in KK’s session on photography and Scott Porad’s talk.

See you in Portland. Anyone interested in meeting at Vindalho restaurant  on the 29th evening? Comment here and let me know.

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Consider moving to Boise - @economist

Love reading the Economist and this article caught my attention about the right reasons to move to Boise ( No I am not moving) Bike to work Great outdoors next block Maybe you can be a inventor too - Between 2005 and 2007 Idaho generated more patents per worker than any other state. $150k buys you a house with a garden Well only 10% od Idahoans trust the federal government. http://bit.ly/bTO6za

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Marketing an event to a over 35 crowd @businessweek

Love this quote from @marketingguy "And don't discount social media, says Jay Ehret, a consultant with The Marketing Spot in Waco, Tex."Facebook's biggest-growing segment is older people," he says.You should set up a Facebook event page and investigate the site's highly targeted advertising." http://bit.ly/9IrTRt

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