What was once a tasteful and glamorous film festival at a serene seaside town in France decked with classic films, tuxedos and one-piece bathing suits has turned a bit topsy-turvy over the past few years. The films and celebrities are still there, but with over 10,000 film industry professionals coming from over 97 countries, the festival is now prone to some outrageous moments.

After seeing this post in Movie Moron, I had to re-share some moments they found and some we found! Happy Friday!

Paris likes to keep her man on her tongue leash in public.

Borat’s mankini was the must have for every man that summer!

Multitasking is key at Cannes. However does ‘The King of Cannes’ Jacques d’Azur do it?

Jerry Seinfeld buzzing around to promote Bee Movie. Is this all they could really think of?

What? The poor girl was hot! (note all of the empty champagne glasses by her feet )

This group of Belgium bicyclists were swealtering hot too! What a way to get the attention of their favorite celebs!

Finally after all of the partying is done and the wee hours of the morning approach, at least someone’s responsible enough to recycle! France is so green!

Real-time search startup Collecta launched their mobile site this week, just in time for the festivities at SXSW. Now anyone with a smartphone can point their mobile browser to http://m.collecta.com, enter a query like “sxsw free” or “party sxsw,” and watch the reports stream in.

Despite only being around for two days, it has already been used to score a free flight to anywhere from Jet Blue.

You can learn more about where Collecta Mobile here, or just try it out for yourself!

Disclosure: In addition to being a contributor to bub.blicio.us, I also work at FutureWorks, where one of my clients is Collecta.

By Larry Chiang

I love learning from mentors. Nichelle Stephens, founder of Keeping Nickels and editor of Pepsi We Inspire is leading a panel called Broke Diaries. Joining her is me, Hayes Davis, co-founder of CheapTweet.com, and Faye Penn, editor/publisher of Brokelyn.com,

Here is what I will be talking about so if you want to pre-learn, pre-study, pre-prepare… Here are some great tips on using Twitter to save money and make money.

-1- Use Twitter To Save Money on Your Education
Of course I am the guy that teaches “What they don’t teach at b-school”. People marvel at how you CAN learn what Stanford and Harvard teaches without paying full tuition to go. Here’s how EXACTLY
-Download course agendas

-Learn what the professors have loaded up on the internet for free

-Participate in networking events with great speakers. For example, subscribe to twitter.com/basesevents for Stanford b-school events to rsvp for

- Attend community outreach conferences like Harvard’s eWeek for very little money

I once even hosted an event during Stanford’s eWeek. The event was called the Reverse VC Pitch Party and I got venture capitalists to pitch. I guess some people pay to attend business school, but I make money producing b-school events for no money. I got the founder of PayPal to sell his venture firm. How I did all this is below…

…but first how did I meet the founder of PayPal.

-2- Get Smart!

Find mentors and more mentors by wooing them via Twitter.

Twitter is full of experts in a multitude of categories. Wooing and access to them is pretty easy via Twitter. I wrote about “How to Work a Twitter Party” and I would highlight the following points:

- Search and get keyword alerts for phrases that signal an expert is posting tweets. I’d use gmail keyword alerts
- Avoid the surf and pray method of finding thought leaders
- Mentors are at expensive conferences. Access is easier (and free sometimes) if you tweet. (see #3)
- Producing and hosting events future mentors want to come to (This is HUGE! I expand on this in #4)

-3- Use Your Twitter Account to Access Expensive Conferences

Twitter can be your all-access badge if you tweet right. Most conferences charge $300 to $6000. You can increase your probability of getting access if you read and execute on some of the stuff below:
- Conferences need bloggers SO BADLY So blog about the conference before the conference.
- Pre – blog a CONFERENCE helps you and the conference producer
- Live – blog and live tweet using the conference hashtag
- Cover last year’s conference to preview this year’s conference
- Use the 3,2,1 formula- 3 paragraphs, two pictures, one focus for each blog post
If a blog post takes you longer than 2 hours, you’re over-thinking it. In three paragraphs just answer: What’s up. What this means now and in the future. Where things could go. What is next.
-4- Host Uber Low Cost, Highly Attended Events Using Twitter

When I say HOST most people get really nervous. Don’t.

If you host something your likelihood of getting a mentor goes up. It goes up because the number of people you meet goes up. Here is how to produce, organize and promote highly attended events using Twitter for very little working capital.

• Announce a 5-30 person party on Twitter
• Beg, email and comp to get retweets
• Invite an author and buy 5 copies of their book (If you invite me, I will fly across the country if you buy my mentors book)

Guest Blog somewhere and then tweet the bit.ly link
First 25 free – Rebate if you show up (example is bit.ly/vc0406)
Quasi-Celeb CoHost or Celebrity
Value Addedly hi-jack the conference PR

Let me stress the $25-free-with-a-rebate manuver. You don’t want to just give something away and have them not show up. I recommend doing a rebate. It is free and I will rebate you IF you show up.

Well, it’s been a slice and I hope to see you on Twitter. Find me or my panelists on Twitter @niche @LarryChiang @HayesDavis @Brokelyn.
The panel is Friday March 12 at SXSW at 2pm

See the nuggets of learning compiled on a wiki page that you can chip in money saving and making ideas

http://duck9er.pbworks.com/Broke+Diaries+Panel%3A+Pre-learning+before+SXSW

CONCLUSION
larry@duck9.com and put your cell in the subject line to bust spam
bit.ly/BrokeDiaries (a wiki to chip in your ideas)
text me with stuff: 650-283-8008
email my PDA if you want me to retweet something chiang9@duck9.com

I wrote this in 40 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I kick a lot of butt. Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

If you spend 60 minutes reading his stuff, you’ll be street smart by St Patrick’s Day.

By Larry Chiang

VCs now pitching start-ups.

Dave McClure is leading a new charge where VCs are doing outreach and education to stimulate deal flow. He is at Founders Fund.

Who are VCs trying to charm?! — waves of entrepreneurs able to launch lean start-ups.

Sales oriented VCs like McClure romance entrepreneurs by reaching out to influencers like Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter), Eric Reis (blogger), or Marcus Nelson (UserVoice/SalesForce). These influencers are the people who entrepreneurs look to for guidance, advice and support.

Smart VCs are also “speak-sponsoring”… it’s where they speak and sponsor simultaneously. For example, at Stanford, David Hornik of August Capital introduces VIP guest speakers and hosts Fraiche frozen yogurt receptions.

(cc) Kenneth Yeung – thelettertwo.com

A third component to speak-sponsoring is producing afterparties to tech conferences and events. On a small scale, Second Market hosted the green room at Girls In Tech Conference. Second Market provides VCs, LPs and founders liquidity to pre-IPO companies. Brita Moeller, VP of Private Markets, revealed, “For a small sum of money I got access to all the speakers basically coming to me in the green room.”

Another example is when Canaan Partners hosted Web 2.0 Summit afterparty. They paid for an event at the Swank St Regis to get entrepreneur deal flow. The Web 2.0 Summit was at the Westin and Canaan decided to upgrade the entrepreneur experience and use a five star resort

(cc) Kenneth Yeung – thelettertwo.com

Bryan Chao, senior associate at Canaan said, “Nothing activates our brand more than supporting entrepreneurs”. Canaan gave away a booth that allowed a non portfolio company to showcase and promote as if they were already Canaan portfolio company.

VCs pitching entrepreurs is also happening at South by Southwest (SXSW). For the first time at SXSW, there is the Reverse VC Pitch event. It has VCs pitching entrepreneurs. Recently, at Stanford, Luke Nosek of Founders Fund pitched (Video) http://bit.ly/vc0224v.

The upcoming event Sunday March 14 has over a dozen top venture firms including GRP, Bessemer, First Found, Benchmark, Austin Ventures, Draper Fisher, S3, Shasta, Sierra and more.

Good luck working it and crash my Reverve VC Pitch Party on March 14.

I wrote this in 40 minutes. If I missed something, email me… larry @larrychiang dot com and include your cell in the subject line.

DISCLOSURE: I started the credit company that changed an industry Duck9. I make money selling credit cards to college students and I got a bill passed that outlaws 90+% of my competitors. The new law takes effect Feb 2010 and is called Student Credit Card Protection Act of 2009. Before credit card companies used to screw college students. Now, college students have the tables turned in their favor. Yes, I plan on doing this college marketing job until 2069 (I’ll be 90 then Text or call me during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes on my cell: 650-283-8008.

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9 , which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He is a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek. His earlier posts on GigaOm include: How to Work The Room ; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid . You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

So, why am I writing about the Oscars you ask? Well, one reason, the red carpet glamour! It’s the dazzle all, flaunt your stuff, flip of the hair fabulousness that gets blood rushing through my veins as I see who’s wearing what and who shouldn’t be wearing what!

To celebrate this year’s upcoming Oscar weekend and to get a head start on the style buzz that is to follow, here is a fabulous Friday post on my  favorite winners and losers of previous Oscar fashion! Enjoy and happy Friday everyone!

Favorites:

Uber Uma! I love her and this entire look!!

Who wears mustard yellow? Michelle Williams did and it worked wonders!!!

Charlize Theron took a risk with this one – and it is nothing but superb!

Do I need to say anything? Va Va Voom!

Worst:

Is this the pretty pretty princess Oscars? I think Tyra Banks thought so!

Morticia made it! Looks like she’s too ‘busy‘ to make it this year though!

Backwards Baggy tuxedo? Really Celine Dion?

And Finally…. need I say more? Agh! My eyesssss!!

On March 4th, the Open Angel Forum will bring together five promising startups, five great angel investors, and select service providers with the aim of making critical connections between the local investor and entrepreneur communities. OAF founder Jason Calcanis will join San Francisco Chapter heads Kevin Rose and Chris Sacca to kick off the event.

Unlike similar events, OAF refuses to charge entrepreneurs to present their startups. These costs can be prohibitively expensive for founders on tight budgets.

To date, there are five chapters operating across the U.S., with plans for a dozen more before the close of 2010. This is impressive, considering the organization’s first event was just held in January. The rapid growth of the event has come as a shock even for serial entrepreneur Jason Calcanis.

“Clearly there is a need in the market for an event like this when four chapters launch in the first 60 days of operation,” Calcanis says. “We literally can’t keep up with the demand for new chapters and people applying… It’s just stunning to me how something like this can blow up instantly.”

New chapters are launching nearly every other week, and they are currently looking for top-level sponsors. For more information, visit the Open Angel Forum  Web site or Twitter page.

By Larry Chiang

First of all, it is nice to meet you via this blog post. I get goosebumps knowing that you’re about to get uber business street-smart. I know a thing or two about being academically competent but a little short on street smarts because I was an engineering undergrad once.

I was young and confused but then I read a bestseller from the 80s by, Mark McCormack; “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School“. He later became a mentor and helped me and build a business called UCMS modeled after Mr. McCormack’s IMG. He started the industry of sports agents by first representing Arnold Palmer. They now rep Payton Manning, Tiger Woods and more.

Here what I am going to talk about

Secrets to getting a legendary internship will be revealed. Getting access to the best jobs has nearly nothing to do with what you know or who you know now. It has to do with learning…

- 7 Truths of Engineering/Finance Success
- 1st job myths
- Moonlighting and how to double-dip
- Getting 10 extra interviews NOW
- Waitlisting in academia is bad. Waitlisting in the workplace is #awesome. Sorry, I talk twitter now.
- How to network at a party you were not invited to.
- What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA

Exercise: Lemonade Stand Business

A lemonade stand business is a step above selling glasses of juice for 25c. It’s a baby business that gets you taking and making small transactions and learning sales. Did you know that most VCs and consultants have careers that stall out and die because they can’t operate? Get a leg up by

- Popping your entrepreneurial cherry right
- Examples of Lemonade Stands (Jobs, Dell, Gates, Chiang)
- Practical, hands-on experience. Selling blankets at concerts.
- My “Lemonade Stands”: UCMS, TheDatingReport, CreditCard.org, aa4a.org and Duck9
- A Party is a Lemonade Stand too. My AfterParties have been covered in TechCrunch and VentureBeat
- My next lemonade stand is a party that has VCs paying me to pitch. It’s called “Reverse VC Pitch Party”
- THIS is a lemonade stand. I am selling something that is free but it sure feels like I am selling you something right?!
Here is a snipet of video

Here are the questions from the last group of undergrads sent via text message, Twitter and live:

+1-818-687-xxxx
QUESTION: How do you ask someone to be your mentor?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: You know how creepy it is to ask, “Wanna go steady?”… Well, it’s the same way with asking someone to be your mentor. Date your mentor for a while. Woo your mentor for a while. Take you mentor out. Publicly recognize them. Get your mentor a gift. Before you know it, you and your mentor will be going steady.

+1-818-625-xxxx
QUESTION: What about actually networking at the event?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: I wrote about this in a post called, “How to Work a Cocktail Party” and read Susan RoAne’s book, “How to Work a Room“. Oh, I also cut and pasted her book title into aGigaOm blog post called, “How to Work a Room“.

+1-512-925-xxxx
QUESTION: How well does your strategy work on people much older than you?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: Old people love getting their butt kissed. It makes them feel relevant.

QUESTION: Does this number even work?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: It works better when I am not on campus. I think your trees are getting in the way

QUESTION: What kind of engineer are you?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: The kind that go into sales engineering. I worked as a Chemical Sales Engineering for Nalco. My degree is in General Engineering from U of I. Yeah, I graduated #1 in starting salary. I hated my ‘advisor’ Chalmers Sechrist but it was good because I found out that people in positions of power can just absolutely have zero clue. Those same people will never mentor you or guide you even if they are paid to do so. Me, I will creepily mentor you for free just to eff with you. Yes, I am the opposite of Chalmers Sechrist.

QUESTION: What classes did you apply in your first job?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: I loved Chemistry and Steven Zumdahl was a great, great Chem teacher. I placed out of my Chem requirements but sat in on classes anyway. Nerd I know. It is weird that I took zero Chem classes but still worked as a ChemE when I graduated. Zumdahl loved chem and cared about teaching. We are Facebook friends still!

QUESTION: What exactly is your job?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: I am CEO of Duck9. I started UCMS when I was a sophomore in engineering after reading “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School“. UCMS did credit strategies seminars to sorority houses. I pretty much have the same job as I did when I was a sophomore as per my Austin Texas network Facebook job status.

QUESTION: How do you crash a party?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: I don’t crash anymore But when I did, I would add myself to the waitlist. I would also elevator pitch myself and try to “be a vacation”. Sometimes, I’d bring a gift…
DAVID HORNIK: THIS WORKS. A couple years ago when we hosted the TechCrunch party, Larry’s intern dropped off flowers before the event at August Capital. My staff still remembers her.

+1-713-303-xxxx
QUESTION: Are you a pick up artist?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: Funny. I think male models get picked up on versus picking up. (Right on cue there was a Stanford Fashion show next door to Tresidder Oak East)

+1-706-207-xxxx
QUESTION: How do you leave a good voicemail when you’re calling for an internship? Can you do an example
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: Hi, this is Larry Chiang! Yeah, I know. HI! I wanted to grab you on the phone for two minutes because YOU are coming to campus to do interviews. I can help. I can give you the ins-and-out of Tresidder: 1) bring your own WIFI, 2) bring your work-out stuff cuz you can crash Arrillaga Center for Sports and Rec, and three… …well, call me back cuz. Here is my number. Grab a pen. It is 650, Larry Chiang if you’re googling my resume… 650 do u have a pen yet. 650-2..8…3. 283-8…0…0…8

Also read, “How to Close a Deal via Voicemail“. It’s worth a month or three of tuition because it will get you three to five more internship job offers.

QUESTION: How do you get an email answered?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: First you ping the email by asking “Is this the best email address for you?”. Always include your cell phone in the subject line.

QUESTION: How do you get a cell phone number of a recruiter?
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: You ask for it. You might get a no or push-back but ask anyone who went to the BASES session and they’ll give you strategies on how to handle objections.

+1-808-639-xxxx
QUESTION: Can you talk about networking at an event you’re not invited to
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: Read my Stanford blog

+1-330-564-xxxx
QUESTION: How do you network in a room that you’re crashing
LARRY CHIANG ANSWER: Read my Stanford blog

Chip in your questions in the comments!

I founded Duck9, which educates college student on credit cards and how to establish a FICO score over 750. I have testified before Congress and World Bank on credit.

My earlier posts include: How to Work The Room and 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored.

I’m not saying that we should move away from social media outlets all together, but specifically for the business and marketing use of social media, a balance needs to be met. One of my friends yesterday noted the amount of time needed to maintain a social media presence, which cuts into her actual time spent with customers that are in her shop at any given point of the day.

The conversion factor for moving relationships from the online world into the offline world is still a matter of large concern, particularly when it comes to building one’s brand. Yes, you need a web presence. Yes, you need to find a way to quickly and effectively share information with your customers and clients. Yes, you need to become a resource for others seeking industry-related information, for the purpose of becoming discovered by those using search mechanisms. And yes, you need to engage your customers to maintain open correspondence and receive valuable feedback to use towards the development of your brand.

But find some time towards converting all of that social media activity into something you can benefit from offline. We all know that popularity in the online realm means little for brands with a focus on bricks and mortar locations, unless there’s a way in which they can easily turn that popularity into something more monetizable.

Finding a way to develop those relationships both offline and online is a serious focus for brand owners and those seeking a more powerful association with their company and its principles. Otherwise, brands will be able to hide behind their avatars, getting little out of everyday experiences that lend towards the betterment of in-person correspondence.

As brands seek more social media involvement, it’s important to take a few cues from the course social media has taken for individuals that have already learned this lesson.