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SOCAP09 – The Social Capital Markets Conference

by julieblaustein on September 4, 2009

By Julie Blaustein

Picture 2

SOCAP09 has grown up since it first came on the radar last year. There were  about 600 attendees at the 1st event and now this past week over 1000 attendees came from around the world to attend the three day conference at Fort Mason. This is a conference about making changes to our existing profit-driven financial systems along with promoting social innovation, creating sustainability and making new beginnings for our society.  Pretty lofty goals for most people, but these folks are the best-of-the-best thought leaders and doers; driven to make change and make a difference.  These movers and shakers include those from the world’s top social innovators, investors, donors, entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, new media, NGO’s and non-profits, wealth managers, development agencies, venture capitalists, MBA students, and numerous other groups interested in the growing opportunities of social capital.

Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation was the keynote and set the stage by sharing with the audience the role that the Obama Administration is taking on with social innovation and how companies can gain access to partnerships. Additional, diverse speakers participated on Keynotes and panels from the Rockfeller Foundation, IDEO, Social Capital Partners, REDF, Change.org, Grey Ghost Ventures, McKinsey and Co. and the list goes on. This wasn’t just a conference, this was about getting together, having a conversation that  matters, and making a roadmap for change immediately.  It should be interesting to learn what those changes will be in the near future.

Technology played a huge role at the conference. BusinessBoomer provided live streaming of interviews with some of visionaries and business leaders. Twittering #socap09 was rampant throughout and after the conference along with ongoing coverage with numerous videographers, bloggers and flippers – those using the flip phone for short interviews uploaded immediately to sites. Coverage can be found throughout the Internet and from the source, SOCAP09’s Blog. There was also a photographer, me. More photos below and on Julie’s Flickr Page:

Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation

Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation

Kevin Jones SOCAP09 Convener, Sangeeta Chowdhry of Acumen Fund, Sally Madsen of IDEO, Lucky Gunsaskara of FrontlineSMS Medic & Mark Bedford of NComputing

Kevin Jones SOCAP09 Convener, Sangeeta Chowdhry of Acumen Fund, Sally Madsen of IDEO, Lucky Gunsaskara of FrontlineSMS Medic & Mark Bedford of NComputing

The Audience Listening Intently to the Speakers Words of Wisdom

The Audience Listening Intently to the Speakers Words of Wisdom

Solving Hunger One Grilled Cheese Sandwich at a Time

Solving Hunger One Grilled Cheese Sandwich at a Time - Feel Good Sponsored Break

The BusinessBoomer Team: Julie Blaustein, Ryan Billings, Janice Bailon, Arabella Santiago and Rainer Cvillink

The BusinessBoomer Team: Julie Blaustein, Ryan Billings, Janice Bailon, Arabella Santiago and Rainer Cvillink

Even During Breaks Attendees Stay Connected

Even During Breaks Attendees Stay Connected

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by Brian Solis

Join me in Pasadena on Wednesday and Thursday at Executing Social Media, an interactive conference for marketing professionals and entrepreneurs.

I’m joining an incredible array of new media marketing visionaries including Chris Heuer, Jeremy Pepper, Phil Gomes, Jake McKee, Sally Falkow, and Chris Brogan.

I’m hosting a three hour workshop on Wednesday morning entitled, “From Friendfeed to Digg: An Executive Survey of Social Media Tools & Resources for PR, Customer Service, and Marketing.”

If you’re interested in attending, click here to register. Use code la08bs to save $300.

Workshop Description:

We live in interesting times. We’re currently enthralled in an immersive, confusing, and definitive transition in our “day job.” If you don’t engage, your competition will. This session will help you become a Social Media sociologist, not a cultural voyeur, in order to get to work and build relationships along the way.

Some of the tools we’ll review:

Bookmarks – Ma.gnolia, Delicious, Diigo, StumbleUpon

Crowdsourced Content – Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Mixx

Conversations – Google Alerts, Blogpulse, Radian6, Ask.com, BuzzLogic, Google Blog Search

Blog Communities – Blogged.com, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog

Micromedia – Tweetscan, Twemes, TwitterLocal, FriendFeed

Social Networks – MySpace, Bebo, Ning, Facebook, Friendfeed, LinkedIn

Customers – YahooGroups, GoogleGroups, GetSatisfaction

Event Description:

The 3rd Communitelligence Executing Social Media Conference & Workshops is a must-attend event for anyone in need of good advice on using the new social media tools for business advantage. The conference delivers practical, how-to take-aways from two-dozen experts and practitioners who are boldly executing successful new media programs today.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

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VentureBeat Celebrates Like It’s 2008

by Brian Solis on May 4, 2008

words and pictures by Brian Solis

I have the utmost respect and admiration for Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat. I’ve been an avid reader of his work going back to his days at the San Jose Mercury News writing for SiliconBeat.

On September 1st 2006, Marshall launched VentureBeat, which I covered originally here.

Matt’s media empire is growing strategically and the team threw a party to celebrate its expansion into the Digital Media realm.

Hosted at the very stylish Ambassador in San Francisco, VentureBeat’s affair might have been misdiagnosed as a sign of the bubble in full swing. It was packed with industry players, a-listers, and visionaries and they also dressed for the occasion. I, however, observed something other than a bubble flashback. I saw the continued emergence and fortification of a social economy that is more sustainable than a misguided Web 2.0 bullet train on the fast track to fame and fortune.

The intentions are still clear, build something of value without giving it away. Connecting the right people, with the right idea, has everything to do with achieving these goals. Celebrating when someone is on the right track only fortifies the inspiration that lies within each of us.

That’s what this is all about.

Matt Marshall and company are on the right path. And, the team is top caliber and headed for bigger things. Congratulations to your much deserved success Matt, Chris, Anthony, MG, Dean, Eric, David, and Jacob.

Now with that said, let’s have some of the pictures I captured that evening tell the rest of the story.

The VentureBeat team (click here for bios)

Dennis Yang and Mike Masnick of TechDirt

MDV Katherine Barr and Renee Blodgett

Matt Marshall addresses the crowd

Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors

VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon

Dan Farber of CNET

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0

Melody McCloskey of Friction.tv

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch with guest from Seesmic

Tomio Green of VentureWire

Geoffrey Ellis (Mr. Sarah Lacy, sorry Geoff!) and Valleywag’s Owen Thomas

Dave McClure

Kristen Nicole of Mashable

Fred Davis

Lisa Padilla and Renee Blodgett

Matt Marshall

Dean Takahashi

MG Siegler (ParisLemon) and Rebecca Reeve of FutureWorks PR

View my album on flickr for more pictures from the VentureBeat Digital Media party.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

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The TechSet Rocked Hollywood

by Brian Solis on April 12, 2008

words and pictures by Brian Solis

“This is a list of what I should have been but I’m not.
This is a list of the things that I should have seen, but I’m not seeing.”
- Adam Duritz, The Counting Crows

The introduction is a little profound, even psychologically exploratory for an intro to a post about a party, but I think most of us can relate to these words.

We live in interesting times and this dizzy life of ours is spinning us right into relevancy.

I’ve been working in tech for a long, long time. I grew up in Southern California before I moved to Silicon Valley in 95 to be part of rapidly evolving tech culture. Do you know how many times I tried to contribute back to the LA tech economy in Web 1.0? More than I can count. But it never stuck. And, it just didn’t feel right.

But now, there’s an unbelievable and wonderful difference between now and then. This time it’s about you and me and the things that we’re doing together, online and offline. This is our moment to build a meaningful and important community that promotes and shares our ideas, experiences, expertise, and value in order to make the Social Web more significant, useful and beneficial. And it’s not just Southern California, it’s burgeoning in pockets all over the world.

What’s even more incredible is that we have this unique opportunity to work together to make great things happen. This is the Wild West baby and we’re all cowboys and cowgirls. Don’t lose sight. These are our times and they’re for us to define. Find the people around you who are doing amazing things and add your voice. The culture of the new Web community will evolve because of your, our, everyone’s contributions.

I’m not Gary Vaynerchuk. I’m not Anthony Robbins. I’m just a guy who’s worked extremely hard to learn from both failures and successes to understand where I fit in this world. And you know what, I’m not alone. This is the TechSet. We’re the people creating and building a better Web and in turn, a better community in the real world.

Let’s carve out a niche for ourselves that counts for something in life. We’re not here to “cash out.” We’re not here to talk about who we know and what we’ve done. We are fully responsible for defining our own destiny. There are plenty of champions out there who are doing incredible things and those are the people I want to connect – in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and anywhere and everywhere voices, vision, and camaraderie are converging.

In Southern California specifically, I’m proud to be part of a team that’s working together to showcase the emerging social tech economy including Nicole Jordan, Mike Macadaan of Twiistup, Sloane Berrent, Jackie Peters, TechZulu, Debbie Landa, SoCalTech, Crystal Williams, Heather Vescent, Patricia Handschiegel, Michael Lambie, and everyone behind other great groups such as DigitalLA, Lunch 2.0, and the So Cal Geek Dinners. If I missed your name here, I apologize, send it to me and I’ll make sure to include it!

So with that long introduction, we (bub.blicio.us and InternetGeekGirl) hosted the inaugural TechSet LA at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, poolside.

Thank you for being there and thank you for sharing what you’re doing to make things more valuable in the LA tech community.

There were so many inspirational stories shared that night that I feel overwhelmed – in a good way. From the onset, I realized that I need to spend more time with you. The visionaries who are already making things happen and those who are starting to share your vision, have reminded me that this is why I’m part of this community. I’m looking forward to the next TechSet LA this summer. Stay tuned! Oh, and if you’d like to cover more of the SoCal tech scene for bub.blicio.us, let me know.

The next TechSet party will be in Silicon Valley on 4/20.

As always, I’ll let the pictures tell the story…

QueenofSpain and Mr. QueenofSpain

Mike Macadaan, Nicole Jordan, and Alison McNeill

Marc Levin

Jackie Peters

Martin Wells of Tangler and Chris Saad of Particls and DataPortability.org

Tim Street of FrenchMaidTV

Sloane Berrent of Causecast and Michael Lambie

Dr. Tiki of TikiBarTV

Efren Toscano of TechZulu

Sean Percival of Mahalo

Stephanie Agresta, Miiko Mentz and Brian Solis

Mike Macadaan and Heather Harde of TechCrunch

Alison McNeill interviews Dr. Tiki

Michelle Thatcher and Amanda Coolong Wheatcroft

Alison McNeill of TechSoup and Bub.blicio.us

Stephanie Agresta and Pete Cashmore of Mashable

Jeff MacPherson (Dr. Tiki) and Brian Solis

Mike Prasad and Alexandra Mokh of GirlGamer

Caroon Gharakhanian, Katelin Radcliff, Desdemona Bandini

Rick Calvert of BlogWorldExpo and Michelle Thatcher

Pete Cashmore and Sean Percival

The After Party

Visit my album on flickr for more pictures from the TechSet

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.

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SNAP stands for Social Network Application Platform

by Brian Solis on October 3, 2007

by Julie Blaustein

Has your company come up with its Facebook Killer App?

Well, what are you waiting for?

Spend a day at the SNAP Summit at the Yerba Buena Theatre in San Francisco where you will be among the hippest, smartest and most influential developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, visionaries, and anyone who is interested in being a part of the next big revolution on the web.
SNAP stands for Social Network Application Platform. It also stands for the future of the web.

SNAP Summit is a one-day, single-track conference that focuses in-depth on the Facebook platform, while looking ahead at new and emerging platforms, such as Yahoo! Mash.

When: Friday, October 26, 2007
Where: Yerba Buena Theater in San Francisco
How to sign up: Go to http://snapsummit.com/about

See you there!

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