Last week one of Bub.blicio.us‘ long-term media partners and friends, Liana Burtsava of Trendy Lime, was a partner at the Startup Week Vienna that welcomed 100 investors, 70 speakers, and over 1,000 guests to beautiful Vienna, the city known as the bridge between Eastern and Central Europe. Thanks to Liana, we are connected to blogger Vukasin Stojekov of Seebhub.me and the unfolding of startup events in Europe.

Contributed by Vukašin Stojkov of SeeHub.me of Serbia:

Morten Lund, investor and entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark

A plethora of keynotes, presentations, panels and workshops participated in last weeks event in Vienna. Oliver Holle and Erik Bovee of Speedinvest held fantastic informational presentations. I have heard a fair share of VC presentations, but these guys really killed it. Not only did you learn a lot, you could enjoy it too due to their great presentation style. The Startup Week Viena is a must for early stage startups, and I hope to hear them in the future, ideally when they come to Belgrade. One of the best motivational keynotes was given by Pascal Finette on Wednesday, when he compared startups to running a marathon and shared his lessons with entrepreneurs in the audience.

TechCrunch day was awesome. A small part was due to Mike Butcher being on the stage where he is a Superstar. He is awesome presenting himself, moderating a panel, having a fireside chat or even presenting an awards ceremony.

A great piece of motivation and inspiration came on Thursday with Facebook’s Christian Hernandez highlighting Serbia’s Nordeus as his favorite European success story. This was an illustration of how close Nordeus and Facebook are which I believe many in this region take as a signal that one can indeed make it BIG on a global scale no matter where one comes from. Our last day on Friday, we had a chance to hear Doug Richard’s amazing story about his biggest mistake and I can not wait to hear from him again.

Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, soaked with champagne by the winners of the Start up competition, MySugr

The Networking was the best part of Startup Week for me. My biggest impression from this event was a who’s who in the CEE startup scene which was a significant upgrade from the traditional circuit of conferences I have attended in the past. I had the chance of meeting and talking with amazing people from Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia. You name it, they were there. It was a great experience at what is poised to become one the central European startup events. This year’s edition was just a sign of things to come.

More photos from the conference found on Facebook. (photo credit Luis Kentzler)

Starting with Google Places, Meyer talked about how key it was to be able to get a real sense of a place when you seek information about it – its look and feel. According to Mayer, the best way to connect with the places you love is at Google Places. Live for just 6 months, Google Places already has over 50 million Place Pages that include over 5 million ratings and reviews which is a rate of 1 million a month. Its success is due to its social interaction of users who can gain personalized search results via Finding, Rating and Sharing Places. Mayer announced the launch of Google Business Photos in Google Places at the Social Loco conference. Google is offering FREE photo shoots for owners at their request. The photos are high- high-quality, panoramic photos. A great Q & A about their new offering is provided by Google. Not only is it being launched in the US, but also in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Go to #socialloco and follow the conversation about the Social Loco Conference.

by Julie Blaustein

Swagging it up at Swagapalooza

I wasn’t quite sure what I was attending when I was invited to the 2nd. Swagapalooza at the DNA lounge last Tuesday. It turns out they pretty much invite bloggers and then they reward them with swag by attending and hopefully promoting the event. Most of the bloggers were foodie bloggers as most of the demos were about food. There really was no theme. The food wasn’t anything to write home about, mosty pizza. But it was a fun, excitable, heckling crowd who was happy to be there as were the presenters that were introduced on stage by Alex Krupp, the host and organizer.

First up was Justin Kahn of Justin.TV as the Keynote. He shared the virtues of quitting your day job and going after your dream with the young and impressionable audience who eagerly listened to his “lessons in life”. Fortunately for him, its all working out. Not only has Jason.TV taken off, he has now started his own mens-ware line.

Kristen Slow of Sabateur had Jason model her signature jacket from her mensware line. She demonstrated how any liquid will just roll off the Invincible Man’s Jacket. Although definitely a cool item to own, I was a bit sticker shocked at the price, $600! But she hooked us up with some real swag, a real men’s shirt with real men’s cuff links!

Transcendent Man, the movie about Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s leading futurists was introduced by its director, Barry Ptolomy. Its going to be released in every conceivable medium that is available – YouTube, Apps, TV. You can even watch it here now! It suggests that computers will have conscience thinking and even cure death in the near future.

Will Hauser of Two Degrees shared with us the virtues of his all-natural, gluten-free bars. Their mission is to feed over 200 million children, one child at the time. The audience though was all a twitter and tweeting how HOT he was.

I never realized how fun recycling could be. John Funk of FlingBins popped up his 13 gallion recyclable bins to show us just how easy it is to whip one out at a party and have a good time with your garbage.

Swipe your credit card with Swipegood and do good by rounding up your transaction to the nearest dollar and then contribute that amoutn to your favorite charity. Steli Efti shared the many reasons why this is something you just automatically CAN do and DO good.

Stunner of the Month shared the cheesiest but entertaining presentation of all. Todd Smith modeled his offerings, quite the deal for $9 a month. You receive a new pair of shades and a funky tape to go with it in the mail. The perfect gift for all occasions!

Tracy Lee and her partner threw out Magic Panties?  Whatever they were, the crowd was going wild to catch a pair.

You would think that the Boom Boom Revolution would be something thumping but rather its a card deck where folks are prompted to do acts of kindness and then share them with a community of do-gooders. Turns out that Mary Beth Campbell, a former teacher was so shocked that her students were into acts of kindness she felt compelled to share it with the world.

Seems there are lots of people seeking to connect with others when they are not digitally connected. Eddie Lu of Grubwith.us and his partner realized this when they moved to Chicago. They set up a community where strangers can eat and meet one another at restaurants around the city.

Danny Grabiner of SourFlour is also creating community through his bread. He made 172 loafs of bread and greeted each and every attendee upon arriving at the event with their very own loaf. It was yummy but such a huge loaf that I gave it to one of the homeless on my way home.

And last of the bunch was Amerilab Technology which when it came down to it, they provided a possible solution to one’s hangover with their product, the Drinkin’Mate, although according to laws, they couldn’t come straight out and say that. Their secret ingredien: guava leaf extract. As part of my goodie bag I was swagged with one of their products so we’ll see if it actually works.

For the real fun follow the event at #swagapalooza. And check out the after party pics and some more pics here.

Alex Krupp, Host of Swagapalooza

Justin Khan of Khan.TV and Kristen Slow of Sabateur

Barry Ptolemy of Transcendent Man

Will Hauser of Two Degrees

Steli Efti of Swipe Good

Todd Smith, Stunner of the Month

Eddie Lu, Grubwith.Us

Tracy Lee and Partner

Chris Biggs and Partner of Ameritabs

Social Media Prom is coming to San Francisco on November 11.

What does this mean?

Social Media Prom sponsored by @FunnyOrDie is for anyone and everyone who didn’t have a chance to go to prom.

Maybe you didn’t make it out of your house, the backseat of the car, or behind the bleachers. Perhaps you were the wallflower or someone poured punch down your dress and gave you a wedgy and hung you from a locker.

Of course, those who did make it to their prom are also invited!

This is your chance to shine, and redeem those moments lost, and do what you may not have been able to experience from your home or behind the bleachers.

Featured Guests Include:

Hosts: Events For Nerds very own Krystyl Baldwin (@krystyl) and Ben Parr (@benparr)
Live music: LIVE105′s Miles The DJ and The Frail
Special Appearance: Revision3′s Scam School
Special Guests: @MissDestructo and @Jonathan360

Vote for San Francisco’s Social Media Prom King, Queen and Most Likely to Succeed at http://www.socialmediaprom.com Winners will be announced at 8 p.m. on November 11 and will receive special gifts from @Moxsie and @Cirque

• Cocktail / Formal attire is required for entry
• Tickets $15 Singles, $20 Couples, $25 at door.
• Event starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.
• Chance to win many cool prizes.
• Portion of the proceeds go to Market Street Railway – restoring San Francisco’s cable cars.
• First 200 through the door receive a special gift bag.
• Live photo / video uploads from Pixorial, Eye-Fi and others.
• Follow the event with the hashtag #SMProm
• Snacks from Doughey’s Cookies, RedVines, PopChips and more!

Thanks to our sponsors:
Funny Or Die
OMGRaj Productions
Pixorial

LiveShare by CoolIris
Yelp
Skyy Vodka and more!

For more information, visit http://www.socialmediaprom.com
Tickets can be purchased at http://smp.mogotix.com
*Get 15% off your ticket if you’re a Bub reader by using code “Bub”

By Julie Blaustein

A company’s failure is something that people don’t usually speak of, as if it were a bad omen or a skeleton in the closet. But, as FailCon ’10 made clear, failure happens to everyone, including those used to always being on top. The conference, held Monday in San Francisco, made failure appear to be a badge of honor. In the world of start-ups, failure is a way for one to learn lessons and to succeed as a result of failing in the past. FailCon ’10, now in its second year, was launched by event planner Cassie Phillipps of WebWallfower Events and took place in the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

Steve Blank of Four Steps to the Epiphany

The opening speaker was serial entrepreneur and business school professor Steve Blank who was also available to sign his book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany. It’s about early stage start-ups and the four stages of growth any start-up goes through in order to become a real company. Right on target with the theme of the conference. His talk was based on the key task of any start-up; creating a working business model. He also provided some practical advice such as, “Don’t expect the VC’s to be lined up waiting for you to hand you money when you get off the plane in Silicon Valley.”

Jay Adelson of Revision3

Blank was soon followed by a number of speakers from very successful companies who spoke about what they learned from their mistakes. The line-up included Chad Dickerson of Etsy, Chrysanthe Tenentes of FourSquare and Cathy Brooks of OtherThanThat, who asked her usual probing questions when interviewing former Digg CEO, Jay Adelson. Adelson did not share too much with the audience that wasn’t already news, such as his departure from Digg as CEO, but he did share his thirst for being a part of the start-up process, whether it is successful or not.

Hotel Kabuki is a convenient venue, not only for its great restaurants in Japantown but ideal for a conference thanks to its numerous rooms that provided both speaker presentations and workshops. How Not to Fail at SEO presented by Vanessa Fox, formerly of Google and now of Nine By Blue, provided a great presentation of do’s and don’ts for SEO that one can find in her book, Marketing in the Age of Google.

The Audience of FailCon '10

A number of start-ups provided demos of their products and services in the “Demo Room” including: Footfeed, Near2There, FoodSprout, Wordchuck, SurfMark, Doochoo, CardMunch, Soup.me, MogoTix, hiyakoo, MyNextCustomer, R/A Profit$, and Bee.TV. Throughout the day they offered demos of their product or service for those that wandered into the demo room during sessions and breaks. The audience texted their favorite using Poll Everywhere and the three favorites of FailCon were MyNextCustomer, CardMunch and MogoTix. MogoTix, the winner of the popular vote, provides scannable tickets on your mobile phone and for the event organizer, instantaneous viewing of who has arrived. Perhaps they will have some small failures in order to ensure that they will be successful in the end.

By Julie Blaustein

The Social Email Marketing Conference held in San Francisco, brought together marketing experts, email companies and brands to discuss integrated email and social media campaigns. It was a packed one-day conference held at Hotel Nikko.

A number of great speakers offered expertise including Brian Solis of Future Works, author of Engage! and founder of our very own Bub.blicio.us who talked about the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications and publishing. In other words, Brian spoke about how to be social while reaching out and influencing people. Tyler Willis of Involver who spoke about the differences between email marketing & social marketing and how you can experience social marketing success along with Mark Schmulen of Constant Contact who spoke about email and how it is the hub on one’s social media interactions. There were a number of additional great speakers who spoke on topics such as CRM and other tools to use in social media, Trust and Privacy issues, the power of A/B testing and more. But truly you need to attend the conference to not only hear from the experts but to meet them in an intimate setting where you can have real, in-depth conversations and make real-life connections.

San Francisco was the kick-off for a series of packed one-day conferences scheduled in major cities throughout the US, UK and in Europe. The series of conferences focusing on Social Media including Monitoring, Marketing, Emailing and Advertising will be held in not only San Francisco, Miami, Boston, New York City, and in London and Paris too through December. Murray Newlands and Luke Brynley-Jones are the Co-founders of Influence People and the force behind them. They advise companies and individuals in the UK and USA on how to utilize social media and to connect with people and deliver value. Great people to know and to meet on-hand at their conferences.

And don’t miss the first San Francisco Blog Club Meeting for FREE hosted by Influencer People on October 19th. from 6:30-10:0o pm at 111 Minna Gallery. Hurry and sign up as there are only a few spots left!

Pictures from the Conference below and more here:

The Social Media Email Marketing Conference Audience

Brian Solis signing for his new book, Engage! after his presentation.

Mark Scmulen, General Manager of Social Media, Constant Contact

Tyler Willis, Head of Brand Management of Involver

Chase McMichael, Co-Founder and CEO of Infinigraph and Murray Newlnads, Co Founder of Influence People

By Julie Blaustein

Speaker Aliza Sherman

Web 2.0 Expo has arrived! It is the annual event that brings together the people, ideas, products, and companies that shape the next-generation web and mobile apps at the Moscone West in San Francisco held this year from May 3-6. If you are able to attend in person, there is a schedule full of engaging content to choose from with over 75 sessions, workshops and intensives with well represented speakers from the industry.

Part of the excitement of being at the Expo in person is you can participate in silly but fun networking games. You will need to download the Microsoft Tag to your smartphone for The Scavenger Hunt. Clues are provided for you to locate  and tag throughout the conference. Great prizes are awarded too such as Xbox games and HD Zunes! Another game to play is the Paparazzi Photo 2.0 contest where starting on Tuesday May 4 -6 the Web 2.0 Expo Team will tweet 5 photo-related tasks from @w2e each day. The tasks involve you taking pictures with other attendees and you MUST be in each photo. Cash Cards up to $50 each will be awarded each day.

If you are not able to attend you can feel as if you are there by following the vibe of the conference through its Twitter tag #w2e or follow the Web 2.0 Team @w2e. There will be a Live Stream of the Keynotes. Also most speakers will provide their slides as found here from 2009.

Aliza Sherman’s workshop Create a Successful Social Media Plan: The Seven-Step Program provided a great overview of how to get started with the right objectives and tools to reach your target audience. Most importantly she stressed that social media is not about sales but rather about the conversation to make conversions to make the sales. Her numerous presentations on Social Media are available, not surprisingly, online. Once you get your community up and running you will want to to track it and you will need analytics to provide that data. Applied Communilytics provided great data including leading vendors of analytics – BitCurrent, ForSeeResults, HootSuite, CrazyEgg/KISSmetrics, comScore, Omniture and others.

Applied Communilytics Panel

There are tons of events happening at the Expo.  Monday night Ignite was held at Mezzzanine where speakers have five minutes on stage to present 20 slides that are rotated automatically after 15 seconds. Check out this past Ignite presentation by Justin.TV.

The Expo Hall opens on Tuesday at 10:30 am and closes at 3:30 pm. Wednesday the hours are from 10:30 pm to 6:00 pm. Don’t miss the booth crawl on Wednesday from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm. There is lots of free stuff at the Expo including a free Expo Pass by using the discount code EXPOPASS.

San Francisco’s Crushpad is having a world wine invasion next week, and it’s sure to take attendees on a trip they’ve never taken before!

Bottlenotes, which aims to increase your wine knowledge, is hosting next week’s ‘Around the World in 80 Sips’ event bringing wines from New Zealand, Germany, Australia, Israel, South Africa and even Thailand to the San Francisco venue for all to taste and explore. The urban winery that is Crushpad will be moving to Napa soon so this will be the last event of its kind at the space.

The actual event goes from 6 – 9 PM on Thursday February 25th, but for all of the wine connoisseurs in the Bay Area there is a special VIP hour at 5PM where you can mingle with wineries, sample special tastings before the event and even preview some new wine recommendation technologies that Bottlenotes is working on to provide real-time tasting recommendations to the 80 Sips attendees!

Tickets are $60 in advance, $75 at the door and $85 for VIP. Go here to purchase and for additional details!

A special offer for Bub.blicio.us readers: Get $10 off your tickets! Just enter code “80Sips” when you buy your ticket!

Happy Sipping!!!!