by Brian Solis

Michael Arrington: Media Predicts 2009

The saga regarding newsmakers and the battle over embargoes continues, and will do so until PR figures out that “less is more” when it comes to who to trust and with whom to build long-term, meaningful relationships in the art of media and blogger relations.

It started with Michael Arrington calling for the death of embargoes.

It continues with Kara Swisher, David Berlind, Stephen Baker, among others.

For the full story, and advice, please read PR 2.0.

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by Brian Solis

Microsoft StartupZone, The TechSet and Austin’s Startup District launched “Ignition” on Thursday night at Speakeasy. The event commemorated the launch of Microsoft BizSpark and celebrated the local spirit of entrepreneurialism and innovation.

Austin pulled out the stops with local tech leaders, enthusiasts, and champions packing the Speakeasy with rich and invigorating conversations, networking, product demos, and a refreshing diversion from the day-to-day aspirations of improving the world, one app at a time.  It was simply an incredible event, courtesy of the very people who participated.

SD|2020 kicked off the night with a showcase of the best early-stage startups in Texas.

Presenting companies included:
BizSpark
Piryx
Minggl
Gendai Games
QikCom
Ringlight
OtherInBox
RUWT? Sports
GAMEWAGER
TechRanchAustin

Microsoft BizSpark was recently launched at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco as a new program designed to support those founders and service providers who contribute to the dynamic ecosystem that help startups flourish.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

John Erik Metcalf

Joshua Baer

Tom Serres

Dewey Gaedcke of Minggl

Tan Tran

Christopher St. John, Nikhil Nilakantan, Blake Burris

Hugh Forrest of SXSW and Stephanie Agresta (TechSet, InternetGeekGirl)

Dusty Reagan of FriendorFollow

Kristine Gloria and Erica O’Grady

Cesar Torres

Jacob Mullins, Microsoft BizSpark

Clinton Schaff

Katie King of SXSW

Silona Bonewald, Bill Erickson

Anand Iyer, Microsoft BizSpark

Jacob Mullins, Anand Iyer, Josh Dillworth, Tammy Lynn Gilmore, Brian Solis, Silona Bonewald

Speakeasy

Michelle Greer, Archana Ramachandran, Whurley – William Hurley, Erica OGrady, Sara Dornsife, Tammy Lynn Gilmore, Stephanie Agresta, Anand Iyer, Giovanni Gallucci, Silona Bonewald

RockBand!

Cesar Torres, Dane Hurtubise, Kristine Gloria

Jacob Mullins and Tammy Lynn Gilmore

Next stop:

December 4, 2008 – Silicon Valley

December 10, 2008 – Los Angeles

For more pictures from the Microsoft BizSpark, TechSet, SD|2020 event in Austin, please visit my album on Flickr.

To see pictures from the Ignite New York, please visit my this album on flickr.

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by Brian Solis

Earlier this month, TechCrunch debuted Elevator Pitches, a new service that provides a platform for company founders to visually tell their story. Until now, the process of getting videos online was a very manual process.

Elevator Pitches is a community video project that allows entrepreneurs to pitch their startups to the general public. Visitors then have a chance to comment and vote on their favorite or least favorite pitches.

Today, TechCrunch announced a much simpler, and probably a much more benefitial process for submitting videos.

Now, entrepreneurs can upload their video pitch to YouTube, tag it “tcpitch,” and then submit the video URL here. It will enter a moderation queue and TechCrunch will approve qualified content, much quicker than before. Approved videos will also be automatically inserted into each submitting company’s CrunchBase.

On a side note, the bub.blicio.us crew shot many of the videos that are online today and we’re already on the calendar to shoot more at the next big event!

Here’s one that we shot in Los Angeles:

Stowe Boyd and I also recently introduced the notion of the Escalator Pitch. The idea of the escalator pitch is game changing and powered by the micro exchanges that take across micromedia every minute of every day. It inspires us to embrace brevity and relevance in the real world to help people “get” what we do and why they should care.

Here are some quick tips for startups on developing the startup video:

Take it seriously, you are not above improvement.

Assume you have one shot at getting someone excited about what you’re doing, because, technically, you do.

Be creative.

Make sure to clearly express who this is different than anything else out there and how it benefits the people who’ll use it.

Get friendly feedback.

Rehearse your pitch.

Tighten it.

Evolve it based on reactions.

Share your story in 60 seconds or less, each and every time.

Shape it to include the key points specific to the group to whom you’re speaking.

If you can nail it on an escalator, the elevator pitch will seem like a luxury.

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