Tag Archives: Tech

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)

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

By Julie Blaustein

Brian and Shoshanna Zisk

The 7th. SF MusicTech Summit came back to town on Monday, December 6th. at the Kabuki Hotel. It was another great gathering of the various players in the music industry who drive its innovation, creativity and growth in this constantly evolving space. Topics discussed and debated included entertainment, product development, wireless and hand held, start ups, legal issues and, so much more. The very first SF MusicTech had maybe 300 people whereas now, there are over 800 attendees and over 27 sponsors! There was barely enough room for all the sponsoring logos to fit on the Sponsor plaque. The team responsible for securing all these sponsorships include the “music gods” Brian Zisk and his lovely wife Shoshana along with their partner-in-crime Todd Tate. They all have a deep history of performing and working in the music industry and are now seeking to keep the music alive through the collaboration of those that are seeking to make music and those that are seeking to make money. I also gained  better understanding of what made the SF MusicTech Summit a “must” attend by talking to a few of the sponsors and vendors.

Michael Hobson of HRT

High Resolution Technologies (HRT) would normally have exhibited at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas which is way larger than the Summit, but due to their employer Michael Mercer’s recommendation they chose the SF Music Tech Summit. Not only was HRT the largest sponsor of the show but they spoke on a panel and took the opportunity to announce their new product’s launch, The iStreamer which allows you to deliver high performance digital audio playback directly from an iPad, iPhone or an iPod.

Sonic.net provides Internet connectivity to the technology start ups in the community. This is their 2nd. year being a vendor and a sponsor with the summit. Tiffany Lawson, an Account Manager with Sonic.net was eager to be a part of the Summit in part due to how easy it was to work with Brian Zisk, the Executive Producer. “Zisk was great to communicate with, he is always on the same page and he genuinely cares about making the conference a success for you.”

Gianluca delli Carri of MusiXmatch hails from Italy with corporate offices in London. MusiXmatch provides a way to distribute lyrics. Usually they would attend evnts such as Music Hack Day where they would engage with developers. Based on a partner and a past, colorful attendee Robert Kaye of MuicBrainz, they chose to commit to the event.

Peter Jung of Vocoo

Not to be outdone in terms of going the distance to attend SF MusicTech Summit, Peter Jung, Manager of Vocoo.com that provides your voice over background of the hottest songs for iPhone, Android, PC, YouTube, FB and more, came from Seol, Korea! Based on the recommendation of their PR firm, ICR, they came in the hopes of meeting other companies. In fact, it appears that MusiXmatch is now in talks with Voocoo about providing their expertise in lyrics. That, my friends, is worth the airfare and certainly  justifies the ROI of the event to any manager questioning its worthiness to attend.

If you are involved in the music scene in any way, do your self a favor and attend the next SF MusicTech Summit in the spring of 2011 to learn, meet new and old friends and do business. You can’t go wrong.

Go here for more pictures and for Past SF MusicTech Summit Events and check them out on Twitter at #SFMusicTech.

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

Help define who and what matters in the mobile space. If you’d like to connect with others and amplify your influence in the mobile tech space, then join NetShelter and publishers PhoneDog, IntoMobile and VentureBeat for an evening of insights, merriment and mingling.

EVENT DETAILS:

Where: ROE Nightclub. 651 Howard Street San Francisco, CA 94105

When: Thursday, July 15, 2010 | 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Registration: http://netsheltermixermobile.eventbrite.com
Cost: Free

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130248163665499
Hashtag: #netsheltermixer

HOSTS
Pirouz Nilforoush [@pirouzn] and Peyman Nilforoush [@netshelter_ceo] , NetShelter [ @netshelter ]
Noah Kravitz [@phonedog_noah], PhoneDog
Will Park [@willpark], IntoMobile
Owen Thomas [@owenthomas], VentureBeat