SOMEWHAT FRANK

Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco Is Coming Soon

Web 2.0 Expo is at it again and this time they are back on the West coast in San Francisco on March 31st - April 3rd. I was invited to attend the semi-annual conference and expo targeting all those involved with the development of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists from around the globe. Some of the most innovative and successful industry people and companies attend Web 2.0 Expo. This year at the Web 2.0 Expo there are 3 new components which include:

1. A new Government 2.0 Joins the Web 2.0 House track for anyone looking to explore how technology is being integrated into the government.
2. Sunlight Labs Hackathon where attendees build an application that promotes transparency
   in government. You can vote now for the application you want to build (or think needs to be built).
3. Revion3 Tekzilla LIVE at Web 2.0 Expo as Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont bring you hands on reviews of the latest gear, tips and tricks that improve the tech you already own, and conversations with the most informative experts around.

I last attended Web 2.0 Expo in 2007 and you can check out the photos to prove it. Read up on past SOMEWHAT FRANK Web 2.0 Expo coverage here, here, here and here.

Use code websf09trt5 at online registration for 30% off any registration package.

Finally, I have an extra ticket to give away so reach out to me on twitter @FrankGruber if you’re interested. Hope to see you there!

Creating "Johnny Cash" Experiences at SXSW 2009

Last weekend I was down in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest Interactive and I was feeling creative and wanted to create a new experience like one I have never had at the event. I believe that my happiness is derived from my experiences so I decided to create a new holiday called Johnny Cash Blackout Sunday.

Searching For The B.E.S.T. Bebo Application

I was in San Francisco early last week at the Bebo B.E.S.T. Developer Challenge Awards Ceremony. As an application contest judge with Dave McClure and Jesse Stay, I had the pleasure of examining a number of stellar applications which ranged in form and function. The most important characteristic I looked for were usability and engagement.

Here were some of the fun facts about the contest:

• Almost 2,000 BEST Contest entries

• Entrants include big names like: Playfish, (Lil) Green Patch, Family Link & Large Animal Games

• Contest entrants came from a variety of categories, including Casual Games, Virtual Reality, Communication & Entertainment

Congrats to the five application finalists included KickMania, Banana Grams, RoboKill Trainer, Solid Sudoku & Bowling Buddies. The grand prize winner was Bowling Buddies by Playfish as it offered an extremely engaging gaming experience on Bebo. It only takes a few minutes to bowl an entire game and was easy to pick up and play.

Check out photos from the Awards ceremony like the one below.

First Quarter Full TECH cocktail Schedule

I cannot believe we have been at TECH cocktail for going on three years now. It has been a pleasure to see so many great people, startups and products rally around TECH cocktail in their local community and we hope to continue that in 2009 with a full schedule of events. We also have some other things on the docket for 2009 and will be happy to share them soon. In the meantime, check out the four events we have planned in the first quarter:

2/19 - TECH cocktail Chicago 10
2/26 - TECH cocktail DC 4
3/12 - TECH cocktail Champaign 2 (more details coming soon...)
3/26 - TECH cocktail Ann Arbor 1 (more details coming soon...)

So I look forward to seeing you all soon. If you would like to be a sponsor for an upcoming event please feel free to contact me as we are always looking for additional support to keep our events free and accessible to all the community. Check out the TECH cocktail song, it is a catchy little jingle if I don't say so myself. :)

Experiencing History In DC

Today in Washington, DC, I was able to attend the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Though the festivities were streamed live via CNN and Facebook with commentary from my friends I decided I needed to experience this historic event in person. So I jumped on the Metro and made my way to the National Mall. In doing so I captured a number of images and videos which will serve as lasting memories of this historic day. The Internet connections via the wireless towers in the DC area were brought to a crawl so it was tough to stream videos from the Mall but I captured what I could with both Flixwagon and Qik. I also posted my Inauguration photos on Flickr.

Enjoy the videos below from my Inauguration experience:

Walking down 18th Street to the National Mall for the Inauguration

Watching the Inauguration from the National Mall

Obama Speaks

My CES 2009 Experience Recap

Last week, I previewed my trip to the Consumer Electronics Show as I had just touched down and was getting ready to experience my first CES. Well, I am back from CES and to be totally frank, all I can say is "Wow, that was a good time!" Unfortunately, it took me until today to decompress and get enough sleep to be able to spill details about all that I experienced last week at CES. First things first, a big thank you Intel for sponsoring my trip out to CES as an Intel Insider. It was an unbelievable experience.

So how did the party I co-hosted at CES on Thursday night go? I would have to say it was a success but you can see for yourself by checking out some of the photos taken by Brian Solis (this set of photos & photo below)

Wm. Marc Salsberry also took some super pictures (this set of photos & photo below).

We had the entire Sportsbook Bar & Grill at the Palazzo which was formerly the 40/40 Club owned by hip hop star Jay Z, so as you can imagine we felt like kings in the palace of a hip hop legend. It was pretty amazing and the attendees were top-notch. I never thought as a corn-fed Northern Illinois sixth grader attending a junior high sock hop wearing what I equated to MC Hammer "hammer pants" (which are rather baggy pants) that I would years later host a CES kickoff party in Vegas that MC Hammer would attend. I guess you just don't think about stuff like that as a 6th grader growing up in a small town. Oh and we both wore regular pants to the event.

 

CES 2009 Here I Am!

I packed my bag last night and took the first flight possible this morning to Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronic Show. While packing last night, I felt very much like aschek on Twitter (left) as I packed a lot more technology gadgets than the normal traveler. I packed my work Blackberry, Nokia N95 to stream videos updates live via Flixwagon, my Canon Powershot SD850 to capture snag shots and the occasional video, my Canon VIXIA HF100 HD camcorder to record SOMEWHAT FRANK video episodes and my iPhone which can take and edit photos with a number of Apps including (PanoLab, CameraBag and PhotoGenie, among others) and stream live video to the Web via Qik (thank you Qik). That is a lot of equipment and I have only covered my phone/cameras. Aside from that I have my laptop and a number of other gadgets. For the 20 percent of clothing, I threw in a couple fine Taylorbyrd button down shirts to choose from. This is my first time attending CES and I want to thank Intel and the Intel Insider program for making it possible. So what do I have on tap?

Tonight (Thursday), I am co-hosting the Intel CES09 Kickoff hosted by @briansolis @sarahcuda @zappos @somewhatfrank and @intelinsiders at the The Sportsbook Bar & Grill in the Palazzo. In case you are not familiar with the venue, it was formerly the 40/40 Club, which was owned by hip hop star Jay Z, so it is sure to offer plush furnishings, lots of technology and bling. I hope to see you there as it should be a great event. Intel will show off some of the latest Netbooks which sport the new Intel Atom processor (a very tiny but powerful processor) and if you visit the Intel booth on Friday at CES you might even be able to win one. Also be sure to tag your Twitter tweets, Flickr photos and YouTube videos CES09 so they get added to the ultimate destination for tracking all the CES social media action at ConsumerElectronicsInsider.com.

2009 Social Media & Web/Tech Conference Cal

The past few years I have posted a comprehensive list (here and here) of all the social media, web/tech, design and marketing conferences in an effort to help my readers better determine just which events to attend. I have decided that due to all the events that a single blog post is not the ideal format for displaying them all. So I have been keeping track of upcoming events and adding them as I find out about them to this event calendar (in the top navigation). You can view the upcoming conference schedule and bookmark it by going here:

Web/Tech, Social Media & Marketing Conference Calendar

If you have any specific questions about a conference please let me know by sending me an @ reply on twitter: @somewhatfrank

Finally, if you are interested in having SOMEWHAT FRANK cover your conference or event or to submit a conference or event please contact us.

Happy Conferencing in 2009!

SOMEWHAT FRANK 2008 In Review

It has been a rather eventful 2008, with a number of great memories. I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone that made it such a great year. Check out some of the most popular items of 2008 (below). Thanks for another great year. I look forward to bringing you more SOMEWHAT FRANK adventures in personal technology in 2009.

15 Most Popular Items of 2008 (according to Google Analytics):

1.) 2008 Web 2.0 & Tech Conference Calendar
2.) My Bolt Bus Travel Experience to NYC
3.) Rocking SXSW: An Epic Wine Event
4.) skinnyCorp Threadless Office Visit
5.) Sharing the JoyEngine Community
6.) Cool Globes & Ideas For A Cooler Planet
7.) A Look Inside Lijit Networks
8.) Sarah Lacy Book Tour Hits DC
9.) GeoEye Office Visit & Tour
10.) CrowdSpring Offers Lots Of Design Options
11.) Social Media & My Somewhat Obsession With The Shiny Objects Of The Web
12.) The TECH cocktail Song
13.) Snapily 3D Animated Business Cards
14.) Somewhat Frank Meets NonSociety
15.) Taking the MBT Anti-Shoe Challenge

Happy New Year!

Social Media & My Somewhat Obsession With The Shiny Objects of the Web @ SIPA in Las Vegas

Yesterday I kicked off the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) in Vegas conference with a keynote discussing social media and my somewhat obsession with the shiny new objects of the Web. I shared my thoughts, antidotes and social media stories in hopes to help both explain and motivate the crowd into taking action. I also mentioned a number of products that I like to use and refer to as "shiny objects of the Web."

After barely sleeping at all last night due to the Vegas oxygen rich air and just sheer excitement about the speaking event I was pretty pumped up and tried to wake up the crowd with a number of little ditties including singing Wheels on the Bus go round and round, sharing some fun stories and having everyone scream OPRAH at the top of their lungs! It was a BLAST! Below is some instant feedback I got via Twitter from one of the attendees.

Be sure to check out the video (below) for clips from the address. Finally, you might find the extensive list of "shiny objects" in the lower portion of this post to be extremely useful. Bookmark it, share it or print it out and put it on the refrigerator or make it into a paper airplane but most importantly have fun while doing it. Social media is life.

Social Media & My Somewhat Obsession With Shiny Objects from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

Intel Core i7 Processor Launch Event

Monday night I attended the Intel Core i7 Processor launch event at DogPatch Studios in San Francisco which was decked out with LCD monitors powered by some of the new Dell and Gateway machines leveraging the new Core i7 Processor. Experts gamers, developers and video and photo editors were all on hand to show off the power of this new micro-chip architecture. Intel Senor VP, Pat Gelsinger made some announcements at the event which I captured on video and there was a developer code-off putting the new processor to the test at the event.

Eco-Friendly Tech at the Green Festival in DC

The Green Festival came to Washington, D.C. this past weekend and I decided to check it out in search of innovative new eco-friendly personal technology gadgets and gizmos. There were a number of products and services at the event and I decided to capture a few of them thanks to Flixwagon and I have posted them in this article. I also took some photos at the Green Festival.

TECH cocktail Chicago 9: Big 2008 Finale Event

Last Thursday night I co-hosted our last TECH cocktail of 2008. This wrapped up a 2008 TECH cocktail season that included 8 mixer events spread across Chicago, DC, Boston, Boulder and Champaign and one full day conference. We were pleased at the consistent growth of TECH cocktail and TECH cocktail Chicago 9 pulled in our largest crowd of the year with over 700 attendees. The event showcased six startups. Check out the photos from TECH cocktail Chicago 9.

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day

21 Hour TECH cocktail Day from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

I have been co-hosting TECH cocktail events in local technology communities for over two and a half years now. In that time I have hosted events in Boulder, Boston, D.C. and Chicago. Recently, we hosted our first event on a college campus by hitting the road and heading down to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for a "Big Ten Conference" style event which I mentioned previously. It was a lot of fun but it was a LONG day.

I captured our 21 hour day on video and you can follow us along as we woke up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning in Chicago and returned some 21 hours later. Follow along as episode 54 on SOMEWHAT FRANK shares our adventures in the video (above).

WiMAX Launches In Baltimore

It has been three years since I first discussed WiMAX technology and at that time it seemed to be generating quite the buzz. So I am pleased to have experienced WiMAX technology first hand today for the first time as Intel, Xohm and Sprint all teamed up to sponsor the WiMAX Baltimore launch event. The event consisted of a preview presentation and then offered a number of hands-on WiMAX experiences which included WiMAX on a boat, in a house and in an automobile. In case WiMAX is something new to you, it is simply wireless Internet with the speed of a broadband or DSL connection.