SOMEWHAT FRANK

Gary Vaynerchuk Woodstock Wine Event

Gary Vaynerchuk's Woodstock Wine Event from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

I recently visited my hometown of Woodstock, Illinois where I lived from birth till about age twenty as I welcomed wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. It was a super wine event sponsored by the Woodstock Fine Arts Association as part of the Creative Living After Dark series. I was happy to introduce him to the crowd at the historic Woodstock Opera House which has been around since 1886 and housed a number of popular acts including the movie Groundhog Day, Orson Welles and Paul Newman. Follow along as I captured the days festivities as episode 52 on SOMEWHAT FRANK.

Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Event In Woodstock

Peace and love. That is what most people probably think when they hear about Woodstock. Or maybe the little yellow bird that was Snoopy's companion for all those comical episodes is the first thing that comes to mind. Those are all valid Woodstock examples but are not the Woodstock I am referring to in this title. Woodstock means something a little different to me as it is my hometown in Illinois and I am pleased that my friend and wine expert turned Wine Library TV video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk and I will be visiting on September 20th. Tickets are now available online for An Evening with Gary Vaynerchuk which is a benefit for the Creative Living After Dark Series of the Woodstock Fine Arts Association.

If you are in the Chicago area you should definitely buy your ticket now because this is going to be a very special evening with Gary as he talks wine and does a intimate wine and cheese reception and book signing on the Woodstock Square. I will be there as well as I introduce him in the historic Woodstock Opera House which was the building Bill Murray does a tower jump in the movie Groundhog Day and is also the place Orson Welles and Paul Newman got their start.

GET YOUR TICKET NOW as Gary Vaynerchuk brings the wine thunder to Woodstock!

Video: Politics, Social Media & Wine Converge

Last week Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk visited Washington, DC. Robert Scoble was escorted around the city by Andrew Feinberg and met with a few folks on the hill. While Gary Vaynerchuk visited for a book signing. They were welcomed on Wednesday evening with a party that converged DC politicians, social media folks and wine lovers. Peter Corbett from iStrategyLabs was on location talking with folks through the evening.

The event was sponsored by CapitolValley, Scobleizer, Wine Library TV, Somewhat Frank, SocialTimes, Odeo, Freshbooks, and iStrategyLabs.

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Photo of the Week: This photo was taken while recording this Blog Talk Radio episode with Kris "Croncast" Smith and Rox from BeachWalks.tv at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. Photo thanks to Roxanne Darling.

SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits: 03.16.2008

20 Ways To Woo Users at SXSW Interactive

Kathy Sierra spoke yesterday at South by Southwest Interactive and shared some wonderful tidbits on how to "woo" users. I took some notes from the session and compiled them below. Kathy started out by saying creating a product:

"Think about ways to make your users really good at something."

She went on to explain by saying you need to work on creating a hi-res user experience. No one is passionate about something they suck at so making it easy to be awesome is a key to creating passionate users.

Rocking SXSW: An Epic Wine Event

Last night at SXSW in Austin, Texas I waited in line for about an hour to get into the 16 Bit event at Scoot Inn. After nearly getting to the front door, I ran into Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV. Gary was fed up of waiting in line and jumped out and proposed we head to our hotel and drink some wine he brought in. I thought it was a super idea. So I jumped on a pedicab with Kristen Nicole from Mashable and Brian Solis from Bub.blicio.us. What happened next was epic...

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Photo of the Week: A couple of Maine Lobstahs! from a surf & turf event I attended on Friday. It doesn't get a whole lot more "summer" than this.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 08.12.2007

Vlogging Wine Expert's Conan TV Debut

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As I highlighted earlier this week, Gary Vaynerchuk of the popular wine video podcast Wine Library TV made an appearance on the NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien television program this week. In case you missed watching it on Wednesday evening you can watch it now thanks to YouTube. Check out the video of Gary's entertaining appearance above. Great job Gary on attempting to train Conan O'Brien's palette.

Gary The Vlogging Wine King On Conan

Gary Vaynerchuk, the host of WineLibrary.com's video blog Wine Library TV is a pretty entertaining guy. I got a chance to see Gary's energy in action a few months back when he both demo'ed and sponsored at TECH cocktail DC 1.

Gary's love for wine and charismatic personality has created quite a following on the Web which has resulted in being profiled by the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine and now he has landed spot on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Wednesday night (August 1, 2007).

Aside from the Wine Library TV video blog, Gary also commands a family owned wine empire which recently acquired the Corkd wine lovers online community.

Check out Gary in action tonight on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and also watch his latest video blog post (below) where he breaks the news about getting on the popular show. Tune in to cheer Gary on. Good luck Gary! 

Facebook Impact, Google Acquires ImageAmerica, Internet TV, Pageflakes Blizzard & Collaboration Tools

Photo of the Week: I took a trip to Sausalito yesterday and took in some gorgeous sites including this little red sailboat in the Bay.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 07.22.07

Google Maps: A users guide to personalization
LifeHacker offers a guide to personalizing Google Maps.

The Impact of Facebook's Platform
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Facebook buys Parakey
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Work Together: 60+ Collaborative Tools for Groups
Mashable looks at 60+ sites that will help everyone be on the same page via online collaboration. Stop, collaborate and listen...

Google Acquires ImageAmerica
Google acquired Clayton, Missouri based ImageAmerica, a company that builds high-resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery.

The Professionalization of Internet TV
NewTeeVee looks at the low-cost Internet TV options these days.

Pageflakes Blizzard Release Launches
Customized home page startup Pageflakes launched a slew of new features this morning under what it is calling its “Blizzard” release.

Totally Uncorked
Gary Vaynerchuk's WineLibraryTV a daily 15-min video podcast was recently highlighted in TIME Magazine. Gary was a sponsor and demo'er at TECH cocktail in DC 1. Way to go Gary!

Dow Jones, News Corp. Set Deal
News Corp. reached a tentative agreement for the purchase of Dow Jones & Co. at its original $5 billion offer price. The deal will be put to the full Dow Jones board this evening for its approval, said people familiar with the situation.

Mesmo.tv Discovers Videos You Like
Mesmo.tv is social video bookmarking tool launching today that lets you tag videos you like and throw them into a personalized content stream and group channels.

Review of Streamy, a News Networking Service
Streamy users can share, view, filter and drag-and-drop news stories, while communicating via a very slick chat module.

WordCamp 2007 - Journalism Panel: Om & Dvorak
Josh Hallett covers the second session at WordCamp 2007 which featured John Dvorak and Om Malik. I was there to take in the session which offered an eternal blog/journalism debate.

Wine Library TV Gets Cork'd

Wine Library TV, a popular wine video blog that shares the wine expertise of founder and host Gary Vaynerchuk, has announced it has acquired the wine social network Cork'd. In simple terms, Cork'd is site for a wine lover to share and rate wine. It seems like a great fit as Gary highlights wines that Cork'd enables users a way to suggest and keep track of the wine you would like to try - they have excellent crossover. I briefly highlighted Cork'd while showcasing wine and web 2.0.   

In chatting with Gary today over email, he offered this explanation for acquiring Cork'd:

"From the day I saw Corkd.com I knew they nailed it... to have the honor to take Cork'd to the next level and most importantly to give "THE PEOPLE" what they deserve is not only exciting but an honor!"

Gary also mentioned that there are plans to integrate OpenID and SMS functionality into Cork'd.

Wine Library TV is a sponsor and exhibitor at the upcoming TECH cocktail DC. We are extremely happy to have Gary showcasing Wine Library TV and Cork'd at our event. Cheers.