Fleet Week has always been one of my favorite times of the year to be in San Francisco. Always loved those Friday afternoon fly-bys, seeing those Blue Angels skim skyscrapers and slip beneth the Golden Gate Bridge.
I remember one time shakin’ my groove thing at Golden Gate Park as the Blue Angels screamed overhead along the Ocen Beach coast line — mix of hippy tunes and thunderous military might.
When my boy was just five months old, I stuffed him into the kangaroo pouch and stepped up to Coit Tower. He was born wide-eyed, and on that day he really did try to train his little eyes on aircraft speeding mightily above us.
But this year was a whole new, Imperial Fleet Week experience! Thanks for my Intel buddy Jeff for sharing this with me, replying to my Fleet Week Twitters.
Here is some great news I got recently from InterAct 2008 — dubbed “interactive media event of the year, merging creativity with technology”:
“You are currently confirmed to speak on the “Grow Your Business Through Social Media” panel, scheduled for Tuesday, September 3o…in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center Atrium Ballroom at 1300 Pennsylvania Aven NW, Washington DC.”
I get to join an awesome cast of mostly east coast masters of social media. In fact, there are two Intel Insiders: Brian Solis (my West Coast posse) and Somwhat Frank Gruber (East Coast boy at large).
Look for some lots of creative ideas mixed with grounded perspectives for how to help your company leap into this era of “opening up,” “connecting” and “growing together.”
Frankly, I’m fired up to be back in DC…although it’s the first time I’ve been here on a Sunday and downtown and the Mall is DEAD quiet, and so many stories are closed.
I dig the megalomania DC architecture, with one not-so tall, but grandiose building next to another trying to stand more more than its next door neighbor. The architecture is magnificent, with no building higher than the tip of the robust Capitol building. DC’s nowhere as awesome as Rome, but the knock off columned monuments and museums make Las Vegas look like a movieset.
I did get to spend time catching up over brunch with a great guy and mentor, Rohit, who’s another creative treasure of DC.
I’m looking forward to meeting Jesse and Jim. And spending the afternoon with Rohit, Brian and Frank, three guys who I don’t (I’m not the only one who doesnt’) get to see enough. A big thanks to Leslie Bradshaw for helping me get here.
Follow the InterAct2008 blog to get a flavor what what’s cookin’ in DC this week.
Well it makes perfect sense — what the ultimate bachelor party needs are some cool Intel chicks to accompany the cool technologies decking out this year’s sixth annual Esquire Magazine “Signature Space” — a.k.a Esquire House Hollywood Hills. Intel is teaming up with Lenovo to tech out the place and my work pals Becky and Kiesha will be on the scene, so I’m looking forward to some Twitter, Flickr and Inside Scoop dispatches. Here’s Kiesha’s first Esquire House 2008 post with details about the designers, celebrities and technologies she’ll be hanging with on the sun-baked, breezy Hollywood Hills.
I’ve been lucky enough to get behind the scenes for the past two Esquire Ultimate Bachelor Pads. Here are a few photos from Esquire North 2007 in New York.
Here’s a video showing the SWEET Harlem apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park, where I got to meet a San Francisco musical peace-hero, Michael Franti — yes, I have “hypocrisy is the greatest luxury” from Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy burned on my brain!
I had the pleasure of spending a day of getting my mind cracked open by wisdom from great people at the Cluetrain at 10 event hosted at sweat SAP digs in Palo Alto on May 29.
I go to hang with the young Robert DeNiro of Intel, Michael Brito. He’s a force of energy and good ideas that he shares inside and outside of Intel.
The Cluetrain at 10 was a day well spent, especially getting the chance to see Doc Searls in person for the first time. Deb Schultz gave my favorite presentation of the day.
Hoping to find time to share more of the great one liners and many pearls of wisdom like: Get out of marketing and get into markets. One could spend a whole career exploring the meaning of that line by Doc Searls.
A crazy week in Atlanta for my first trip to work at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
We shared stories on blogs, social networks, Twitter, Utterz and video sharing sites to help participating science students and parents follow the excitement and amazing projects from the event.
This was truly one of the most inspiring events I’ve attended in a long time. To see so may young people with the spark in their eye, intelligence in their words and caring in their gestures. The science was out of the world but the students and teachers at the event lifted hope in me that our future is in good hands.
This solar powered robot vehicle was one of the many cool things I saw today roaming the floor at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The RoVAAR, Robotic Vehicle for Automation Application Research is a project by high school senior Brian Michael Cherbak.
I’ll be meeting some of the 1,500 high school science students who arrived from over 50 countries to compete for big $ and scholarships. Here are a few stories so far:
Getting a Google Alert monitoring your name is essential. Made sense when I heard Intel blog pioneer Josh Bancroft mention it over a year ago. And it proved exceptionally useful and quick this week at the New Comm Forum 2008.
Rohit was hosting a panel on new communications strategies called “The Future of Marketing & Advertising” featuring:
In keeping with the fast and real-time world we’re living in, Rohit encouraged the panalists to keep it raw and share their own insights. On the morning of the event, he sent out this blog post listing questions that could help shape the discussion. About one hour later, Neil and David arrived inside the room ready to go. One of the first things both guys said was: “Thanks for the questions, I just got them in Google Alerts.”
For me, this was the first time I saw Google Alerts work so well, in a timely manner. I’ve used Twitter for quick hook ups before, but this showed the power of blogs, search engines and being tapped into what’s important to “you.”
The panel was well attended with a fully engaged audience asking great, real-work world questions by the likes of Tim Marklein of Weber Shandwick PR and Jennifer McClure, maven of the Society for New Communications Research and the wonderful host of NewComm Forum event. Here’s what Rohit had to say after the panel:
I really enjoyed hearing from Neil and David what’s working and how much hard work is going into to relationship building, making connections and helping more people learn how to use new tools. At Intel, we’re trying a lot of new things thanks for my pal David Veneski teaming up with Federated Media. And Six Apart seems like a part of the Intel family, and continues to try new things, building new services into blogging platforms.
The New Comm Forum is an event brimming with good arguments and storytelling that help communication pros see where they are, how they got there and how to move ahead…with a little help from our friends.
Experiencing the creative vibe inside Blogtropol.us social media room
Seeing how Twitter intrigue continues to drive new reasons/ways for live microblogging
Learning about SEO and trends for application developers — I see these trends are not locked into developers but also apply to communications pros. This is something I hope to explore in a near future post, building on notes I took from the two sessions I attended on Day One.
Seeing for the first time IBM‘s great slogan “Talking identifies limits. Doing transcends boundaries.”
Seeing the Schwaggin’ Wagon posse in action — they drummed up lots of media buzz with by doing something many have talked about, but never did: take the exaggerated efforts of an event like Web 2.0 Expo and share the spoils with those who are more in need. This I’ll explore more in an upcoming blog post where I can share the photo I took.
The best part was getting to hang out with people like Rohit Bhargava and Tim Ferriss. Sure they’re authors (Rohit’s new book “Personality Not Included” and Tim’s 52 week NY Time top seller “Four Hour Work Week“), sure they’re idea guys…but they’re livin’ life and sharing ideas and best known methods with those who care and want to learn.
Web 2.0 Expo is not just about social media and the technologies behind it…it’s about the people and how they’re using the technologies to lead they way. And they way things are going, human behavior and personality is changing for the better as we share more, try more, do more of the things we’re passionate about.
At the Web 2.0 Expo and New Comms Forum this week, I got to hear many great stories and the stortellers behind them.
During a panel I was on at the New Comms Forum on Thursday, Weber ShandwickPR guru Tim Marklein asked the question that hit home for me: money resources are moving to social media, but what about people resources? For Intel, it started as little money and a small community of passionate employees trying new things and sharing experiences. Then marketing put more resources and helped build tools we could all use. Now advertising is in the game…and I believe we might benefit from having more people resources our connecting with others through social media…and integrating and leveraging what others inside Intel are doing. We’re all still building, but we have lots more experience and resources in the social media world. So much more to learn from others.
Movin' Ahead 