Tunepresto's Video Music Maker

I met with Tunepresto's marketing guru Owen Cooney in Dublin and our briefing was a bit scattered, but in a good way: partly over food and partly under an umbrella on a walk through Dublin. The guy knows more about the history and myths of Ireland than the last country tour guide I encountered. And, more  importantly, is passionate about it. (graffiti, art, legends, and murals too). 

Currently, Tunepresto, a video 'music maker,' is a Mac download only, although it is slated to be a web-based solution later this month. Essentially, Tunepresto uses the colors in your video to create royalty free music, perfectly timed to your video or slideshow. I can think of tons of places where you could use a solution like this, so the value-add for me was immediate.

While I haven't tried it yet (waiting for the web version), it's so damn easy to understand the benefits. Additionally, their website walks you through every possible scenario where adding music via Tunepresto would give you a 'win' to a creation you're working on. Refreshing.

How many times do you go to a website and know immediately what the company is about and how to use their product? Tunepresto's site makes it incredibly easy to figure out: left is a download, right is a learn more video. Also, they have this fabulous screenshot which walks you through different ways to use their product.

More when the web version is ready. I'm eager to try it out.

Southwest Airlines Talks About Their Social Media Strategy: #BWE10

Southwest Airlines was a sponsor and exhibitor this year at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Christi McNeill from Southwest Airlines talks to me about their social media strategy, why she blogs and tweets and how they use social media tools as a company. Their social media team is only two, but they're active with over 1 million followers on Twitter and in the top ten in travel for 'influence.'

Barnett, Carolla, Jillette, Hayzlett and Lewis on New Media & Success: #BWE10

The Blog World Expo closing 'talk show' panel included Rob Barnett, Adam Corolla, Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller, Cali Lewis and Jeff Hayzlett. What's their secret? Why do they blog? What do they tweet? What is happening with new media and how does it impact them? Listen to hear what these five illuminaries and entertainers think. Says Penn, "Twitter is one of the most intimate ways we can communicate today." The video is in three parts: Part I, Part II and Part III.

Barry Moltz: What's Your Bio, What's Your Brand, What's Your Promise: #BWE10

Asks Barry Moltz in a session at BlogWorldExpo last week entitled: Feeding Your Addiction - How to Create and Market Your Content to Drive a Professional Speaking Career, "What's Your Bio, What's your Brand and What's Your Promise?" And then, ultimately what's your platform going to be? Below is a clip from his talk.

Celebrity Chefs Talk on Social Media at Blog World Expo: #Jennair #BWE10

At the Jenn-Air booth at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas last week, celebrity chefs talk on social media, how they started blogging and how it has had an impact on their careers.

Take a Walk on the BlogWorldExpo Show Floor With Me: #BWE10

Take a meander through the BlogWorldExpo show with me so you can get a sense of its energy and who some of the players, sponsors and exhibitors are. Oh yeah, and you can see Scottish blogger Ewan Spence juggle amidst the crowd.

And Then There Was 2010 BlogWorldExpo: #bwe10

I’ve been going to BlogWorldExpo since it began. An event dedicated to all things blogging, online content and social media, it gathers bloggers who flock to SXSW in the Spring, mom and parenting bloggers who flock to BlogHer in August, and geek bloggers who flock to (or should I say are addicted to) social media and technology events every month.

The event, now at over 3,000 attendees, also attracts generalists, travel bloggers, marketing execs, blogging solution & tool vendors, and big brands trying to make an impact on the blogosphere on and offline.

A few highlights: I sampled saffron paella fresh off the Jenn-Air stage, met celebrity chef Manoushka Guerrier (Single Serving) of Food Network's Private Chefs of Beverly Hills, and sat next to interesting and engaging Erik Trinidad at a dinner who came up with a creative blog brand: Fancy Fast Food. His USP? He essentially takes fast food and makes it 'look' fabulous. Food had a bigger play this year at BlogWorld. Check out my summary post on We Blog the World, listing some of the topics and speakers.

One booth souped up dark chocolate espresso and gourmet coffee and Macallan Single Malt Whiskey was giving away samples, who btw, had two hired guns manning the booth, one of whom was not a whiskey drinker and a second who drank another brand. 

Held in the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay, several tracks take place simultaneously down 3 long hallways, while activity buzzes in the exhibit hall nearby. Adjoining the exhibit hall is what they refer to as a New Media Lounge, where podcasts and video interviews took place and bloggers connected for live posting, photo uploads and managing email overflow.

In from around the world were bloggers from Japan, Australia, New Zealand (Darren Rowse from ProBlogger), Scotland (Ewan Spence), Germany (Nicole Simon), Ireland (Irish Polyglot), Poland, Argentina and hundreds of others. Babette Pepaj from Bakespace co-organized the food track which also drew lifestyle and travel bloggers, including travel blogger Gary Arndt who I rarely get to see but thanks to this annual blogging event, we were able to catch up. Below, Dave Peck with the Meshin folks at the Jason Falls meet-up.

I ran into Technorati’s CEO Richard Jalichandra and a bunch of blogger pals from LA who cover everything from relationships, sex, boomers, aging and fitness to politics, entertainment, music and travel. TWIT’s Leo Laporte was conducting interviews as was Marsha Collier on the show floor for a few hours each day. Below, Renee Blodgett, Leo Laporte and Barbara Rozgonyi.

Panel discussions were broad, ranging from photography tips, SEO for blogs, digital crisis communications, money trail, podcasts, social media policies, Internet Radio, blogging platforms and travel videos to non-profits, politics, education, parenting, mobile vlogging, Social CRM, travel pornand creating a blog network.

Barry Moltz spoke on how to utilize the speaking game to leverage your brand and blog, how to capitalize on it by using speaking to the blog revenue pie. He emphasizes three things everyone 'must have down' - what's your bio, what's your brand and what's your promise? Video of the session to follow tomorrow. Below Joseph Morin who did a bang-up job with Social Rewards all week and Steve Hall.

Countless official and unofficial parties were held every night, after all….it is Las Vegas, so it’s a great opportunity for sponsors to tap into the no rules policy or at least limited rules, where drinks can be served into the wee hours of the morning, people can drink on the streets and leave restaurants with a glass of wine in their hands, and people’s inhibitions are fluid and loose at best.

Below a little glitz and glam at the Techset opening party.

Party hopping is part of the blogging conference culture and not unlike SXSW, I got the sense each and every night, that attendees were desperately looking for the next bash after each one ended. Social Rewards held Luxor suite receptions and scavenger-hunt like exercises were an integral part of participating. Thanks Luxor & Joseph Morin.

You were given clues and links to scour through and questions to answer and ultimately you were given information albeit vague, about where the party was held. It had a fun, gaming kind of flavor to it, which was perfect for any Las Vegas venue and brands like the Las Vegas Luxor, Sony, Ford (kudos to Scott Monty -- @scottmonty -- who won an award this week), PopChips and others were able to tap into the subsequent buzz that flowed from the events each night.

Whoah, Gregory Feinstein has his hands full at the Mashable bash. So did everyone else btw.

Client CarWoo!, an inexpensive, private and efficient way to buy a new car online, threw a women’s blogger event, to celebrate their launch at Digital Dealer, a car event which started a few days earlier at the Mirage. Below Heather Meeker and Marsha Collier arrive from the massive black hummer limo.

The hummer limo picked up the girls at the Mandalay Bay for a little off-site food, champagne, wine, make-up from the team at FRESH and poker tips from Shore Slocum. Below, inside the limo, 25 or more of us were packed in with champagne bottles and glasses. Oh yeah and note the fabulous pair of red boots. Below, Renee Blodgett, Beth Kanter.

Below, the FRESH team 'refresh' attendees.

Below Pepsi's Social Media guru Bonin Bough at the Mashable party

The Bellagio’s Yellowtail Restaurant hosted a tasting for some of the food, wine and travel bloggers, so I couldn’t resist.

Award-winning chef Akira Back put together a myriad of dishes that included Jidori chicken with potato puree and garlic cream, Scottish Salmon with yuzu lemon, duck prosciutto with pickles and micro beets, seared Hokkaido Scallops with cherry tomatoes and mustard potato puree, Alaskan King Crab with rock shrimp, spicy-citrus aioli, grilled walu with shiitake mushrooms & pearl onions and braised kobe beef short ribs.

A more in-depth review of the tasting can be found here, including a handful of fabulous food photos I took on-site. Thanks Lightgroup -- @lightgroup and @bakespace. 

PopChips also drew in some of the foodies at a nearby after bash, where they promoted a Twitter quiz to get the word out about their brand.

Keynotes this year included Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Jim Louderback, Susan Bratton and Dermot McCormack, Karen Hughes, Reid Wilson and Dick Glover. The last panel of the event was a cross between a talk-show format and a Q&A. Moderated by Rob Barnett, Adam Carolla, Penn Jillette from Penn & Teller, Mark Malkoff, Cali Lewis and Jeffrey Hayzlett discussed what works and doesn't with new media.

They were all bluntly entertaining about new media, old media, and where online is heading. Penn said of Twitter on-stage that it is one of the most intimate vehicles we have today to communicate, connect and engage.

He overtly compared it to the countless impersonal and often fake physical exchanges we have with people at cocktail parties and other events. Intimacy at its best he feels and goes on to explain how he uses Twitter.  He says that he tweets all of his own stuff and rarely retweets other people’s thoughts, one of the reasons he thinks he has a popular and widespread following (@pennjillette has over 1.6 million followers at last check). 

I would bet it also has a little to do with the fact that he is a national if not international entertainer celebrity, not to mention has a very sarcastic and in-your-face, bold personality. It’s so surprise that America eats him up, since yanks are typically drawn to the eclectic, the brash, the tough and the bold in my experience. Check out this video from the floor and this blog post that captures nearly all of the panel discussion in a three part video -- subsequent videos can be found in a separate blog post and on YouTube. 

Thanks for the encouragement & your conviction Andrea Metcalf - @andreametcalf. (Taken at the Palms).

Tech Karaoke closed the event on Saturday night at the Palms Hotel. It was held in a large threatre with cinema-like chairs perched on an angle and the stage was roughly 4.5 feet from the ground, giving those brave enough to sing in from of their blogging peers, plenty of space and height to really feel their 3-5 minutes of fame.

Chris Noble did a little Elvis, Amanda Coolong did a little PINK and the iSocket guys did a little exercise – impressive push-ups and all. Looking forward to next year. Kudos to Rick and his team!

Below, the tech karaoke audience get a 'little' excited and take in the energy from on-stage.

On the stage, participants play full out. For example, who knew that the iSocket guys were so talented (and so strong?)

Lewis Howes, Renee Blodgett and Larry Benet in the Southwest Airlines booth on the show floor.

There was definitely a little Las Vegas energy and color at the Mashable bash. And, Liquid didn't close until 5 am. (there's a reason shows are more interesting outside the Bay Area)

Girls will be girls.

Leaving the Klout party to go hang out with Jason for a bit.

We all danced on stage (well sort of) at the Mashable bash which was still roaring when I left at nearly 2 am.

Inside the Venetian Hotel along the strip.

Sugar Jones and Marla Schulman

@Zaneology wore these incredible nylons that were sure to make a statement and then some not to mention being incredibly appropriate for a blogging conference.

CarWoo's CEO Tommy McClung at the end of a very long night.

Kris Krug, Deb Shultz

 

@Dadarocks

Thanks for shooting the girls Calvin (@mayhemstudios) and for organizing Babette (@bakespace). Taken at the Bellagio on a gorgeous night.

More Mashable fun. Ben Parr was missed (@benparr).

Mashable's Brett Petersel and TechZulu's Efran Toscano

@drnatalie rocks!

Sugar Jones, Ask Dave (Taylor), Oliver Starr, Renee Blodgett, Roseann Higgins

Chris Noble (@cfnoble) graced us with Elvis. (really good Elvis - who knew he could belt out a tune like he can?)

More late night tech-karaoke at the Palms.

 

 

Go Sheila Dowd. It was indeed a lot of work but a helluva lot of fun too! :-)

Because Ken Yeung (@thekenyeung) shoots as much as I do and then some. And he's really good. Smile.

At the Techset bash, David Spark, Renee Blodgett @magicsaucemedia, Pat Jenkins of Uptake and Michael Tchong of @ubercool.

Digg's Emily Crume on left.

The iSocket guys:

  

The PopChips Event.

Photos Galore of BlogWorld's Mashable Bash & Tech-Karaoke: #bwe10

The Mashable late night bash at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas this past weekend.

Steve Hall:

 

For more photos from the Mashable bash, check out the We Blog the World Flickr stream. Below are some shots from the late-night tech-karaoke party at the Palms. For more shots of the Tech-Karaoke, go to the same stream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Recap of the 2010 Tudou Video Festival

This year, a thousand people attended the 2010 Tudou Video Festival, which was held in an arts complex in Beijing China. It mixed the Oscars with a little bit of Sundance and Cannes combined. In a CNN recap, you'll learn how fabulous the event was below. Except instead of red, the carpet was green. Instead of fancy designer dresses, the attire was a combo of grunge, flannel and faded blue jeans. And instead of airing on television or in movie theaters, the nominated films came straight from the Internet. Welcome to the 3rd annual 2010 Tudou Video Festival, held over the weekend in the Chinese capital.

Tudou.com (which means “couch potato” in Chinese) is China’s first, and now one of the country’s largest (aside from rival Youku.com), video sharing portals. Launched in 2005, Tudou follows a similar model to Google Inc.’s video Web site, YouTube.

 

Tudou.com co-founder Gary Wang.

Tudou also hosts videos that push the boundaries of sensitivity on the country’s censored Internet. It was the first portal, for example, to show the “War of Internet Addiction,” a 64-minute computer animation film on government Web controls, Tudou co-founder Gary Wang said. The film, produced by a network engineer who goes by the name “Sexy Corn,” won the top award at this year's festival.

Aspiring filmmakers, actresses and actors, animators and amateur videographers from around China (all mostly in their mid- to late-20s) showcased their work at the festival held at an art complex in Beijing, with aorund one thousand people in attendance.

Of the more than 5,000 entries, 94 made it to the final round of nominations.

“Two to three years ago, the works were really amateur,” Wang said. “Now people are taking it much more seriously.”

Now, traditional media along with advertisers are starting to take the content on Tudou much more seriously, too. Hung Huang, a blogge experiences working as a journalist in China won the “Golden Camera Award," and Hitch-hike Diary won the documentary category. The film, by a video blogger who goes by the name Tomato-Han Da Ka, is the story of a hiking trip on the border regions of Sichuan province and Tibet.

Sexy Corn

 

Sexy Corn, creator of “War of Internet Addiction,” which won the festival's top award. The film was shot entirely within the game World of Warcraft.

He is the producer of the “War of Internet Addiction,” an animated film shot entirely within the video game, World of Warcraft (it is a filming technique known as machinima, which involves making animated movies using real-time images recorded from video games). The movie won the top award at the Tudou festival.

The film centers on World of Warcraft gamers who are frustrated that a new version of the game was banned in China. However it also contains deeper themes about Internet freedom in the country. It has been viewed millions of times.

Video Link: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/8w0z0Q_TAQI/

Pivot Focuses On Marketers Who Target 18-34 Demographic: #pivotcon

The Pivot Conference, a new conference dedicated to branding, marketing and social media is coming up from October 17-19, 2010 in New York.

The event singularly focused on marketers who target the 18-34 demographic — their attitudes, technologies and preferences – and the media and marketing that addresses them.   

Today, the brand marketers' job is made even more difficult by the rapidly changing media and the flood of new technologies and tools.  Pivot is designed to help marketers sort through these issues, to better understand their customers and the environment, and to come away empowered to create a successful brand strategy and market more effectively to young consumers.

Speakers from Arianna Huffington to Evan Cohen and Doug Rushkoff (who says "Pivot looks to become the TED of marketing conferences"), will share their ideas and experiences and provoke 'Aha!' insights among attendees who are targeting the largest, most unique and influential demographic we've seen in 50 years.   

Pivot partners Magic Sauce Media and We Blog the World are able to extend special pricing to attend for only $995. Please use the discount code MPPC401 when registering at pivotcon.com.

Highlights of the agenda include:

• Who Are You? Profile of the Always-On Consumer

• Mind the Gap: Measuring the Divide Between "Us" and "Them"

• Motives and Motivations: What Drives the Always-On Consumer

• Media and Advertising at a Crossroads

• The New Marketing Organization

• New Rules of Engagement: Listen, Engage, Measure

• Social Marketing: The Grand Experiment