AdTech San Francisco Keynotes, Takeaways & Notes to Self: #adtech

The lunch keynote at AdTech this past week included CFO of Living Social John Bax, Zynga's Manny Anekal, and global head of social media for Pepsico Bonin Bough.

John Bax says their focus is on "local" and that local ads obviously do the best locally since there's more of an understanding of what their brand is about when you have regional sales guys. "Intimacy works," he says.

Mobile is also an important strategy for them according to Bax. He gives a few examples including a local merchant in Virginia who has a B&B. Within 15 days, they sold all the rooms the vendors wanted to book in advance, focusing on a different strategy for how they promoted weeknights versus weekends.

He also noted that people signed up for things they weren't necessarily searching for. For example, those who signed up for a sky diving promo they did were not proactively looking to go sky diving. Their strategy works if you look at their stats and results - they apparently also sold 2 million movie tickets with Fandango.

Manny Anekal from Zynga came at his presentation primarily from the angle of giving back, i.e., "here's what Zynga is doing to give back to the world." In addition to listing all the things they are doing for social good, he ended with a leave behind for brands wanting to do a campaign with them: "We can get you up and running quickly. We were able to get a major brand up and running within six weeks," he says. He also shared stats and insights into their Frito campaign, which grew their fan base to over a million. 

Bough was his normal funny and dynamic self on stage with a voice volume that was double his two prevoius speakers.  

He started with the Pepsico pitch of products and services under their umbrella, reminding people that they operate in more countries than the UN. Then he proceeded to go primal on us and show a slide of dinosaurs and early man's progression.

"Why we are all dinosaurs?" he shouts out to the audience. His key takeaway was about adapatability in a world that is changing so fast with exponential technologies hitting us year after year making it harder to keep up. 

"Adaptability is key to survival and success moving forward," he notes. “If you cease to adapt, then you cease to survive.”

While I missed Guy Kawasaki's keynote, I did not miss his book signing of new book: Enchantment, which was proof that he nailed it on stage.  The line was so long for both purchases and signing that they ran out of books. 

ESPN's VP Carol Cruz introduced this year's Achievement Awards right before Arianna's keynote. This year's award went to Mars' Carol Walker, who shared the award with Kathy Reardon in a 'classy moment.'

My tweets during the presentation below including AdTech's Brad Berens' share of where advertising numbers have gone up this year. Kudos to Brad and his dynamic team for pulling off yet another incredible AdTech this year.

1. Carol Walker in touching classy moment shares #achievement award with Kathy Reardon on #adtech stage this AM:http://ow.ly/i/ajSA9:22 AM Apr 13th via HootSuite
2. ESPN's VP Carol Cruz gives Carol Walker industry #achievementaward at #adtech -- http://ow.ly/i/ajRS9:15 AM Apr 13th via HootSuite
3. Brad Berens on the #adtech stage sharing advertising numbers & stats all going up inc attendance: http://ow.ly/i/ajRf

I covered Arianna's keynote in depth here including a two part video. Below she powerfully nailed her talk, which primarily focused on humanity, sleep deprivation, hyper local and hyper connected and balance.

Maggie Mudd: An Ice Cream Institution Now Gone

People have been talking about Maggie Mudd's ice cream shop on Cortland Street ever since I moved to San Francisco. Truth be told, whenever there was a conversation about ice cream, someone would say, yeah, I drive from Marin or San Jose or Pac Heights or Berkeley for Maggie Mudd ice cream, which is a bit of a trek considering how Bay Area residents feel about crossing either bridge and coming into the city.

MaggieMudd is an independent ice cream parlor that specializes in non-dairy flavors - made from soy and from coconut milk.

The funny thing is that Maggie isn't the owner's name, who btw, is a husband and wife team: Michael and Changying. Maggie is in fact, a cat who moved in with them. 

They have over 55 flavors of ice cream and vegan dairy-free ice cream, as well as sundaes and ice cream cakes, including ones without dairy.  

They created fun names for their special shakes, such as Brooklynn's Twisted Mind, Tarmack, or Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice. I was told on the day I went in that Tarmack was a customer favorite.

So, on the day I ventured into Maggie Mudd -- April 3, 2011, I was craving a chocolate non-dairy frozen cone, and threw it into a Google search and there she was in all her glory: Maggie Mudd came up, a place which has become a San Francisco institution yet the only time I had spent time behind its doors was when I first moved to the city. What was I thinking?

It wasn't busy despite the fact that it was a sunny day (a rarity in San Francisco), yet when I asked about chocolate and other flavors, Willeda, who has been working for them for six years, smiled and said, not today. So, I asked, you have dark chocolate at other times right? Yes, she said with a smile, but not after today. Confused, she went on to say that today was the last day Maggie Mudd was open. Forever. For good. Yowsa - did I get lucky or what?

I had the place to myself until a few moms came in to order their infamous ice cream cakes for their daughters, which will apparently still be available to order even though the shop itself will now be closed. I tested the coconut, cookie dough, coffee, oatmeal dough and against my initial judgment, peanut butter and jelly, which was better than I expected.

With no chocolate in site, I went for the cookie dough...a small set me back $4.25 and a pint is $7.50, a quart over $13.00. In other words, it ain't cheap. Their ice cream wasn't fabulous to be honest, then again, they don't make their own ice cream and what their known for is their non-dairy frozen cones which they make on-site. And those my friends, are creamier, richer and yummier than any other soy dairy dessert I've had.

While you can't get an ice cream cone at their Cortland Street shop anymore, you can click on their online catalog to see what kind of a cake we can make for you, order online and schedule your delivery time.  

Web 2.0 Expo: Conversations on Technology Business Models & Beyond

Web 2.0 Expo, co-produced by O'Reilly Media, Inc. and UBM TechWeb, is in full force this week in San Francisco: March 28-31, 2011.

The event showcases the latest Web 2.0 business models, development paradigms, products, and design strategies for the builders of the next-generation Web. They also do a similar event in New York every year, where they feature influential keynotes and speakers, detailed workshops, a Startup Showcase, and an Expo show floor with booths.

To give you a taste of some of the sessions and workshops, take a look at their entire schedule or a glimpse below:

Eoin Harrington Hits YOSHI's on April 22 for CD Release Launch

With the release of Eoin Harrington's second album "Confess" following on the heels of his
breakout success from "Story," Harrington is set to make a huge impact on the industry with his new release, which he'll be previewing on April, 22, 2011 at Yoshi's in San Francisco, CA.

His last EP has been getting airplay across the country in Ireland and he will be releasing "Confess" over there at the same time. Having made many appearances on KFOG, KGO, NPR, KPIX, Alice and KRON4 and having recently completed a US tour, Eoin has also shared the stage with many successful acts including The Fray, The Counting Crows, Alanis
Morissette, Train, Sara Bareilles, and Brandi Carlile.

Harrington has a passionate vocal style and an energetic stage presence; his next musical chapter “Confess” at Yoshi’s should be a memorable experience.

If on the west coast, here's a link for tickets, and more information on Eoin can be found on his site, Facebook and Twitter.

Snapshots From #LAUNCH11 in San Francisco

Below are some random shots from the LAUNCH Conference held at the Design Center in San Francisco this past week.

Jolie O'Dell, Marshall Kirkpatrick and Heather Meeker

Above photo credits: Kris Krug 

Below Tim O'Reilly, Renee Blodgett, Francois Nadal (myERP.com)

Above photo credit: Jean Baptiste-Su

Below Robert Scoble and the Domo guys geek out over fun mobile apps and new Motorola Tablet

Meeting Max Swisher for the first time, a 7th grader who is running / writing the Good Morning Geek blog and website. What were you doing when you were in the 7th grade?

Below, Dave Mathews talks ToothTag on the Launch Stage (wins best technology by judges)

The Domo guys certainly have passion even if you can't exactly figure out what they do

 
The TripBod Team....YAY, Women at the Helm.

The ViralAge Team show their new Launch.Forum platform, soon to be launched.

Some of the judges below. Full listing can be found here.

While most people were in T-shirts, some folks were a stylin' such as the sneakers Addreoid's Head up from LA. When someone dresses well in the Valley, you know they're either over from Europe, in from New York or Miami or up from Los Angeles. Not a priority here but writing k-a code sure is. :-)

Walter Hood: Start With Community & Build the GREEN Around Them

Walter Hood talks and walks a green path and lives and breathes his passion. His view of what green landscape should look like in urban areas? Listen to what he said about Oakland's Lake Merritt in a Fast Company article.

"Everything seems like it's dropped out of nowhere. It's like, okay, we'll put in the grasses and the rocks and let's do the stupid green roof over a garbage-compactor thing. That's the playbook of landscape architecture. But this is the centerpiece of our community. It should add up and become something larger." The "something larger" is real nature opposed to a fabricated image of nature.

He talked to the TEDxBerkeley crowd recently about the green prints he has been working on in Pittsburg. He showed us his 'green' plans, which he called "You Live in the Woods," and within the woods is a village. He says he watches where the people go and then builds around them.

Hood has been working on a number of cities around America, not just Pittsburgh. Among others, Wood has had an impact on Buffalo and Jackson, Wyoming, where he transformed street corners and highway underpasses into public spaces.

He encouraged us to think differently about public spaces and to stop being afraid of 'green' spaces as they are 'naturally'. "We don't have to control it all the time - sometimes we can just it go." He reminded us how rare it is to see 'woods' anymore, "you know," he says, "that vacant lot where a kid can go into it and see the rainforest, get dirty, play with ants, see Africa, get away from mom and dad."

He's right. When I was a kid, I had my own woods.....I even called it "the woods," and it was there where I took dogs for a walk, built forts, climbed trees, went hunting for frogs and just sat and looked at the bush. It was a place I could seek refuge when things didn't make sense, which for a ten year old is often. And, for a 15 year old, it's even more often.

He showed us amazing photos of 'green forest' they created in Pittsburg, an area that looked more like a mini-rainforest in the middle of an urban sprawl. He says with passion, "we don't need to make a community garden and a park. We need to stop controlling everything."

With his projects, he focuses on the GREEN first and lets everything grow from that one central point. He encouraged the crowd to "think about culture and landscape together. On other words, we can bring the 'hill' back to communities.

Hood ended his talk with this advice: bring back the hill, learn about the hill and listen to stories from people in the hill. Learn more about Walter's work here.

Sutton's Classic San Francisco Heart

Jeremy Sutton is a Bay Area friend of mine who has an amazing ability to beautifully capture things, people and the world digitally.

An artist at heart, he spends most of his time dancing up a storm when he's not 'creating.'

I wanted to share a heart that he painted called Classic San Francisco,  commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, which is currently in display in Union Square, at the corner of Powell and Geary Streets, in downtown San Francisco through October 2011.

See some of the art he worked on at the de Young Museum while portraying artists Vincent van Gogh (Portrait of Al Honig,Sunflowers and Portrait of Joe Talmadge) and Edgar Degas (Dance Rehearsal).

C'mon, Go to TEDxBerkeley if in the Bay Area or Can Be: Feb 19

TEDx VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: Give your sweetheart the gift of a creative mind. Take them to TEDxBerkeley next Saturday, February 19, 2011 at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA. Experience the romance of new ideas and deep connection. If you don't have a Valentines Day sweetheart, then bring a friend. Buy 2 tickets and get 25% off.

For special go to http://tedxberkeley2011.eventbrite.com/ and enter the code bears11. And while you're at it, become a fan over on Facebook and follow along on Twitter.

Photo credit: Heather Garland

TEDx Berkeley Coming to the Zellerbach Stage on February 19

On February 19, 2011, TEDxBerkeley will gather world-leading thinkers, makers, and doers at UC Berkeley to discuss the theme: “Engaging the World“. The audience will be a diverse yet curated mix of 1,400 students, professors, and thought leaders from Berkeley and beyond, gathering for a stimulating day of presentations, discussions, entertainment and art that will spark new ideas and opportunities for all.

If you're interested in attending, fill out the form and join us. The speaker line-up can be found here, with additional speakers and performers being added in the next few days. Below is just a glimpse - more updates coming next week.

• Jason Atwood - Cal PhD, Computer Lab in Uganda project.
• David Rose - Founder of Vitality. 
• Chip Conley - CEO of Joie de Vivre.
• Marti Spiegelman on consciousness.
• Erin Ganju - CEO of Room to Read.
• David Silverman - Producer of The Simpsons.
• Bryan Alvarez - Cal PhD and the Human Atlas Project.
• Lopa Brunjes - co-founder of Biochar.
• Gopi Kallayil - Heads of Product Marketing for Search Advertising at Google.
• Shore Slocum - Author and Speaker on spirituality and the real world.
• Bob Fuller - Author on rankism. 
• Walter Hood - Berkeley architecture professor.

Fixing Broken Government

The next LongNow talk entitled Fixing Broken Government with Philip K. Howard is being held at Cowell Theater in Fort Mason Center, San Francisco on January 18, 2011.

Philip K. Howard is a conservative who inspires standing ovations from liberal audiences (short example here.) He says that governance in America---from the capitol to the classroom---has achieved near-total dysfunctionality by accumulating so many layers of piecemeal legalisms that the requirements of navigating them has replaced any hope of getting actual justice or effectiveness. Most attempts to fix the problems have made them worse. Howard thinks they can be fixed in a way that restores core functionality.

Howard is the author of Life Without Lawyers (2009) and Death of Common Sense (1994) and is the founder and chair of Common Good, a reform advocacy nonprofit.

Long Now members can tune into the live audio stream at 7:30 PST or you can become a member for just $8 a month.

Upcoming talks include:

Feb 9 (Wed.) - Mary Catherine Bateson, "Live Longer, Think Longer"
March 22 (Tue.) - Matt Ridley, "Deep Optimism"
April 13 (Wed.) - Ian Morris, "Why the West Rules - For Now"
May 4 (Wed.) - Tim Flannery, "Here on Earth"

June 7 (Tue.) - Carl Zimmer, "Viral Time"

This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) organized by The Long Now Foundation. Free audios and my summaries of all previous talks are available for download here (or stay up to date with the Podcast here).