SMC Seattle May Event: How to Call BS on a Social Media Guru

In the world of Web 2.0, anyone can claim to be a social media guru. How do you differentiate between a scam artist and a sage? How do you separate the snake oil from the substance?

Please join us at Hale’s Palladium and Brewery on May 25 as writer, speaker and former Microsoft manager Scott Berkun leads us through this fun, witty, fast-paced and interactive look at the new world of social media. With Scott at the helm, we’ll take a critical look at gurus, both generally and within the social media space. We’ll ask the tough questions that need some clarification—what’s real, what’s not, and how you can tell the difference.

The main event will be held at Hale’s Palladium, a festival-themed warehouse in the back of the Hale’s Brewery. From the front door of the Brewery, just follow the yellow brick road around the building to the Palladium. After the main event we’ll make our way to the Brewery for an after-party.

Only 200 are tickets available. If you’d like to attend, we suggest you reserve a ticket soon since we expect to sell out quickly.

About Our Speaker:
Scott was a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including v1-5 (not 6) of Internet Explorer. He is the author of three bestselling books, Making Things Happen, The Myths of Innovation and Confessions of a Public Speaker. He works full time as a writer and speaker, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes magazine, The Economist, The Washington Post, Wired magazine, National Public Radio and other media. He regularly contributes to Harvard Business and BusinessWeek, has taught creative thinking at the University of Washington, and has appeared as an innovation and management expert on MSNBC and on CNBC. He writes frequently on innovation and creative thinking at his blog: scottberkun.com and tweets at @berkun.

A Big Thank You to Subway, This Month’s Sponsor!
Subway has a long history throughout Western Washington, and is excited to be sponsoring this month’s SMC Seattle event.  There are more than 360 Subway stores throughout the area– more than almost any other area in the country— which is a reflection of the healthy, active lifestyle of many Seattle residents. If you’re looking for a healthy on-the-go alternative to fast food, Subway offers eight different sandwiches; each with just six grams of fat or less. Subway’s Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich (Jared’s favorite) makes a great tasting, low-fat meal.

To stay up to date with Subway and it’s delicious offerings:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/subwayfreshbuzz
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/subway
http://www.subway.com/

May event details:
Date – May 25, 2010
Time – 6-9 p.m.
Tickets – $15 includes a drink and appetizers (cash bar will available)
Register – http://smcseamay.eventbrite.com/
Location – Hale’s Palladium (http://halesbrewery.com/Palladium.htm) – 4301 Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA 98107
Hale’s Brewery and Palladium is just north of downtown Seattle on Leary Way between the Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods.

How exactly do successful bloggers make money with their personal blog? When talking with a company via Twitter, do you ever wonder if you’re really talking to an employee or rather somebody the company has outsourced to be their voice? SMC Seattle’s April event is focused on taking a deep dive into the ethics and best practices of blogging and social media.

Join us at the Seattle Art Museum to hear from a panel of speakers with different points of view, discussing insourcing versus outsourcing, FTC blogging rules, ethics, and best practices of staying successful while staying true to the bottom line. Stay tuned for more information on our panelists in the coming days.

Thanks to our sponsor, Gnomedex, your event admission includes one drink ticket and appetizers from Seattle Art Museum’s catering team. With only 150 tickets available (and a history of sold-out events), reserve your ticket soon to make sure you have a spot.

To RSVP: http://smcseattleapril.eventbrite.com/

We’re excited to have Chris Pirillo and Gnomedex as the PREMIER sponsor of this month’s event!

Hundreds bloggers, podcasters, videobloggers, and tech-savvy enthusiasts will descend upon Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle on August 19 – 21, 2010 for the premier tech conference in the Northwest. The tenth annual Gnomedex conference has a legacy of bringing together the top tech and social media thinkers from the nation. What’s different about Gnomedex? It has a single-track schedule and every attendee is treated like a VIP.  To learn more about Gnomedex and experience the conference yourself, visit: http://gnomedex.com. Sponsorships opportunites are still available. To learn more about sponsorship for Gnomedex, click here.

SMC Seattle April Event Details:

Venue — Seattle Art Museum, 1300 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA

Date – Tuesday, April 27

Time – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Tickets – $15 includes one drink tickets and appetizers

There are two ways to register for this month’s SMC Seattle event:

• Want to attend Gnomedex this summer and this month’s SMC Seattle event? All attendees who buy a ticket to Gnomedex will get a free ticket to this month’s SMC Seattle event (this offer is valid until one or both events sell out). To register for Gnomedex and get a free SMC Seattle ticket, go to http://gnomedex.eventbrite.com/
• Or to just register for this month’s SMC Seattle event, go to http://smcseattleapril.eventbrite.com/

About the Speakers:

Yup, it sure did.

You see, prior to SMC Seattle’s February event (which was held at Swedish Hospital’s Cherry Hill Campus), I answered quite a few questions about this exact subject. It seemed most people were really surprised that Swedish would even be interested in participating in one of our events, let alone be the lone sponsor for our February event.

But in taking a look closer, Swedish Hospital’s interest in social media may not be as surprising as you might initially think. There are actually many reasons for them to be interested in the social web and that is just one of the many things I talked with them about when I sat down with Swedish Hospital’s Melissa Tizon and Ed Boyle.

Sometimes people come through for you in a big way. This is one of those times. As a celebration of 12 consecutive oversold events, SMC Seattle wanted to do something meaningful for our anniversary event. So, we decided to help out a local non profit, the Jolkona Foundation. 100% of the ticket sales will go to fund one year of specialized science, technology, engineering, and math training for kids (through a Jolkona project with Technology Access Foundation).

But that wasn’t enough. Local businesses began approaching us wanting to help out. They wanted to give some prizes out to the folks helping out Jolkona. This is why we’re adding on a raffle to the event. We’re hoping that those coming out to the event will be as generous as these sponsors:

• Seattle hotel Hotel Max stepped up to the plate and contributed a free night at its downtown boutique hotel.
• Kodak donated an HD video camera, the Kodak Zi8
• The Ultimate Ears Social Media Team wants you to rock out with two pairs of Ultimate Ears 700 headphones
• Cat’s Eye Design donated a three-hour WordPress consultation, including theme customization and implementation.
• If you’re marketing your business, a social media press release is a must. PRWeb is donating a free release.
• True Fabrications is contributing a Wine Lovers Party Pack, including wine glasses, corkscrews, aerators, wine charms, cheese knives and cocktail napkins.
• A one-hour massage from Seattle masseuse Clear Awakening.
• And of course, SMC Seattle is contributing three Golden Tickets, which entitles the winners free admission into SMC Seattle’s monthly events for a year.

Raffle tickets will be sold at the event for $5.00 each, so bring your cash! Again, thank you to all of the sponsors, and especially thank you to the Seattle community for supporting them and Jolkona.

Have a question about building community for Veronica? Please post it in the comments. We will try to ask as many of your questions as possible at the event!

You Can Find Veronica . .
veronicabelmont.com
twitter.com/veronica
www.facebook.com/Veronica-Belmont

December Meetup Event Details:

Date – Tuesday, December 8th
Time – 6:00-9:00pm
Location – Microsoft Conference Center: 16070 N.E. 36th Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Tickets – Sold out!

Eight sold out events later with more than 150 people at each, we have far exceeded our original goals. The only reason we have seen such success is because of the hard work of our talented board of directors, and the support of the great people that come to our events, and participate online.

You have made SMC Seattle more than just an organization; you have made it a community. A community where everyone is welcome and we rally around those that have questions or need help.

I am pretty sure we have some of the smartest and most caring people in the world that participate in SMC Seattle. That, and not merely the number of people that come to our events, is why I am truly honored to be a part of this community.

We understand we need to provide extraordinary people an extraordinary community. So with this in mind we will do everything we can to provide a place for you to share, connect and collaborate in person. While at the same time providing stimulating panels, speakers, blog post and tweets that help keep Seattle on the forefront when it comes to technology and social media use.

In order to do accomplish this, our dedicated all volunteer board has been working hard to facilitate the needs of this growing community. It’s a big job, but everyone on the board is passionate about making sure we do everything we can for the SMC Seattle community.

To increase the depth of the SMC Seattle experience, we have recently started to roll out some exciting programs in additional to our main monthly events. One of these is our SMC Seattle Educational Series. These are small group meetings focused on making personal connections, and giving people the information needed to develop a deep knowledge of a particular topic. We have also started SMC Seattle Partner Events. These events are put on by other groups and organizations that we believe have good content, and whom we have worked with to provide additional value to the SMC Seattle community.

In my next blog post on the SMC Seattle blog, I will explain these groups in more detail, and give more information about how we are changing to meet your needs.

SMC Seattle is nothing without you, so please reach out and let us know how we can help, or if you just have an idea for us. You can contact me at kevin@changeitmarketing.com, or you can always post on this blog, our Twitter, Linkedin, or Facebook accounts.

See you at an event soon!

Kevin Urie

SMC Seattle President

Tickets are limited so register soon!

Come prepared with your questions on how to effectively manage a customer service presence on social media networks. Our panelists will be ready to help answer your questions.

A big thanks HL2 for sponsoring this month’s event!

August Meetup Event Details:

What: SMC Seattle August Event featuring @ComcastCares, @AlaskaAir and @Starbucks
Sponsored by HL2
Who: Anyone with a passion and interest in social media
When: Aug. 18 at 6 – 9:30 p.m.
Where: HL2, 542 First Ave S, #400, Seattle, WA 98104
$15 registration includes free Elysian beer and appetizers

These events sell out fast, and tickets are limited.  Register here.

Connect with SMC Seattle!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41266930517
Web/Blog: http://www.smcseattle.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/smcseattle
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1847359
Email: SMCinSeattle@gmail.com

Gnomedex isn’t like other conferences.  It’s one track so you can see every speaker, and everyone is a VIP.  Plus SMC members get a 10% discount!!

Here’s where you register: http://gnomedex.eventbrite.com/?discount=smcseattle10

Wondering what you’ll learn? Here are the speakers:

Chris Brogan – Chris is a ten year veteran of using social media, web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at chrisbrogan.com, a blog in the top 10 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 100 on Technorati.  He helped found the new media conference series, PodCamp, is president of social media agency New Marketing Labs, and has been quoted in magazines and papers from Newsweek to the Wall Street Journal.

Gnomedex Topic: Chris will talk about becoming a trust agent: using the web in a human way to build influence, reputation, awareness, and business value.

Micah Baldwin – http://www.twitter.com/micah
Micah is VP, Business Development and Chief Evangelist for Lijit Networks, the sixth startup Micah has been involved in. Micah is a contributor to CNN, Mashable and Read, Write, Web. He also created the #followfriday meme. Micah is also an expert in online fundraising, helping universities such as The Catholic University of America and the University of San Diego grow their annual giving programs by more than 150%.

Gnomedex Topic: Micah will bring that experience as he discusses tools and practices for increasing influence online.

Jay Grandin and Leah Nelson – http://www.giantantmedia.com/
Jay and Leah have established themselves as accomplished New Media producers with web content that has seen audiences of over 35 million. The success of their short films, comedy and documentary work has led to contracts for original series with companies such as Myspace.

Gnomedex Topic: Jay and Leah will be discussing their company, Giant Ant Media, a web-focused video studio that creates unique campaigns and shows for online audiences. They show their customers how to attract new customers of their own, build loyalty and increase brand engagement. Through multiple videos and interactive content, stories can unravel to encourage multiple visits, specific actions, and word of mouse.

Drew Olanoff – http://www.drewolanoff.com and http://www.blamedrewscancer.com
Drew Olanoff is the Director of Community for GOGII. He’s an outgoing guy, who isn’t afraid to try anything once (including proposing to his girlfriend on Twitter!). His sense of humor is one that attracts people of all types and personalities – but it is his intelligence and enthusiasm that keeps their attention.

Gnomedex Topic: Drew will present “My Cancer is Social” – He’ll discuss foundations usage of social media, tools, and platforms to spread the word TO PEOPLE about what they’re passionate about and what they’re doing. Widgets, Facebook Cause pages, and original ideas such as #BlameDrewsCancer utilizing the powerful Twitter platform.

Phil Plait – http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/
Phil is an astronomer, author, blogger, and skeptic… which means you better have some good evidence for any claims you make to him! In fact, Phil is the President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, a non-profit based on the works of noted conjurer and skeptic James Randi – famous for debunking the spoon-bending efforts of Uri Geller. The critical thinking movement is growing by leaps and bounds, and the JREF has been at the center of a grassroots effort to bring more skepticism into everyday life, especially online.

Gnomedex Topic: Phil will be talking about science communication online, and how the “new” (now teenaged, in more ways than one) media has affected it. Specifically how instant info — passed on Twitter — can actually make misinformation spread faster than good info, and how freaking hard it is to clean up once that happens.

Mark Horvath – http://www.invisiblepeople.tv
Gnomedex Topic: “A Conversation about Social Change through Social Media” – Beginning July 15th, 2009, Mark is taking the show on the road using social media and bringing us along for the ride as he visits the homeless throughout the nation. Formerly homeless himself, Mark brings personal experience and compassion as he aims to bring understanding and knowledge to the growing homeless crisis. He will visit 25 cities across the nation including rural areas, larger cities, shelters and youth facilities.

Mark Glaser – http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/
Glaser is a long-time freelance journalist and has written columns on the Internet and technology for the Los Angeles Times, CNET and HotWired, and has written features for the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Entertainment Weekly, the San Jose Mercury News, and many other publications. He was the lead writer for the Industry Standard’s award-winning “Media Grok” daily email newsletter during the dot-com heyday, and was named a finalist for a 2004 Online Journalism Award in the Online Commentary category for his OJR column.

Gnomedex Topic: Glaser will be presenting “Hacker-Journalists in Demand at Media Companies” – Why did media companies miss the boat on the web? They haven’t always valued the input from their own technology folks on staff. That’s changing as the web is becoming an important source for news and information. So now local newspapers, radio stations and TV stations are hoping that a new breed of “hacker journalists” can help them out by having experience in coding and also understanding journalism issues.

Warren Etheredge – http://www.thewarrenreport.com/
As founder of The Warren Report, Warren Etheredge curates and hosts over 250 events every year, a podcast and television series. The Warren Report promotes “slow culture” through commentary, outreach, events and education. Their principle: Smarter audiences make a better world! Additionally, Warren is one of the founding faculty of TheFilmSchool, along with Tom Skerritt and Stewart Stern. For six years, Warren served as the Curator for the 1 Reel Film Festival (at Bumbershoot). Warren has staged over 40 plays in New York, published five books, written countless magazine articles and recently completed a feature-length documentary, HUMOR ME. He is the host of Words & Wine and The Good Life, conversation series with A-list authors, and is a regular contributor to Seattle’s NPR affiliate, KUOW.

Gnomedex Topic: We’ve all seen them, documentaries built on boring, lifeless interviews. We’ve all read them, profiles that don’t even hint at the motives of the person behind the story. During this program Warren offers structures, tips and strategies to turn mundane questioning into the art of interviewing.

Amber Case – http://www.twitter.com/caseorganic
Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and New Media Consultant from Portland, Oregon. Amber’s interests include real-time analytics, data visualization, and how marketing works in online ecosystems. She’s spoken at various conferences including MIT’s Futures of Entertainment, Inverge: The Interactive Convergence Conference, Ignite Portland , and Ignite Boulder.

Gnomedex Topic: Case will be talking about the strangeness of humans and our prosthetic culture. From the traditional prosthetics like the fake legs which amputees wear, to the prosthetization of our own tasks with virtual assistants and the 4 hour work week, to the idea that cell phones make give us superpowers. And finally, omnipresence and omniscience through social networking sites.

Christine Peterson – http://www.foresight.org/about/Peterson.html Christine Peterson catalyzes new technologies: first, focusing on atoms, she co-founded Foresight Institute to advance the field of nanotech. This work is accomplished by providing balanced, accurate and timely information to help society understand and prepare for nanotechnology through public policy activities, publications, guidelines, networking events, tutorials, conferences, roadmaps, and prizes. She serves on the Advisory Board of the International Council on Nanotechnology and the Editorial Advisory Board of NASA’s Nanotech Briefs, and served on California’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology.

Gnomedex Topic: “Life Extension for Geeks” – Compared to our computers, our bodies are mind-bogglingly complex systems. There’s no “life extension pill” available today, and none is likely to arrive soon. Fortunately for us, we can use our technical skills to evaluate and implement today’s life extension techniques, some of which can be fun — at least from a geek perspective.

Bre Pettis – http://www.makerbot.com/ Bre has supported the creativity of others as a school teacher in Seattle Public Schools, as the creator of the weekly video series “Weekend Projects” published on the Make: Magazine website, and as a producer of new media for Etsy.com. He co-founded MakerBot Industries to bring manufacturing to the masses and he co-founded Thingiverse so there would be a place for to share digital designs on the web. He is also a founder of NYCResistor, a hacker collective that seeks to learn, share, and make things.

Gnomedex Topic: “Personal Manufacturing: The Robots that Sharing Built” – We’re living through a radical shift in how innovation happens. Today, a culture of sharing and collaboration is changing the face of technology–enabling the development of things like affordable 3d printing that put the tools of personal manufacturing on your desktop. In the future when you reminisce, your kids won’t believe that there was a time when you had to leave h ome to get things instead of downloading objects.

Beth Goza - http://bethgo.com/
Gnomedex Topic: “Nerd Craft: A Field Guide” – Emerging from the explosion of next-gen DIY movements, hand crafting revivals, and celebrating all thing geek comes a unique set of makers; the nerd crafter. Nothing is off-limits from the imagination and ingenuity of these crafters, who blend their passion for sci-fi, gaming, technology and all things geeky with their love of paints, fabrics, fibers and all things crafty. Goza presents a Field Guide to the various families, genus and species of Nerd Craft and shows how sites like craftzine; events like the Renegrade Craft Fair, and communities like Ravelry connect and galvanize crafters who share a passion for fibery-arty-geeky goodness.

Excited? Get the discount. Register here: http://gnomedex.eventbrite.com/?discount=smcseattle10

The next SMC Seattle event is coming up quickly (7/16) – less than a week away!

If you’ve been to one of our events before, then you know what to expect: an evening of great conversation and networking with people who are passionate about social media. To you folks, we look forward to seeing you again.

If you’ve never been to one of our events, we would love it if you made July’s meetup your very first! We think you’ll have a great time meeting all the friendly social media savvy folks who make it out to our SMC Seattle events. If you come, you can expect to meet people who are involved with all aspects of social media from consultants and marketers to regular folks whose hobbies include blogging about their favorite restaurants. All are welcome!

Still don’t believe us? Then we’d like you to meet Taylor Hogsett, who attended her very first SMC Seattle event in June! We think she had a great time!

We wish to thank Allyis and Ethan for sponsoring SMC Seattle’s event on June 30, 2009.