Internet Geek Girl

I really love Austin, Texas. And it’s not just because I’m obsessed with Allen’s Boots and love to eat at Guero’s and drink margaritas and beer.  It is a town full of smart, driven, cool people and a tech community that has been growing steadily for years.  The music scene is of course one of the best in the nation. Hugh MacLeod visits regularly. And of course, LANCE lives there! P.S. – Lance is on Twitter so follow him! LiveStrong baby!

Next week, Brian Solis (my TechSet partner-in-crime) and I will head down to Austin to celebrate the launch of BizSpark with Microsoft and with our local partners, the Startup District. Please be sure to also follow us on Twitter for more details:

@techset

@bizspark

@startupdistrict

You are cordially invited to join us at The Speakeasy at 7 pm on Thursday, November 20th. The event is *free* but please RSVP here. There will be free drinks and appetizers, so come early.

(Please note these are the boots I bought in March at SXSW and I will be wearing these for sure!)

SXSW starts this Friday! InternetGeekGirl is the proud hostess of the SXSWBlogHaus. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @sxswbloghaus, check out the Facebook Event Page, and look for parties on Upcoming.

Please note that the BlogHaus is located in the middle of the action at the Austin Convention Center, in Room 7 on Level 3. Thanks to sponsors AMD and b5 media, it’s your place to meet up with others, power up and log on, have a beer in the afternoon, get some snacks and just take a break between your favorite panels. Produced in collaboration with SXSW, PodTech, and The Conversation Group, BlogHaus will be host to all your bandwidth, media-creating, and networking needs during SXSW.

Yours truly will also be hosting video interviews and coverage from the BlogHaus, so swing on by!

Plus Live from SXSW, it’s Party Central!

Everyday, live from the BlogHaus at 5 pm (an hour before the room closes), join InternetGeekGirl and Brian Solis of Bub.blicio.us as they host the lively discussion with SXSW attendees and rockstar bloggers to recap the day and map out the evening head. Streamed live on mogulus!

A truly collaborative environment – we look forward to seeing you there!

Ok, ok…I know I haven’t posted in awhile. And I truly feel bad about that. It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks – jetting from NJ to SF, Silicon Valley, Santa Barbara and back. Stay tuned though, because there are changes in the air for InternetGeekGirl. I got some very good advice from a leading editor in the tech industry, and a re-launch will be happening on my 1 year anniversary – March 9! As a side note, (and I’m happy to have deep philosophical conversations about this), I have been Twittering the whole time.

NB: See all the cool pics and reviews of “InternetGeekGirl and her bub.blicio.us friends Meet in Palo Alto to Fill the GapingVoid and Have a Conversation!” (here and here).

In other news…it’s time for Affiliate Summit! I’ll be arriving in Vegas this Saturday, and excited about the Social Media Panel, which I will be on with the following Twitterati: Sam Harrelson (moderator), Deborah Schultz, Chris Brogan, Tris Hussey, and iJustine. Don’t forget to follow @AffiliateSummit and @asw08 (group account) on Twitter.

We will be giving away t-shirts from cool, web2.0 start ups during our panel – so if you’d like to send yours along to the Rio Hotel – feel free. Here’s the address (make sure it arrives no later than 2/24 and goes to my attention):

Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino

3700 W. Flamingo Road

Las Vegas, NV 89103

1-800-Play-Rio
ATTN: STEPHANIE AGRESTA (AFFILIATE SUMMIT – ARRIVAL DATE 2/23)
Cell: 646-408-3318

InternetGeekGirl will also be the hostess with the most-ess in the blog lounge, so we’ll pass them out there as well.Refreshments provided by B5 Media.

BTW – don’t miss Andrew Wee’s Affiliate Summit Las Vegas Survival Guide!

See y’all in Vegas!

Larry Bailin, my good friend, colleague and fellow Jersey-ite, is launching his new book tomorrow – “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” I was lucky enough to secure a (signed) advance copy at BlogWorld Expo and I wanted to share a few thoughts on this compelling read. First off, one of Larry’s greatest differentiators in business comes from his view that marketing and sales are one in the same. So often marketers forget the basics of the sales process and focus on specific techniques and “campaigns.” Larry sees the bigger picture in a big way (and this comes through in the book). Don’t get me wrong – the book is chock full of strategies and straight-forward advice (which is helpful, even for an old Internet pro like me). I just so appreciate Larry’s ability to skip the “trendy lingo” and cut right to the chase of the challenge for the marketer and for the consumer. As many of us know, it is a new world and “connected customers” provide marketers with new opportunities to interact. If you looking to understand this paradigm shift and responses to it – check in with “Billy” (pictured above) and Larry of course.

BTW – The launch also includes a great charity fund raiser, “Billy Gives Back!”

Buy the book at Amazon.com on November 15th (tomorrow) and all proceeds go to The American Heart Association.

Big congratulations to Larry and his colleagues at SingleThrow! Catch up with ya back in Jersey – exit 109 (since I know you were gonna ask anyway!)

(photo credit: Howard Greenstein)

Those of you that know me know how much I believe in the power of Social Media, Conversational Marketing, and the Relationship Economy. This past Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007, I saw that power in action at my Birthday 2.0 event.

People make a party (and a social network for that matter). We had a great crowd. It would be too hard to mention everyone, but big thanks to the following colleagues for joining in: Ted Shelton (my partner at The Conversation Group), Brian Shaler, Howard Greenstein, Steve Rosenbaum, Courtney Darling, Karen Jackie and Dana Rockel, Adam Broitman, David Berkowitz, David Blumstein, Allison Keisman, Bonnie Halper, Jay Bryant, Vidar Brekke, Marty Secada, and those that I can’t find URLs for: Sondra Stewart, Gerry Beyer, Cathy Campbell, Polly Lieberman, Swetal Petal, Yana Lyubovitsky, Keith Knight, Roma Sachar, Carrie Kaufman, Tim Keelan, and EVERYONE ELSE!

The early bird “unconference” discussion focused on usage patters on Facebook. Brian Shaler did a great job summarizing some key points. Read his blog here. I’ll be expounding on this topic in another post soon!

In addition to my party, I felt the web2.0 birthday love with almost 50 wall posts on my Facebook, many skypes, text messages and of course, the Twitter messages wishing me birthday greetings in under 140 characters. I also have to give a big shout out to all those that donated to my fund raising efforts for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and to Chris Brewer at LiveStrong for all his support. I am grateful for all my amazing friends, family and colleagues. Social media birthdays show us the power of this medium and ultimately the true power that comes from people connecting!

Featured Flickr pics are here: InternetGeekGirl and HowardGr!

One last post script. Julia Allison unfortunately did not make the party. She went wasted two hours at the Google event in NYC instead. I don’t know Julia personally. If I had known she was going to have such a bad time, I would have made sure she knew about Birthday 2.0! Julia – you have an open invitation to all future events with Stephanie Agresta and The Conversation Group!