In The Field with Tracy Pattin- New Media and Social Media Travels Around LA

Tracy Pattin, Host. Sizzle in the Middle

This past week has been a week of High Geekery. I went to several New Media and Social Media events, starting with Dorkbot, where I helped Doug Welch (my treasured geek mentor) record the event. I’ve found that the best way to get up to speed with all of this high geekery and changing technology is to go to lots of events and talk to as many brainiac techies as possible. You can go to New Media events every day of the week. And last week, I did.

Thanks to the Dorkbot event, I now know how to Video Stream with U-Stream (well, sort of). The afternoon was a series of speakers in various stages of high tech development, like John Arroyo’s Remix Revolution, a composer’s dream. Where the original piece of music is transformed into various versions as musicians join in, in cyberspace to add their own musical take. Then there was a chess game to music, and Jeremy Douglass’s Playpower Keyboard and even a “Haunting” technology. I had no idea there were professional haunters, devoting their time to new creations for haunted houses. As I stood at the laptop keeping an eye on the video streaming for Doug, feeling out of my element, I realized I could absorb some of this heady technology just by keeping my mind open.

The next night was the wonderful Bloblive pitching event. What is Bloblive? It’s an open-mic night for people with ideas; speed dating for ideas; a fun and engaging networking event. Each person gets 90 seconds to pitch their idea, from new software and green companies to a litany of products and services. (I pitched ReinventCamp). Then they get professional feedback from CEOs, angel investors and other entrepreneurs on why it will work or why it won’t. The rest of the audience chimes in with ideas and suggestions. Twitter is on a big screen behind where the cyberspace participants are Tweeting up a brainstorm of their own ideas. Lisa Greenfield pitched her hand analysis company, MyTruthinHand.com, then there was a green company, Useless.org, a fitness motivation iPod looking gadget, the Simon watch and many others. All in all it’s a great opportunity for ideas at all stages.

The One-Coach event at Blank Spaces was a night of Social Media with a panel of experts even one via Skype in Ohio. Nate Kievman, a Linkedin Specialist, talked about Woovertising vs. Traditional Advertising. Woovertising is where consumers gain control of the conversation and shut the traditional advertiser out. Bryce Maddock of Task Us has gained 100 clients over the past months, all through Twitter. He’s convinced this is where the money is. Then there was Traffic is Gold’s Josh Landsberg, a branding and Twitter expert, echoing Bryce Maddock’s Twitter claim. Josh recently got an appearance on a radio show in Australia because of Twitter! And finally, Social Networking Capitalist, Michelle Price of A Third Mind New Media. She talked about the Social Network business plan and empowering “Thought Leaders.” The panel all agreed that the three Social Media giants, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are key places to spend your time in Cyberspace. Branding was the buzzword of the evening with the accelerated growth of Social Media and the masses setting up millions of virtual storefronts. Of course YouTube is a player in all of this as well. So, the word is, Social Media is very alive and well and growing by leaps and bounds and can be a profitable endeavor.

And finally, there was the Twitter breakfast put on by Ideablob’s Erick Brownstein. I thought I was an intermediate Tweeter. Not so. More like an advanced beginner after Erick’s great presentation. Seems there are many layers to Twitter just like all those other platforms. I learned that the power of Twitter is in all the search capabilities where you can reach out and find customers in your niche as well as Tweeting about having a toasted “everything” bagel with lite veggie cream cheese from the Bagel Broker and a Vanilla Chai Latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf while reading Perez Hilton’s latest Hollywood gossip stories.

I can’t end with week without sharing some traditional media experiences. The AFTRA Mastery Panel on Healing As It Relates to Performance Mastery was a fascinating evening. Ending this productive and exhilarating week was the infamous Doug Welch Friday Coffee at the Grove/ Farmer’s market.

So, stay tuned for another week of New Media, Social Media and interesting human experiences along the way. Coming up on In The Field this week: The Writer’s Guild event “From Camera to YouTube” taught by New Media Interchange’s Doug Welch and any others I find.

-Tracy Pattin

Filed under: Community, Events, In The Field, Meeting, New Media, News