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Take a Moment

As we run through our day sometimes its great to stop and take a moment. Thanks Sue Pelletier for posting this link. I get so crazy sometimes you forget to live in the moment.

Extra! Interview with Jay Smethurst of Illumination Galleries

 
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The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!

Today Mike interviews Jay Smethurst from Illumination Galleries Jay shares some exciting creative tools utilizing graphic facilitation to keep your attendees learning and collaborating though the whole event!!

Also check out Jays Blog for some great information.

Mike McAllen of Grass Shack Events & Media http://www.grassshackroad.com/ Read the rest of this entry »

#EventProfs From the Sidelines Virtual Events and Experiences

 
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Today Mike is joined by Julius Solaris in London from Event Manger Blog & Blur Marketing. Julius is also the owner of Event Planning and Management group on Linkedin.com.(which has 11 thousand members)

Mike and Julius were participating in The EventProfs Chat via Tweetchat led by Jeff Hurt of Midcourse Corrections Blog The chats are attended by event and meeting professionals. I am sorry I could not name them all. The plan is to have a live discussion as the chat went on hoping to point out the nuggets this niche crowd was sharing and have more discussion.

You can attend #eventprofs Chat Tuesday 6-7 PM Pacific Time or Thursday 9am-10am Pacific Time.

As expected Twitter went down as the Chat was suppose to start and Julius and Mike discussed virtual events and experiences as they waited for twitter to come back up. (We do understand the irony of a virtual event going down when we were suppose to be talking about virtual events- technology is unpredictable- like the weather as Julius commented) :)

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Imagination – From Samsung Smart LED Technology

Imagination and creativity. I LOVE this video (though I do feel sorry for the sheep) I love that Samsung is using their imagination to hire these guys to do something so creative and fun. This is the type of stuff that really recharges my batteries to be creative. Opens up the door! :)

Links for more-

http://www.youtube.com/user/BaaaStuds

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Its All About Relationships- Jessica Levin

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

Are you using Twitter for your business or for personal use? This is a really great article by my friend Jessica Levin CMP from Seven Degrees Communications. She spoke at the E4 conference recently and I wanted to point you over to the article because besides being a great article I am in it. :)

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Check out the new book Trust Agents if you want to learn about Social Media

Trust Agents, the new book on social media marketing by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, should be on your book purchase list. Where I think of Chris as a friend he is also really fricken smart and a personable guy. The main reason to read this book is in our industry of Events and Meetings social media is on the top of everyone’s lists of questions (along with Green Meetings) on how to do it and what its all about. This book will answer your questions. I do not know Julian Smith though I have heard him on the Podcast Media Hacks. He swears all the time to get his point across which I find refreshing. :) He seems to be a no holes barred type of guy.

So think about buying this book…… it will put you a head of the game with Social Media.

(full disclosure my amazon associates link is above)

If you want to hear a podcast of me interviewing Chris Brogan before buying check this link.

This one’s a keeper. If you do business online (or do business with people who have ever been online) or know someone who once used a computer, I strongly suggest you get smart about the ideas in this book. ~Seth Godin

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Have you heard of Pandora Radio?

Image representing Pandora as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

If you haven’t heard of Pandora Radio head over there right now. It is an amazing (free) service. It is a great website (iphone application) that you can make your own radio stations. Basically, it will learn what kind of music you like and pepper in music you might like. You can give each song a thumbs up or down and it will learn from this rating to only give you music you want. Another great thing about Pandora is you can buy music directly from the site from Itunes or Amazon. Pretty cool huh. Seriously go check it out now. We paid them a subscription so it wont shut off after a while and it basically runs in our house and in our office all the time.
Below is a little video on how Pandora finds music that you might be interested in.

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Extra! How to use New Media Tools for your Event or Business Part Two

 
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The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!

Links from the show:
www.willitblend.com
www.mybarackobama.com
http://kogibbq.com/ (Kogi BBQ Case Study)
http://www.gozags.com/inspiredseason/ (Gonzaga Athletics Case Study)
http://www.bakershours.com/ (Ed Morita Case Study)
http://www.sanjosedoubletreehotel.com/ (Doubletree San Jose Hotel Case Study)
http://tv.winelibrary.com/ (Gary Vanerchuck Case Study)
http://www.meetingspodcast.com (Meetings Podcast Case Study)
http://www.sparkmediasolutions.com (David Spark Case Study)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8 (Professor Monica Rankin Case Study)
http://www.areallygoodejob.com (Murphy-Goode Winery Case Study)

More Social Media Case Studies

http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/case_studies.htm
Read the rest of this entry »

10 ways Mike McAllen Uses Twitter

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Top 10 ways I use Twitter

1. I ask Questions
2. I follow cool- funny- smart people
3. Post stuff that is cool- funny- smart- relevant to my biz (events-meetings-video-media)
4. Post cool stuff that other have posted elsewhere.
5. Post resources that can help people.
6. Retweet cool- funny- smart – relevant posts.
7. Post events and announcements
8. To tell people Michael Jackson is still dead.
9. To respond to interesting people in my everyone stream. Get in conversations with people I don’t know or who are not in my Biz.
10. Try to make people laugh even if it makes me look a like an ass.

Twitter is really cool to make new friends. Also I am currently working with two people I met on Twitter. @neenz who is producing a meeting for me in Hawaii for the second year in a row. And my friend @brettbum who is doing all sorts of cool web stuff for me and our clients.

Twitter offers so many cool channels of feedback. The whole new twitter chats like #eventprofs is just amazing to me and I love attending (when I have time)

How do you use Twitter?

How many times did I use the word COOL in this post. (if you are correct you win a prize!)

How do you use twitter?

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Unplanned Events

Squirrel eating a nutImage via Wikipedia

I was having my regular day today. Coffee, email, more coffee. I needed to head to a meeting with a meeting planner for an event we are producing. I got dressed and jumped in my truck and headed over. As I drove down the road I saw a squirrel laying in the road. This is a regular occurrence around here. The squirrels who are mostly fearless leaping from tree to tree and sometimes fall and also they like to play chicken with the cars. As I drove by I looked over at him (he was on the other side of the road) I was expecting to see a smashed little fur ball and instead his head moved as he watched me drive by. I swear we caught eyes……. As a car came up the other way I watched in horror as they rolled over him (or her) not with the tires but over him which must have scared the acorns from his butt. I slammed my truck in reverse and got out – lifted him to the side of the road and swore at a guy in a Porsche who was in a hurry to get by me. I then rummaged through a recycling bin and grabbed a box and hustled him to the vet. I then boogied over to my meeting which I was late for. Not sure if the little guy made it but all of a sudden the event we were producing really didnt much to me.

Sometimes unplanned events are important than real events. I am glad I took the time to stop.

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