Upcoming Events:

GeekMemphis will have TechCamp Memphis on May 12th.
MemphisTech Lunch (Wednesdays 11:30-12:30 Panera Lauralwood)

Thursday:

WordPress Memphis Beginner/Advanced

Whiteboard Session at FedEx Institute

Saturday:

IT Workshop http://goo.gl/CDXc4

Be sure to check out the news and schedule at:
StartupMemphis.com

Thanks everybody that braved the morning’s #memsnow.

(Metaphorically) it was great to meet around the Expedition fire (while it was snowing) fresh with tales from the wild.  It was great to share the time with everybody along with two new folks: Liz Jostes (our speaker) and Bryan Burnett of O.R. Nurses, Inc.

It was great to hear what’s happening with the CA’s StartupMemphis site. Check it out and don’t miss Dowd’s Cloud! Thanks James!

Awesome discussion about the many ways to use DropBox, and other great utilities out there like HeyTell and (my favorite) ShowMeWhatsWrong.com (Thanks Bryan!).

Liz did an outstanding job walking us through Klout. Not only did she share the scoring, and some of the controversy about Klout, but she also shared a side by side comparison of her own experience. Check it out: Klout’s not for everbody, and not for Liz (anymore). Here’s her Klout (BarCamp Memphis version) presentation on SlideShare. Great work Liz!

Updated 8/25/2011

Thursday[8/25] MemTech Lunch | MemphisSMC | Memphis PHP
Friday[8/26]
Saturday[8/27] Web Dev Workshop – MidSouth TechCorner

Monday[8/29]
Tuesday[8/30] Tech Coffee
Wednesday[8/31] Memphis Tech Cocktail by Launch Memphis
Thursday[9/1] Tech Lunch WordPress Memphis (September 1)
Friday[9/2]
Saturday[9/3] MidSouth TechCorner

Monday[9/5] Holiday – Labor Day
Tuesday[9/6] Tech Coffee
Wednesday[9/7] Social Expedition Breakfast
Thursday[9/8]
Friday[9/9]
Saturday[9/10] MidSouth TechCorner

Calendars Consulted (you should bookmark these):
MidSouth Tech Corner
This is a hub of a few meetups of many different kinds, and is itself a very interesting meetup on Saturday afternoons.

LaunchMemphis Calendar
Contemporary entrepreneurship got it’s kickstart with grassroots of LaunchMemphis. This calendar features LaunchMemphis and associated events.

Have a calendar that should be shared here? Let us know.

Plancast.com

• Create an event, broadcast it to your followers.
• Works like Twitter for events. You have a feed that shows you not only events from your connections, but also events based on your location and interests.
• Subscribe to individual feeds; see where your friends are going and which events they are attending.
• Can import Meetup.com info.
• Can auto-create an event on your Outlook Calendar.
• BEST PART: Allows event planners to reach a wider base, consisting not just of their existing social connections, but also those who’ve specified particular interests.

EmpireAvenue.com

• Ties your Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts into a game that awards points based on engagement.
• Invest in individuals that participate in social media and earn points. Like the stock market.
• See returns on your investment as they engage in the social media scene.
• The more involved and influential they become, the more “profit” you make.
• BEST PART: More points awarded for deeper engagement, encouraging meaningful social media interaction.

Kickstarter.com

• Funding platform for music, film, art, technology, design, food and publishing.
• Pitch your ideas to the masses, individuals in the community contribute funding for your projects.
• BEST PART: A world with more art.

MotionX-GPS iOS App for iPhone and iPad

• GPS App for the iPhone and iPad
• iPhone – $0.99 / iPad – $2.99
• Voice guidance can be purchased in-app for an additional $2.99/month or $19.99/year.
• BEST PART: In-app links to Facebook Places and Wikipedia. Share your location and get all the info about it from inside the app.

Google Realtime

• Crawls social media sources for the search term you provide
• Returns data in realtime
• Streams live twitter results of your search terms
• Easily set up a Google Alert from the search page to get emails for new mentions.

Google Fusion Tables

• Import data (CSV, XLS, Google Spreadsheet).
• Create visualizations of data through charts, graphs, Google Maps overlays.
• Can share with friends or make publicly available.
• BEST PART: Pretty graphs!!

2011 Tennessee NEXT Conference May 5-6 Nashville TN

• Event “focusing on technology based-economic development.”
• 28 tech startups will be presenting.
• Presentations are divided into 4 tracts of business types, each containing 7 businesses
• BEST PART: Memphis is represented by 7 different businesses, including StiQRd. You go guys!

Addictomatic.com

• Mashup of various social media feeds, blogs and search engines that return the latest information based on search term that you provide.
• Can customize and bookmark your own page.
• Only view information sources that you select.
• Produces a clean, simple user interface with a consolidated view of your favorite social media sources.
• BEST PART: The tagline – “Inhale the web.”

Thanks for coming out guys! See you at the next one on June 1st!

Wednesday: SocialExpedition Breakfast
7:30am at UofM Holiday Inn. Speaker is YOU as we indulge in a group’s most favorite, “Show & Tell”. Will be great as usual. http://www.meetup.com/socialexpedition/events/15350822/

Thursday: WordPress Meetup
at EmergeMemphis 6pm. Using Buddy Press to create a social network around your blog.
http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Memphis/events/16661068/

Friday: InSynk Book Club
Cliff notes business style. This month, Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO) – Delivering Happiness http://in-synkhappiness.eventbrite.com

Saturday: MobileCamp Memphis!
MobileCamp Memphis is this Saturday. Please register at http://mobilecampmemphis.com/register – and if you’d like to present, let us know so we can get your topic on the list.

Hope to see you at these.
Thanks and be safe!

Wow. (Photo Credit: Kirk Sunley)

Then suddenly we looked at our watches and it was May! No idea how that happened, but we definitely owe y’all these GREAT interviews Dave recorded while he was at South by Southwest in March. But first, a few service announcements…

As most of you in the Memphis area are MORE than well aware, the weather has just been dreadful. Between the tornados and the rain and the flooding, it’s hard to know what to expect next. Goodness knows the Weather Channel can’t always be counted on, so we’re crowd-sourcing the weather! If you’re on Twitter, follow the hashtag #MemStorm, and/or @MemStorm to get the realtime updates from the most reliable weathermen out there – the people actually in the weather. Post your own weather updates, too! If you’re not on Twitter, just go to Memstorm.com (mobile-optimized site). Most of all, stay safe!

On the topic of mobile devices and how they can keep you informed – come to MobileCamp on Saturday! All the final details are falling into place, so check out MobileCampMemphis.com for all the latest updates and to get your tickets!

Now, on to the interviews! First up we’ve got fellow SXSW attendee, Anastasia Wiley, who’ll give us a briefing on FOMO, or “Fear of Missing Out.” Then Dave Bisceglia’s will tell us all about a new mobile game called TapCity. And we gotta say, it sounds awesome. It’s a social, augmented-reality city building game! So take Foursquare, Layar, and Age of Empires, throw ‘em in a blender and BAM. TapCity. Sadly for Android users, it’s only available on Apple devices right now, but they promise to have an Android version soon!

Next up is Aaron Banister, one of the founders of Locaii, who will tell us why you should choose this location-based service over any others. Then, Dave runs friend-of-the-show Elizabeth Cawein, from the Memphis Music Foundation, who will remind us (as if we needed reminding) just how awesome Memphis music is. Even the people in Austin think so.

Lastly, don’t forget about the Social Expedition Breakfast tomorrow, May 4th. RSVP here and bring something to Show and Tell!

Download the podcast here, listen with the player below, or click the iTunes logo to subscribe.

Another successful breakfast brought to us by Beth Wilson of Mahaffey Tent and Party Rentals! Beth had just returned from the Search Engine Strategies conference held in New York. The key highlights of what she learned in 5 days, she managed to condense into one hour and share via a presentation followed by a wonderful group discussion.

The highlights of Beth’s presentation were:

• How to use the social realm to optimize a public relations strategy. In today’s PR, the media is search and social savvy, and many are collecting story ideas and sources from Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• How to cultivate an environment on Facebook and Twitter that engages conversation.
• The Amazon.com philosophy: “Don’t spend on advertising; put those funds into service.”
• “Listen Before You Measure’ is the new ‘Think Before You Speak.’”

You can view Beth’s presentation here (or below) and follow @BethB_Wilson on Twitter!

We always enjoy not only our speakers and the enlightenment they bring, but our guests and how they engage. Make sure to bring a guest next time!

See you at Twilight Camp, April 21, and we’ll see you at next month’s breakfast!

Plus, don’t forget about MobileCamp Memphis on May 7! That’s right around the corner, so register now at MobileCampMemphis.com!

Their marketing savvy doesn’t stop there, though. Check out the podcast to hear Beth talk about what they actually did at their trade show booth to promote their company in a non-invasive and even goodwill-inspiring way. We are impressed.

Then, Dave’s on his way to SXSW! He’s still on top of the latest in social and tech though, giving us the scoop on the Beluga acquisition by Facebook, the Foursquare/American Express deal, and blog comment integration into Facebook.

Plus, we’d like to give two shout outs: one to the Memphis Music Foundation for exhibiting at SXSW (and throwing a party!!) to showcase Memphis talent, and one to CA Media over at the Commercial Appeal and their awesome video cast, Clicks and Coffee. Each one is about 3 minutes long, so take a quick break and check one out!

As usual, there are some upcoming events we’d like to tune you in to as well (cause most of us aren’t lucky enough to get down to Austin for the festivities!):
March Twilight Camp – March 17
Podcamp Nashville – March 26
MobileCamp Memphis – May 7

Download the podcast here, listen with the player below, or click the iTunes logo to subscribe.

This morning’s breakfast was overwhelming, in the most awesome way, to say the least. Topics covered? Collaborative consumption, neuromarketing, and QR codes (we can’t get enough) – yes, all of them. Why go to SxSW when you can come to Social Expedition Breakfast?  These topics are climbing the hype curve, so we’ve got a recap of resources that you can continue to check out. That said, we hope you like lists:

Neuromarketing:
Practical Definition: Basing marketing direction on knowledge of the above without the actual measure of specific “subjects”.  Think “high-tech profiling”. See Definition of NeuroMarketing.
Resources:
- Hunch.com
- MindTimeMaps.com/new
- F Score Personality Test

Why it’s important: Advances in multiple technologies is enabling neuromarketing. As the marketing industry wakes-up to its benefits, the demand for more neuromarketing will drive additional innovation and data. It will become part of the marketing vernacular. Consumers and businesspeople alike will need to understand these concepts and how they might also make effective use to connect to their best-fit customers & clients.

Collaborative Consumption:
“Access is better than ownership.”
Definition: Traditional sharing, lending, trading, renting and swapping reinvented through network technologies.   Opposite of Hyper Consumption

Click to enlarge.

Mother of all Resources:
- Meshing.it

Why it’s important: The aggregation of stuff that spends most of it’s “owned” life unused is a waste of money and trashes the environment far more aggressively than when shared. Did you know that an average power drill is only used for 8 minutes during it’s owned lifetime?

QR Codes:
Definition: A specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.
Resources:
- ScanLife.com
- 2DBarcodeStrategy.com
- Jagtag.com
- BeQRious.com

Why it’s important: QR codes narrow the gap between the physical display world and online down to a click. In essence no further than one website is from another.

Best QR Code Practices:
- Don’t just throw it out there.
- Keep it simple
- URL shorteners (bit.ly, goo.gl)
- Codes should link to relevant, mobile optimized content
- Use analytics to gage effectiveness, refine approach and justify further implementation
- Video compression: mpeg4 (best for phones) .mp4

Eric Swartz, Sarah Bolton, and baby.

So the podcast is undergoing a series of logistical trial and error tests. New formats. New segments. Some delays in getting it out to you. To make it up to you, though, we bring you a fascinating interview with the creators of the Children of the Wall film project, Sarah Bolton and Eric Swartz. Never imagined Memphis had much in common with Berlin? Think again. These filmmakers set off for Germany to document the rise of artistry in Berlin after the fall of the wall in 1989, and they found that gentrification of the city was driving the artists away from the city. Then, they realized the same thing was happening right here in our own backyard.

Sarah brought her findings to IgniteMemphis 2 (photo to right), and she and Eric hope to have their film ready for viewing in late March. Listen in and check out the Children of the Wall website for more information on this awesome project. Find more of Eric’s film work at Event One Media, and connect with the Children of the Wall project on Facebook and with Sarah and Eric on Facebook too!

You will also hear a neat social fundraising tool mentioned in the interview, IndieGoGo. The Children of the Wall campaign has ended, but if you’re looking to raise some dough (and aren’t we all?), you’ll definitely want to give this site a look.

Dave tosses out some much deserved props to the Memphis community for utilizing Twitter to get out information about the recent inclement weather and to Google for delivering a heavy blow to content farms. If you can decipher the stockmarket, you can check out the effects over time on Demand Media Inc (a high traffic content farm) here. In our new tech corner segment: the world has gone app crazy. If you’ve got the app fever, and depending on which side of the Google v. Apple debate you fall on, you’ll either want to check out the Chrome App Webstore or previews of Apple’s new app-centric OS, Lion, which is due out sometime this summer. On the former, I highly recommend Scribble, a note-taking app, and I look forward to faster versions of two neat apps: Post Post and GoodNoows. Fun fact – it would appear those links for Chrome Web apps do, in fact, work in Firefox… weird.

We’d also like to give a shout out to our friends at the Commercial Appeal who are putting together a video podcast called Clicks and Coffee. The episodes are only a few minutes long, so go have a look!

Lastly, there are awesome upcoming events to check out:
Social Expedition Breakfast – March 2
WordPress Memphis Meetup – March 3
Podcamp Nashville – March 26
MobileCamp Memphis – May 7

Thanks for listening, and hope to see you at the breakfast!

Download the podcast here, listen with the player below, or click the iTunes logo to subscribe.