Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Posted on January 18, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

infographic – How to get the best value from attending technology conferences?

When trying to make a list of technology conferences you should attend and getting approval from you boss can be a tough challenge. You’re going to be asked what is the value from the conference, who do you plan to meet with influencers and/or land new deals all while in the back of your mind you’re thinking about what parties you want to attend. To help you make those decisions, FutureSimple.com has created an infographic called “How to make the most out of a conference day”

Provided by FutureSimple.com

Does your conference strategy look like the one above?

Posted on December 21, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Social Media-Integrated POS chatterbox luncheon with BJ Emerson of Tasti D-Lite at Designbox

If you’re downtown Raleigh tomorrow join us for chatterbox Wednesdays at Designbox 12:00 P.M. With guest speaker BJ Emerson of Tasti D-lite. BJ is the Social Technology Officer for Tasti D-lite. Earlier this year Tasti D-lite received a lot of media attention by launching the first Social Media-Integrated Point of Sale (POS) Loyalty Application that implements Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare with are loyalty cards. Recently Tasti D-lite was mentioned on Mashable by installing iPads and using QR Codes in their stores.

BJ brings a strong blend of technical and creative abilities as VP of Technology for Tasti D-Lite. His experience in the early and effective implementation of social technologies within a franchise system has earned him recognition as a pioneer and leader. Featured in Twitter’s Business 101 Case Studies, BJ has spearheaded the integration of the Tasti D-Lite brand experience with online communities by engaging customers and working with franchisees to expand the brand through social media.
In 2010, BJ led the deployment of the first ever POS loyalty program to feature an integration with social sites Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. His passion for empowering others with technology can be seen through the award winning and innovative solutions he manages.

We’re excited to hear BJ speak and looking forward to learning more about the future of Social Point of Sales systems and the Tasti D-Lite story.

Designbox is located at 323 West Martin Street, Raleigh, NC.
http://Designbox.US on twitter as @DBRaleigh
RSVP is not requred but if you’re attending feel free to add it to your plancast: http://plancast.com/p/3alg.

Posted on October 3, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

This is it: 7 days, 3 cities, 2 panels, 2 presentations, 1 live video show and the end of the road!

Today I start one of the most interesting trips in my life and career as a speaker. I’m currently in Boston, MA for FutureM week where I’ll be speaking on a location panel at GeoM and Inbound Marketing Summit. Tuesday, I’m hosting a live #GEOchat show from SCVNGR HQ. Thursday I’m leaving Boston for Michigan to present at Brandcamp and closing out the week I’ll present in Miami, Fl for Blogalicious 2010. If you count it, that’s 7 days, 3 cities, 2 panels, 2 presentations & 1 live video show.

Earlier this year while planning my schedule I new this week was going to be crazy but now that it’s here I’m shaking my head and asking myself what was I thinking! Everything starts tomorrow and I’m stressed out like Vampire trying to get home before the sunrise. Before agreeing to the events I wasn’t managing the new coworking/incubator office at Designbox. Also I didn’t know how I would feelbleaving LaToya aka “thewife” home expecting as she’s now four months away from #babysutton being born. Regardless, no time for stress, as it’s time to deliver to conference attendees information about why everyone should care about location based services and the upcoming TriOut world edition.

flickr photo By: Stuck in Customs

The end of the road:
Today also starts the end of a two year journey for me. After speaking/presenting and taking part of various panels at meetups, conferences and workshops, the last 10 commitments I have from now to the end of November will be the end of the road for me. Since 2008 I have spoken over 60 times and although at love it, a few things have changed along the way. Somewhere it stopped being fun and more stressful for me. Along with the fact I never thought I was good at speaking anyway and if you would tell some of my elementary classmates that I was speaking at conferences they would laugh knowing that as child I was in speech class from 3rd grade to middle school. Taking some advice from Dennis Crowley, Co-founder at Foursquare, who once told me if he spoke at all the events he was asked to speak at you’ll never get anything done. Plus most of the time before speaking I’m always supper nervous. Add that to the now competitive industry of web/tech speaking, everyone is a speaker now. Also I feel like now is a good time to slow down with LaToya and I expecting our first child, working at Designbox and trying to take TriOut to the next level. Maybe I’ll work on that book I wanted to have done by middle of the year.

I did reach some personal goals in terms of speaking such as being a keynote speaker and speaking at SXSW and BlogWorld but I never did make it to Web 2.0 Expo. Since 2008 I’ve traveled more in my life than I have the previous 32 years. I won’t say that I’ll never, ever speak at a conference or meetup again because of two things. One, money talks and two we still have TriOut to run. Meaning if a conference is beneficial to TriOut, like Where 2.0 we would consider it. I do have a talk submitted for SXSW 2011 that I’m waiting to see if approved and that may be the last time but for now I have 10 events left to close out the year. So, tomorrow starts the beginning of the end at GeoM and it ends at the Internet Summit on November 18 in Raleigh, NC. Seems like a good way to go out being Raleigh is my home.

To everyone who gave me an opportunity speak and/or participate at your event thank you.

Posted on September 23, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Attend GeoM and learn why Geo Location Matters and what is the future of location-based services

Originally posed by and on SchneiderMike.com

October 4-8, MITX presents Future M week in Boston. On October 4th, brands, marketers, technologists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, students and business people and will gather in Cambridge at the Microsoft NERD to talk about the future of geo location and the future of geo marketing. Yes. This is a promotional post for an event that my company, Allen & Gerritsen is planning, but since you have read this far, I think you will find the content helpful in making a decision as to whether or not you should attend. For the record, I think you should, particularly if you are a B2C brand or working in the B2C space.

Making Money with Location

Everyone needs to be able to make money to be able to be a going-concern. In this panel, Jason Keath of Social Fresh leads a discussion that will look at revenue streams and service models that make sense. We’ll talk to two platforms that started with revenue models. David Chang will represent Where.com and Wayne Sutton will talk about Triout’s model. We also have Josh Karpf of mega-brand PepsiCo who can tell us about how applications like Pepsi Loot are important to their marketing and revenue stream. Jason Keath is not known for shyness, so I expect he will pose the tough questions and drive panelists toward talking about useful models and cases that drive business results.

Data and Loyalty

Why does it matter? Location is an important component in doing what every brand would like to do – provide a relevant message to its audience at a time when the receiver is ready to hear and act on the message. Everyone would like a reduction of noise and an increase in overall signal. The future of marketing is not casting a wide net, rather brands conitinue to hone their communications and become trusted companions that better the lives of those who need them. In order for this to happen the way we all would like it to happen, brands need access to data and they need to be willing to give something in return to receive.

In the panel entitled “Data and Loyalty”, Melissa Parrish of Forrester leads a discussion with 2 of the industry’s top thought leaders on LBS, Aaron Strout of Powered Inc and Simon Salt of Incslingers. They have not only been vocal about the space, but built solutions that incorporate their thinking. With the focus of this panel being data, we are elated to have the founder of SimpleGeo, Matt Galligan coming out to talk about how their database / backbone aligns the ecosystem by eliminating the disparity across platforms thereby making near limitless applications possibilities – possible.

The Future of Geo

The day culminates in a visit from 3 of the top LBS platforms on the market. In the last panel we will talk to three heads of LBS technology shops and give them the opportunity not only to talk about their current plans for word domination, but about how they see the industry evolving. Jeff Holden of Whrrl, Seth Priebatsch of SCVNGR and Dennis Crowley of Foursquare, three very different location based platforms, will be asked to talk about why location is important today and what it means in the grand scheme and how it becomes increasingly useful for everyone. The end game needs to be a win for brands, consumers and for platforms and currently the fog-of-new is still very prevalent. Each company has a story to tell about engagement with the consumer, rewards, loyalty and relevant content.

This conversation will be 90 minutes so there will be plenty of time to get deep on the topic and to get the crowd involved. I’ll be moderating and as I prepare, would love to get your thoughts on some of the things you would like to hear about from these 3 gurus. Just leave a comment.

How Much?

$130 per person. Beam Interactive thinker and disruptor, Graham Nelson tweeted about the charge and I think this is the proper forum to address the question. We want to be able to provide snacks and libation to our audience and record the event while covering some of our costs. As you well know, it takes a lot of time and effort to plan an event of this size (and it’s nothing compared to the entire Future M event, kudos to MITX!). The point of this session is to provide an atmosphere to push the conversation to the next level. As one of the missions of Future M, the parent conference, is to promote innovation in Boston, we are currently talking to MIT about donating any profits to an innovation scholarship.

Where’s Gowalla?

Because some of you have asked: Where’s Gowalla? Brightkite and Gowalla both expressed regret for being unable to attend. Facebook is still a non-responder.

See You There!

Come out for a day of discussion filled with a balance of best practices, ideas, innovation and though leadership.

To register, go to the official Geo M site and click register.



Posted on September 22, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Check-in at the Location Based Marketing Summit 2010, New York City

Early registration for the Location-Based Marketing Summit ends this Friday.  Promo code SPEAKERVIP gets you in for $495. A one day option is available for $395. The Summit, taking place next week, Sept. 29-30, 2010 in NYC is the leading event for Fortune companies seeking to maximize business, marketing and commerce using location-based services. We give you an inside look at the location-based marketing activities of major brands and agencies.

Join senior level executives from Marc Ecko Enterprises, Pillsbury, ESPN, Google, Deep Focus, Verizon, Microsoft, Mashable, Adweek, New Jersey Nets, Booyah, Advertising Age, Location Labs, SimpleGeo, FortiusOne, Brightkite, 360i, Trendrr, American Express, Bayer, USA TODAY, Tasti D-Lite, JWT, Bridge Worldwide, VaynerMedia and many more who will be speaking and attending. The full schedule is available at http://www.LocationMarketingSummit.com

KEYNOTES

- Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus (leading digital advertising agency)
- Marc Ecko, Founder, Marc Ecko Enterprises (fashion, retail and lifestyle entrepreneur)
- Marc Horine, Vice President of Digital Partnerships, ESPN (world leader in sports and media)

For the location-based marketing summit I’ll be moderating the location-based marketing consumer behaviors and the evolution of social networking, how to plan for it panel at 3:15pm. See the description below.

Are Location Based Marketing consumers trend setters? Are they early adopters? Understand the demographics of Location Based Marketing participants so you can plan your presence accordingly. What do they respond well to? How do you communicate your efforts… from launch to day-to-day management… understand the “in’s” and “out’s” of your audience. Are Location Based Marketing platforms the Facebook-and Twitter killers or will the services be integrated?
Aaron Strout, CMO, Powered Inc.
Geoffrey Lewis, Co-Founder / CEO, Topguest
Phil Thomas DiGiulio, Co-Founder, Pegshot.com
Jodi Gersh, Content Manager / Social Media, Gannett Company Inc
Wayne Sutton, Biz. Dev/Marketing Strategist, TriOut (moderator)

You can see the full schedule here: http://www.locationmarketingsummit.com/schedule/index.html .  I’m excited to take part in the event and if you’re attending be sure to check-in and say hello.