Posts Tagged ‘durham’

Posted on August 3, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Announcing Triangle Tech week #TriTech

For those of you reside outside of NC we call the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas the Triangle and this week we having Triangle Tech week. Every day starting Monday August 3 thru August 8 there will be a different Technology/ social media/ geek event to attend. Also we’re going to have a few special prizes for some of the attendees who make it all six events such as an iTunes gift card and more. To verify you attended all six pick up a card starting tonight at the Triangle Tweetup at Edge Office. The card will have all events dates listed. Next find one of the OurHashtag partners which includes, Kipp Bodnar, Jeffrey L. Cohen, Ryan Boyles or myself and we’ll mark your card. On Saturday at BarCampRDU if you attended all six events we’ll have the prize for you.

If you’re tweeting about the events be sure to use the tag #TriTech short for Triangle Tech Week. Here’s the run down of the events along with the organizers and more information url for Triangle Tech Week.

Monday, August 3 – Triangle Tweetup, 7:00 P.M. at Edge Office – http://triangletweetup.org via OurHashtag

Tuesday, August 4 – Westend Tweetup, 7:00 P.M. at Carrboro Creative Coworking – via Brian Russell aka @BrianR on twitter.

Wednesday, August 5 - Ignite Raleigh @IgniteRaleigh, 7:00 P.M. at Lincoln Theatre via OurHashtag

Thursday, August 6 – Triangle Social Media Club, guest speaker Jay Cuthrell @qthrul on Google Wave at iContact headquaters, Durham, NC. more information here- via OurHashtag

Friday, August 7 – BarCampRDU pre-party at Flying Saucer, Raleigh, NC via Dave Johnson aka @snoopdave on Twitter and team.

Saturday, August 8 – BarCampRDU at Red Hat via Dave Johnson aka @snoopdave on Twitter and team.

Ok, it’s going to be one long but fun, exciting week in the Triangle and remember the tag is #TriTech but some of the events have their own tag too such as #IgniteRaleigh & #barcamprdu. Be sure to check out the Social Carolina calendar as there are other events in the Triangle this week too. http://socialcarolina.org. Also be sure to look at each events website or Twitter account to see if there are any changes. Have a great week!

Posted on July 11, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Social Media brings Dinosaurs back to life at the Museum of Life and Science

Today I attended the Dinosaur Trail exclusive Blogger/Tweeple Preview at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC.

The event was organized by Beck Tench, who manages the Museum Life and Science Twitter account (@lifeandscience). Beck reached out to the local Triangle, NC blogging and Twitter community, which is strong, for the exclusive preview event. And if you think bloggers and tweeple are not interested in dinosaurs, then you’re wrong. Before the event began, tweets were tweeted, asking who’s going, and everyone was excited to preview the new dinosaur trail.

Joining me was fellow OurHashtag partner, Jeff Cohen (Digital Papercuts). As we arrived, we were welcomed by Beck and other Museum of Life and Science employees to receive our V.I.P wrist band, and name badge. Then we were on our way to the Dinosaur Trail.

As we walked the trail we met fellow tweeple @SmallJones, @clubjuggler, @GregoryNG, @dburr10085 and blogger Kevin Davis of Bull City Rising. We also met a few other local Triangle Tweeple for the first time. Despite it being a little humid, the weather was perfect and Jeff and I started our Dinosaur photo-blogging, tweeting, brightkite-ing, Facebooking tour.

Take a look at my photos below:

A few years ago, or even a few months ago, if you would have said that a museum was having a special exhibit preview for bloggers and twitter users, some may have looked at you like you’re crazy and just laughed. But with the explosion of social media and a strong tech community in the area, having an exclusive Blogger/Tweeple preview at the Museum of Life and Science made perfect sense. Why? I would say for marketing and community engagement. Was the event a success? I would say, yes. The @lifeandscience twitter account sent out a tweet saying they had over 100 tweeple and bloggers attend the event.

The event was not only a success because of the attendance, but also for continued awareness for the Museum of Life and Science. As I walked around, I saw families on the dinosaur trail taking a lot of pictures. Adding local bloggers and tweeple to an already scheduled member preview is a great idea. It can only build excitement and generate awareness of the new exhibit. My hat’s off to Beck and the entire team for coming up with the idea. Will this work for every company looking to engage with the local community using social media? Maybe, but let’s take a look at the process of what the Museum of Life and Science did to have a successful event.

1. Hire someone who’s connected in the community.

2. Engage with the community using social media.

Their twitter account has over 1,700 followers and they have accounts on various social networks.

3. Think outside the box and be creative. Instead of trying to just pull bloggers/tweeple away from their computers and iPhones, they welcomed them with open doors, saying join us.

4. They made us feel special by including us in a sneak preview. The exhibit doesn’t open to the public until July 25th.

5. Have an engagement dinosaur. Unlike Raleigh’s Lego store. The museum had one open dinosaur for everyone to climb on. The kids were happy to play and the parents got better pictures. It was clearly the most popular dinosaur there.

6. They planned for success. They passed out Moo cards with the url http://lifeandscience.org/dinosaurs on it. The url is for collecting blog post such as this one, flickr photos and youtube videos. And not only from today, but from future attendees.

Again, great job to the Museum of Life and Science. Today was my first time visiting and I’ll be back in the near future.

PS. All of my photos and videos where taken with the iPhone 3Gs.

No dinosaurs where brought back to life during today’s event, but this one is cool and I would love to have it as an pet.

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

iPhone 3G S Apple Store launch coverage from Raleigh, NC – Year 3

I’m sure by now you know what today is, iPhone 3G S launch day and for the third year in a row I was able to catch up with an old friend and take some pictures/videos of the Apple Store opening plus the hundreds standing in line for the iPhone. When I arrived, I saw Ashton, who for three years in a row now has been first in line to buy the iPhone at the Apple Store in Crabtree Valley Mall. I first met Ashton in 2007 when he purchased the 1st generation iPhone and I was able to take this picture of him, which has been viewed over 5,000 times on flickr and I was recently told it may the first picture of a consumer with the first generation iPhone on the web.

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2007

Fast forward three years later, Ashton and I make our yearly routine of meeting at the Apple Store on iPhone launch day and as normal he’s first in line. I must say this year’s iPhone activation seems to have went a lot smother than last years. Ashton walked in the Apple store, told the employee he wanted a white iPhone and it was purchased and activated in about 15 minutes versus the 8 plus hours he spent in the store last year. Then in about another 15 minutes Ashton had his iPhone 3G S synced with his contacts, music and photos loaded. Great job this year by the Raleigh Apple Store team. Also it was interesting to see others who were buying the iPhone 3G S talk about what color they were buying. Most seem to have purchased the white iPhone 3G S 16 GB version, especially if they had purchased a black iPhone last year.

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2008

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2009

For those of you who are waiting to purchase an iPhone 3G S, I recommend coming in later today to avoid the line and I’m almost sure they won’t run out of iPhones. If you reserved your iPhone you have until today to come pick it up. Below are some more videos and photos from the iPhone 3G S launch at the Raleigh Apple Store in Crabtree Valley Mall.

Apple Store opening for iPhone 3Gs

Test video uploaded from iPhone 3G S to youtube.

The line waiting to enter Apple Store for iPhone 3G S

The Apple Store iPhone 3G S activation station area:

For a hands on review of the iPhone 3G S, see today’s episode of Talk Social News recorded from the Apple Store today here -> Hands on iPhone 3G S review & more AT&T upgrade fail news – episode 060

Did you stand in line for the iPhone 3G S or are you going to wait?

Is this your first iPhone if you purchased an iPhone 3G S today?

Update:
I went to meet some friends in line a few hours later at the Apple Store. The line is still long and it’s a slow process to get everyone into the store because Apple won’t let you leave without the phone being activated.

@ginnyskal & @mammalpants in waiting line

@Kitch with his new iPhone 3G S

Posted on March 31, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

5 twitter apps from the Triangle: @idek, @tweetgrid, @easytweets, GeoTweeter & just launched @getencouraged

Once again, I’m devoting a blog post to twitter on SocialWayne.com. The next post will be about some social media tools, I promise. Nevertheless, if you didn’t know, I reside in Raleigh, N.C., and we call the area the Triangle, which includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas such as Cary, Carrboro, Apex, etc. We’re also known as the Research Triangle Park, aka RTP, which is home to companies like Cisco, IBM and Sony Ericsson. As for startups in the area we have iContact, ruzuku, Carrboro Creative Coworking, Bronto, Unblab to name a few and recently some Twitter web based apps have been created right here in the Triangle. Here are five that I know of.

1. idek.net @idek

idek.net is a url shortener, you have a long url, we have some short ones to spare. Sounds like a fair trade.
Created by: Adam Covati (@covati)
Location: Durham, NC

2. tweetgrid.com

Tweetgrid, creates a real time twitter search dashboard. Tweetgrid recently launched an iPhone version of their website:

Just go to http://tweetgrid.com/iphone/ on your iPhone.
Created by: Jazzy Chad @jazzychad
Location: Raleigh, NC

3. EasyTweets

EasyTweets is an online marketing tool to promote and grow your business by leveraging the power of microblogging.
Created by: Alexander Barbara @ayb
Location: Triangle, NC

Just launched is:
4. Get Encouraged</a>: @getencouraged

Send your encouraging quotes and thoughts to us and we’ll retweet them. Follow us and get a stream of encouragement all day long.

Created by: Rick Cecil & Abe Crystal of More Better Labs
Location: Research Triangle Park, NC

UPDATE: Let’s make that 5 twitter apps,

5. GeoTweeter for iPhone [iTunes link]

This cool iPhone app puts the ‘where’ into your tweets! Messages automatically include a ‘schmap.me’ link, showing followers your exact location with a configurable map icon: say more about places you visit with an optional photo and star rating.

Created by:Donald McMillan @donaldmcmillan of Schmap
Location: Carrboro, NC

As you can tell I’m proud of NC and the teams behind each site and speaking of startups this weekend in Raleigh, NC we’re having Triangle Startup Weekend. If you’re in the area come by and let’s launch another startup.

Do you know someone who created a twitter app? If so what state or city do they reside in?

Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Email marketing booming in the recession, Bronto's CEO talks startups, marketing but thinking twitter with Tweetica

Yesterday Bronto, an email marketing service provider based in Durham, NC held an open house to invite the community to view their new office space. I got word about the open house event via twitter from a few of their coworkers (@Covati @djwaldow ) and decided to attend. Immediately when you walk in to the new Bronto, you’ll notice a huge dinosaur which is their logo/mascot and bright painted walls.

The space is awesome & I’m hoping to host a few meetups in the future there too. The event started at 5:00 p.m. and at 6:00 p.m. Bronto’s CEO Joe Colopy (@colopy on twitter) gave a brief presentation on the history of Bronto in which he talked about how he co-founded the company out of his house in 2002, the various office spaces and the how Bronto recently won the best customer service department award.

After Joe’s presentation I had a chance to ask him 3 questions:

1. Why does he think email marketing is so important, durning a time while companies are cutting marketing budgets.
2. What is his #1 reason why someone should use Bronto.
3. What advice would he give people looking to launch a start today.

Here’s the interview:

After the interview, Joe showed me a demo of his new twitter analytics and automation site called Tweetica. I was surprised that he was working on it but excited to see that a CEO with kids and a growing company has time to work on a new twitter app but I guess that what has made him so successful; always thinking ahead. Joe is thinking about the future of mobile and micro-messaging and how sites like twitter along with facebook status updates reminds him of email in it’s early stages and is looking to embrace those technologies with Bronto. Of course you can track the status of Tweetica on twitter as @Tweetica.

• Are you working on a startup during the recession?
• Does twitter remind you of the early stages of email?
• Are you using email marketing more or less now and if so what company are you using?