Day 3
It’s Sunday and today was what should turn out to be, my earliest day for having to arrive down at the convention center. I’m glad to report though, that the first panel was well worth my effort of springing forward and getting down there early.

Social Heritage in Online Communities
The first panel I attended was put on by Dr. Sanjay Guptta and his brother who have started a social site called, The Kahani Movement, a very interesting take on how online social media can be used to preserve family heritage, while at the same time providing a wealth of media content for the Gupta brothers to take and edit into some powerfully moving videos where they can be shared with the world.

The entire concept of the site is driven around one central theme, that of family’s whom immigrated from India to the United States in the 1970′s. The stories are captured via casually shot videos, where family members interview other family members, then upload the footage to the social site where it can be viewed and commented on by other members.

It demonstrated a very powerful vehicle that if all family’s took advantage of this, forty or fifty years from now, genealogical data could all be derived from a family’s online social profile. It would probably even be a great idea if a family started a ning community based on their surname and started collaborating on historical as well as future family lineage. Uploading family member interviews, pictures as well as stories, an interactive family tree where your long-lost cousin twice removed and yourself could have a place to discuss anything you like, at any given time. Pretty cool concept!

Self Promotion?
Now I’d like to move ahead to what was possibly the best trade show talk I’ve ever been to. Given by Peter Shankman, aka @skydiver for everyone on Twitter, he delivered a very casual and insightful dialog , based on his life experiences, that demonstrated his attitudes and philosophies of self promotion. The talk was titled “Why Self Promotion Will Save the World”.

I found his take on the art of self promotion, without ever actually promoting yourself, refreshing and inspirational. It all boils down to being a good person and trying to help provide others with the things they are wanting or needing in business and in life, in turn you create for yourself the reputation of being the kind of person that can help out with most anything. This positivity breeds more positivity. Once you’ve created for yourself this “go to guy” reputation, all of a sudden people want to know more about you and what it is that you love to do. In turn they want to promote you and promoting yourself is no longer even something you need to do. Others will do it for you and this type of referencing is way more effective than when you toot your own horn, so to speak.

If you can manage to just be yourself, even if you have something you are trying to sell, just by being a nice person and by helping others with the things they need as much as you can, it is in that process that you sell yourself and the things that you are passionate about. Not by blatantly posting “Buy my new record, I’m awesome”. lol I’m a bit guilty of this myself at times so, to anyone I’ve offended by turning your social site into my own blatant advertising billboard, my apologies. Live and learn.

It’s all about creating win-win scenarios where everybody can get what they need. Once we’ve found that balance, well, I can only imagine that this balanced world will create just that in our lives; balance and harmony. By the end of his talk, Peter’s words had rallied the room to a standing ovation and supercharged some seriously positive energy that flowed back out onto the conference floor as the room emptied. Kudos and many thanks Peter!

Green Concepts
Speaking of positive energy, I saw this on one of my strolls outdoors today. It’s a solar-powered outlet on the street in the design of an old gas pump, for the sole purpose of charging your cell phone, laptop or electric bike. Talk about going green! Sol Design Lab has some very hip things going on, check them out! Austin is leading the way with movements such as this, I hope it catches on!

Till tomorrow! – John