One of the things I’ve learned in 21 years of freelancing, no matter how cool you think a photo or video is, it might just not pique the interest of the professionals who run the editorial desk at major news outlets. That’s why, after taking a bunch of shots today of Mitt Romney (presidential candidate) and Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots), I decided to just post them here on one of my sites.

If you’d like the original file, please contact me in the comments. I’m sure that nobody would be silly enough to just use one of these copyrighted photos without permission, attribution and payment.

Thanks!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: luxury box, mitt romney, Patriots, patriots day, photos for sale, president, red sox, robert kraft

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If we’ve met, one of my regular comments is that we all can bear to learn something new about our colleagues, friends, partners and even competitors. Further, I have said repeatedly that we often fall short of this goal. One big example in this argument is Mike Langford and his career as a financial specialist. For years, very few people in the social media fishbowl even realized that Mike had a background in financial services.

But that’s neither here nor there. Just provides an example that you can know someone and not really understand where they are coming from or from whence their skills have evolved. So, I took Mark Dykeman’s task to heart and put up ten of my own facts for people to enjoy. Here they are…

Essentially, ten fun little facts about my life that give people a little insight into who I am and what makes me tick. Once these were posted, I went forward with my recovery from surgery (I had an operation last Thursday), mourning the loss of my father (he’s been gone one year this weekend and it’s still very painful as anyone might imagine), and my celebration of Passover and Easter with my extended family.

There’s your Easter update from my little quarter of this planet. What have you been up to?

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If you’re in the gate area or on the 8:45am Jetblue flight to Austin, TX tomorrow – that’s flight 1263 at 8:45 from Boston – then I’ll be handing out some of the following schwag. Please tweet at me or leave a comment on this blog post if you’d like to put in dibs for an item.

*Folks I already know who are on this flight include CC Chapman, Steve Garfield, Clarence, Jenny Frazier and Jim Storer.

Here’s the run-down to the best of my memory. I packed the gear giveaway bag last night…

Headphones
Earbud accessories
Callpod charger
Staples Easy Button
Three-port extension cord
Dexim iPhone car charger
Fusegear phone stands
NautiCase for iPhone 4 (waterproof)
Keystone Marine Case for iPhone 4 (waterproof)
DryCase Tablet Bag (waterproof – fits an iPad)
LensPen cleaning kit with Sidekick cleaning pads
Multiple USB drives in 1GB – 4GB sizes
a brand-new duffle bag from CES 2011
and an umbrella I might keep for myself

So, who wants what? Tweet me or leave your comments here. See you tomorrow!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #sxsw, charger, gadgets, gear, giveaway, headphones, rain gear, waterproof

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But, as last year’s event drew to a close I made the decision that I should be where the tech and interactive minds are as much as possible. Especially because I’m looked to as an expert in this field and I enjoy me some networking with the Twitterati. So, here’s the 3rd-person sharing of my steps, in a calendarized build-up, for this year’s event along with a quick (first-person) “what I expect to get out of SXSWi 2012. Enjoy.

March 2011 – Jeff wails loudly that he should be in Austin. He smiles because he saved $2487, but he still misses spending time with fun tech and social media folks. He also misses the barbecue and beer that is prevalent in Austin during SXSW.

Late March 2011 – Jeff reserves a room in downtown Austin for 21 days from March 2 through March 23, 2012. He doesn’t know what dates SXSW will fall on in the coming year, so he decides to take chance out of the equation.

April 2011 – Jeff calls his hotel – reserved for 21 days – and whittles down his stay to a mere seven nights. He still enjoys the smart rate of $249 per night at a top-notch hotel, instead of the prevailing $400-700 per night that is more common when you reserve a room anytime after August for the following year.

May 2011 – Mike Langford moves to Texas. This ensures that Mike and Jeff won’t be sharing the same room at SXSW and will therefore not kill each other. *The prevailing belief here is that Mike would have killed Jeff for his snoring. It’s a win-win for everyone.

June – Sept. 2011 – Jeff waits for JetBlue to put their March flights on sale.

Sept. 2011 – March JetBlue flights go on sale and Jeff buys a seat next to Steve Garfield on NerdBird 1.

Oct. 2011 – Nothing happens other than multiple conferences, speaking gigs, teaching sessions and other real-life ingredients. But we’re discussing the fairy tale land of SXSW, so these things don’t count.

Nov. 2011 – Jeff contacts the SXSW offices and asks them if he can use the pass he got in 2011 but didn’t use, for admission to the 2012 festival. They say YES! Jeff is ecstatic – and in his joyous response offers up his liaison services to the conference committee (thinking they’ll say, “no, that’s OK, we don’t need you” and he’ll get a free badge). That DOESN’T happen. They say they could use Jeff’s help and he is pressed into service, rendering his ‘free’ badge really not free as he has to work for it again.

Dec. 2011 – Feb. 2012 – Jeff works like a dog as a panel liaison. He starts prepping his liver for SXSW. And he contacts people like Aaron Strout, Peter Kim and Chis Anderson to arrange to see and hug them while in Austin.

March 2012 – The festival approaches quickly. Jeff joins Derek Peplau and John Refford in getting strategy together for their assault on Austin. Jeff also joins folks on a Google Hangout to discuss different events throughout the week. Finally, Jeff rents a banjo so he can practice during his downtime at SXSWi.

Goals and Aspirations…

For this year’s SXSWi, I’m looking to do five things. Yes, this is more than the three things your high-school English teacher said you should start with when writing an essay. Deal with it. SXSWi is a big event and three would be too few when it comes to goals. Therefore, I plan to…

1 – …collect and create and share content. Lots of it. I’m bringing a DSLR that I expect to have with me all the time. I plan to share photos to my Flickr site, videos to my YouTube channel and assorted content to Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and maybe some of my blogs.

2 – …take in at least a few educational sessions and actually learn something about technology, the world around me and the people who are making things happen in the aforementioned world. This will likely require me to be at the Convention Center during the day, so that will also happen. Look for me there. I’ll be the one who looks like me and I’ll be wearing an Adam Cohen name badge.

3 – …enjoy some seriously good food. The BBQ, Mexican fare and other dishes in Austin are great. I expect that some of the people mentioned in this post will also join me for a meal or two. I will be sharing information about the food I eat via my Boston Food Fan blog and various social media sites.

4 – …film an episode of NomX3 with Mike Langford. The chemistry, the humor and the intelligence in this show is unrivaled and we’ve come up with a plan to continue the series. Join us in Austin for a live lunch taping of the critically acclaimed NomX3. To see any of our existing shows, visit NomX3.com where you’ll find 45 episodes of genius and good taste.

5 – …discover some new technologies, meet some new people, and do some things I’ve never tried before. I’d like to experience some bluegrass music. I’d like to run into Lance Armstrong. I’d enjoy talking about new tech gadgets with companies that are there to unveil their latest products and services. These things will be details here, over at The Gadget Reporter, or in video interviews that I’ll post to YouTube.

That’s about it in a nutshell. How do you plan to capitalize on your SXSWi visit? What, if anything, would you want me to search out and report on if you’re not going to be there?

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #sxsw, Austin, festival, food, mike langford, nomx3, technology, travel

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This shot taken by Derek Peplau at Nogup3 - a Boston Tweetup - you can find more of Derek's shots at http://www.flickr.com/photos/peplau

The title is self-explanatory. If you don’t know how to host a tweetup, this is the book for you. Just click on the link below and it will download for you. You will know how to host a tweetup and you’ll be the envy of all your friends and business colleagues. This is really Tweetups made easy, and the mystery of successful Tweetups will be solved.

I welcome your comments and ideas for future books. Enjoy!

How To Host A Tweetup

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book, Boston, boston tweetup, ebook, fun, how to host a tweetup, parties made easy, social media, tweetups made easy

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