Food is near and dear to my heart. I’ve been through times and situations where I wasn’t allowed to eat solid food for six weeks and times when I was on a liquid diet for months. But I’ve also been feted at the most luxurious restaurants on earth and have dined on food that still makes me sigh orgasmically.

With that preface in mind, the meal I had last week in Las Vegas was top-notch and as memorable as any other on record. Here’s the situation…

I was in Las Vegas on business and my friend Kevin Palmer sent me a message. It implied that Kevin had set me up with either the folks at Caesar’s or Aria Hotel and they were going to take care of me. Being a skeptical human, I wasn’t sure whether I should believe Kevin and thought nothing of his note until I got a Twitter update from @arialv.

It said that Aria would like to speak with me privately about having a meal at one of the signature, on-site restaurants….Jean Georges Steakhouse.

Aria and I traded a few emails and it was decided. I would dine at Jean Georges with a friend and I would be the guest of Aria Hotel.

WHAT?! That’s right. As guest of the hotel I could order anything I wanted and my only obligation was to enjoy myself. Well, I did that all right.

With Kristina and Reggie and Taron waiting on us (I took my friend Derek Wilmot to dinner as an objective observer), we experienced all five, six or seven stars Jean Georges had to offer. We started with wine.

Beginning with wine at the table (see photos above of handwritten note from Reggie for what we had), we chose the tasting menu and set ourselves up for a treat. Here’s that menu…

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aria hotel, CES, food, Jeff Cutler, Las Vegas, nomx3, review

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

1 – Jet Blue has allowed me to deride them for their policy of asking everyone on board to shut their electronics off completely. I’m still waiting for them to provide me with an official quote on why this happens. But it seems that it’s in the name of safety. Seriously. Think of your mother driving the car to summer camp and threatening to come into the back seat to stop you kids from fighting or fooling around. That’s the theory – as I understand it – behind airlines’ urge to have all distractions put away during take-off and landing. Makes sense. Would make more sense if the airlines had enough forethought to explain this to their passengers.

2 – Aria Hotel in Las Vegas made me fat and happy. During the Consumer Electronics Show last week, Aria took it upon themselves – with a little prodding from my friend Kevin Palmer – to invite me to a world-class dinner at Jean Georges Steakhouse onsite. The evening was divine in both the way we were treated and the food that was served. Thinking as a food critic, I can count on one hand the number of meals I’ve had that were even close to the quality, presentation and taste of the items served that night.

From a social-media standpoint, what a great way to get a true foodie (me) to notice your product. From a pure customer-service standpoint, they delivered better than most places I’ve eaten in the past year. Here are some of the shots I took that night…

…and I’ll put a full review up on WithJeff and JeffsNotes.

3 – Ford Motor Company – via Scott Monty – was kind enough yesterday to clarify their decision-making process in their Ford Focus Rally reality TV program. When the project was first announced, a number of folks got phone calls to let them know they had been automatically placed on the fast track for auditions. I was one of those people.

So imagine my surprise when after I performed multiple sessions with different partners (auditions, not the other thing) I heard nothing about the selection of teams. Silence. While it was likely incumbent upon me to keep an eye on the process, there were folks who received phone calls and notes letting them know they hadn’t made it. My phone didn’t ring and my email box remained unvisited.

This isn’t a failure of Ford or Monty or even the production company. But it’s a situation where expectations could have been managed better – especially if there was extra effort on the front end to create buzz and then nothing in the way of closure once the teams had been chosen and my usefulness as a mouthpiece for the promotion was complete. Simply put, I would have liked a note letting me know I didn’t make the cut, instead of having to find out by looking at the list on the figurative locker-room wall that is Facebook.

What have you run into lately that’s made you take notice of how companies and people are engaging? Share your stories here or write your own post and link back.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aria, CES, food, Ford, Las Vegas

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It might be of high enough quality to pass muster at any one of a number of broadcast networks. It might even make the front page of a daily newspaper. And it definitely can fly unabashed on the Web. But what do you get as a company, a content consumer, as a nation yearning to be informed, when you let the untrained tell you what’s happening around you?

That thought occurred to me anew this week as I found myself hip-deep in bloggers and citizen reporters who fancy themselves skilled enough to act as professional journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

While I jostled my way to get in front of representatives from a variety of international tech firms, these whipper snappers downed beverages from the open bar and gobbled food from the plentiful buffet tables. Then they plunked themselves down wherever they saw fit to create a blog post about their experience.

Isn’t that what I’m doing right now? Sure. So what’s wrong with that? I’ll let you know.

As a 21-year veteran of traditional journalism; and a pro within the electronic media field, I definitely have something to say on the issue of letting citizen reporters into your event. Here are my top two reasons for CEA and other professional trade show operators to tighten their credentialing process. Tell me if you feel differently.

1 – You drive down the quality of the media being shared

I’m not saying anything about resolution or writing quality – many amateur media makers are skilled in putting together sentences and operating high-end (and even low-end) equipment to capture images and audio. I’m saying you lose a professional aspect to the insight and analysis a professional journalist brings to the table.

I realize that Sharper Image is a licensed name on a bunch of products created in Asia and I can bring that knowledge to my report on the state of the industry in the United States. But the average joe blogger won’t have that information or have the skills/experience necessary to dig a little deeper so he can share this with the general public.

2 – You lessen the value of the show for exhibitors

In my mind, CES is starting to come back after a few horrendous years. The bottom line might say different, but last year and the year before, the show floor was slow and uninspiring for someone who has covered the industry for decades. But you still had hordes of media people buzzing around the booths with their hands out for samples, eager to put up a Qik video or take some shots for sharing on Flikr.

Were I an exhibitor, I could not say no to any exposure. Who’s to say right now that a random blog post with a photo of my product won’t drive sales? But the reality is that business is a game of plusses and minuses. If you give away all your samples to folks who are happy to score a free phone charger, a set of speakers, a waterproof video camera or some other $50-200 item, how many will you have left to share with folks who are going to really deliver your product to readers?

To a certain degree, you need to have the product in your hand for a few weeks to do a fair evaluation of it. As exhibitors become more savvy – and I hope they do – I think they’ll be saving their money by not handing out product to anyone who doesn’t have a following and a substantial, qualified audience. It just makes financial sense…and you’re doing them a disservice if you allow unqualified reporters into the event in the numbers we’ve seen over the past four years.

So, take a look at how you’re doing the onsite press registration. Talk to exhibitors and see if they’re really happy with the quality of the coverage they’ve received relative to the expense they’ve incurred. Then tell me that everyone is a journalist.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CES, Citizen Reporter, journalism, Las Vegas, technology, tradeshow

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

But being prepared isn’t solely about making sure you have appointments and enough underwear for the week. It’s also about making sure your tech arsenal is complete. To that end, I am woefully short in the HD video department. And as my role as ‘All-Platform Journalist’ continues to evolve, that’s one area that’s in need of help.

In fact, one of the publications for whom I’m doing a lot of work at the show – Automotive Rhythms – needs a bunch of video content for their site. SO I reached out to the tech vendors on my list for an eval unit.

Panasonic agreed to send me a Lumix FZ100 for the week so I’d have something to shoot HD video with. It arrived yesterday and I’ve been doing an evaluation of it to make sure it’s going to work for me over four days of shooting and interviews.

“You’re getting a free camera?” YOU MIGHT PROCLAIM – ignoring the fact I just said “I’ve been doing an evaluation of it…”

No. It’s not mine.

It’s not free.

And it’s only as part of a product evaluation do I get to use equipment from a manufacturer.

You see, the line between shilling bloggers and credentialed journalists is pretty wide. In that chasm are little things like ethics and proper procedures and the rules that go along with eval units. Here’s a primer…

You don’t get to keep any products sent to you for evaluation (the Lumix will be sent back to Panasonic in two weeks)
Your evaluation of a product cannot be part of a larger agreement with the manufacturer (Panasonic is not paying me or providing any other consideration as part of my evaluation)
Your evaluation of a product must not be tainted by your hopes to get future product from that manufacturer (I am annoyed at some of the video functionality of this camera already, but that shouldn’t keep Panasonic from sending me another unit in the future…it should put them on the path to correcting the issue)

Bearing all that in mind, here’s a quick glimpse into what I think of the FZ100 – a longer review will follow over on The Gadget Reporter or in one of the mobile technology outlets I write for.

Lumix FZ100 – Mini Review

Fit, form, function – Works superbly. The design makes operation intuitive for anyone who’s picked up a camera in the last decade and the style fits nicely in my tiny hands.

Power – Not sure yet. Battery charged up completely overnight (it only arrived yesterday) and the shots I took with it were fast and the flash was perfectly bright.

Imaging – The photos I took under the P mode needed a little more light, but when I turned on the flash, everything was good. The video I shot today of the birdfeeder using the AVCHD mode was fantastic.* Here’s that video for you to enjoy. DO NOT TURN UP THE SOUND. The hissing you’ll hear is the steam heat inside the house. I didn’t narrate this at all, just wanted to see how the stereo microphones picked up ambient noise. They did a great job. Also, the watermark on the video is explained below.

*Which brings me to this…the AVCHD is a pain in my butt. Why in the world is there a different video codec for everything? I had to search the Internet to find a video converter for the file type that the FZ100 shot. And this ‘free’ video converter placed a watermark on the video – really a nice touch that I’m sure my publications will enjoy on the finished video I provide them from CES.

To be fair, the FZ100 only retails for $375, so it’s not a $1400 Canon 60D with 1080 video, but it has bells and whistles. I just wish Panasonic would have paid attention – even at this level camera – to users who just want to be able to drag and drop video files onto their laptops.

In this case, I had to find a converter (with a painful watermark) to even get the video to show up on my desktop. Yes, I have iMovie on my Mac and the camera comes with software for a PC. But can’t we all just get along.

At first blush – I would not buy this camera for my needs. I want something that allows me to shoot full video and great photos and then process it all in seconds. Jumping through the hoops of converting video just to make it useable isn’t in my list of desires.

To be fair, I’m AMAZED at the burst mode for stills (60 shots in one burst!!!) and the quality video that it shot. And this is only a ‘first-blush’ look at the camera. It’s been with me for less than a day. So I might find much more to love about this camera over the holidays and it might still make it into my bag for CES.

Otherwise I could be using video from my iPhone (HD) for some of the shots at the technology show. The benefit there being I can upload them instantly and then put the camera in my pocket and be on my way.

What’s your favorite current camera for video and stills? Have you ever been to CES? And what do you think about the line between bloggers who write without regard for ethics and journalists who remain bound by their training and values?

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CES, converter, ethics, evaluation, Las Vegas, lumix, pain point, panasonic, review, technology, travel, video

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

1. I subscribe to one third of the amount of paper magazines than I did two years ago.

2. Twitter should be a social media service that people use to communicate back, forth and with retweets, rather than just for broadcasting a personal or brand message.

3. YouTube videos illicit either a positive response or a very negative one from people and brands.

If you’d like to provide your answers for this project, send them to me at jeff (at) jeffcutler [dot] com. I’ll put them in the queue and they’ll appear in the order received. *Also include your Twitter handle and one link you’d like included in the post.

Thanks!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 24k, Boston, chris rauschnot, Jeff Cutler, Las Vegas, meme, pc and mac, three answers, youtube

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh