The event was incredibly uplifting and incredibly successful! Only a couple of weeks before the event, registration was at 600 people; however, within the two weeks leading up to the event, registration rose significantly and the event was sold-out! 1000 people were in attendance and the room was packed with friends, family, honored guests and supporters, and local dignitaries.

The night began with a silent auction featuring goods and services, donated by the people of Reno, as well as from people from all over. The items for auction ranged from lower priced items such as wine baskets, hand-made jewelry, and manicures (most of which I was bidding on) to high priced items like Hawaii vacations, autographed Brett Favre jerseys, and rounds of golf at Spanish Bay. Our CEO Alan and his wife Sharon took home with a number of things, including a chocolate covered coffee bean machine that is now here in the Sparkpr office, and our own Martina took home a beautiful KitchenAid Mixer.

After the silent auction we sat down for dinner and the live auction, which featured Mexican Riveria vacations, his and her mink coats, and a real golden retriever puppy (which I really, really wanted, but knew my landlord wouldn't have appreciated). Following the live auction, a moving, heart-wrenching video segment about NP-C, was shown, which featured children around the world that are battling or have lost their struggle against the disease. The Good Morning America piece featuring the Hempels was also shown, and after I dried my own eyes, I noticed many people around me reaching for their tissues. The evening was finished up with the fantastic and uplifting music of Melinda Doolittle and the humor, laughs, and song from ventriloquist, Jeff Fedor.

Chris and Hugh Hempel are two of the strongest, most courageous people I have met. They were awe-inspiring, and I can only hope to someday be the parents that they are. Chris and Hugh were glowing all evening and seemed extremely pleased and proud with the turn out of the event and the money raised. It is clear that Chris and Hugh's efforts with Make-A-Wish are making a deep and positive impact on thousands of people worldwide.

Please keep Addi, Cassi, Chris and Hugh in your thoughts, and help the family reach their goal of 1 million wishes here: http://addiandcassi.com/guestbook

- Jacqueline

We wish Donna Sokolsky Burke the best in her married life and hope she arrives back from her long honeymoon in South Africa and the Hamptons ready to start billing again!

- Candace

Here’s a repost and link:
http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahlacy/2008/05/what-about-semi.html

May 09, 2008

What about Semi-Spam?

Ok, Ok, Owen Thomas will likely read this and think I'm being bitter or haughty or nasty again or whatever. (Qualities ValleyWag knows nothing about of course!) But amid the discussion about Facebook and Twitter needing spam control, how are we defining spam? Because a lot of business folks (especially Valley ones) borderline-abuse these services for business gains. Ultimately, I guess it's in the eye of the follower. I like when bloggers I follow Twitter-tease new entries because I don't have all day to go between blogs. But I can't help but feeling "spammy" when I do it.

And, like, I know there's a "Jason Nation" and all that's apparently such a force it needs a logo. So clearly those people like endless Calacanis "COMMENT ON THIS PHOTO OF MY BULLDOGS NOW" missives. But does everyone?

Then, there are PR people, many of whom feel it's not their pitches and relentlessness that's the problem but the medium. So they take the same messaging-- chock full of words like "leading provider" and "world class"-- and flit from email to IM to Facebook to Facebook chat to Twitter etc. I was doing an interview for a podcast aimed at PR folks a while back and they asked how PR people should use Facebook, Twitter, et all to pitch me. And I said, they shouldn't. The single best way to pitch me is still email. The moderator, I guess thinking I didn't understand the question, said, "Well, but you probably check Twitter or Facebook more right?" First off, I don't. But if I did, do you think that means I want endless pitches for you lame client cluttering up what's supposed to be a spot to communicate with my friends and loved ones?

As I put it then, the problem when I don't respond to an email pitch isn't that I didn't read it, it's that I wasn't interested. Spamming me in every media isn't going to make your pitch better. PR people would do better to follow the model of the best firms in the industry, in my mind Brew, Outcast and Spark, and build relationships with reporters, find out what they want to cover, and, oh, I don't know maybe what cities they live in and what their first names are.

I interviewed Tony Hsieh from Zappos (ZAPPOS!) the other day for Tech Ticker (Footage next week I think. Start getting excited now, Zappos nation!) Zappos seems to be the best company at wisely leveraging Twitter as this surprise Twitter party they threw at Medjool shows. (The ink is *almost* off my hands two days later, Tony....why permanent marker?) At any rate, I asked Tony about his secrets and he said something similar: That it wasn't about Twitter, it was about a certain mindset towards your customers. If you don't have that no social media is going to magically make you a marketing wizard.

It was so similar to what I told the PR folks that it made me think this is increasingly going to be a problem across all businesses as everyone tries to figure out how to "LEVERAGE" social media for marketing purposes-- and likely doesn't spend enough time looking at the holes in their current strategy.

It's not outright spam, but it feels the same. And because it's so gray, this could be a far bigger problem for the industry.

Most Sober and Smelliest Food - Zoom Prospector

Smart idea, great timing, and great bubbly at the bar, but did you have to have shrimp AND salmon at the party? It smelled like lunchtime at Seaworld in there, and everyone was way too dressed up for a Web 2.0 party. The preso was interesting too, but I felt corralled into watching it by their sales team. I had to leave early because I wasn’t digging the sheer corporateness of it all, but that may have had something to do with the fact that Gavin Newsom was supposed to show up but didn’t (oh snap!). Kudos for starting an hour before anyone else and for having good champers at the bar.

Most unpleasant bouncers - Yahoo! Brickhouse

I was really bummed that security was so tight here, but did they have to be so snooty about it? I mean really, it’s not like I was trying to get into Bungalow 8 here. After getting rebuffed by the blonde hair, pointy shoed PR lady “Umm… Conference passes only… thanks.” I was referred to the security guard who couldn’t even focus for a second. I literally had to explain to him four times that I RSVP’d on the Upcoming.org list before he was actually able to check the list — only to see that I wasn’t on it.

Best Low Key Party — LeverageSoftware

After getting rebuffed by the Yahoo! people I picked up my ego, brushed it off, and waltzed right into the one of the cooler parties of the night. I had no idea what LeverageSoftware did but apparently nobody cared if I did or didn’t! In fact, I wasn’t even subjected once to a pitch or presentation of any kind. Beer and Redbull sat in tubs of ice and huge bottles of Absolut and Makers Mark were available for a do-it-yourself cocktails bar. Food was everywhere I turned and there were even free tshirts (I love a good tradeshow T). Music was good, and when I left people were playing a Guitar Hero Three duet!

Nicest bouncers — Federated Media & Wired Magazine

I wasn’t able to get into either party but at least my attempt to enter was met with a polite excuse and embarrassed smile: “Sorry, but right now we’re so full we’re only letting conference attendees with blue passes in. Sorry!”

Best Networking - VCTini

For a networking party, the Andrea Schwartz Gallery can’t be beat. It was spacious, well lit and although crowded at times, not overwhelmingly so. There were servers walking through the crowd offering tasteful, bite-sized appetizers (which makes a huge difference in the atmosphere, I think), and the apple martinis were free flowing, albeit a tad sweet for my tastes. Network connected iMacs were stationed around the party for informal and impromptu demonstrations. I met the most people here, including a high school friend of mine who was pitching his startup, Orange Door, Inc., a SAS tax software company aimed at disrupting Intuit’s Turbo Tax.

Best Ride — Schwaggin’ Waggon!

Pete Cashmore is a branding genius. When I left Web 2.0 earlier in the afternoon I saw his sponsored Schwaggin’ Waggon cronies collecting all the Web 2.0 Schwag to donate to charities. Great idea, right, but honestly what are orphans going to do with conference mints? Anyway, I digress. I called out to Pete as he was leaving the conference, “Hey Pete, where’s the party at tonight?” and he gave me his card saying, “It’s at Mighty. RSVP only but give me a text when you arrive and I’ll let you in”

Then later that night, as I was leaving the VCTini party wondering where the heck I’d go to catch a cab, I spied the Schwaggin’ Waggon across the street. It was actually the glowing lanterns and Christmas lights in the cabin that first got my attention, but as soon as I realized what it was I nearly cried with joy as I knew it had to be going where I was — to the Mashable party. I quickly climbed in to find that it was PACKED with drunken conference party people, but nobody cared because it was a party van! The entire ride there, everyone was taking pictures with their mobile phones and talking loudly over the blaring music. It was such a smart idea to collect all the drunken South Park people and steal them away in a fun, albeit crowded party van. Brilliant.

Best Party and Most Drunk — Mashable/Chimp Party @ Mighty

So last party of the night for me, and what a scene! We all spilled out of the Schwagvan, and into the club. There was virtually no security by the time I arrived (they checked my ID but not my conference pass) and the music was bumping. Everyone was there, and everyone was drunk from all the parties they had attended earlier in the night. I met some MBA students who exchanged name tags with me, and even managed to meet a new twitter friend. The music was good and lots of people were dancing on the huge dance floor. This party was my favorite because everyone was truly there just to party. It was too dark and too loud to network anyway! Pete even hired a photographer to take photos of him and his buds, and I managed to snap one with him on the way out (care to share, Pete?).

Overall, I had a blast, met a ton of new contacts and highly recommend going to the Web 2.0 conference parties in the future.

Best,
Jeff

Note: Jeff is available to review YOUR tech party, too! Email him an invitation at Jeff [at] sparkpr [dot] com.

Having been in London for almost a year, I’ve met with a huge number of companies, entrepreneurs, investors, and others in the tech scene here. It seems that the most serious startups know that they can build a big business in Europe (with Skype, MySQL and Last.fm as great examples), but that they also can’t ignore Silicon Valley as an important and influential part of the tech world. To do so just to prove a point would be foolish. When you encourage open communication, instead of criticizing it, you get a very positive exchange of ideas, which benefits people on both sides of the ocean. At the end of the day, London is not Silicon Valley and it never will be. Nor should it try to be. The European tech world has its own unique advantages and should focus on playing up those, rather than worry about whether it looks like they’re too in love with the Valley. Sarah Lacy’s been writing about this topic a lot lately. She has a good post on her blog, and a great column on BusinessWeek.com.

At the end of the day, people have to decide for themselves what makes the most sense for the success of their business. For some, that may be a trip to the Valley. For others, it may mean spending those hours on a recruiting trip through Europe. Knowing many of the CEOs involved in Web Mission, I think they are smart and savvy enough to figure out what’s best for their companies. And they’re too busy focusing on customers, sales, employees, and products to care about what their actions may or may not signify to an outside observer.

-Rachel

WEbook and Spark had a strong opening day, with favorable stories in over a dozen outlets, including BusinessWeek, Publishers Weekly and even Web Worker Daily; who says they’re excited to join and start writing.

The Washington Post had only great things to say about the start-up and even Dan Lyons at Forbes has an eye on the site, saying that WEbook “offers a glimpse at how the Internet could change not only the way books are distributed but also the way they are written.”

So dust off that old novel of yours, or get out there and start a new one, WEbook looks to be the next big thing!

-Katie

Here are some of the most endearing and embarrassing of the Newbie PR mistakes, crimes we’ve all committed and hope to never repeat, but still love to talk about.

1. Sending emails with no subject lines
2. Accidentally forwarding an email to client (regarding client)
3. CC’ing instead of BCC’ing - particularly horrifying if a senior manager or CEO is involved
4. Dropping reporters on media calls due to confusing conference option on telephone
5. Recalling email messages (that trick never works)
6. Cut & pasted pitches (what!) with the wrong reporter info
7. Ignorance to the nuances of Salesforce vs. Bacon’s
8. Pitching publishers or ad sales people instead of journalists
9. Getting too drunk at CES in Vegas (one of the most common newbie and seasoned professional errors, turns out)
10. Misuse of the “reply all" function
11. Misuse of “highly scalable” PR jargon
12. Writing pubic relations instead of public relations
13. Wearing high heels to the Las Vegas Convention Center

-Pam, Sheila, Jacqueline and Syreeta

Please be sure to do your due diligence by checking back here over the next few days for new posts, and don’t hesitate to ping us in the comments section. We’ll do our best to leverage your ideas for top tier coverage.

Stuff PR People Like, Entry #1 — Business Jargon

This list includes — but of course is not limited to — the following terms:

Circle back: [sur-kuhl bak]
I like where your head is at, but let’s circle back to that point later…

Touch base (TB): [tuhch beys]
You need to build a media list? Let's touch base on that this afternoon.

Ping: [ping]
Listen, can you ping me later about this? My client is in crisis mode.

Drill down: [drill]
We really need to drill down to the key issue here folks. Is this interesting enough to write a whitepaper on or not?

Due diligence: [doo dil-i-juhns]
I know our client doesn't have that kind of money! But I had to do my due diligence and ask just in case!

Top tier: [top teer]
(common PR interview question) What is the most notable top-tier coverage you've secured for your clients in the past?

Leverage: [lev-er-ij]
Let’s think of a way to leverage the fact that our client has never spent the night in the clink

Penny publications: [pen-ee pŭb'lĭ-kā'shən]
Oh that other agency? They get a lot of coverage, sure. In penny publications.

Slammed: [slam]
I tried calling Kevin Marshall, but he was so slammed he slammed the phone down on me.

Value add: [val-yoo ad]
Hey nice work Schmitty! Nice value add on that one!

-Sheila and Pam

Just this Saturday, I had the wonderful experience of meeting my personal idol and comedienne, Margaret Cho backstage in her green room after her show at the Warfield. A friend of mine, Josh, is a writer for gay.com and has been interviewing celebrities for the popular online portal. Margaret Cho and Liam Sullivan (of Kelly Shoes YouTube phenomenon) were his last two interviews, which is how I got the back stage pass to meet both.

Backstage…

I was so nervous I actually asked one of the backstage staff members, “Is this where I go to meet Margaret?” which Josh chided me for, “Jeff, you can’t seem so eager.” Fortunately, I had professional celebrity interviewer, Josh to rely on. He somehow identified the tour manager in a crowd of twenty fans and staff, chatted him up and within moments we were whisked back to Margaret’s green room.

I told her that I was a huge fan, that she was an inspiration for me, and that we had many similar experiences (she went to my high school and grew up in the same town that I did). She complimented me on my glittery tshirt and I asked her to sign my book. I told her that I had actually met her before years back during a book signing on Halloween and she remembered it (or at least politely pretended to).

I asked for a photo and then pretty much everything else was a blur. I think at one point I grabbed her hand and asked her to excuse me because I was so nervous which she thought was charming I’m sure. Josh was a lot more professional and managed to get Margaret’s personal assistant to get his name on some email list for LA engagements. We both took photos.

Why I love Margaret

I know that most people don’t really understand Margaret, so I’ll take this time to explain why I love her. Beyond being hilarious, Margaret, more than any other comedian I’ve ever seen or heard, has a political point of view that stems from her unique background of being an Asian American queer woman, and uses her popularity as a platform for social issues.

Margaret is a champion for gay civil rights, women’s right to choose, and is the voice for smaller communities that don’t have as large of a reach as she does. She also speaks up regularly against body idealism that gay men and women face, and continues to challenge racial discrimination and stereotypes. She brought the first Asian American family to the small screen and will bring the second Asian American family to the small screen again this summer (“The Cho Show” VH1). She also talks openly about her own body issues, her challenge with weight loss, the obstacles she faces as an Asian American woman in media, and techniques to achieve personal happiness. She’s also a sassy diva and makes really inappropriate jokes on stage.

- Jeff

President of the club Jean Baptiste of L’Expansion rallied members to hear MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and other top executives discuss international strategy over dinner. The table I sat at discussed everything from underground Japanese music (check out Phil Keys blog Challenging Sushi) to the future of the mobile industry to MySpace’s developer platform.

Towards the end of the night everyone mingled amongst tables in order to speak to new people.

Tom Foremski wrote a post about the dinner too, check it out here.

-Amy

This year, the 300 finalists were chosen by the CNET editors from more than 4,600 Web 2.0 services — up from about 2,000 nominees in 2007. The editors did the dirty work culling through the thousands of sites, and now it’s our turn to decide which services are the Webware 100 winners. User voting begins today a noon on the Webware site and runs until March 31. The winners of the Webware 100 - the top 10 products in the 10 categories - will be announced on April 21.

A very cool addition to the voting process this year - users are now able to cast up to three votes in each category to encourage users to vote not just for obvious front-runners in each category, but for less-trafficked sites as well.

So get out there and exercise your right to vote! You can vote for your favorite company on the Webware site, or click on the links below to vote for the following companies:

Blinkx

Farecast

Jaman

Last.fm

LiveJournal

Technorati

Thanks!
Jacqueline

Over cocktails, the Microsoft-Yahoo news was definitely a buzz, with the general and obvious consensus being that the deal will go through. Ciena recently acquired Azure portfolio company WorldWidePackets so there were many congratulations and discussions regarding the investment and the space.

I also caught Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher, (rather he caught me!) with his new Flip camera from the recent MySpace Developers Party. Great branding on MySpace’s part as he kept referring to it as his “MySpace camera!”

Although the table ended up being rectangular, not round, there was great dialogue between everyone present, and opinions for what’ll happen in technology and investing in 2008 were freely flowing. Everyone livened at the chance to project their tech winners for the upcoming year.

I chatted with Janet Rae-Dupree about LiveScribe’s launch at DEMO. She raved about the intelligent writing system which includes an innovative smartpen and dot paper bringing traditional paper to life. With audio recording and translating available, the paper-based platform aims to change the way people capture, use and share information. I might plan a trip to Paris just so I can use the translate function.

Some other great snippits that I caught were Mike Kwatinetz chatting about the evolution of standard e-commerce models, with a shift in focus from CPM “clicks per 1000 visitors” to RPM “revenues per 1000 visitors” using examples like Education.com (which recently launched a new School Finder service at DEMO), EzRez, Rooftop Comedy.

In the open source world, often seen as less sexy than the web, I overheard Cameron Lester was engaged in a great discussion about the open source community. He’s observed a great divide between the open source idealists and those aiming toward monetization.

Every now and then the economic forecast for 2008 came up, but was outshined — with cautious optimism — by the fact that technology is still on the rise and will become a strong focus in the US and global marketplaces. What an exciting time to be a part of the hustle and bustle that is Silicon Valley!

-Jacqueline

Education.com launched its new School Finder feature, a next generation tool that helps parents explore, compare, and evaluate over 100,000 public, private, and charter schools nationwide, and took home a coveted DEMO God award. The launch of School Finder was covered in the San Jose Mercury News, Webware, PC Magazine and more. The Wall Street Journal’s, Walt Mossberg was overheard saying, “There is nothing more important that what you all are doing!”

Skyfire launched its company and product, a mobile browser for smartphones, which captivated attendees with its speed and PC-like browsing. Skyfire’s launch was covered in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and more. PC World’s Harry McCracken said Skyfire “was spectacular--I felt like weeping with joy when I saw how good PCWorld.com looked on it, and how quickly it loaded.”

But we weren’t only captivated by our own clients. 77 companies presented and though there were certainly a few duds, there were a number of exciting new companies and products that we’ll be watching closely. Despite its undesirable second day afternoon time slot, SiloBreaker, won us over during the search category. The slick site provides a slough of features for the news junkie with a thirst for analytics. Check out the Network feature, it’s brilliant.
It has been a while since we could say we’ve been excited about a pen and paper, but two companies -- Leapfrog and LiveScribe -- have radically different applications for the same base technology. Leapfrog has a new line of books that use a pen interface to help kids learn to read, while LiveScribe has an audio recording pen that aims to help us adults remember what the heck happened in meetings. This is over simplified, but written words on LiveScribe’s proprietary paper act as tags for audio recorded by the pen. Tap he written word and the pen plays back the corresponding audio.

For our clients, DEMO proved a great launch vehicle this year, but it’s not for everyone. Complex Web services and applications struggled to effectively (and interestingly) showcase their product in the brutal six minute format. That said, it’s a great exercise for any company to learn how to pitch their company or product in six minutes or less.

-Nick and Marni

So many of you have called, emailed and sent cards over the past seven weeks asking how you can help Addi and Cassi in their battle against Niemann Pick Type C disease. We wanted to let everyone know that we have set up a website and blog for Addi and Cassi which is located at http://www.addiandcassi.com.
Many of you have asked us how you can make monetary donations or what else you might be able to do to directly help our family. We have an entire webpage on the website as to how you can help. In addition, we have established a research fund called the Addi and Cassi Fund to accelerate near term therapies for the girls. This new fund is set up through the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation and will be 100% directed by our family. You will find all the information you need about the new fund on the website.

Christmas is just around the corner and we have a few big wishes this year. Our first wish is that the new Wishes Box we have set up on website fills up with messages from people all around the world. Please help us make our wish come true by spreading the word on NP-C and this lethal cholesterol disease. We are asking that everyone who receives this email forwards it on to their network of friends and family so we can spread the word worldwide. If anyone can help get the word out and drive awareness for NP-C, it's our wonderful network of friends and family!

Our second wish is that everyone who receives this email considers making a financial contribution to help children afflicted with this devastating "Childhood Alzheimer's". We hope you will take a few minutes to read the website and our blog posts, as many children are being denied medication by their insurance companies and can not afford the astronomical price of potential lifesaving drugs.

We are doing everything we can to utilize our relationships, skills and resources to move the ball forward for the entire NP-C community and to solve this cholesterol mystery once and for all. We are also challenging the medical system to do things entirely differently in the way of treatments for Addi and Cassi, which we believe will have an impact on how other rare diseases can be treated in the future.

Finally, we have set up a mailing list on Addi and Cassi's website and have taken the liberty of adding your name to this list. You will continue to get email from us periodically. If you prefer, you can remove your name from the list by using the links below. If you are not on the original email and this has been forwarded to you, you can sign up for the mailing list here.

We intend to keep AddiandCassi.com updated regularly with blog posts. We appreciate all your support to help us remain positive and get our message out to the world.

Peace To All During This Holiday Season,

Much love,

Hugh and Chris Hempel

What we learned:
- 2007 was the year of Facebook and social networking, the iPhone, and Google. With every turn this year, there was a new social network that required new log-in information, a new friend’s list, a new space in your favorite’s toolbar — however, we all did sign on to build that ever important online presence. We waited in line for the iPhone ooohing and ahhing at the fancy touch screen and ease of use. We marveled at the Google Empire and their stronghold on the online ad industry. So what’s next?

- In 2008, the panelists predicted that consumer technology companies would be hit by a recession and enterprise would become the new black. They predicted that the online advertising industry would take new forms, and that many companies claiming ad-based revenue business models would slowly fade away. Some of the panelists predicted that Yahoo! would be acquired, while others thought it would undergo some major transformations in an effort to survive. So what will really happen? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see...

And if you missed the PRSA event and wanted to attend — thanks to Kara Swisher, you still can. She captured it all on video and posted it to her blog.

- Jamie