With home base out here in Tysons Corner it is hard to get us downtown for any type of event but last night’s TECH cocktail DC 2 at MCCXXIII was worth the trek. In total, 6 SBXers were in attendance and saw some local technology start ups show off their stuff. Demos were being given by AwayFind, iGala, Odeo, Voxant, WhyGoSolo and last but certainly not least Loladex.
Along with seeing demos and supporting our client Loladex, this was a great night of networking since there were over 400 attendees. Below are some photos of us at the event.
Paul Duning with Frank Gruber, Somewhat Frank / TECH cocktail
Some of the SpeakerBox attendees:
Ali Smith, John Terrill, Grace Kim and Paul Duning
Taylor Bennett, Edleman, Shana Glickfield,
Amplify Public Affairs, and Ned Irons, August Jackson
Dan Goodman, Loladex and Lisa Throckmorton
Brendan Foley and Sam Blum of Razume
--Ali Smith
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Lisa at the 2007 SBX day mini golf tournament
Here at SBX we have recently announced some great news… Lisa Throckmorton, a 6-year SBX vet, has been promoted to executive vice president (EVP). Formerly a senior vice president, she will now focus even more on running the day-to-day of the business, overseeing client services and staffing and marketing the firm.
This promotion is well deserved – Along with leading the firm’s recent rebrand and our conversion from PC’s to Mac’s, Lisa is responsible for staff training and development, which included the launch of SpeakerBox University.
All of us here couldn’t be happier for Lisa. Our whole team works directly with her in some way, shape or form and we recognize the talented and savvy PR pro/business leader that she is. We are all looking forward to seeing her show off her skills in her new role as EVP.
As a tribute, here are the top 10 things we love about Lisa:
1. She takes the time to mentor colleagues and really cares about our professional development
2. She always knows the juiciest celebrity gossip
3. She gives sage advice on all things PR/tech
4. She throws a heck of a party, case-in-point the SBX 10 year anniversary blowout
5. She is on a never-ending hunt for candy
6. She understands how to motivate people and comes up with creative ideas and rewards
7. Her undying love of the Redskins/DC sports and Easy Mac
8. She never gets her compact car towed when she parks in reserved or oversized spaces all day
9. She always wants the best for SpeakerBox, our clients and staff
10. She is capable of wearing 4-inch heels all day long
- Ali Smith
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Loladex, a new client here at SpeakerBox, launched its public beta last week - and if you haven't already, you should check them out. Loladex is a local search engine that helps users tap their social network for recommendations. Search results are based on personal relevance, meaning that recommendations from your friends or trusted sources (sites like OpenTable.com and Washingtonian Magazine) are weighted to appear at the top of Loladex's results. Have a favorite restaurant, flower shop or dentist? Hate your mechanic or tailor? Let your friends know.
Here's a recap of some of the great coverage they've received so far:
o TechCrunch
o VentureBeat
o Washington Post (1 & 2)
o Washington Business Journal
o Social Times
o Somewhat Frank
o East Coast Blogging
o MetzMash
o Kelsey Group (1 & 2)
o Local Onliner
o Local SEO Guide
o Marketing Shift
o Screenwerk
o Digital Media Wire
o KillerStartups
We're excited to be part of the Loladex team and encourage you to keep up to date with founders Laurence Hooper and Dan Goodman via the company's blog or on Twitter. Add the Facebook application and start voting!
-Stephanie Stadler
TAGS: Loladex
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(Photo credit: FOSE)
This week, for the first time in my DC public relations career, I attended the granddaddy of government technology expositions: FOSE. I know that the show tends to get a bad rap in many contractor and vendor circles, but I went in with an open mind to see just how 1105 Government Information Group's much hyped spectacle works.
The first thing I found hard to ignore was the attendee swag poachers. I know that exhibitors come armed with branded swag for attendees to take, but I witnessed a significant percentage of attendees going from booth to booth, taking every piece of swag they could grab without stopping to look at any products, take some literature, have a conversation or even let the exhibitors scan their badges. Honestly, is that Cisco superball or Google yo-yo that big of a deal? I stood guard over my client’s box of t-shirts to prevent the whole lot from being snagged by overzealous attendees, and I can't imagine I was the only one acting the role of a security guard. Attendee swag grabbers are part of FOSE's reputation, but considering the investment exhibitors make to be there, I think it is a shame to see. Exhibitors attend conferences like FOSE to have meaningful conversations with potential buyers. While there are many of those people there, it is hard to navigate the sea of folks just out to collect free stuff. (Good to see that I'm not the only one to walk away with this observation.)
Now that I have that out of my system, I should emphasize that I was also very impressed by the technology on display. As I was there on behalf of SpeakerBox client ScienceLogic, most of my time was spent in their booth,helping to manage traffic and administer a survey (more on that on a later date...). But the technology surrounding us was fascinating, including a highly impressive document imaging solutions from Kirtas Technologies. They had a large, complicated-looking machine in front of their booth (obviously their product), which was cradling a book. The machine would carefully turn a page in the book, scan it, then turn to the next page and repeat. If I had more time, I probably would’ve spent the whole show watching the machine slowly digest its book. It’s shocking how far we have come since tabletop scanners.
One final issue that I think I have to address: exhibitors tend to say that FOSE is just for the spectacle, and that very few leads come out of it. My client ScienceLogic, however, has had a far different experience, with successful contracts almost always coming out of the show during the years they’ve attended. And judging by the number of leads they generated and meaningful conversations I saw taking place, this will prove to be another good year.
My final verdict? For the little guy, at least, FOSE is still a great show to attend. And for the POLITE attendee, it’s a great place to catch a sneak peek of the latest, greatest and the next big thing in government technology.
- John Terrill
TAGS: FOSE, ScienceLogic
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(Photo Credit: AllPosters.com)
Greetings from Seattle! This week, I accompanied our client TerraGo Technologies to Seattle for GITA's (Geospatial Information & Technology Association) Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference to support the launch of its Map2PDF Professional for Acrobat product. An ideal GIS mapping solution for emergency responders and state/local government divisions such as tax assessment, public utilities and departments of transportation, the solution creates indexed mapbooks in easy-to-use Adobe formats called GeoPDFs. Thanks to our friend Joe Francica at Directions Magazine for providing his take on the announcement today.
After a grueling day of product demos and media interviews (Jaymes Pardue from the sales team told me he’s never given so many demos in one day!), the TerraGo team celebrated the product launch with more than 60 customers and partners at Seattle's infamous Space Needle. What a nice touch when I happened to witness a romantic fellow pop the question to an unsuspecting lady on the Space Needle observation deck at sunset. She said yes. :)
- Julie Buckley
TAGS: TerraGo, Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference , Map2PDF
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(Photo Credit: Mashable)
On Wednesday night, Lisa Throckmorton and I headed down to the MashMeet DC Remix. It was a great night of networking, and, even though the sound system left a little something to be desired if you were standing towards the back of the room, there were some excellent presentations from Lumifi, Kluster, Voxant, Mixx and Searchles.
Searchles has the presentations available here:
And here are some recaps from others who were at the event:
Adam Ostrow
The Buzz Bin
East Coast Blogging
Google Inside
Mashable
Post I.T.
WashBiz Blog
WhyGoSolo
- Stephanie Stadler
TAGS: Mashable , MashMeet DC
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(Photo Credit: Red Hat)
Last week, John Terrill and I got a short reprieve from February weather in DC when we headed to Orlando for JBoss World 2008 on behalf of long-time SpeakerBox client Red Hat. This year's JBoss World was a huge success, and we are proud to have been part of the effort. We were busy with the on-site action, so didn't spend any time exploring Orlando's famous theme parks (although we both had fun at the JBoss World party at Pleasure Island on Thursday night. To our fellow Adventurer's Club members: Kungaloosh!).
If you are interested, check out the keynote videos from the conference now live at www.jbossworld.com, or check out the photos people have been posting from the event.
Congratulations to Red Hat on a great user conference!
- Stephanie Stadler
TAGS:
Red Hat, 
JBoss, 
"JBoss World", 
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