Kiki’s Korner

Social Media Club is embarking on a 5-city-conference tour this Summer and Fall focused on advanced level education around social media marketing.

This conference series will head to:

Atlanta (August 26th), Los Angeles (September 9th), New York (September 23rd), Toronto (October 7th) and Kansas City (October 21st)

We will feature topics on Becoming a Social Business, Social Media Measurement and Metrics, Producing a Killer Corporate Blog, Setting Up Your Corporate Infrastructure, Crisis Communications and so much more. I am really looking forward to the road trip and meeting local Social Media Club members in each city, while making a couple of new friends along the way.

This is a big step forward for Social Media Club to support our mission to provide education around social media, and I am proud of the team for working so hard and making this series come to life.

Heuer and I were in Vegas once again to work with our pals at Lenovo to host a Blogger Party during CES. This week is always a whirlwind for me, and 2011 was no exception.

We spend our time meeting new people. Seeing new technology. Eating and drinking good food and great wine. But the best of it all? Bonding with the Lenovo social team who are not just clients, but dear friends. We absolutely adore Nano, Gavin and Erik and I am so happy we get to add Becca to the love fest now too. That girl is my sister from another mother, I just know it.

One of my favorite things from the Lenovo Lounge this year was the photo booth they brought in. It is amazing what happens when you give adults boas, strange hats and stuffed animals (the taxidermied kind, not stuffed with cotton kind). Craziness ensues.

The only thing I did wrong was not bringing that damn jackalope home. I so loved that jackalope.

More of my photos from CES are here, and Heuer has a bunch over here.

As mentioned earlier, Heuer and I headed over to the San Francisco Vitners Market and spent the morning – scratch that – spent the *day* drinking lovely wines from vendors in the area.

We were joined by our dear friend, Carolyn Gerin, who is behind the amazing blog – Anti Bride – and ended up sampling so many wines, I think I lost my taste buds about two hours into the event (even though I was pouring half the glass out at each one).

Two wineries that did stand out for me were the folks from Cameron Hughes (lovely Chardonnays) and the Cask Cabernet. Holy moly, that one was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

I have to say, it was great being there on a press pass as we were ahead of the crowds and could sample more of the wines. That actually might be what did me in as well. Ha.

More photos from the event can be found here.

Just about the time Chris and I both agree to stop drinking so we can ‘jump start our metabolisms and lose that winter coat‘, a great wine tasting event pops up on my calendar. It happens every single time, without fail. And we always go to the event as our will power sucks. We like wine.

Latest case and point: During the drive home from last night’s Social Media Club event, Chris and I had this discussion . We both agree to stop drinking for a month, or at least until the next wine tasting invite hits our inbox.

Wouldn’t you know it –> today I receive an invite to the San Francisco Vintners Market – Harvest in the City event happening tomorrow that will showcase wineries that sell their wines direct to you. This is great as we have been to several events where we find great wines and then are never able to find it again when we want to buy. Not so here. The San Francisco Vintners Market gives us wine enthusiasts the chance to try and buy wines from over 200 wineries.

Sounds awesome. And of course we are going. It is almost like the universe WANTS us to drink wine.

Besides, the holidays are upon us and we are always looking for nice wines to give to friends or to bring to dinner parties. The Vintners Market sounds like a perfect place to find that new gem that will leave everyone wanting more.

Bonus: Our buddies over at Antibride have a discount to save you 10% off the ticket price if you register using this link. Do it, and let’s drink some juice together tomorrow.

This past week Chris and I had an opportunity to hang out on the red carpet of the AVN Awards in Las Vegas and capture some of the industry professionals on their big night.

My observations from the red carpet:

1. While silicon runs rampant in the industry, there are several ‘naturals’ like Charley Chase making a name for themselves. Natural rocks.

2. Everyone was extremely professional. This was a serious award show. Think Academy Awards for their industry. Have to admit, I expected more rowdyness on the red carpet. (see point three)

3. The ‘craziest’ thing I saw was a lesbian porn star pulling a huge penis out of her pants and kiss on it a bit. Kind of expected more. Feeling disappointed and pleasantly surprised all at the same time.

4. I was surrounded by thousands and thousands of yards of taffeta. I now know where all my bridesmaid dresses went, and I am glad to see my hot pink one found a good home.

5. Every adult film star we spoke with, and we spoke with most of them, loves Twitter. Seems to be their number one social tool (they all have user names ending in xxx). It was great to see an industry adopting the tools like they are en masse.

6. I saw more porn in 15 minutes worth of clips during the show than I have seen in 10 years. And the titles of the shows…OMG.

7. My ‘wish I was a fly on the wall’ moment came when Robin Leach, Flavor Flav and Ron Jeremy were in a small huddle having themselves a giggle. I so wanted in on that conversation.

8. My ‘WTF moment’ came when we saw Shauna Sands. Leaves me speechless really.

We also had the opportunity to interview Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction and Sasha Grey, the ‘it’ girl of the porn industry.

It was great to be part of this experience, and get a glimpse into a world I so rarely see, but thinking it was one of those ‘nice to do once’ type of things.

Our pal Brian Zisk caught up with Sasha on the red carpet at the 2010 AVN Awards, and asked what her plans for 2010 were. Sounds like she is working on a horror film, has a few more adult films in the works, and possibly some music too (thanks to her pal Dave Navarro).

Side note: Sasha gets my best dressed award. She looked amazing.

When we arrived in Paris last Sunday, the Social Media Club House mates took a stroll through the courtyard of the Louvre, but didn’t go in as the line already formed was re-dunk-dic-u-lous. Not wishing to leave town before I see the Mona Lisa, we are planning a geek field trip to the Louvre tomorrow (Saturday) and invite all who would like to join us.

We are meeting at 8:30 (doors open at 9am) hopefully get a decent spot in line. If you get there a few minutes late, no worries, just stroll along the line and look for a geeky group with lots of camera bags.

Thoughts are to visit to the Mona Lisa first (get that out of the way early) and then explore from there. Based on the verbal confirmations received during Le Web, we are expecting about 15 people to join us.

It is recommended that you pre-purchase tickets online (10.10 euros per ticket), as it makes it easier to pick up (just be sure to bring the credit card you used to pick up on site). Hope you will join us for this little field trip and see some of the great works of art Paris has to offer.

When discussing activities for our week in Paris, we thought what better way to break the flat in than to host a small dinner party on the first night we are here. We are fortunate to have an amazing market called La Grande Epicerie du Bon Marche, similar to our Whole Foods, just a few blocks away from our flat – so Cathy, Chris and I took a stroll over on Sunday afternoon and picked up some tasty bits for the group.

We invited Mark and Laurant from PayPal over as a way to thank them for their support of Social Media Club House then Heuer headed into the kitchen and whipped up a stellar meal of salmon, potatoes and asparagus.

These are the type moments I love the most, getting people together from all around the world, sharing great stories over good food and wine. It’s the beauty of Social Media Club House. It is not only a work place. Or a sleeping place. It is the perfect gathering place.

To say I am excited to be in Paris this week would be a severe understatement. I have been wanting to visit for year+++++, and had to pull back from three other trips in 2009 due to various client commitments (and a flu bug). So this jaunt feels like a long time coming for sure.

Heuer and I are headed over for Le Web, a tech conference bringing the best of French entrepreneurs together with other tech enthusiasts from around the world to talk innovation and trends around the ‘tubes’. While the conference is sure to be a hit, in all honesty, I am most looking forward to hanging in the Social Media Club House with @chrisheuer @scobleizer, @cathybrooks, @suzyperplexus and @stephtara as we break bread, sip wine together and explore Paris and all that it has to offer.

We have a pretty full schedule planned, but I expect to get a little tourist time in as well, as this is…my first time in Paris. Expect to find me at the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower for sure.

To keep up on our activities, follow along on our Fan Page.

Heuer and I were treated to a private concert from new Sony artist, Chris Mann, in the Berkeley Hills thanks to our pal VDog.

I had not heard of Chris before Victoria’s invite, and was pleasantly surprised to find this guy can really belt it out. He reminds me of a good mixture of Jason Mraz and Adam Levine, the lead singer from Maroon 5. If you like either of those artists, you will love Chris Mann. His voice raw enough to pierce you at the core, mature enough to be in total control of his instrument. Could hear him sing for hours.

He was joined by his buddy, Chris Jagich, a music teacher from L.A. who strummed the guitar along side Mann. Chris (and Chris) played a handful of songs to the 20 of us in the room and the 40+ folks following along to the live stream VDog set up since they could not join us in person.

Have I said how much I love Chris Mann’s voice? I really do.

After the concert, I decided to Google him and found he remade the Kanye West song, Heartless. Love it. Even better is our girl ‘VDog’ is in the video, about half way through – holding up the ‘fool’ sign (at 2:18 in the video). Woot! You a hunny VDog!

Chris’ album is supposed to hit in September – keep an eye out for it. Sure to please.