Passport in my pocket, Rosetta Stone in my bag, Paris here I come!

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.

Social Media Club Reaches 150 Cities!

I was putting a presentation together recently on Social Media Club (‘SMC’) and needed a current count of all the cities that had an active chapter, as well as cities we were working with to launch a chapter.

I am pleased (and surprised) to report that as of July 1, 2009 – SMC crossed 150 city mark with chapters in over 15 countries. Wow.

Even more surprising (to me) is the fact that we have reached all these cities through word of mouth activities (only) via friends, attending conferences and personal travel. Crazy. Makes me wonder what we could do if we put some real marketing effort into it!’ 🙂

When Social Media Club launched three years ago (March 2006), neither Heuer or I had any idea how big it would become, or where it would go. We are thankful for the 400+ folks who have supported SMC’s activities through paid memberships and hope to see that continue to grow as we launch new educational programs and an infrastructure to help the global community come together.

Social Media Club Member Kits

SMC continues to be a labor of love project that I volunteer about 30 hours a week to, trying to put light structure in place so we can continue to grow and connect people interested in Social Media around the world. I’ll admit, it is tough some days, and SMC absolutely takes a hit when my client work requires more of me.

To solve for this, we are working to hire an Executive Director and light staff to help push the organizational pieces for SMC forward as it kills me when balls get dropped and emails go unanswered. Getting someone in here to take the reigns is high on the list and will allow Heuer and I to take a step back and focus on the media literacy and chapter related projects we wish to see get off the ground. Focus baby. Focus.

The TO DO/wish list is a mile long and there are a 1000 moving pieces at any given time. With that, I know there are exciting times ahead, and I cannot wait to see where the organization is 12 months from now.