Communicating your social web presence by John Buehler:

1. Created Life Digits: your social media license plate: Initials plus bday. Has everything you need to know about someone. Work, personal websites, social media info, etc. Its all on one page.
2. Looking for beta testers! First 100 people to get out there and sign up will get their own set of Life Digits.
3. Service looks cool, says he is ok with this being a hookup engine… what a riot.

About the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in IT by Andy Erickson:

1. Passion for the city and region to stick around and make cincy great.  Awesome students graduate from UC and leave the area.  One or two of the Senior Design’s end up being amazing and could be viable companies in this area.  
2. Keep the talent and innovation here in cincy and not in Silicon Valley.
3. Center of innovation and entreprenueriship in IT: A center to enable people to stay and develop and build businesses in Cincinnati.  A general incubator.
4. Business plans -> Legal firms -> VC firms 
5. Bring students to the area. Realize dreams through this program.

How social is too social? by Kristin Beireis:

1. First thing to figure out is: Who do you want to be?
2. Second thing:  What do I want to say?  - Bathroom habits are not important. 
3. Anything you put on the internet, can get to anyone you know!  Boss? Wife? They will probably see/hear it!  They are gonna find out.
4. Everything you say online speaks to who you are.  Let me know you are about X, what your passions are… 
5. They want to get to know you. Its not about your business, but its about YOU.  Your business is not all you!  Musical Theatre? YES! Your business? Of course. Connect on your different passions. 
6. Just dont tell us every detail, know what you want to put out there before you get on!

“Starting a video blog and learning how to encode for the web” by Heath Parks, :

1. 1. YouTube online video isnt exploding, its already exploded!
2. What do I want my content to say? Personal Professional? both? 
3. Where am I going to be putting my video content? Blogger, wordpress, etc. (Steve uses wordpress bc it is extensible! but you gotta know to how to code)
4. What kind of camera do I use? Going pro? Get something nicer than your personal camera with video capabilities. Save up. Make it work.
5. Final Cut Pro on a Mac. Adobe Premier on a PC. Use the free trial before spending the cash. 
6. How long?  Less is more. Keep it short and sweet.
7. Practice practice practice!

Changes in Facebook by Vickie Sciefers: 

1. Unfortunately the waiter came by to settle up the bill durring Vickie’s talk, so I was unable to take notes, but you can watch her on the ustream version of the meetup!
2. She did provide some interesting things to think about in terms of the new facebook design, so check her out!

For details on the next meeting follow the newmediacincy blog or the newmediacincy twitter account! I hope to meet you there!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about social media and Joe can be found at his blog.

What is a New Media Cincinnati Meet Up?

Last week I had a chance to interview a pair of entrepreneurs in Cincinnati: Pete Kennedy and Nick Binkley are the co-founders of Wake Nation, Cincinnati’s first cable park opening in May of 2009.  (In the picture: Nick is on the left, Pete is on the right)

What is a cable park?  You can do water sports without a boat!  A cable line tows you in a circle around a lake. 

These guys have such a great outlook on what it means to be an entrepreneur, and how awesome it is to create something that so many watersports junkies will enjoy, especially those of us who cant afford a boat!

Check out this great video of what Wake Nation will be like from Wake Nation’s MySpace page, followed by my entertaining, if I do say so myself, interview with Pete and Nick:

 Wake Nation Video

1. Who uses a boat to wakeboard anymore?

(PETE KENNEDY) Actually that’s a very good questions because it depends on where you live. In Europe for example, there are over 120 cable wakeboarding parks and thus, the European wake population is huge. So in Europe, I would guess that more people ride on cable than on boats. When we open Wake Nation May of 2009, we will be the 7^th cable park in the US. The US is still way behind Europe in terms of cable parks and cable riders, but I think that trend will change dramatically over the next 10 years. So in the US, there are a ton of people who boarder behind boats mainly because they don’t have another option. With fluctuating fuel prices, high cost of buying and owning a boat, and the serious credit crunch, I think more and more people are going to be riding cable parks as they open in nearby cities. It’s our hope that everyone in Ohio will be riding our cable next summer.     

(NICK BINKLEY) The Rupert Murdock’s and Donald Trumps of the world. I mean who has the money these days for a boat, insurance, gas, a trailer?

(PETE KENNEDY) Prior to starting Wake Nation, I helped start Rhaphis Medical, a medical device company based in San Mateo, CA. The founder of Rhaphis Medical is also a practicing OB-GYN and goes on medical missions around the World providing free surgery to people who can’t afford it. He invited me to come along on one of his medical trips and as fate would have it, this medical mission was is Naga City (Philippines) and we were staying in a hotel near the Camsur Watersports Complex. Camsur is a killer cable wakeboarding park about 230 miles southeast of Manila. There were kids from around the World staying at our hotel and I asked them what the hell they were doing in Naga City? They said they were there for the cable park and told me to come by to check it out. I took one spin on the cable and was completely blown away. I’ve been hooked ever since. When I got back to the States, I quit my job and started Wake Nation and the rest is history.  

(NICK BINKLEY) From the U.S News and World Report’s “Most difficult Start-Ups!”

(PETE KENNEDY) Many factors lead us to Cincinnati. First off, my partner Nick and I are from the Midwest: I’m from Indy and Nick is from Cincy. As we set out on an exhausted search for the perfect location, we travelled from Southern California to Denver to Phoenix and then home to Cincy. The perfect combination of reasonable land prices, a cooperative government body and a hungry wake population sold us on Cincy as the best location for our first park.

(NICK BINKLEY) I told Pete that it would be a TERRIBLE place to build a Cable Park, but after receiving several blows to the head, I had to agree, Cincinnati would be a GREAT location!

(PETE KENNEDY) Wake Nation is definitely a place for both beginners and pros. We will have onsite teachers who will provide lessons and tips to the beginners. If wakeboarding seems too difficult (which it’s not), you can always waterskiing or kneeboarding. We usually want our beginners to hop on a kneeboard for a couple of laps so they can get comfortable with the cable system. Before long, they will be cruising around the lake on a wakeboard, nailing one of our many jumps and rails. Learning how to wakeboard on a cable system is actually a lot easier than learning behind a boat. Behind a boat, you are submerged in the water and as the boat pulls you up, you are fighting against the force of the water. At a cable park, you start out of the water, sitting on a bench with your board resting on the surface of the water. So a “dry start” makes it easier to initially get up. We went to great lengths to design our park to make it both friendly for beginners and challenging for pros.

All riders are required to wear a helmet, life vest and wakeboard, kneeboard or waterskis. If you don’t have your own gear, no worries. You can rent all your gear at our pro shop. We sell passes to our lake in 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, all day and season pass increments. We haven’t nailed down our pricing yet, but 1 hour will probably cost $20, 2 hours will cost $25, 4 hours will cost $29 and all day will cost $36. We will also have a 1,300 sq ft pro shop selling all the latest wakeboard gear and apparel. Plus a huge 3,000 sq ft observation deck where you can hang out all day and watch your buddies pull off their newly learned tricks. 

(NICK BINKLEY) Even a caveman can learn to wakeboard at our park.

(PETE KENNEDY) Not sure if these are skills, but the four principles I subscribe to when starting a business are:

1. Do you homework. Know your business and industry better than anyone else and have a business plan that lots of people have critiqued.
2. Focus. Focus. Focus. Don’t try to do too many things at one time. If you try to do too many things at the same time, you will half-ass everything. Focus on one thing and do that right.
3. Don’t overbuild your business at the start. A lot of entrepreneurs take the “go big or go home” approach when starting a business. Most likely, you will go home.
4. Don’t be afraid to take a risk

(NICK BINKLEY) I leaned the facts of life by watching “The Facts of Life.”

(PETE KENNEDY) You can check us out online at www.wakenation.com, Give us a call at (310) 940-4990. Join our Myspace page at www.myspace.com/wakenation. Join our Wake Nation Cincinnati group on Facebook. Or show up in person at Wake Nation. Our address is:

201 Joe Nuxhall Way
Fairfield, OH 45014

Hope to see you out on the lake!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about social media and Joe can be found at his blog.

Go Cincinnati! Wakeboard Without a Boat: Wake Nation Cable Park

cincySEARCH is founder Michael Hillenmeyer’s current venture designed to generate funds to give to local Cincinnati, Ohio charities.  Ad revenue is given directly to the featured charity.  Currently searches on cincySEARCH support the Free-store Foodbank.  Which is an organization that provides food and clothing to the unemployed or to people who have lost their homes in a fire. 

So since cincySEARCH is such an awesome idea, I am adding a cincySEARCH search box on the Search Tools section of my blog.  If you are thinking about searching, search using cincySEARCH and help out local Cincinnati, Ohio charities!

Right now they have only one charity listed, what other local charities should they support?  Anyone have any favorites?

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about social media and Joe can be found at his blog.

Go Cincinnati! cincySEARCH.com Benefits Local Charities

So what do you do with that?  Have a party!  Kate put it on the schedule calling everyone to attend Greater Cincinnati’s first tweet-up!

“Would you like to meet your local Twitter friends?

Come to Greater Cincinnati’s first tweet-up at Over-the-Rhine’s Below Zero Lounge at 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 20.

It’s a great way for you to put a face to a name, and talk to your Tweeple/Twitterites/Twitterverse in more than 140 characters.

No need to come looking like your avatar… ”

It’s a bummer that its at 5p, since I work in Dayton, but you all should go!  There are tons of cool cincinnati folk to be met!  Will you be there?

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about social media and Joe can be found at his blog.

Go Cincinnati! Invitation to Tweet-up: All A-Twitter

Some of the Speaker Lineup:

• Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen Online
• Bob Gilbreath from Bridge Worldwide
• Tim Schigel from Share This who happens to be operating out of my current town and my home town!

I am quite upset that I have to miss this awesome opportunity to learn and discuss digital issues, so someone will have to fill me in on all the awesome details afterwards!

Make sure you register by Oct. 31st for the discounted rates!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about social media and Joe can be found at his blog.

Go Cincinnati Alert! Digital Hub Initiative Non-Conference