February DC Media Makers/ DC Tweet Up

Last night I had the distinct pleasure to attend my second DC Tweet Up meeting (with more people than the first DC Tweet Up/Social Media Club event I went to). This was also my first DC Media Makers meetup, hosted by the wonderful Jill Foster.

We had a great agenda of events which included a plug for PodcampDC (I’m going!) and the Women Who Tech telesummit (I’m obviously not going!). Andy Carvin spoke about NPR’s upcoming user-generated video project that focuses on voting and Tac Tacelosky of SmokeFreeDC (yay public health initiative!) talked briefly about his own video project based on family.

Finally our keynote speaker was the well-respected Stowe Boyd who writes at StoweBoyd.com. He gave some great insight into the relationship of how social tools being used today can be compared to innovations of yesteryear – phones on office desks and more recently corporate email and instant messaging. These technologies were once frowned upon and even deemed useless when they first came on the scene. However, all three developments have become effective tools of business and are mainstays in our daily lives.

Stowe went onto mention that tools such as Twitter, will continue to evolve into new, productive tools for our lives. Those of us who have been early adopters will not only be ahead of the curve when that happens, we will also be able to set the standard and help propel others into a new age of beneficial digital living!

I’m telling you, this kind of thinking really gets me going! I have finally found a way to engage myself into 2 of my passions – technology and people interaction. It was awesome to finally meet the lovely @koa (Kenya) and @Suki_MHC05 (Suki)! Good times had by all – can’t wait until next time!

Pictures coming soon

Land Dream Job: Check!

So right now I’m writing on Day 2 of my new job at the awesome New Media Strategies in Arlington, VA. From the name of the company, I’m thinking you web savvy consumers can guess what we do here – that’s right folks, we work with new/social media!

Ever since I caught the social media bug about 2 years ago, I have been voraciously reading blogs (and creating a blog!), writing down ideas, notes, and fully absorbing any and all strategy about this space that I could get my hands on. Needless to say, I am very passionate about this area of web technology and online communications. For those who know me pretty well, they know that I am an information geek. When I get an interest in something, I will make it my duty to learn as much as possible on it and (sometimes to the dismay of others) try to share it with as many people as possible! One of the things I tell my younger family members in junior high or high school, is that “once you know, no one can tell you I told you so” – so with that in mind, I try to learn as much as possible in life.

Ok, enough with the lecture.

I am super stoked to be here working with my buds Leslie Bradshaw and Brian Devine, who not only know their stuff when it comes to the Web, but they are also really cool in real life. But…don’t tell them I told you that, I don’t want them to get big heads…

Folks, this qualifies me as a poster boy for getting your dream job. If you work hard and keep pursuing the goals that you have for yourself, things fall into place.

Thanks to all my Twitter buddies for all the congrats. And now if you will excuse me, I must break out into my secret victory dance one more time…

Speak Up for the Future!

Recently I wrote about the website OnDayOne and how I was excited that this existed for people to become even more involved in speaking up about how the President began their term.

I just posted my Idea suggestion for the website – obviously focused on some aspect of health.

As an advocate for public health education, I would want the President to boost publicity about the National President’s Challenge – a nationwide physical fitness program aimed at getting kids, teens and adults living healthier. This year will be the 52nd year of the Program, started by Eisenhower and it’s no secret that the country is in need of a fitness/healthier lifestyle boost. Let’s unite the country in good health!

You can find the post here on the site. Some pretty interesting ideas have been posted and hopefully you can also join in. Web technology is enabling us all to do so much, I love it.

Social Media Club DC – Good Times!

So last night I ventured out to Falls Church, VA to the infamous Viget Labs to attend the February Social Media Club DC meetup.

I had an absolute blast! It was fun to finally meet people I’ve connected before through social media like Jill Foster, Shashi and the video-tastic Jonny Goldstein!

The speaker for the night was Aaron Brazell of TechnoSailor fame – he spoke about how to take your blog to the next level, the big leagues. Some of the things I learned as a new blogger is that despite the great designs and visual effects that pull you in as a reader, content must be KING (thanks Qui). Without quality writing, people will most likely flip through, shrug and keep moving onto another one of the thousands of blogs in the ’sphere.

I’ve made it a personal promise to make sure I blog regularly and with relevant content. Just like everything else, it takes hard work and dedication, but I’m so passionate about this stuff – it’s not even funny.

We had guest cameos via video from Problogger’s Darren and Chris Brogan. It was awesome.

If you’re in the DC area and are interested in this thing we call social media, come on out next month!

For more coverage of the event, The Buzz Bin and Shashi also wrote some reviews. And here is last night’s event recorded with YouTube slideshow of the presentation deck.

First Impressions – Changing the Name of the Blog

**UPDATE** Contest prize is a $25 Amazon Gift Card! (Does that make you want to think of a suggestion??)

Recently on my many adventures and interactions on Twitter, I came across an individual who alerted me to something that has been on the back burner of my mind for a week or so. Basically it was brought to my attention that the name of my blog, Antibio.tech, might give people the idea that my blog’s content focuses on defacing the biotech world – which is far from the truth.

Back in late September when I was racking my brain to come up with a name for my blog, I settled on this one thinking that it was kind of clever (antibiotic + tech), encompassing a solution for an ailment and the ‘tech’ as a twist to show the focus on technology. But alas, 5 months later, it seems that I will go ahead and think of another name. The last thing I want people to think when they see the name of my blog is that it is against the biotech field.

So with that said, I’m planning to hold a contest to find the new name of my blog! That’s right folks, harnessing the power of the social web, I’m going to try to find a user friendly name for my blog that focuses on the intersection of health/well-being and technology (personal tech and social media).

What I need you to do:

1. Think about some good names for the blog that would make YOU want to come over here
2. Place the suggestions in the comments on this post
3. Let others know who may be interested in staying healthy in the digital age

After I guess a week or so, I’ll gather together the suggestions and then create a Top 3 list of the suggestions that I like and will put them in a survey for folks to vote on. Trying not to make this too deep or complicated, just want to find something good that I can stick with.

A few things to help – I am aiming for the blog to:

• Point out new and effective technologies that can help in living a healthier life
• Expand upon my thoughts on the social media world and how the new digital age/social web era affects the quality of our lives
• Highlight health news items that may affect your day to day life
• Create a community of people who are invested in their quality of life, for the rest of their life
• Have fun while informing!

Okie dokie, thanks in advance for your participation and I will be coming up with some sort of reward to the chosen name!

Andre’s Radar: Week of 2/18

What’s social media without the real world ’social’ elements? With that in mind, I’m making the conscious decision to start attending the many great events going on in the Washington DC area! Each week or so I will publish a list of events that I plan to attend or at least are on my radar that I want to attend or that I find interesting.

NetSquared DC February Meetup [link]

When: Tuesday, February 19th 7pm – 9pm (they are expecting a large crowd so get there promptly at 7pm)

Where: Google (DC Office) 1101 New York Ave NW [map]

Details: This meetup has been filled to capacity however, sign up for the Meetup group for future events. This meeting will focus on Oil Change International – they create campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. They are dedicated to identifying and overcoming political barriers to that transition.

Washington Blogger February Meetup [link]

When: Wednesday, February 20th 7pm – 9pm

Where: Regional Food and Drink
810 7th St. NW
Washington , DC 20001
202-289-2030 [map]

Details: Local Washington area bloggers meetup for good times and good conversation.

Refresh DC February [link]

When: Thursday, February 21st 7pm – 8pm

Where: APCO Worldwide [map]

Details: Martin Ringlein, co-founder of nclud, will discuss the transition from side-work to serious-work as a freelancer, touching on everything from contracts and invoicing to getting clients and growing a portfolio.

If you’re planning to head out to one of these, let me know!

When Beef Goes Wrong. Again?

Hmmm…might be time for me to cutback on the red meat. In recent news, the USDA just ordered the nation’s largest recall of beef.

How large is large you ask? Well, they are recalling 140 million pounds of meat – which you know, I tend to believe is a pretty high number, considering the recall before that was a mere 35 million pounds. Am I missing something or am I correct in thinking that with all the advances we have made in the food industry that this sort of thing shouldn’t happen?

Basically the premise of the need to recall this beef is that there has been an undercover investigation that exposed the manufacturing farm as passing along cows that failed to receive complete inspection.

From the article:

“Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.”

Are you getting that feeling in your stomach too? You know, the feeling of dread when you decided too late that you shouldn’t be on this rollercoaster?

6 Reasons Why Antibio.tech Is Here

Hey folks, I’ve been working on getting things redesigned here and having WordPress hosted elsewhere – so I’m getting excited about that. Alot of planning and thinking about where I want Antibio.tech to go…stay tuned.

Since I started blogging in October of last year, I’ve met alot of great people through Twitter and through comments on the blog. As I first began writing, I figured that ideas would just pop into my head and I would write (keeping within context of the blog of course) about whatever I thought was important. Since evolving my interests, I’ve decided to talk about why I’m blogging here.

1. Transfer of Ideas. I need a place to funnel good ideas into print form, that I want to share with others.
2. Share and Share Alike. I like sharing information with other people. If I find something that I think will benefit you in some shape or form, I’d like to share it. Usually interesting links can be found on the left side here – my Del.icio.us links.
3. Healthier You Equals Healthier Others. The main focus here is on health and personal technology. If I can change or influence 1 thing in your way of thinking (for the better hopefully), there is a good chance you will share that with another. Or at the very least, influence another through your very own changed actions.
4. I like people. One of the things I’ve learned while working with social media is that the opportunities to connect with great people are certainly available! One of the individuals who has definitely shown me that despite having “status” in the social media community, they still care about talking to you, is Chris Brogan. The methods of communications tend to even out the barriers to get to know them. I mean, I even got to have a convo with Guy Kawasaki on Twitter!
5. A Career is a Journey. Personal branding anyone?
6. I’m Having Fun! Over at the Success Begins Today blog, I read a recent post on viewing blogging as either a chore or something to look forward to doing. I don’t feel any signs of burnout coming on so I’m still very excited about blogging. One of the pieces of advice I’ve heard time and time again regarding blogging and career direction is to do something you are passionate about. And I can happily say that I am passionate about what I write about here!

Well those are my reasons, what are yours? Do you have a reason for not blogging?

If you have any suggestions on what you would like me to cover or highlight in any way, please don’t hesitate to let me know!