Tech Forward:

While I attended the Small Business Technology Summit in February, I had the opportunity to have a Tech Forward Convo with Jennifer Walzer of Backup My Info (BUMI).

Jennifer’s company offers a much-needed service to businesses–you already know how I feel about proper backups, and Jennifer offered some really critical information about new legislation involving the use of Social Security numbers online…along with a tip about BUMI’s new service, Qwipit, to help businesses bypass such challenges. Can you say, $250,000 fine?

Take a listen…

It’s no wonder many entrepreneurs are totally intimidated–or plain ol’ confused–by technology.

I attended the AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC conference last week in NYC at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The event was top-notch all the way–until I sat next to Snarky Guy.

You know him:

• He always has a smart answer for everything, yet never really answers a question.
• He throws around jargon and talks about CPC and SEM as if he ate alphabet soup for breakfast.
• He just has to show off that he reads about 10 online publications each day because he’s like a walking Yahoo! newsfeed–which says he isn’t making much money.
• He says oddball things just to get attention. And his comments become even more weird, bordering on non-sequiturs, as the day goes on.

You leave an interaction with him feeling at best like a stupid, ill-informed idiot or at worst like you’ve just been through a technology blender.

Sigh.

I have to say that Snarky Guy is not a full representation of us tech experts. Most of us really are approachable people who want to explain things in a jargon-free way. Honestly.

Computers do weird things to certain people. You know how some people let a smattering of perceived power go straight to the old noggin’? Yep, that’s Snarky Guy.

So, I humbly ask that when you encounter Snarky Guy, just exchange cards quickly and avoid him for the rest of the day. And please remember, one bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch. Don’t hold it against all of us.

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind trip to Miami, Florida, (angel chorus) where, in addition to losing my cell phone and getting a full-blown migraine on my flight there, I won the Entrepreneurial Champion for Women in Business Award at The Women’s Congress conference. Somehow that makes the migraine worth it, a little. Seriously, I am honored.

Contrary to its name, the conference has nothing to do with Congress, but everything to do with women succeeding in business and life.

Holy mackerel, the people I met/got to see again!

• Fellow Entrepreneur magazine blogger Nina Kaufman;
• Cory Edwards of Symantec (talk about a smart guy who totally gets social media);
• Rebecca Weeks from realgirlsmedia (the creators of DivineCaroline.com);
• Diva blogger extraordinare Toby Bloomberg (on the spur of the moment, we ended up co-hosting a session together);
• Kay Cioffi of Tex-Zen Partners (and her fabulous new hire, Sherron);
• Seriously well-connected PR pro Suzanne Boniface;
• Kelley Rexroad, America’s HR Strategist; and
• Ja-Nae Duane, founder of Wild Women Entrepreneurs.

There were some bumps in the road, and attendance was not what we expected. But, in the words of Tim Gunn, we made it work. And frankly, I think we were all the better for it. Smaller crowds allow for deeper connections.

Obviously, I’ve been watching way too much Project Runway. But I’ll never get enough of conferences like The Women’s Congress, where I can meet other interesting businesswomen who are up to big things.

…and you want to attend a cool event, my friends over at NextNY are helping to spread the word about BDI’s and PR Newswire’s event: Convergence 2007: The Future of Advertising, Communications & Media.

The deets:

Monday, December 3, 2007
8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Graduate Center/CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue; New York, NY 10016

Registration Fee: $395; to receive a discounted rate of $345, enter promo code CONCO when registering.

To Register:
http://www.bdionline.com/convergence2007

The speaker’s list is crazy, and I’m going to try like hell to be in the house myself–whether I get the free tix or not.

Let me know if you’ll be there– it’s an all-day thing, so let’s have lunch!

(Disclosure: I’m an active “member” of NextNY and I might get a free ticket to the event for this post)

I’m writing this from my my hotel in Sin City (Las Vegas).

I’ve been here for the past three days attending BlogWorld Expo and speaking at the PostieCon conference.

Yesterday, Mark Cuban delivered a rousing closing keynote at BlogWorld Expo. Mark was approachable, honest, real and generous with his time. BlogWorld Expo was an honest effort by the organizers to say something real about the current state of social media and where we’re headed. Admittedly, there were little snafus like the famous Mike Arrington no-show and Arianna Huffington canceling at the last minute…but, what’s news about that, right? And, every conference has something go wrong here and there.

Overall I thought BlogWorld Expo was solid–with great speakers like Jeremiah Owyang, Marc Harty, Jim Kukral and Dan Rua. Although I heard from some exhibitors who felt they were nickeled and dimed and that the attendance that BlogWorld promised them was not there–even though 1,700 people showed up.

PostieCon book-ended the conference today (Saturday) and offered some awesome speakers as well. I spoke on a panel with Jim and Shirley Frazier, and Dan Rua was our moderator.

PostieCon had a great fan-like energy to it and Ted was right in there with us…even during the cake plow!

It certainly was good to see Shirley Frazier again and I also ran into Mark Harty and met Dave Taylor and Nate Westheimer for the first time in person.

Many times people ask me why I attend these events. Well, mostly because I’m usually a speaker, but also because it helps to put faces to names. I have lost count of how many times I’ve met someone at a conference who I had previously only known via email.

It builds community, and that’s what this ’social media thing’ is really all about.

P.S. PayPerPost (now IZEA) has totally overhauled its platform. The developer, Pete, is a god among men. We all got a sneak preview of SocialSpark today–and all I have to say is that it turns conventional metrics and social networking on their heads. Wowie! Read more about it on Jim Kukral’s blog here.