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Tech Cocktail Offered…Cocktails

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A few of us attended the Boston Tech Cocktail party in Boston last night. Unfortunately the venue, a major nightclub in Boston, didn’t make networking quite as easy – or productive – as some other tech events we’ve participated in (as sponsors and attendees) previously. While the sponsors did a great job providing free drinks and colorful corporate schwag, the overall atmosphere was more like a college party than a serious networking event for business professionals (or maybe I’m just getting old). It’s hard to make connections when you’re shouting at people to be heard over the music.

From the “PR-girls-we’d-never-hire” shimmying across the floor in matching dresses, to the skateboarding “dude” who invited us to an after party, we were definitely amused but not making the connections we had hoped. Granted, my heels were killing me and forced me to sit down for the latter portion of the party – although ironically, that’s when we met a majority of new contacts.

Someone we would like to hire is Clarence. What a brilliant marketer. This guy is smart, down-to-earth and a great marketer at heart. Too bad he doesn’t want to work in a tech PR agency. We didn’t see a lot of media but we did meet Chris Brogan, co-founder of PodCamp and overall social media mastermind.

The sponsors were interesting emerging tech companies like Geezeo, a “social finance application” – poised for huge success as they begin looking for Series A funding (according to Co-Founder Peter Glyman). We met several entreprenurial attendees – like Phillip Zannini – who shared their new business ideas with us and who were hoping to meet interested VCs and have the opportunity to provide their elevator pitch. We hope they are successful.

The drinks were free, the music was loud and the Wii games were cool. Talking to techpreneurs is always a blast because it’s our passion to work with such enthusiastic and intelligent folks. Fun on a scale of 1 to 10 was about a 7; business productivity about a 5.

Sosius Unveils Next Gen Collaboration for Work and Life

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Client Sosius unveils their online collaboration product for work and life today at the Office 2.0 conference. The product is free and now open for a public beta. YOU can help decide the future for online collaboration by signing up. Rafe Needleman talks more about Sosius on Webware.

Sosius is great not only because it’s free and delivers 1.0GB of storage space but because it lets you keep your information, social networking and collaboration all in one place – collaboration for “Life 2.0” as Founder Andrew Cameron-Webb calls it. He has a good point – our lives don’t begin and end at the office (although sometimes it feels that way!) so why should our collaboration technology? Sosius lets you create Career and Life “Workspaces” so you can easily invite appropriate contacts to the best workspace and manage all the intersections of your life from one application. From scheduling family activities to managing that big work project, Sosius brings powerful, easy online collaboration and sharing to the everyday user.

What else makes Sosius unique? Experienced veterans. Cameron-Webb is the creator of Collaborative Workspaces, a successful enterprise-grade web collaboration service and Chairman Steve Crummey is the founder of Intranets.com, acquired by WebEx (now Cisco).

Sign up here and let us know what you think!

Business 2.0 the First of Many “Road Kill”?

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Everyone knows by now that Business 2.0 will be closing with its October issue as its last. We had an online publishing client earlier this year who’s CEO kept telling us all printed magazines and newspapers were “road kill.” Was he right?

<< Hmmm… interesting cover story…hopefully you didn’t take the advice to heart.

I can’t imagine that the printed word will forever be depleted but clearly the Internet continues to shape and define our daily lives and business. The Editor of Business 2.0, Joshua Quittner, stated “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being heartbroken,” in a New York Times report on the story. Joshua, we are too. Business 2.0 was witty, informative, selective and insightful. It had a unique knack for providing comedic relief on even the most esoteric of technologies.

Hopefully this is not the first in a series of “road kill,” but we’ll be watching – along with the rest of the tech community – carefully.

Now, onto Fortune!

Business Online at Office 2.0 Conference This Week

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We have some exciting new clients attending Office 2.0 this week to unveil great new online applications for business and individual professionals. We’ll announce some of their news later this week. Just like the show itself, PerkettPR’s clients are focusing on social networks for business, a new generation of online collaboration and more.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a small but focused show that highlights the best in online productivity and although there are a lot of Goliaths in attendance (Google, Microsoft, SAP, Intuit and more), there are also a lot of next generation Web 2.0 innovators showcasing their wares. These are very often the folks who bring the best to our market – the SMB market. Not only are we an SMB ourselves, but many of our clients fall into this category. We are always looking for the best in online collaboration, SaaS and productivity solutions. We use a lot of these already, including Intuit’s QuickBooks Online, ADP EasyNet, Constant Contact’s email marketing and online survey products, Genius’ SalesGenius, GoToMeeting and of course a plethora of Google business solutions. We also use our client, Conduit’s, AllMyBlogs toolbar to stay updated on up-to-the-minute news and opinions from the hottest blogs such as TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable and Webware.

 

 

 

 

 

Press and blog coverage has already begun – and with some of the best bloggers, reporters and analysts attending, it’s sure to expand this week. We can’t wait to see what’s unveiled at this show that focuses on a “unique gathering of visionaries, thought leaders, and customers using innovative online services for getting things done at the office, at home, and on the go.” As a distributed workforce trendsetter, that’s music to our ears.

PerkettPR TechCrunch Party Report; July 27, 2007 at August Capital

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It was a wild and wonderful time at the TechCrunch Party 9 on Friday. Thanks to the gorgeous hot weather in the early hours of the party, the PerkettPR–sponsored margarita booth had a continual flow of Silicon Valley’s “hottest” lining up to get some relief with our frosty beverages. Here’s a recap of our collective experience at the event:

Partypeople_6TechCrunch parties certainly haven’t lost any steam since last year. We pinched hit in the registration area for a good portion of the event, so we were able to really get an understanding for just how many people marched through the door (we’re guessing it was over 800). We caught up with one of the most famous invited guests, Sarah Meyers, before the party, (who was kicked out at last year’s event for sneaking in un–invited and filming the event). She filled us in on how although she had been kicked out last year, she was personally invited to the party by Mike Arrington this year to capture a new and improved video blog from the event. Check out her very entertaining blog post with the famous video from last year, and her much improved (though definitely not as funny), video interviews from this year’s event.

The annual TechCrunch Silicon Valley gathering is a great opportunity for our clients to get some exposure with all the right VCs and influencers in the valley, and also a great place for the PPR team to meet and talk with the many reporters and bloggers we usually only communicate with over email or on rushed phone conversations. WiredlanehartwellEric Auchard of Reuters was nice enough to take the time to speak to several PPR team members. He gave us the lowdown on what he thinks is hot right now in the tech world, but we won’t tell you, because you will all inundate him with even more pitches J. It was great to chat with Nick Gonzalez, Duncan Riley and Andrew Philips of TechCrunch. We had never met Duncan in person before, so he gave us a little history of himself and told us a little more about what it’s like to write for one of the world’s hottest tech blogs. (Don’t worry Duncan, we won’t share your secrets.) Dan Farber of ZDNet was on hand with his camera, taking some great shots of the party, and Dean Takahashi seemed to be bombarded with pitches from start-ups looking for local ink. The Scobleizer, Robert Scoble, was there with his son and posting TwitterGrams live from the party.

Several current and former clients of ours enjoyed mingling among the massive turnout out of SV types, and we were happy to spend some quality time catching up with colleagues past and present. It was great to see Pradeep Javangula, CTO of Tumri, taking in the chaos of the party and talking up Tumri’s most recent news coverage from BusinessWeek while Reena Jadhav of Conduit, was working the crowd with her tireless enthusiasm, educating the masses on the power of Conduit’s community toolbars. We also spent some time catching up with Jim Mansfield, Bipin Parmar and Ram Ramkumar from our favorite ringtone creation destination, Phonezoo. Phonezoo has been making waves recently with 1.2 million users and they continue to prove that creating and sharing personalized ringtones is always going to be hot! We also met up with former colleague, Ben Heskett, and caught up on his latest endeavor at Kiptronic. Benheskettcmajor
Parker Trewin of Genius was there too. In between pitches, Parker had a great time sneaking up on partygoers and labeling them with Genius stickers. We’re happy to see their efforts at the event led to a nice mention in Dean Takahashi’s blog post.

We met several entrepreneurs and executives including folks from the usual suspects, like Google and Ask.com as well as many startups looking for PR advice. We’re hoping to get a chance to work with them when they’re ready and so we won’t name them all here for obvious reasons. However, folks like Matt Maroon of BlueFrog Gaming was one of the more colorful characters to approach us – a former poker champion turned Internet entrepreneur. How cool is that? Fantasy Sports 2.0 was one of many companies in attendance looking to capitalize on the popularity of social networking – this time for fantasy sports fans. And at the end of the evening we had fun with Alex Tew, creator of the Million Dollar Homepage. He was a good sport about our ribbing on his “members only” jacket and while young, was quite humble and a great sport.

We absolutely have to shout out to the TC interns Mark and Andrew. They were great guys and clearly have good heads on their shoulders – check out their posts on the site covering everything from the iPhone to social networking. In addition, the gracious Mark Hendrickson took us to the local grocery store to get emergency water for the margarita machines when we arrived. And he helped us haul 30 or so gallons of it up to our booth. Thank you so much!

Chrismikeheather_3 Last, but not least, Mike Arrington. He was in great form, chatting with anyone and everyone that wanted his ear, posing for photographs and, in general, taking his growing Internet celebrity status in stride. He’s got to be a little overwhelmed (and perhaps slightly annoyed) with the sheer volume of attention he received, but he didn’t let it show. Maybe it’s due in part to the fact that he now has TechCrunch CEO, Heather Harde, working the business side of things. Heather not only helped set everything in motion before the party, but took the helm and addressed the masses at the end of the event. We look forward to hearing more from her in the future.

See Mike’s TechCrunch event recap post for more details and be sure to check out his pictures on Flickr. There are also several other good event summaries on WIRED’s Epicenter blog, and Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang.

Thanks to Mike, Heather and Jeanne Logozzo for your help so we could participate in this year’s event, and thanks to everyone that stopped by the PerkettPR margarita booth We hope to meet many more of you again soon and work together to build even greater “buzz” for your tech endeavors.

— Posted by Heather

Have a (Free) Margarita with Us at TechCrunch Tonight

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If you’ll be at TechCrunch Meet-Up at August Capital tonight, please stop by and say hello to the PerkettPR team. We’ll be sponsoring a margarita stand – free margaritas for all – but we’ll also be mingling with the crowd to meet the best and brightest new entrepreneurs, investors and business minds in the valley. We’re excited to be a part of this sold out event and of course we hope to meet new influencers, clients and even colleagues (we’re hiring on both coasts!).

Look for the team in green to find out “what the buzz is about!”

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Chris

PerkettPR to Sponsor TechCrunch Party 9 at August Capital –July 27, 2007

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Techcrunch2_4It’s that time of year again. Time for another of Mike Arrington’s sold out mixers on the sun-filled deck of August Capital. Take a look at his write up about the season’s coolest tech party here TechCrunch Party 9.

While we have recommended and coordinated sponsorship of the event, in the past, for our clients, this is the first time we are taking the plunge and putting ourselves in the spotlight. Any why not? We certainly have a lot of experience building buzz out there in this insanely exciting, increasingly crowded Web2.0 market. This audience IS our people. Our team is comprised of an enthusiastic group of tech geeks and we can’t wait to meet the new round of players making noise in this space.

If you happen to be attending, stop by our frozen margarita booth to score an icy cold beverage and learn more about our Buzz-building ways for your business. If you can’t get a ticket to the event, but would like to meet up with Chris Perkett while she is in town, send us a note to info at PerkettPR dot com and we’ll set up a time to talk with you.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

— posted by Heather

Why We Love Tech PR

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PR can be a tough business. Not with life or death pressures, certainly, but tough in the sense of gaining respect for what you do, who it benefits and why it matters. We’re often caught at family gatherings trying to explain what we do, only to stare into a sea of confused faces and at least one elder asking us what it’s like to be a journalist. Many journalists question the value of PR executives and, on more than one occasion, have been known to make their distaste for the profession clear. Clients can also be tough to win over, especially if they do not fully understand the value that PR can provide to their business and how that value is achieved. Trying to please both of the aforementioned audiences on an ongoing basis is enough to question one’s career path. As a client service profession, the demands can be high, expectations unreal, kudos fleeting and the need to prove yourself never-ending.

 

 

So why are we in the business? How is it possible that we continue to persevere and help some of the most interesting companies increase market mindshare and reach their target audiences day after day? There are a lot of reasons, but the best reason for those of us at PerkettPR has to do with our specialty, high tech. We’re actually in this business for the same reason a lot of journalists, bloggers and clients themselves are – we love technology.

And, as one of the first entities pulled into the conversation when a new business is born or product is on the horizon, we get to learn about the latest and greatest services, applications and gadgets long before the rest of the world.

 

 

 

We have had an ongoing invitation to board rooms around the world to watch some of the most engaging, enthusiastic and extremely intelligent entrepreneurs at work. We are there as they envision and create the serious business tools and fun personal gadgets that continue to evolve the world’s way of working and playing. And despite the sometimes bad reputation for PR as “controlling and misleading,” those of us in high tech are really more focused on the fun task of telling as many people as possible about all these fabulous new technologies that continue to shape our society. Educating people on how technology continues to enhance the world around us – and make everyone’s lives more fun and productive – is a big part of our job and why we love it.

 

 

 

Tech PR executives, like the team here at PerkettPR, have been privy to some of the business world’s most confidential conversations, helping to shape the rollout of technologies and products – and even industry evolutions such as Web 2.0 – that people will stand in line for – or pay others to do so – for days at a time. We learn about the most exciting new technologies – from SaaS to CRM, VoIP to CEP, social networking to Internet search, video-on-demand to online photo sharing – years before the general public. We have seen technology innovation move at a rapid fire pace – through engineering departments to the depths of HR, from consumers to specialized groups such as doctors, Baby Boomers to Millenials – the growth never ends. It’s an incredibly exciting industry to be in and it doesn’t stop. We have the privilege to work with top innovators from all around the world, enabling us to always learn something new – and valuable – every single day.

 

Whether it’s why blogging matters to how a router works, to what AJAX is or how different businesses in different parts of the world build teams and track metrics, we utilize this information not only to benefit our clients, but to build a better company here at PerkettPR. We’ve been there to celebrate many tech successes and we’ve seen – and learned from – our share of industry hiccups.

 

 

While we still might not be able to explain to our friends just what we do, we always get a kick out of watching their expressions when we hint at what’s coming next in technology…so stay tuned, because as the buzz continues around the return of tech IPOs and what lessons we all learned from the dot com bust, we plan to be right in the middle of it – always.