sMoRTy71.com

Big announcement: Mei-li makes 5!

2009-10-27T22:46:00.008-04:00

Got some big news in the Morton household. We've decided to add a 5th child to our family. No, this isn't a long lost love child from spring breaks of old. We've finally decided to adopt.

I say "finally" because Amy and I had planned to adopt back in 2007. We ended up getting pregnant with Maddox while we were going through the adoption classes, so things have been on hold for a couple of years.

Recently, Amy received an e-mail from an adoption agency about a little girl in China with special needs. She has a condition known as Arthrogryposis which affects the joints in her arms and legs. Arthrogryposis is treatable; however, she has not received any treatment for the disorder since she arrived at the orphanage as an infant.

Even with her disorder, she is able to walk and play and has a great personality. She also has a bit of a head start on learning to speak English.

We had never really considered an overseas adoption, but, after seeing "Lucy," (the American name they gave her at the orphanage) we felt compelled to make this happen.

We are just getting started on the paperwork, so it will still be close to 9 months before she can join our family. We are going to name her Mei-li (pronounced may-lee) which means "beautiful" in Chinese. We wanted her to have something that recognized her culture while fitting in with all of our other kids' M names :)

We can't wait to have her here and to start getting her the medical care she needs.

Although they don't know her exact birthday, she is almost 3 years old. This will put her close to Maddox's age.

We'll be adding new photos to this set on Flickr as we get them.

My review of The Beatles: Rock Band on TechRepublic

2009-10-23T20:30:00.000-04:00

Just a heads up that the review of The Beatles: Rock Band that I did for TechRepublic has been posted. Check it out and let me know what you think.

American Advertising Federation October luncheon recap

2009-10-21T10:41:00.008-04:00

I made the trip up to Cleveland yesterday morning to speak at the American Advertising Federation's October luncheon.

I was invited to co-present with David Alston, Radian6's VP of Marketing, so I jumped at the chance.

We had a good turnout (150+) and great interaction with the attendees before, during and after the event. We even had decent Twitter back channel conversations happening which is always a good sign. Also got to connect with our partners from Rosetta including Adam Cohen and Dean Skinner.

David did a great job of framing up the overall discussion and then allowing me to share what we've learned through our social media work on Twitter and Facebook at Nationwide.

Thanks again to Lisa, King and Dan at AAF-Cleveland for the invite and to all those who attended. It was a lot of fun.

FFL 09 Week 4: FTW! 126, Woodlawn Woodchucks 79

2009-10-06T08:02:00.000-04:00

When we look back on this fantasy football season, week 4 was when things all feel into place for the future Super Bowl champs (that's me, BTW).

I made a free agent pick up and switched some of my starters around. Now FTW! is a finely-tuned, football (and trash talkin') machine.

We lead the league this week with 125 total points. Had big games from Ben Roethlisberger (25 points), Steve Smith (25 points) and Pierre Thomas (18 points). Overall record improved to 3-1.

Next week, we face the 2-2 Big Times who have 3 starters on a bye. W00t!

FFL 09 Week 3: FTW! 108, Sour Mash 83

2009-09-29T07:01:00.002-04:00

After an any-given-Sunday fluke in week 2, I was able to bounce back to form in week 3 against The Sour Mash 108-83.

I benched Tom Brady for Roethlisberger, who scored 24, and reactivated Willis McGahee, who scored in the 20s for the 3rd straight week, and cruised to victory. My only miss was leaving Pierre Thomas, who had been injuried, on the bench. Thomas Jones, who started in his place, put up 2 points. Pierre put up 24.

This coming week, I move out of division play to face the 1-2 Woodlawn Woodchucks. Need to find a good 3rd wide receiver (to replace Justin Gage) and I should be in good shape for my run to the Super Bowl :)

FFL 09 Week 2: Dbags 95, FTW! 67

2009-09-22T06:57:00.002-04:00

Rough second week of Fantasy Football. There was a lot (a lot!) of trash talking leading up to my face-off with talentless, FFL rookie Mark Donohue. Expectations were high after my league-leading 124 points in Week 1 (and his 70 points).

Unfortunately, Mark's team had its "any given Sunday" moment and managed to *squeak* out a 28 point win.

My team, as a whole, didn't perform up to their averages. Tom Brady, Thomas Jones and Reggie Wayne all scored fewer than 10 points (after scoring 19 or more in Week 1). Then, there was a coaching mistake on my part. I pulled Willis McGahee at the last minute and he put up 19 points. Still wouldn't have been enough to catch Donohue's bunch of no-talent hacks, but I hate leaving points on the bench.

I hope Mark cherishes this win. I doubt he'll get many more. Now, I must set my sites squarely on Ted Laun's The Sour Mash.

FFL 09 Week 1: FTW! 124, RTC 69

2009-09-14T22:14:00.007-04:00

Just like Tom Brady and my Patriots, my fantasy team, FTW!, returned to form with a 55-point beatdown in the season opener against Brendan Jackson's former powerhouse RTC. In fact, 124 points led all teams in league.

Tom Brady, Thomas Jones and Reggie Wayne led the way with 25, 22 and 22 respectively. Also got good performances out of Willis McGahee and the Giants defense who each scored 19.

My backups were solid, too, with 3 players accounting for 44 points including my waiver pickup Ben Watson who put up 19 points.

Will have to get on the waivers to get a WR. One of my starters, Anthony Gonzalez, was injured and put up the big goose egg. His backup, Kevin Walter, is injured as well.

Of course, I am playing Mark Donohue's team next week, so 8 starters should be enough...

DirecTV HR21 + PlayOn = Awesome!

2009-09-10T19:30:00.000-04:00

This weekend, we switched back to DirecTV after a long year with cable. We had been DirecTV customers for the previous 12 years, but, for some unknown reason, we decided to give cable a shot. While our cable experience wasn't terrible, it wasn't anything special either.

With the arrival of football season and the crazy NFL Sunday Ticket promos DirecTV is running, we decided it was the right time to switch back.

One thing I wasn't expecting was just how cool the Media Share options of the DirecTV HR21-700 HD DVR would be. Out of the box, the HR21 will let you connect to your home network and pull in videos, photos and music. Nothing really groundbreaking, but still nice. What completely rocked my world, though, was the awesomeness that ensued when I installed PlayOn Media Server on my media PC.

Now, instead of your basic media sharing options, you get the ability to stream Netflix, hulu, YouTube, ESPN and CBS. I used the Netflix and hulu streaming the first night (since I had no shows on my brand new DVR) and it was great. No extra hardware to buy. No crazy DRM hassles. It just worked.

Last night, I connected my SlingCatcher in our master bedroom and will be using the HR21 to give us Netflix and hulu streaming there as well. Very cool.

Mira donated to Locks of Love again

2009-09-10T11:12:00.011-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, Amy took Mira, 5 1/2, to get her hair cut in order to donate it to Locks of Love. This is her second time donating. She got all of her hair cut off in April 2008 as well. You can see the photos from her first time here.

In addition to knowing she is helping other kids, Mira really enjoys the princess treatment she gets when she goes to the salon to donate. She especially likes getting her hair washed and styled after. She was very excited to share that they used "shampoo *and* conditioner!"

We are so proud of her willingness to help others. Hopefully someone will be able to benefit from her donation.

Mira's new 'do

You can learn more about Locks of Love here.

Happy 9th birthday, Miles!

2009-08-29T00:01:00.002-04:00

Today, our son Miles (AKA Big Miles 2000) turns 9. Happy birthday, Miles!

Where I am speaking this fall [updated 9/21/09]

2009-08-28T12:45:00.002-04:00

Was just looking at my calendar and realized that I have quite a few (for me, anyway) speaking gigs coming up over the next couple of months. Of course, let's not forget about those SXSWi sessions that still need your thumbs up vote (was that too subtle of a hint?).

Guest lecture for MBA Internet Marketing course (The Ohio State University, October 5th)

Social media panel at State Insurance Trade Association conference (Cincinnati, October 7th)

Social media in business panel (Columbus, TBD)
I will be moderating a panel for Nationwide associates that will bring in local businesses, both large and small, to share how they're using social media and what best practices are emerging for them as their social media strategies evolve.

American Advertising Federation session on social media monitoring (Cleveland, October 20)
I will be co-presenting with David Alston, Radian6's VP of Marketing, at a luncheon for the Cleveland chapter of the American Advertising Federation.

This event will be the second in a series of social media events AAF-Cleveland is doing. The first, on Facebook, will be hosted by Facebook's Sean Sullivan who we've worked with at Nationwide (and who worked at CNET at the same time I did). Highly recommend his "The Branding of Facebook" session on September 16th.

Ohio Diversity and Leadership Conference (Columbus, November 5-6)

Credibility Conversation series (Cleveland, November 11)
Ed Skimin of Emerge Inc. is putting together the Credibility Conversation series and asked me to be involved. Not exactly sure of my topic yet, but it will surely be better than Lewis Howes who is presently there on October 14th (Kidding! You should check out Lewis' session, too).

As I subtly mentioned earlier, I am also on three proposed panels for SXSWi 2010. Would love a thumbs up vote on those to help us get those panels approved. You can learn more about my SXSWi 2010 panels here.

Happy 12th birthday, Mahlon!

2009-08-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

Today, our oldest son turns 12 (although he thinks he's already 17 or 18). Happy birthday, Mahlon!

Please give my 2010 SXSWi panels a thumbs up

2009-08-17T13:30:00.001-04:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while (thanks again, mom!), you know that I rarely ask for favors. Today, however, I am going to cash in that blog karma and ask for you to vote for the 3 panels I am on for SXSWi 2010.

See, SXSWi takes panel ideas from the community. Of course, they get way more ideas than they can handle, so they also turn to the community to vote for their favorites.

I have been fortunate enough to be invited to 3 panels which I think are all going to be worthwhile. Please take a minute and check them out below. If they sound like something you'd like to see at SXSWi 2010, I would appreciate a "thumbs up" vote. If they sound like something you wouldn't like to see..., I would still appreciate a "thumbs up" vote.

1. Social Media at Fortune 100 Companies
I pitched this panel idea to my pals Jim Storer, who runs The Community Roundtable, and Scott Monty, who runs social media at a tiny Detroit company called Ford. They were able to get more folks from IBM, Dell, SAP and Microsoft. Basically, we're going to look at how large companies are using social media.

"Companies of all sizes are adopting social media and community, but large organizations have some unique challenges and opportunities. This panel will uncover best practices through stories told by social media leaders from Ford, Nationwide, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and Dell."

Vote for this panel here

2. Social ROI is Not a Four Letter Word
Aaron Strout from Powered asked me to join his colleague Kathy Warren and reps from Kodak and Coca-Cola to talk about the return on investment for social media. I think this is the big question/challenge in the industry right now, so this should be a great discussion.

"If you've ever tried tracking down a return on investment (ROI) on "social" you’ve found that it's nearly impossible to find. During this interactive discussion, listen as brand practitioners from Coke, Nationwide and Kodak talk about ways that their companies are deriving real ROI from social while providing best practices, case studies and examples of how companies can achieve this elusive ROI Holy Grail."

Vote for this panel here

3. This Isn't on the Map, Where the Hell Are We?
The third panel I was invited to features some of my favorite social media people. It is being organized by my former CNET colleague Bill Johnston and will feature Jake McKee, Sean O'Driscoll and Aaron Strout. I am really looking forward to this one.

"Social media practice and implementation is a dynamic and volatile subject that effects all functions in a company from the obvious (product, support, marketing) to the not so obvious (hr, operations). Hear from 5 seasoned social media practitioners (plus YOU!) about where we are on "the map" of social media adoption and practice, and where we are headed. The mood will be lively, the panel bright eyed and prepared, and the audience smart (and involved)."

Vote for this panel here

Chicago & Lollapalooza 2009 recap

2009-08-12T07:01:00.022-04:00

Amy and I just returned from a great, kid-free weekend in Chicago. In fact, it was the first kid-free weekend we have had in over 10 years. The last time was a road trip from Memphis to St. Louis in 1998 to see the Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest at the Kiel Center on August 8th. So when I saw that the Beastie Boys were going to be headlining the second night of Lollapalooza on... August 8th, I had to get tickets.

Of course, after getting tickets, arranging for my mom to come over and watch the kids and getting a *sweet* hotel room, the Beastie Boys were forced to cancel their show.

Amy is a whiz with a digital camera. I'm the shadowy figure on the right. Trust me.

The weekend started with a cold, rainy Friday in Chicago. We stopped by the Google office to have lunch, get a tour and play a little Rock Band. Amy and I joined Shannon and Lindsey from Google on "Eye of the Tiger" and "Livin' on a Prayer."

After leaving Google, we checked into our room at theWit before heading out to shop for the rest of the afternoon.

The most surreal stop was at the American Girl store on Michigan Avenue. Thanks to our neighbor, Mira is convinced that she needs one (or more) American Girl dolls. We're still not so sure, so we grabbed a catalog and got out while we could.

For dinner, we headed to Joe's on the corner of Grand and Rush. Highly recommended if you like steak (and a lot of it). The grilled tomatoes are also outta sight.

I topped off the steak with an Old Fashioned

Saturday, we decided to search for an old-school diner to have breakfast. We ended up at the Pittsfield Cafe which is tucked away in the lobby of the Pittsfield building (duh!) at the corner of Wabash and Washington. The food (I got the Jumping Bean omelet with hashbrowns) and service were excellent.

After lunch, we decided that more shopping was in order before heading over to Grant Park for Lollapalooza. The weather had gone from 60s and rain on Friday to 95 and sunny on Saturday, so we didn't want to get there too early (since we would be there until 10pm).

The Chicago skyline provides an awesome backdrop for Lollapalooza

Thanks to a scheduling mishap on my part, we ended up arriving at Lollapalooza around 1pm for what I thought was a 2:30pm Arctic Monkeys set. Minutes after heading in, I realized the mistake. Because we bought one-day tickets, we weren't able to leave and come back in. So, we did what we do best, we decided to shop at the various booths set up in the middle of the park.

After shopping, we discovered two things that would prove very handy as we waited for the Arctic Monkeys set: homemade ice cream and shaded hammocks. Local radio station Q101 had set up dozens of hammocks under the trees, so Amy and I stretched out, ate some ice cream and did some people watching.

In the hammock

The hammock was great for people watching

We were still able to enjoy some of the music from the nearby stages. We heard much of Ida Maria's set and some of Gomez's as well.

Eventually, we forced ourselves out of the hammock to check out Perry Farrell's DJ set on the Perry's stage. We got there a few minutes early and were able to see Prophit finishing up their set with a cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade."

At 4:30, we finally got to see the Arctic Monkeys who were awesome. They sounded great and played a lot of my favorite songs including "505" which ended the set.

A clip from "A View from the Afternoon"

We were able to hear some of the Santigold set while waiting for TV on the Radio who came on at 6:30. I wasn't a huge TVOTR fan (I have "Return to Cookie Mountain," but really only listen to one track), but they put on a really good show.

A little clip from "Wolf Like Me"

We closed out the evening with the headlining set from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I had seen them at the much smaller Lifestyle Communities Pavilion when they came to Columbus a couple of months ago and was eager to see them again in front of the much larger Lollapalooza crowd. As usual, Karen O. put on a great show.

A clip from "Zero"

After a long, hot day at Lollapalooza, we headed back to the room and crashed. We wanted to check out the club Roof on the top floor of our hotel, but we were just too wiped out.

While it was great to get away, we're not used to being away from the kids. So we packed up before noon and headed home. Depending on the bands, I would like to do it again next year. Not sure Amy feels the same way, though :)

Fantasy Football 2009 begins!

2009-07-24T18:12:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has read this blog over the years (thanks, mom!) knows that I am a Fantasy Football nut. Sure, I love football, but what brings me back year after year is something much better.

See, I started playing fantasy football while I was working at CNET. We had a league made up of developers and other web nerds who were ultra-competitive in everything we did, especially when it came to humiliating others based on their lackluster FF performance.

Even though my CNET days are behind me, I still return to fantasy football each fall with some of the guys I played with all those years to berate, degrade and verbally abuse them around our favorite virtual sports pastime.

This year, we have opened the league up a bit. We have 6 current or former CNETers, 3 Nationwiders, 1 former Yahoo!, 1 self-proclaimed "tool" (from the best radio station in Columbus), 1 Canadian Steelers fanatic and 1 startup entrepreneur who has an unhealthy obsession with yours truly.

For those who were invited to the league, but didn't sign up before it filled up, we'll miss you. To our wives and families who have to watch us act like idiots for the next 5 months, I'm sorry. And for the other 11 teams in our league, good luck playing for second place.

Playing with Facebook's new Fan Box

2009-07-10T13:56:00.007-04:00

Facebook has been rolling out a lot of features to extend the footprint of their site with Facebook Connect, their Comments Box, the Live Stream and, now, the Fan Box.

The Fan Box lets brands or celebrities to put their Facebook content on external websites. You can see Nationwide's Fan Box in the right column of this page.

My Columbus Dispatch interview on social media

2009-06-28T10:08:00.009-04:00

The front page of the Business section in the Columbus Dispatch this morning features an interview I did for their story titled "Clicking with consumers."

The article shares how a handful of local businesses like Nationwide, Jeni's Ice Cream, Katzinger's Deli and Deer Creek Resort, are using social media.

I did the interview several weeks ago and had almost forgotten about it. Of course, I found out about the article from friends on Facebook and Twitter before I noticed it in the Sunday paper.

Here is my portion, but I recommend you read the entire article to see what other local businesses are doing with social media:

"Many of these bigger businesses are creating positions to manage social media efforts, hiring employees who are in charge of wading through all the new forms of technology and deciding what's best for the company.

Shawn Morton's position as senior consultant for social media at Nationwide Insurance was created for him last July, when the company decided to put a lot of energy into the concept.

Nationwide has a large presence on Facebook and Twitter (about 1,400 fans and 800 followers, respectively) and also released an application for the iPhone in April, along with a popular TV commercial, that allows users to take pictures of accident scenes and send them to Nationwide, stores insurance information and finds repair shops.

And the result is a strange fusion of old and new media. When people see the TV commercial, they "tweet" about it. Where before someone might have told a friend about the commercial, word of mouth is now fingers on a keyboard, instantly reaching an audience of millions.

"The iPhone has a lot of passionate users," Morton said. "Downloads have been good."

The insurance company also uses Facebook and Twitter to post photos and coverage from its NASCAR events, which has been a real boost for social media traffic, Morton said.

Read the full "Clicking with consumers" story on dispatch.com.

Ohio Growth Summit tweetup recap

2009-06-10T06:17:00.025-04:00

Compared to what I was used to in Louisville, Columbus has a ton of social media events going on on a weekly basis. That means a lot of stuff falls off my radar as each new meetup announcement comes through my inbox. The Ohio Growth Summit Tweetup was something that I put on my calendar immediately upon hearing about it. Why? First, it had been a couple of weeks since I had been to a tweetup (sad, right?). Second, it was going to feature Chris Brogan. Third, it was featuring a presentation by Mike Figilulo whom I had not met yet (and somehow still haven't).

The event was held at the Columbus State Center for Workforce Development and kicked off with a networking reception. After grabbing my name tag, I immediately ran into Nate Riggs, Tom Williams of InnoGage and Christian Adams of Sigma Creative. We were soon joined by Billy Fischer from Oxiem and the recently-engaged Cheryl Harrison of Sync Creative. In our little circle, we talked about everything from social media in the insurance industry (I tend to blab about that a lot) to engagement rings to Facebook brand pages. I also met David Watts from Columbus State who is a former Nationwider (for 12 years).

Eventually, we were herded into a larger conference room so that Mike Figliuolo could do his presentation. I wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't heard Mike speak before (and I didn't read the agenda to know what the topic would be :).

The presentation was on leadership and how to develop your personal leadership maxims. Mike made the topic revelant to the tweetup crowd by sharing stories (that combined humor, real-world advice and Mike's engaging, in-your-face style) from his experiences in the military and in companies like Chase, McKinsey and Scotts-Miracle Gro. It definitely made you stop and think about your approach to leading and challenged you to evaluate some of the things you stand for as a leader.

As with any presentation, you could judge it's success by the number of comments and questions at the end. Mike fielded a dozen or more questions before adjourning. And this was after everyone knew that Chris Brogan had arrived. Everyone wanted to meet Brogan, but were still engaged enough with Mike's topic to keep asking questions.

As the networking portion of the event kicked in, Billy Fischer and I got to chat with Wassan Humadi who had been sitting at our table. She shared what she's doing with her consulting company that matches up foreign students with American colleges and universities. Listening to her explain what she did, it was clear she is very passionate and knowledgeable about the higher ed space.

I eventually worked my way over the catch up with Brogan who I spent some time with in Louisville a few weeks ago. He shared some of his travel woes that got him to Columbus later than planned. In fact, he did a nice blog recap of the experience on his blog early thing morning.

I also connected with LinkedIn expert Lewis Howes again. Lewis, who lives in Columbus, and I first connected in Austin during SXSW 2009 when my old pal Jason Falls introduced us in the blogger lounge. Lewis introduced me to Brian Schneider and we chatted about social media and my role at Nationwide.

Before calling it a night, I was able to finally meet Alvin Borromeo who I have known through Twitter for a while. We talked about the Columbus social media "scene" compared to the Louisville one. I also met Rick Coplin who does Business Development at TechColumbus.

Overall, I got everything I expect from a good event: great people, content and conversation. Oh, I did miss one thing. I really wanted to take the air out of Ryan Bauer's tires for this little comment on Twitter earlier in the day about Nationwide's social media efforts (that has since been deleted):

"@sMoRTy71 Speaking of a dated "Insurance Social Media Strategy" have you seen what they're doing at @nationwide. Oh wait. I guess you have."

Speaking at "Getting Results with Social Media" on 6/18

2009-06-01T12:45:00.001-04:00

I have been invited to speak at the Columbus Chamber's upcoming "Getting Results with Social Media" event on June 18th. I am excited about the topic (since so few events really talk about results) and the other speakers.

The lineup is:
Gary Moneysmith, Conrad, Phillips & Vutech
Matt Yuskewich, Ologie
Lara Kretler, Fahlgren Mortine
Bill Baldarez, Webbed Marketing
Stephanie Busack, Bob Evans Farms
Shawn Morton, Nationwide Insurance
Matt Dickman, Fleishman Hillard
Kevin Pfefferle, COSI
Brian Link, Toobla, BE Consulting & thoughtLEADERS
Bobby Whitman, dynamIt

I am going to share some of the success we've had using Twitter to engage with fans of our NASCAR Nationwide Series.

You can register for the event here.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Maddox!

2009-05-31T12:15:00.001-04:00

This photo was taken yesterday at the zoo. Maddox just got his first peek of the elephants.

Today is Maddox Milo Morton's 2nd birthday. It seems like yesterday that we were taking the photo below.

In his brief 2 years, he has been through so much (wearing a helmet to correct a misshapen skull, a bout with RSV, a broken leg, hernia surgery and a diagnosis of Celiacs), but he has always been a joy to be around.

For his big gift, we got him a Kota the Triceratops. He absolutely loved it.

See all of his birthday photos and videos on Flickr.

Jane's Addiction live in Columbus

2009-05-30T10:54:00.008-04:00

After a great Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at The LC the night before, Amy and I headed out to the Jane's Addiction show there last night. It was actually the first time since moving to Columbus last year that we had gone out without the kids. We grabbed dinner and some Jeni's ice cream at North Market then some drinks in the Arena District before settling in for Jane's.

Because it was an outdoor show, we had to wait until it got dark for the show to start. That left us with plenty of time to do some people watching (which was awesome) and have an adult beverage.

During "Nothing Shocking"

Jane's Addiction played a 90-minute set that opened with "Three Days" and finished with "Jane Says." Perry Farrell was one part lounge singer (he wore a gold satin jumpsuit with cummerbund and scarf), one part rock star and one part stoner at the coffee shop that asks you strange questions (he asked the mostly 30+ crowd if school was out yet). I'm not complaining, BTW. Perry is a great showman and definitely kept the crowd engaged. Check out the clip from the end of "Stop" to see that in action.

The end of "Stop"

The weather was absolutely perfect until the last few seconds of "Jane Says." At that point, a downpour started. As the crowd ran for cover, Perry said, "We made it rain!"

You can check out my photos and videos from show on Flickr.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs live in Columbus

2009-05-29T08:36:00.007-04:00

I attended the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show in Columbus last night at "the LC." It was an amazing show. Karen O. had the crowd in the palm of her hand throughout (even tho they had to restart one song twice because she lost her place). They covered songs from all of their albums. I was disappointed not to hear "Tick," but was glad to hear "Black Tongue" and "Date with a Night."

I was able to get digital photos and some HD video on my Flip camera.
Check out more video clips and photos from the YYYs show in Columbus.

YYYs-esque Grand Ole Party was the opening act. I was pleasantly surprised with their set.

Part of "Black Tongue" live

My interview with Tavis Smiley

2009-05-22T14:52:00.007-04:00

It's not every day that you get asked to interview one of TIME's 100 most influential people, so I was pretty thrilled (and a little nervous) heading into my one-on-one with Tavis Smiley yesterday at Nationwide headquarters in Columbus.

Tavis is in the 2nd year of a partnership with Nationwide for the On Your Side Tour and was in Columbus to announce the dates for 2009. I was able to get 10 minutes with him between his media interviews and his talk for Nationwide associates.

My questions centered around the OYS Tour as well as his new documentary STAND which had one of its first public screenings in Columbus last night. Here are my questions followed by his video response:

1. What can attendees of one of the five OYS Tour stops expect to learn? See Tavis' response on Nationwide's Facebook page

2. What was the most interesting thing you learned during the 2008 OYS Tour? See Tavis' response on Nationwide's Facebook page

3. Can you share an example from your film where you learned something you didn't already know about the people traveling with you? (This answer is my favorite, so I am embedding it below)

Afterward, Tavis was nice enough to pose for a photo with me. He even cracked a couple of Twitter-related jokes saying that he can't say no to a photo with the social media guy because I might trash him in 140 characters.

You can learn more about the On Your Side Tour and the 2009 tour dates at nationwide.com.

Inbound Marketing Bootcamp & SMC Louisville recap

2009-05-20T19:15:00.029-04:00

One of the many things I miss about Louisville is the amazing social media community there. I was fortunate enough to be there a year and a half ago when the Social Media Club chapter was formed and was on the board until I moved to Columbus in July.

So when I heard that Chris Brogan was bringing his Inbound Marketing Bootcamp to Louisville *and* that he would be speaking at the SMC Louisville meeting the same night, I had to make the trip back to the 'Ville.

I headed down on Monday afternoon and met Jason Falls, Amber Naslund of Radian6, Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs, and Brendan Jackson from Creative Alliance for dinner at Proof on Main. Fortunately, everyone loved to eat, have a few cocktails and laugh (a lot), so it was a great time. I shared one infamous story from SXSWi that had the table in tears.

After dinner, we moved to the Proof bar and had another drink. For this one, we were joined by David Finch and Chris Brogan. I pulled a Don Draper (thanks to a tip from Brendan) and had an Old Fashioned before calling it a night.

Photo by Chris Brogan

The Inbound Marketing Bootcamp kicked off at 8:30am on Tuesday. The event was hosted by Humana. On the way up the elevator, one of our Humana hosts noticed my Nationwide Insurance nametag and said how cool she thought our new iPhone was. That was nice to hear.

After catching up with Scott Clark from BuzzMaven, I grabbed a table with Falls, Amber and Melissa King from KFC. There was packed house as the event started with around 100 people attending.

Photo by Chris Brogan

Over the next 7 hours, Brogan, Justin, Rick Burnes from Hubspot, Amber, Greg Cangialosi from Blue Sky Factory and Falls covered a wide variety of social media topics including blogging tips, how to engage on social networks, social media listening techniques, creating good content and the differences between bloggers and traditional media. You can check out the Twitter coverage of the event by searching the #imbc hashtag.

After the Bootcamp, we took a big group to Los Aztecas on Main for dinner before the SMC event. We ended up with Falls, Chris Bergman from the 513, Scott Clark, Justin Levy, Chris Hall and Greg Matthews from Humana's Innovation Center, Greg Cangialosi, Amber, Brogan and Rick Burnes.

Around 6pm, we headed back to the Humana Building for the Social Media Club event. Ran into a ton of old friends and former CNET colleagues including Tom Osborne, Eric Roland, Jay Garmon, Jim McDonnell from Papa John's, Rob May and Michelle Jones. Maker's Mark, who sponsored the event, provided free cocktails served in wax-covered glasses.

Brogan takes questions from the audience

Brogan took the stage around 7pm and shared his thoughts on the future of social media and took questions from the audience.

Back row: Chris Hall, me, Rob May, Michelle Jones, Greg Matthews, Justin Levy Front row: Greg Cangialosi, Amber Naslund, Chris Brogan and Jason Falls

Afterward, a group of us, including Brogan, Justin, Falls, Amber, Chris Hall and Greg Matthews, headed to the bar in the Seelbach for some drinks. Stuck with the Old Fashioned again. I spent most of the time talking shop with Brogan, Justin and the guys from Humana's Innovation Center.

I finished up the trip early the next morning by meeting Tom Osborne, Eric Roland and Kevin Brown for breakfast at Panera.

Hoping to convince Chris and Justin to bring the show to Columbus some time later this year.

Who crippled SlingPlayer for the iPhone?

2009-05-14T12:06:00.016-04:00

After months of speculation and anticipation, Sling Media and Apple released SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone this week. The release, which should have been a big day for Slingbox owners like myself (I have 3), was overshadowed by the fact that the app would *not* be allowed to use AT&T's 3G network. Instead, it can only be used on a Wi-Fi network.

Bloggers and the Twitterati quickly jumped all over the story and blame landed squarely on AT&T. After all, they had tweaked, untweaked and retweaked their Terms of Service recently to place limitations on placeshifting. And, immediately following the release, they issued a statement via Engadget that said:

"Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service. We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.

That said, we don't restrict users from going to a Web site that lets them view videos. But what our terms and conditions prohibit is the transferring, or slinging, of a TV signal to their personal computer or smartphone.

The Slingbox application for the iPhone runs on WiFi. That's good news for AT&T's iPhone 3G customers, who get free WiFi access at our 20,000 owned and operated hot spots in the U.S., including Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble, hotels, and airports. AT&T is the industry leader in WiFi."

This caused many to assume that AT&T's 3G network couldn't handle all of the SlingPlayer traffic on their network. Of course, Slingplayer is already available for Blackberry and Windows Mobile on AT&T (I've used my SlingPlayer on AT&T's network for years without a problem), so that doesn't seem to be a valid reason.

Last night, I received an e-mail from Sling Media announcing the new iPhone app (and an overshadowed update to the Blackberry version). At the very bottom of that e-mail, Sling includes the following disclaimer:

"* SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone is available as Wi-Fi only at Apple's request."

This morning, Gizmodo ran this article that claims insider knowledge of an upcoming i-Verse app from AT&T that would allow AT&T U-verse customers to placeshift their TV signal.

And let's not lose sight of the fact that Sling made an announcement a few weeks ago that owners of older Slingboxes could *not* use SlingPlayer for the iPhone. I'm sure many people upgraded their Slingbox in order to take advantage of the new app. Now, after the Wi-Fi outrage, Sling reveals that the iPhone app will support all Slingboxes. Sorry 'bout that, upgraders.

So, for those keeping score, bloggers and tweeple are blaming AT&T, AT&T is blaming Sling for violating AT&T's Sling-specific Terms of Service and Sling is blaming Apple.

As far as I'm concerned, they are all to blame. Regardless of the reason, they have all contributed to building up hype about a product that fails to meet the expectations of their customers.

I was actually considering upgrading to an iPhone this summer once their new (rumored) hardware is released. Having a Slingplayer app using that big, beautiful touchscreen was one of the primary reasons for that. Combine that with the $2,000 bill issue we just resolved and I have lost the main reason to go with the iPhone or stay with AT&T.