Yesterday, I attended the three day long web 2.0 Expo Conference at Moscone Center West in San Francisco. With my free Expo pass, not only did I have free reign to the Sponsored Sessions, I had access to the more than 70 exhibitors which included big wig sponsors such as Adobe and Cisco to non-profits such as Give@Asia. Adobe had all day demos of their product lineup.
Adobe presenter, Paul Trani showed off the Adobe Flash Builder 4 to the 60+ curious onlookers. I’m not a flasher (I just couldn’t resist) and don’t know how to write code from scratch. But given the fact that you can extract a Photoshop (and other Creative Suite tools) image from your desktop and use the software’s various custom templates and applications, the steps looked pretty straightforward. Trani transformed his static Photoshop generated image into a mobile flash game of a floating creature eating other aliens. I’ve used Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design and Final Cut Pro and I’ve taken a basic web design class. So I had a pretty basic understanding but uhhh, just don’t test me on it!
Free I-Pad prizes were all the rage at some of the booths such as “How Do You.com” booth which was rigged with a RED video camera aimed at your face the minute you step up to the plate, so to speak. RED is a 10lb mother of digital video cameras that cinematographers used to shoot feature films and documentaries. I’ve never seen one before but it was a beast rigged with all the heavy duty accoutrements. Wow. Give me RED over a new car any day.
To celebrate the 25 year old .com era (yup, quarter of a century old folks), the friendly Utah based marketing team invited anyone who was brave enough to face the RED to briefly explain how and/or why the .com era has changed his or life. Everyone received a free t-shirt. They’re also automatically entered to win a free iPad. If you’re camera shy, you can just write or email in your entry. But wait there’s more. They’re giving away 1st, 2nd and 3rd cash prizes as well. All videos and text entries will be judged by popular vote and/or official judges. The contest runs until August 31. Of course, I didn’t hesitate to advertise my mug online and pitch myself. Crossing my fingers. Check out my You Tube interview with Manager Supervisor, Jeremy Tippetts for more details.
And kudos to Account Supervisor, Brooke Knutsan and Video Producer John Williams for running a smooth ship.
Just around the corner another exhibitor called website magazine also had a contest for a free iPad. Just drop your business card and wait for a sign from God. But you do get something in the meantime. One year free subscription to their print and online “magazine for website success” - the cover’s subtitle. The publisher is based in Chicago and their May issue features interesting articles about SEO in the hot topic world of social media, the editorial effects of Google Analytics (with detailed how-to steps), and e-commerce. Hmmmmm. This is good digesting. 
After walking around the Expo, picking up flyers, and looking for freebies ( I have no shame), I visited the Launch Pad contest where startups pitched their services and or/or products to the audience, fielding questions from a panel of three experts. Winner are picked based on the applaud o-meter. I interviewed the winner, Adam Blum of Cupertino based Rhomobile before he quickly headed back to the South Bay. No time for basking in the glory. He’s got to get back to the salt mine! I’m working on that post next so stay tuned!
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