Tag Archives: recap

Truth in Tech

Truth in Tech is now on iTunes

Our weekly Truth in Tech series, where we cover the week’s wackiest, useful, and just downright interesting tech stories, is now available for download on itunes…for free. We sift through a ton of tech news on the daily. Usually we tweet about our findings, but 140 characters doesn’t leave room for much nuance. So buckle up, tune in, and join us as we uncover acquisitions, startups, apps and the ever-evolving tech landscape.

*If the above do not load, you can access the podcasts from the SoundCloud website: Truth in Tech Ep. 14: Hacked and Truth in Tech Ep. 15: The Path Less Taken.

Summary:

Truth in Tech Ep. 15: The Path Less Taken

Your plumber called. He wants to know about those photos you have to share. The capped social network beloved by designers and San Francisco technorati alike has come under a second round of fire for its spammy adoption practices. On Monday Continue reading Truth in Tech is now on iTunes →

Events, Office Life, Social Media

Conference Recap: PubCon New Orleans 2013

PubCon

From the Pubcon New Orleans (2013) Trenches

PubCon (New Orleans, LA) – So many sessions, so much to consume and share. Where to begin? My week in New Orleans flew by as I soaked in both sessions and sightseeing. This was my first time attending Pubcon as well as my first time in NOLA. The first 48 hours were filled with numerous firsts: my first beignet, first walk down Bourbon St and the French Quarter, first tornado warning, and first full day in the SEO Masters Group Training. The conference sessions mainly focused on SEO, social media, and marketing. While I attended mostly the sessions in the SEO track, I did bounce around a little. The only way to try and recap the week effectively is for me to give you the top 5 areas from which I took the most away and what those in part covered.

PubConSEO

There were endless sessions on SEO, including tips, tricks, and tools. I heard multiple times a good way to rename “Search Engine Optimization” would be to start calling it “Search Experience Optimization.” Understanding the relationship between what people are talking about and how they’re searching is very important.

Top 5 takeaways:

  1. Create partnerships with other businesses and get your own company page on their sites. Then link back to a subpage of yours rather than a main page to boost rank on lower ranking pages.
  2. Build your own dashboards for compliance and performance so everyone is accountable for their part. Utilize Google webmaster tools and analytics to aid in this.
  3. Set up your own Google alerts to track your industry, keywords, and competitors.
  4. Use various tracking tools such as 3rd party sites or Firefox add ons like disabling JavaScript to literalize the page and see exactly how Continue reading Conference Recap: PubCon New Orleans 2013 →

Events, SQL Server, Uncategorized

Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap

The 20th anniversary of Microsoft’s TechEd North America kicked off with a keynote showcasing Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, Visual Studio 2012, and SQL Server 2012.  They should have renamed it the Windows Azure hour, though.

A cloud-based infrastructure back end was included in 90% of the demos. These demos included:

  • System Center 2012 migrating virtual machines seamlessly from a local data center to 3rd party service provider
  • The process of creating virtual machines in Windows Azure
  • The act of deploying web and mobile applications to Windows Azure directly from VS 2012 with one click
  • Using SQL Server 2012’s Powerview to break down 140,000 movie tweets (I believe stored in a Hadoop cluster on Windows Azure though the presenter was unclear) into useful information for a movie theater owner looking to maximize revenue.

Of all the demos,  Continue reading Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap →

Events, Social Media

Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap

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Monday the AdClub EDGE Conference rolled into town and consumed (see what I did there) the Institute of Contemporary Art. When I walked into the auditorium, The Ad Club’s Big Orange Couch was front-and-center, though it remained mostly untouched by the speakers, who elected to stand while presenting. (Sidenote: My coworker Paula pointed out the couch reminded her of our famous nap room couch here at SoftArtisans.)

Eleven speakers in rapid succession made for an engaging conference and a ton of fascinating insights surrounding the advertising realm including issues of privacy and big data. While the majority of the speakers focused on B2C marketing as opposed to B2B, (which is what we focus on with OfficeWriter) the insights proved to be extremely valuable. I wish I could cover it all, but in the interest of (your) time, I’ll just leave you with the key takeaways I gleaned from each speaker. As a bonus though I’ve also rounded up a few of the most interesting tweets from the conference to give an inside look at the conversations it sparked.

The Topic: Consumed (although the power of storytelling snuck in on more than one occasion)

The Gist: To steal the words of @SchneiderMike – Exploring “how brands and marketers are approaching this collision of media and data to better understand how their audience consumes content and what consumes them.”

Cue Rihanna’s bouncy “We Found Love” for walkout music as Kathy Kiely (@MadamePrez), President of The Ad Club kicked off the event. Continue reading Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap →