Well friends, SXSW is here! It’s hard to believe a year has gone by since the last one. Before I move forward talking about all the goodness and goodies in store for this year, I thought I would first highlight my posts from last year’s SXSW. You know, reflecting back before I move forward. Here we go.
Los Angeles has become a hub for tech startups with new ones popping up every day. Relationships are being formed and VCs are paying attention. Universities are showcasing developer opportunities unique to the city. So how did this happen? Welcome to networking 2.0. From Lunch 2.0 to Interactive Community Coalitions, BarCamp to Twiistup, LA is a great case study of how to build a successful tech community in your city. Join the organizers of the city’s most popular networking events for tips, advice, the how to’s and what-not-to-do’s to make your city’s community pop.
Life just doesn’t really get much better than those 9 days in Austin each year when your mind is blown, your heart is full and your feet ache from exploration.
Lalalalala…that’s right. Get ready Los Angeles, I’m coming for a visit! I’m thrilled to have been asked to speak to students at CalTech about how they can use their technology skills to help nonprofits on the night of Tuesday, March 9th (open to the public! full details on my speaking calendar to be updated soon) and I’m buffering a few days because, well, I just plain MISS YOU TO DEATH!
After five glorious years living there, I want to go to all my old haunts, hike my favorite trails, shop my favorite vintage stores and drink PBR in my favorite indie rock haunts and most of all do it all with FRIENDS!
Let me add girls brunch and geek bbq to the list. So let’s start the bidding at…KIDDING…I’m going to pack it all in tight but really really really excited. It’s been too long and I want some of that sunshine California sun on my face.
Dates: March 4th – 11th (then to Austin for SXSW!)
Updated to WHAT I’ll be doing exactly to come, but please drop me a comment, note, a text, anything to put something on the books to catch up. You know who you are!!!
Can’t wait to see you, wrap my arms around you and SQUEEZE!
Posted by Sloane Berrent in Events on February 26, 2010 | Comments
BlogHer’s annual conference is coming up in New York City from August 5th-7th and I have a panel submitted and need your vote! Here’s our panel topci:
Can brands be a vehicle for amplifying our message and extending our reach for greater impact in the real-world? This is a strategy session and conversation with brands and bloggers about creating triple-win partnerships that support your authentic passions, brand interest and the causes you care about. Come join the conversation with brand leaders and folks turning online action into real-world change including:
Karen Bantuveris, Founder and CEO of VolunteerSpot
Sloane Berrent of The Causemopolitan
Jyl Johnson Pattee from Mom It Forward
Jessica Shortall, Director of Giving of Toms Shoes
Discussion moderated by Stephanie Schwab, SVP of Digital Services at Kaplow
It’s our first giveaway at NOLAlicious and we wanted to make it spectacular for you, our amazing readers.
We have ONE SXSW Interactive Badge to give away. That’s a value of $550! For anyone on the fence about SXSW, having the pass paid for can be the make or break you need to make SXSW 2010 from March 12th – 16th a reality for you. It’s not too late to get housing and once you’re registered, you’re able to access rooms for badge holders not released to the public.
So how do you enter? It’s simple! Simply tweet this message:
Sign up for NOLAlicious, your weekly guide to New Orleans and tweet this to enter & win a #SXSWi Badge: http://bit.ly/NOLASXSW
Here’s the deal. The tweet is your entry. So it doesn’t matter if you’re already signed up for NOLAlicious or this is your first time hearing of us, your entry is your tweet. Everyone may enter the contest only once and the contest ends next Monday at 5:00 PM CST. We’ll be announcing the winner in next week’s NOLAlicious and across our networks so enter NOW for you chance to win a badge to SXSW Interactive.
Posted by Sloane Berrent in Events, Life on February 20, 2010 | Comments
So it goes. My first three months after moving to New Orleans (3 already really?!) have gone by and my current furnished sublet is coming to a close at the end of February. It’s been the perfect spot in the Lower Garden District, a cute little creole apartment of an artist and art curator. Walking distance to a few bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Walking distance to the CBD (Central Business District) and French Quarter and Uptown. Has a small home office I can work out of. Has a balcony I can walk out onto in the mornings with my tea look towards the Mississippi River. It’s been comfortable and felt like home about an hour after moving in.
The terms of the sublet were through February and as Mardi Gras was coming to a close, I knew the time was coming to look for another place. I’ve been looking at Craigslist, but I find much more in life with targeted asks to friends. So I have an email going out to friends and I’ll utilize my blog and social networks to find a new place in the next 7 days.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
1 bedroom furnished apartment
3-6 month lease or sublet
Starting March 1st
Rent between $700-1000
I’m more flexible this time on location because I know it’s harder to find a furnished place than unfurnished, but I’m still just a few months off from being able to afford and have the time to bring my stuff from storage in California and Pennsylvania.
Location might be French Quarter, Uptown or Mid-City. It’s really more about the vibe of the place than the location. It would be nice to be near a park or running trail and have a nice neighborhood to walk around in with a few local spots nearby. And safety is a concern so I have to keep that in mind as well.
Thanks for any apartment/housing leads in New Orleans or e-introductions to friends. My email is sloane@thecausemopolitan.com
Round two of New Orleans on the way,
Sloane
P.S. I already know of one person looking for a new place in New Orleans too. I’m happy to share places that get sent to me so if you’re looking too, just let me know and I’ll forward places along to you too.
Posted by Sloane Berrent in Events, Tech on February 14, 2010 | Comments
Photo Courtesy of Taylor Davidson
This is my first Mardi Gras ever. As a new transplant to New Orleans this means I have the dubious pleasure to experience it as both a local and a newcomer, a feat that is leaving me (a few days in) exhausted. Yes I know, Red Bull is my friend. Yes I know, power through. Yes I know, take breaks when you need to but soak it all in because it’s peoples’ favorite holiday of the year.
All of these things are true. But I have the added esteemed pleasure to be documenting it for you courtesy of My Mardi Gras Experience. A site dedicated to rebranding Mardi Gras as the family-filled event it is. The creation of Tom Martin and the Zehnder Communications team, last year it was a stream on Twitter spreading the joy of Mardi Gras to people everywhere. This year it’s bloggers from around the country brought into town to blog, take photos and videos and capture all that is Mardi Gras courtesy of Tabasco and hotels provided by Sheraton.
As a shout out to my fellow bloggers in My Mardi Gras Experience, I created a Twitter List with all of them that you can subscribe to HERE.
The Saints won the Super Bowl and the city of New Orleans has barely taken a moment to breathe since. It’s been parade and celebration and second line and high fives and hugs and everything you could imagine and more here in The Big Easy ever since Sunday night.
In honor of the true excitement of the big win, here is little video (part 4 of 4 videos I did on Sunday) right after the big win, on Bourbon Street, in the madness. See the bottom of the post to more videos leading up to and including the mayhem.
2009 was intense. I saw a lot of change in my life. A lot of change. I geographically moved locations a lot, and I emotionally and spiritually grew and evolved. Sometimes felt like I was breaking through the stratosphere so fast my skin hurt. Sometimes felt like I was in quicksand and sinking slowly.
To all of those who supported me and believed in me, thank you.
Why am I writing this now? Because I’ve thought about YOU and about ME and about US for all of January. I wanted to take some time to reflect on how January made me feel, and in doing so, wanted to share some of the biggest highlights from 2009 as I look back on them and remark on my accomplishments in 2010 so far. It’s only been one month – but BOY has is been a wild ride. So I wanted to properly take a moment of silence for all the 2009 gave me to be able to openly embrace 2010 with all the gusty, heart and vigor that I’ve put out in the Universe the last 30 days. (more…)
Continuing the thread about what an amazing opportunity it is to attend the World Economic Forum, see the highlight reel above from WEF’s YouTube channel featuring some of the biggest names in global leadership and governance in the world today.
The biggest names are heavily guarded with security and usually being whisked away to one room or another, but approachable if you can get their attention for just a moment. Walking down a hallway I’ve passed rooms where French President Sarkozy is meeting with the CEO of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab. I walked into a room yesterday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a briefing with BBC Correspondent Nik Gowing about his ambitions for his G20 leadership and his vision for South Korea’s future. I stumbled upon a seating area where I was looking to rest for 10 minutes in one open chair and instead entered into a conversation about nuclear proliferation and how to work with governments in developing countries to stop making nuclear weapons with the Founder of Space Adventures, Eric Anderson, the Founder of Operation Hope, John Bryant and the Crown Prince of Norway, Prince Haakon. I grabbed tea with the CEO of News Corp and then we, together, scoped out and finagled ourselves into the second row of a session where Former President Bill Clinton was speaking on the state of Haiti.
And that list only goes to about 4pm!
Each day is like that here. A glorious amount of over-information that I imagine will continue to permeate and sink in for months to come. Tomorrow is the final “official” day of panels. It’s hard to believe it will soon be over and I’ll be back in New Orleans, telling everyone about all the good New Orleans gospel I’ve been spreading to anyone who will listen about all New Orleans has to offer. But not yet. No sir, no yet. For now, I edit and upload videos, I edit and upload photos, I write and hyperlink blog posts to share with all of you. I sleep (barely) and eat (sometimes) and buck up to soak in all the Davos has to offer working through the exhaustion and the wall and the feeling that as much as I’m absorbing is as much as I’m missing.
I’m already plotting my return for 2011.
Don’t forget to watch my video interviews of some of the best and brightest leaders of today and tomorrow on the MySpace blog.
Let me share something here that I’m not sharing over on the MySpace blogs. Rather let me gush for a second. Davos is truly spectacular. There is something about an invite-only conference that allows every attendee to walk up to one another and say hi, introduce yourself, make conversation. Everyone who is here has done something special to be here. Sure, there are a few lucky ducks (like myself) who have found there way here, but heads of states and CEOs and global leaders all under one roof make for very interesting conversation.
Which leads me to my next point – the people here care very much. There are a lot of conversations about just about everything you could imagine. Water conservation and sustainable of global fisheries, the future of the middle east, what the World Cup in South Africa this summer can raise awareness of current hot topic issues in Africa, the crisis in Haiti. There are a million things happening in the world right now and chances are someone here is an expert in that field.
There is a dark side here too. Or rather a pessimism. Last year, 9 of the global CEOs of banks were no-shows. They couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t have shown their faces in the wake of such a catastrophic global financial meltdown and so weren’t here. Last year, the infamous and exclusive parties featuring vertical wine tastings or grand-cru french wines were canceled. It was deemed inappropriate to be lavish and thought to shed a negative light on the conference. CEOs of global companies meet here in Davos, this tucked away Swiss ski town and who knows what happens behind closed doors.
But let me say this. There is a line from a TED Talk that I love that goes, “It’s too late to be pessimistic. It’s too late to think we can do nothing. We must look forward to the future. We must look to building something greater than what we have today.”
That is the essence of Davos. Optimism that the work everyone is doing here is inspiring something greater for not just the next generation but 7 generations out. Among these leaders within their communities, I feel as if anything is possible for myself. I feel a freedom to be bold, to keep pushing forward, to have faith in what I believe is my own personal mission in life – helping people discover cause and ways to give back. Here, anything is possible and if I take away one lesson from Davos, it’s an almost “Santa Claus like spirit” where we believe what we want to believe. And so I choose to believe in hope. I choose to believe in the future. I choose to believe in you.
