Let's make some things happen in Newark!

OK, some great guys - Mark Kleinschmidt, Bob Chadwick and Paul Pomeroy - are making some things happen in the Greater Newark area - if you live, work, or play anywhere in or around Newark, PLEASE come out on April 27!

Here's the deal:

WHAT: Greater Newark Network event
WHEN: Tuesday, April 27, 7:00 PM
WHERE: Embassy Suites Newark - Click Here for Map
RSVP: Click Here to Register

Here's the message from Bob:


TO FRIENDS OF THE GREATER NEWARK AREA:

The Greater Newark Network will be hosting a public forum on TUESDAY, APRIL 27th at 7pm at the Embassy Suites Newark. As a reminder, the Network is an organization Co-Chaired by Newark City Councilman Paul Pomeroy and New Castle County Chamber of Commerce President Mark Kleinschmidt.  It is an informal group of stakeholders focusing on economic development issues in the greater Newark area.

This public session will focus on how the greater Newark area has the opportunity to not only rebound from the current economic downturn but also how and why it can provide leadership in Delaware's economic recovery. The event will feature a series of impressive presenters, each speaking for approximately 5-7 minutes, followed by a networking reception. Some of the topics that will be discussed include:

•             UD’s plans for the Chrysler Property
•             The new Health Sciences Alliance
•             How expansion at Aberdeen will benefit Newark
•             A report from the City of Newark
•             Arts & Culture in Newark

The event is free and open to all interested community members--university, business or resident.  All we ask is that you pre-register by sending an email to chadwickb@ncccc.com.  Please include you first and last name, your address and your email address.

Also, please feel free to forward this message to any other potentially interested individuals.

From Delaware to Nepal - here's how the Serendipity Engine works!

Last November Chris Brogan spoke at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York about how he sees social media as "The Serendipity Engine" - if you haven't seen this yet, here it is (you might recognize some concepts that have been mentioned on this blog before, like the 12:1 ratio):

Now, here's an example of the Serendipity Engine connecting a whole bunch of us in some incredible ways (and I think this is only the beginning of this story!)

I just had the privilege of shaking hands with Erin Guttenplan yesterday - Erin grew up in Delaware and has been travelling the world for some time now and has put together a group called Edge of Seven:

Edge of Seven’s mission is to support volunteer projects in developing countries that are sustainable and that respond to local needs. Edge of Seven believes that change is possible with collective action over time.

Erin and I connected on twitter - a friend asked her how that happened, and that's when I got to find out how this Serendipity Engine made this possible.

Erin said she recently read Chris Brogan's book and was so impressed that she subscribed to his blog,  and on March 25, saw the post about Chris Brogan meeting with Delaware Governor Jack Markell - based on Chris' link to my twitter page in that post, she decided to start following me.

One of the first posts she saw from me was a message about the Delaware Happy Hour event - she responded saying she was in Florida at the time, but really liked the concept - I asked her to send me information about Edge of Seven, that's when I found out about her efforts to build a school in Nepal (how cool is THAT?!) and how she's raising funds for that project now.

So, yesterday she held a fundraiser at Iron Hill Brewery on the Wilmington Riverfront - same location as DelTweet 1.0 last year - and we finally got a chance to meet. By the way, the plans for the school in Nepal are awesome - I encourage you to learn more and find out how you can help by clicking here.

Friends, this is what this Social Media Initiative is all about - we're connecting ideas, businesses, individuals, governments, and concepts throughout the state and around the world - open yourself up to the Serendipity Engine - and live this adventure!

Laurie Gelb's brilliant plan to promote Delaware

On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, the NEws Journal published a great article by Gary Soulsman about how Laurie Gelb of Trellist is calling on all of us to help promote Delaware through a variety of web sites - here's an excerpt:

Her pitch was to get Delawareans posting on portals like TripAdvisor, City-Data and Virtual Tourist as well as sites dealing with interests such as birding, boating and dining out.

That's because visitors to those sites, who will make decisions about travel and relocation, have little knowledge of Delaware, she says.

"We've all had unique experiences in Delaware that we can share," Gelb says. "I'm sure right now there are people wondering if they move to Delaware where they would be most happy.

"Or they're thinking, if they're driving through the mid-Atlantic what's worth seeing?"

So, we contacted Laurie and asked what sites should we visit and start posting to make this happen - here's her response:

The way I look at it, any user-generated content re DE is grist for the mill. So my list of UGC “types” includes pics, video, reviews, calendar listings, attraction listings, itineraries, tips, ratings, badges from portals (e.g. rated restaurants/lodging/attractions should d/l their badges from TripAdvisor and put them on their Web sites bc then people are more likely to click through to the portals), hyperlinks to other content, etc.

That makes the list of sites/potential cross-links pretty eclectic, but here’s a sampling:

• VirtualTourist, TripAdvisor and other travel portals
• Zagat, Chowhound and other eatery boards
• Eventful, When.com and other calendars, including calendars of concerts, festivals, art exhibits
• Yelp, Yahoo and other review sites
• City-data and other relo portals
• YouTube and anywhere else you can place video or links to YouTube [e.g. very easy to feature your vid in a Flash shell on another site]
• Flickr,  Picasa Web albums and other photo libraries
• Local photo streams like TNJ and natl streams like CNN iReport for news events
• Affinity portals for hobbies (birding, antiquing, hiking, golfing, fishing…)
• Link to your UGC by commenting on others’ articles, reviews and blogs, as appropriate, as well as links from FB and Twitter
• Use widgets for your platform(s), if available, that permit random display/slide shows of photos and/or links to other networks, e.g. Flickr Profile Widget on your blog

OK folks, let's make this happen!

THE Place to be this Friday!

OK, remember a couple of weeks ago when I said you should come out for the Delaware Happy Hour event? Well, if you were there, then you know - if you weren't, let me just give you a rundown of some of the people who were there:

• 19 entrepreneurs and business owners
• 2 prominent members of Delaware media
• various officials with the State Chamber of Commerce
• various officials with the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce
• 3 government officials (state and federal)
• 7 artists
• at least a dozen other people that I don't know how to categorize

Seriously, this was a better event than I thought it would be!

Guess what - it's happening again!

This Friday - come out to meet people and enjoy the Wilmington Art Loop! We'll start off at 5:00 at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts -
click here for more on the Art Loop

WHAT: Wilmington Art Loop/DE Happy Hour
WHEN: Friday, April 9 - 5:00 - 9:00
WHERE: Start at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts - 200 South Madison Street, Wilmington

View Larger Map
COST: FREE