Square Times

Me over Times Square

David Meerman Scott put out an invitation for thirty people to join him at NASDAQ this morning to “further” launch his book World Wide Rave.  Joining the twitter community at tweetups has never been disappointing.  Along with gaining further insights into David’s practice, we all enjoyed the high tech studio capabilities and the jumbotron images that lit up Times Square real estate for a few minutes with our less than famous mug shots.  And tweeting the event as it was happening allowed us all to share it through our networks.    Twitter search #NASDAQ to see the many entries.

I met Heath Row of Google and I was able to relate our postive experience with Adwords at our therapeutic boarding school.  As I related our social media strategy he confirmed that it will aid our organic search results.  We then discussed the underlying irony of participating in opening the markets on a day some are predicting to be pretty scary with the government/auto industry news cycle.  It brought to mind one of David’s principles for a World Wide Rave: loose control.

The participant that was furthest from home this morning was @Girlbug.  On a round the world wide romp which she is sharing on her blog, she told me an interesting story about the loose chickens she observed in Morocco.  When she asked “Shouldn’t we gather them back in?” she was told that the loose chickens were important.  Seeing them out there loose keeps the caged chickens laying their eggs.  Her blog captures her wonderful travels and I think you’ll enjoy it.  Her presence brought home the fact that we are a world wide community.

Brian Simpson(@bsimi) of the Roger Smith Hotel also shared his story implementing social media with me.  They have created a blogger rate and a variety of social media and arts events to become a destination for folks on the East Side, at Lex and 47th.   I decided to head over and see the hotel first hand and grab a bite to eat.  I was invited to set up my laptop and get some work done an hour before they open, which was exactly what I was looking for.  The menu at Lily’s was full of interesting entries.  I opted for a shrimp and cheddar cheese polenta special that was delicious.  They a crafting a comfortable scene at the Roger Smith, one I look forward to making part of my future visits into the city.

It turns out that David is heading to watch the Grateful Dead at the Roseland Ballroom tonight, a fit ending to his launch as the Dead and their practice of letting fans tape the concerts is one of his examples of pre-social media practices that created a world wide rave.