This Thursday night is the much anticipated “Tech The Halls: The Technologizer Holiday Bash 2009” party at Varnish Art Gallery in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood. The event is sure to entail all kinds of fun and insightful conversations with friends and colleagues from the media industry. Some of the latest consumer tech gear will be on display, and with this crowd there will be plenty of gadgets, apps, web tools and social media talk. Eastwick Communications is proud to work with Harry McCracken and Marie Domingo as the PR agency sponsor for The Technologizer Holiday Bash.

What will be the big trend of 2010 that everyone reads or writes about? How much more will we hear about the cloud? Or are you just plain curious what everyone predicts will be the talk of CES?  In what is sure to be one of the best nights of 2009, who knows what we’ll come up with as we celebrate the past year and look forward to the next one.

Registration is full, but you can participate virtually: Tag along with us between 7 and 9 PM on Twitter - hashtag is: #TechTheHalls or follow @eastwickcom. Join the conversation, ask questions or just see what’s going on with your favorite people.

Watch ShoreTel CEO John Combs ring the closing bell at NASDAQ today in New York City! Watch video here

Event tweeting occurs quickly, especially if your point person is fed streams of information by multiple participants. The thoughts that people jot down may not even resemble proper tweet fodder, but don’t sweat it. When your client is tweeting about an event or conference, follow these simple tips to make sure their tweets are the center of attention and not another brief event mention.

1. Develop a tweet calendar based on the duration of the event.
   1. A minimum of two tweets per day is recommended: A tweet to start the day and a tweet to end the day
2. Craft your tweets around specific events or participants. For instance:
   1. What, if anything, is the client demoing or showcasing?
   2. Is your client speaking?
   3. Is your client exhibiting?
   4. Are there any panel sessions you want to draw attention to?
   5. Is the client introducing a new product or service?
   6. Is there anyone famous speaking at the event that will promote visibility of the event overall? For example, #MichaelJordan speaking at #VoiceCon may be a trending topic, but #AndrewEvangelista? Not so much…
3. Solicit instant updates from your people at the scene, if they aren’t able to tweet themselves. A couple of questions to get them started:
   1. What trends or hot topics are being talked about at the client’s booth and on the show floor?
   2. What’s the mood of the crowd?
   3. Anything exciting, surprising or particularly funny happen?

Hope these three tips help at your next event!

It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.” - Oscar Wilde

As anyone remotely familiar with Eastwick knows, we are big on Halloween.

Though our Black & Orange bash is on hiatus this year, our Halloween spirit is still in full effect. For the Eastwick office party, the one requirement was that people come in costume. Otherwise, all bets were off.

Everyone took the opportunity to exercise their individual creativity, sense of humor, and personality.

A passel of Eastwickers: (front row) Annemarie, Elizabeth, Katie, Sam (holding Dexter), Andrew & Tina; (back row) Elaine, Barb, Elisabeth, Lyda, Rachel, Kevin & Mo

We had:

The pop-culture phenoms: Adrian Monk and Jon Gosselin

The classic archetypes: Witches, Cat, Goddess, Valley Girl, Cowgirl and Gypsy Princess

The rockers: Def Leppard and Alice Cooper

The witty: A White Lie

The totally rad: A Chiquita Banana

Despite calling themselves “witches” for almost 20 years, two of our founders dressed as witches for the very first time.

Jon (Kevin) minus Kate, and the fastidious Mr. Monk (Andrew)

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The PRSA YP event held at the Eastwick SF Office last Thursday night was a hit! We had a packed house of some great young PR professionals eager to learn about great social media strategies from Eastwick’s own experts Lyda Velez and Rachel Shelton. The presentation covered great social media campaigns from technology companies to rappers using social media to promote their persona (and sell an iPod App). It explored some dos and don’ts of posting for clients and personal life and had a great question and answer portion with the audience.

Thanks to all who came out and we hope to see you at our next event, coming soon!

Facebook: Then and Now

Source: Tyra Show

• Initiation of “Facebook Stalking”- Spending an exorbitant amount of time going through your friends’, and friends-of-friends’, pictures and profile contents. This was my first exposure to staying informed. I hope they highlight that in The Facebook Movie. Good luck, Mr. Sexy Back.
• Groups only in your college network- Groups were only within college networks. I’m still in b#$ch please, I’m from California! (BU Chapter).
  • Today, groups can be international and mobilize the target audience. For example: Election ‘08- One million strong for Barack Obama. His PR team deserves a thumbs-up, “I like.”
    

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Ever wonder what the press really thinks about social media?  What some of their favorite social networks are?  What tools journalists use to navigate the online world?  The only way to find out the real answers to those questions is to ask them!

Last Thursday night Marie Domingo, Heidi Groshelle and Rachel Polish hosted the Meet the Media Tweetup at Azie in San Francisco.  With a packed room of attendees, the Tweetup included a mix of influencers from traditional and social outlets, including: eWeek’s Chris Preimesberger, Forbes’ Taylor Buley, PC World’s Darren Gladstone, San Francisco Chronicle’s James Temple, San Jose Mercury News’ Chris O’Brien, Technologizer’s Harry McCracken, Thomson Reuters’ Alastair Goldfisher and many more.  Social sites like Mashable and TechCrunch, along with leaders from leading and emerging businesses, were also in attendance.

Only by speaking with them would you know that proven and experienced journalists are happily moving from traditional publications to new, cutting-edge outlets like Internet Evolution.  That some of their favorite tools for sharing ideas, peer-to-peer communication and breakings news include Seesmic,TweetDeck, TwitterBerry and twhirl. The social mixer brought numerous B2B, B2C and social media experts together in a forum full of lively chatter, drinks, gossip, rumors and good times.

It’s rare to be in the same room with so many key influencers… it’s even rarer to have the opportunity to interview them!

Chris Heuer, co-founder of Social Media Club, Kevin Cheng, Eastwick Communications and Julie Crabill, industry veteran and friend of Eastwick

Jennifer Pahlka

This week’s podcast brings us ‘double the pleasure, double the fun’ (sorry, guys, I keep thinking Wrigley’s Doublemint gum commercials from back in the day…).

Brady Forrest

But, seriously, I could not be more pleased to welcome these two, distinguished professionals onto the program: Jennifer Pahlka and Brady Forrest, Co-Chairs of Web 2.0 Expo.

I have so many questions for them: From the genesis of Web 2.0 Expo, it’s influence in the social media and business communities around the world… along with the inevitable question, when does Web 2.0 become something else in the wake of Web 3.0 and the semantic Web.

They have experience and insights to spare and are a great pair. It’s an awesome show! Listen to the archive below.

[Listen]

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We always knew she was a rock star… now others do too.

It’s with great pride and pleasure we tip our hat to Eastwick’s own Kimberly Stoddard for being recognized as one of the top tech PR pros by PRSourceCode.

This is Kimberly’s second time on the prestigious list and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving pro.

While we’re a bit biased and think that many of our staff could make the list, we definitely understand why Kimberly has been singled out.

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Walter Cronkite

Eastwick Communications bids a fond farewell to Walter Cronkite, the quintessential anchorman and once most-trusted person in America.

He wasn’t the first anchorman, and only time will tell if he was the best, but he, more than anyone in recent history, personified respectability.

The landmark events he covered during his 46-year career as a journalist are too numerous to list; fortunately, we have a permanent record of each and every one.

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