Design a SlideDeck skin, win an Apple iPad!

We just launched a design contest to create SlideDeck “skins” and get the opportunity to globally expose your design skills. Grand prize wins a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad!

How do I participate?

1. Create a killer design for a SlideDeck skin. Check out some of the great examples for SlideDecks other people have implemented on our examples page.
2. Submit your design to the contest microsite before the 26th of April. Your design will be available for public voting until the 5th of May.
3. After the public voting period has ended, we will choose 20 finalists! If you are a winner, we’ll request your source files and work on creating a skin based on your design.

Sounds great! Got any tips on how to win?

We will be judging SlideDeck skins based on the following criteria:

1. Concept/Originality - Your SlideDeck design should be original and creative, not just a color change of someone else’s design.
2. Completeness of Design - No half-ass designs here, think things through and submit an amazing piece and you’re more likely to win!
3. Legality and Feasibility - Your design needs to be doable. This means it can’t use copywritten material, and most importantly it can actually be built as a SlideDeck skin.

SlideDeck designs should be capable of being converted into a skin CSS file that any SlideDeck user could easily deploy. So, if we determine that to accomplish your design it would require modifying the HTML of the SlideDeck, you won’t qualify. Don’t let this be a limit to your creativity though!

Something else to keep in mind is that SlideDecks can be any size and the spines between slides can be any width. We recommend designing for a particular optimal height, but setting up your design so that it could be flexible – whether that’s a repeating background image or color for height is up to your creativity.

We are happy to announce the launch of the Legacy Home Financing website. Legacy’s team has over 40 years of combined experience with reverse mortgages making them experts in their trade. Legacy came to us with the need for a site focused primarily on their expertise, reverse mortgages, which allow seniors 62 or older to convert the equity in their home into cash without having to make a monthly payment.

The nice clean and simple design of the site is welcoming and makes you feel comfortable right away.

Legacy offers a nice Quick Calculator on the home page so that you can get an idea right away of what you might expect from a reverese mortgage.

For a little more robust calculation, you can visit the Reverse Mortgage Calculator which processes the data you input and give you an estimate of return. You can then Request a Quote from Legacy for the most robust and detailed reverse mortgage offer.

Legacy has a great Learn page where you can read up on what a Reverse Mortgage is in detail witht the Pros & Cons listed. They also have a robust FAQ section with tons of information to put you at ease and answer any questions you may have. If your questions are not answered there, they would love for you to contact them via email, phone or even their Live Chat system.

Jim Cory, Legacy’s President, and their team are and have been a pleasure to work with and we are eager to continue the realtionship.

Reasons for site-wide announcements

If your web site or web application has a regular user base, and you’re constantly innovating (which you should be), then there will be a time when you need to let the users know of planned downtime, or explain why a particular feature is temporarily disabled. A nice notification of some sort is a great way to get the user’s attention while allowing them (or not allowing them) to proceed with thier regular business.

If you’ve used Mint.com, Dropbox or any site that uses the standard top notification bar then you’ve probably seen the “planned maintenance” notification or the “balance is low” warning. The two aforementioned sites are exceptionally good when it comes to UI design and interaction, but some sites just get it wrong. Here are a few tips that can help when designing one of these systems:

• Time the announcements
  If you’ve got a promotion running for 1 week, it pays to have the announcement bar appear only during that time. If you allow your announcements to have a start and end date, it will give an extra dimension to the way you can use them, and makes sure that they don’t start too early or go stale.
• Allow the user to dismiss the announcement
  The most annoying thing that can happen with announcements is the reappearing of an already dismissed announcement. Firstly, provide a close button and when it’s clicked get rid of the announcement, plain and simple. Make it go away and stay away.
• Don’t hide the “Don’t Show Again” button
  That fact is that some users are too impatient or uninterested to read your announcement before quickly closing it. Make your important announcements “sticky”  so they will reappear the next time the user visits the site. On the other hand, if the user has read it and would not like to see it again, make sure that the “Don’t Show Again” check box is prominently displayed and easily accessible
• Store the dismissal in a database if applicable
  If your users have actual accounts on your site and are not just anonymous, don’t just store cookies on their machines for keeping the announcement hidden, but also mark the announcement as read in the database for that user. This way if the user accesses your site from multiple computers, they won’t be bombarded by the same announcements all throughout the day as they switch computers.

The light box/screen lock out

I left this one for last because I’m not sure where I stand on this issue. The light box/screen lock out (dimming the screen and placing a modal dialog or settings pane) can be extremely effective for cases where user information needs to be updated, or action is absolutely required. However, this brings up the issue of stopping the user dead in her tracks simply because you said so. Remember that they are your users, and they’re on your site, but they can always go elsewhere if they become too annoyed.

The main thing to remember when creating an announcement system is that people don’t like popups, they don’t like being interrupted and they definately don’t like losing control of the screen just because you have something to say. It’s also important to remember that locking the users screen with a modal dialog box may be the best choice for some cases, but they never forget where the close box is located on thier browser and they are not afraid to use it.

After months of hard work, the teams at Pathway Genomics, digital-telepathy and SantexGroup are proud to announce the launch of the full Pathway Genomics Website. Pathway provides DNA SNP genotyping, which provides profound insight into your genetic makeup. No needles are necessary! Just 2ml of your saliva will allow Pathway to analyze your personal genome and provide you with interesting and actionable reports on your genetic health and ancestry.

As humans, our DNA carries genetic markers which provide risk-factor indications to possible “traffic signals” in the road of life – genetic disease risk, carrier status for recessive health condition, and likely drug responses based on your personal genome. It’s always helpful to have a map – Pathway’s testing can help to identify these signals and help you steer your health in the right direction. Another really neat aspect of Pathway’s testing is the “Famous People Map,” which will show your genetic lineage/linking with some of history’s most remarkable individuals.

The membership section of the site is filled with all kinds of valuable information: construct your family history, learn how your lifestyle affects your health, learn about hundreds of health conditions and so much more. There are articles and information from leading researchers and institutions to help you make good decisions as well.

While this type of genetic testing has historically been reserved for a miniscule segment of society, with tests starting under $200, Pathway is now bringing advanced DNA analysis within reach of everyone. It’s painless, safe and extremely secure. Go to Pathway.com and check it out!

Pictured: David Ely and Arnold Yoon (dt Director of Operations)

We talk a lot about our new clients, but what about those “golden clients” who have been with us through the thick and thin? We are currently working on our third website design for Convoy Auto Repair.  They have been a client for 6 years, 75% of dt’s existence here in San Diego. Convoy’s owner, David Ely, has become a personal friend of ours.  We value our time together, exchanging both business strategies and life philosophies.

How did we do it? Here are a few tidbits of advice for long-term client success:

1. Trust: Ahead of his industry, David has continued to move his traditional marketing and advertising budget to the digital space at an increasing pace each year and trusts us to manage it.  Why? See results below.  Convoy has worked on or advised me on every car I have own since we have worked together. David has been a trusted advisor to our staff on new car purchases, what to fix, when to sell…etc.  That’s a rare and invaluable resource to find.

2. Mutual Respect: When David has a new idea or need he always comes to us first.  This includes bringing us into outside projects such as the Napa Auto Repair Centers that we built and maintain. We wouldn’t even consider buying a new car without getting David’s advice.  In fact, our team just bought 3 new cars last month and David helped us through the whole vetting process. Clients and vendors can’t second guess each other and maintain a long-term relationship.

3. Results: Let’s be honest – money talks.  The auto repair business is not the most sexy or advanced industry.  We use that to our advantage.  Finding a solid auto repair shop is no different than looking up a Thai restaurant on Yelp. In order to create great results for Convoy Auto Repair, we combine SEM/SEO and Social Media with great design and conversion-based incentives. The result is bang-for-buck performance that far exceeds any of the traditional advertising techniques that Convoy’s competitors use.  Convoy’s online efforts are more than 50% effective than all of his other conventional advertising methods combined.

Trust and mutual respect allow us to share the risks and rewards of our relationship. This gives us the confidence to continue to deliver high performing results and push the envelope on our strategies and technology.  Plus, we just like working with each other – you can’t really put a value on that.

Congratulations to the Dishizzle Team on their launch!  Dishizzle is a brand new foodie site that’s dedicated to reviewing individual dishes at local restaurants.  I’m the kind of person who loves eating out, but can never figure out what I want to eat.  Searching by restaurant just isn’t good enough – there’s too much variety out there.  This is why I love Dishizzle!

I can use the Dish Wizard to find dishes based on a wide variety of criteria, including: price, distance, rating and type of food.  The wizard offers a dynamic filtering system that is super cool – once I’ve narrowed down my options, I can see descriptions and pictures (not the brochure variety, but real pics submitted by real people).

There’s even rewards system in place – share your culinary experiences with the rest of the community, and earn points towards free meals.  It just doesn’t get any better!  They’re even running a launch contest – 30 Winners in 30 Days.  All you have to do is sign up and review at least one dish to be autotomatically entered.

The brainchild of a group of young local entrepreneurs, Dishizzle was cooperatively designed and developed by digital-telepathy/Santex alliance.  Check out the site and follow them on Facebook – eat, review, love life.  Foodies Unite!

Congrats to Jon Carder and the team at MojoPages for hitting TechCrunch. We have been involved with Mojo for the past 2 years providing them with UI design and strategy. We are excited for the white label funding and are currently hard at work on the designs! They have a great product and are really fun guys to work with! Look for some awesome stuff dropping soon!

Working on a slick web application like Champion Sound is a real joy, and keeping up with the times can be challenging. These days Twitter is becoming a household name, and Facebook already is, so it makes sense that Champion Sound should play nicely with these two platforms. If you want to get the word out, email is only part of the solution in today’s social climate. Short messaging has been on a rise since it became popular on mobile phones like the Nokia 5100 series in the late ’90s, and it’s still with us and stronger than ever today.

Champion sound is all about communication, and getting relevant content to your subscribers, so in keeping up with the times we’ve added Twitter and Facebook support to Champion Sound in the past few weeks. The new Shout Out functionality allows Champion Sound users to Shout Out an event or email. This means thier statuses on Facebook, Twitter, or both will be updated with the message and a link to view the rich content on championsound.com. We plan to add MySpace and SMS support soon, and to continue extending the capabilities of what we believe is the best email marketing and promotion tool out there.

We would like to congratulate Kathryn Ballint, CEO of CropMom!  CropMom is a web application which is taking traditional scrapbooking into the modern era.  Dried flowers, construction paper and orange-handled scissors are no longer necessary for parents to preserve the best memories of their kids. Our UX team worked with Kathryn to help refine and polish CropMom’s design, executing on her passion and entrepreneurial spirit.

Please jump over to http://cropmom.com and check it out!  It’s free to sign up and use.

The Golden Arches. The Swoosh. The Shell. You remember them all like you remember the lyrics to Ice-Ice Baby. It’s a company’s identity. Their logo. Their “tramp-stamp” if you will. A distinctive and unique icon or symbol of a company, object, publication, person, service or idea that best represents them and helps to convey its message to the customers in their market.

You’d think this would be simple and easy to make/design a logo, but it ain’t. Making a memorable logo that hits the mark is damn-near impossible unless you own a Mind Reader or, in fact, loose your own mind. So to help expedite the mind-reading process, we decided it would be wise to share our process in a logo design for our client, Resume Bear.

FUN & SERIOUS or COOL & SOPHISTICATED…

Depending on how you approach it, your logo design will create a mood. It will most likely have a hint of whimsy or perhaps a more serious tone. But what if your demographic or client wants to be a little bit of both?

There’s a serious danger heading off into one extreme over another when designing logos. This is the company tattoo and has a level of permanence. Sure, like the music of U2, a company will change its style by polishing the edges, adding a shadow, or giving it a new twist to stay on top of the times. But more often than not, the company will keep its image in order to stay connected to its long-standing customers and future customers. It’s the mood that will most likely never change. Does it make you smile? Does it make you cozy inside? Does it make you feel like they can be trusted? Or, does it do nothing for you?

That being said: Research is key.

First, you should ask your client a bazillion questions. This will clear the air, and through them answering question number 1,342 you might get a tid-bit of information that you didn’t even think to ask for that has become paramount in figuring out the plan of attack. It never hurts to ask a lot of questions. But it DOES hurt to hand over 15 logos and find out they hate all of them because it “just doesn’t feel right.”

Second, find out their taste. Ask them what logos they like and why? What is it about the arches that moves them? Some clients will have a lot to say on this subject and will help direct you in creating an understanding of what they expect. Some won’t have a clue why they like it, they-just-do. That tells you something about the client right there. My guess is that if you look around, find some logos that have the same style, look, feel and direction that you were planning on heading in and present those logos to the client, you might be able to shave off some time and save some brain power for the other stuff. No need in reinventing the wheel here. Think of this as a Rorschach Test – Hold up a logo and ask, “What do you see? How do you feel?”

BRANDING vs. JUST-A-LOGO…

That logo you designed is great, but – so what?! If you’re lucky enough to have a great logo it won’t get you very far if it sits in your closet with the door shut. So, it’s imperative to ask your client what they plan to do with their logo. Are they going to use it primarily as a stamp on their business cards, letterhead and website? Or, are they going to take it to another level and brand it by placing it on the side of their building, car, and t-shirts? What if they’re a Snowboard company? Chances are they’ll want that logo on their spiffy new snowboard designs and maybe even stitched into their hats and gloves.

In this case, Resume Bear wanted to not only have it on their website, letterhead, and business cards. But they wanted to get the logo on T-Shirts, pens and water bottles to hand them out to college students and the like to promote brand awareness. This tells us one thing for sure: The Logo Must Be Cool. Because if it’s not- kids won’t wear the Tee. And if they don’t wear the tee, the tee sits in the closet with the door shut.

It also tells us: The Logo Must Be Legible. And I don’t mean “textually”. If you’re gonna put a logo on a t-shirt and give out those t-shirts, chances are you’re gonna want a logo that says everything the company is at a glance. People do not read anymore these days unless it’s the new Harry Potter book. And I know what you’re thinking, “But Chris! It’s only one word, or sentence! How hard is it to read a name of a business?” People have more important things to waste their time with, especially students. To help them NOT waste their time on reading the words “Resume Bear” we have to either a] get their attention so that they WILL read the words, or b] do the work for them. Or, maybe both!

SEPARATION of BEAR and RESUME…

Resume Bear started out with a big, brown, passive bear holding a piece of paper in its mouth as if it just caught a trout. That wasn’t bad, really, but it wasn’t really cool either. More importantly, a big, brown, passive bear doesn’t spark any “job hunting and finding” memories in my mind. It just reminds me of a log cabin, green trees, snow on the ground, and campfires. It’s no different than calling it Resume Sparrow, or Resume Groundhog. A Bear, in and of itself, does not draw an immediate correlation to job-placement. And we’re not about to ask Resume Bear to “change your name, because this logo design stuff is really hard!”

An easy question to ask yourself, as a designer, is What’s The Focus? We’re not selling bears. And we’re not really selling resume’s either. But we ARE selling a service that involves resumes. So, RESUME then is the focus. And BEAR would then be the muscle behind it. What I meant to say is, “Resume” is the most important word to someone looking for a job and walking by this T-shirt. “Bear” is just the cool part of it all for that person walking by.

But how do you make a job seeker, or employer, who just reads the name of the company that Resume Bear is not about camping? How do you design a logo with focus on the “resume” part, but still have a bear be involved? Is it even possible?

SKETCH IT BEFORE YOU WRECK IT…

With my mind spinning on all these questions I took pencil to pad and braved the world of my imagination. I tried to imagine I was doing a logo for a snowboard company, a law firm, an apparel company, and more. I just drew whatever I could think of that involved resume first, then bear second. I also came up with a bunch of words that defined “resume” to me: Job. Job Hunt. Seeking. Employment. Paper. Suitcase. Suit. Text. Etc… Then I did the same with “bear”: Strong. Bold. Paws. Brown. Big. Claws. Slash. Hostile. Docile. etc.

And I sketched all that again.

Out of all the drawings I had, only a few stood out. And it made me realize – You can blend the two without losing clarity. Of course I loved the bear holding a suitcase [#1]. But does that stand the test of time? Does that really have elegance or is it too cartoony and fun? What has a professional edge, but still makes me smile?

Answer: The Origami Bear.

IS THIS SOLUTION THE BEST?

This is no doubt the hardest question to ask the client. But it’s even harder to convince yourself of this. And if you can convince yourself that this logo meets all the requirements you and the client have, then it should be easy to stand by your decision. Truth is, you can design logos all day, constantly coming up with more and more ideas every week. But no one can afford to pay you those kinds of hours, and no company can afford NOT having a steady, standard logo.

The logo we stand by is the origami bear because it did everything we thought it needed to do: It drives you away from “cozy”, “cuddly” bear; It doesn’t make you think of a log cabin and fire place or pine trees; It looks as though it’s made out of a folded resume, so it literally IS a Resume Bear; It’s charming because it reminds us of folding paper in class as kids to make those paper footballs, or fortune telling things; It doesn’t have an “angry” bear feel to it, so it doesn’t push an emotion on you [sometimes adding eyes or eyebrows to an animal or icon can give a "happy" feel like Carl's Jr. Star, or an "angry" feel like the Bad Boy Club brand]; It’s professional AND charming at the same time.

At the end of the day you can only do your best without losing your marbles trying to read the minds of your clients. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just ask a lot of questions, do a lot of research, do a lot of sketching, and design it out to see if it works. However, if you try to be as organic as possible and understand the breadth of clients business from the ground up, you will hit the mark – or come somewhere close!

Champion Sound scored a bit of coverage in the last week thanks to some music related blog posts.  We were recently featured in the Mashable article, “Social Music: 5 Essential Tools for Marketing Your Band” written by Jenn Van Grove.

The Guest List application also got some nice coverage on music in BPM, a magazine covering music, nightlife, tech and style.  Here’s the coverage: “DJs now promote, manage events on the phone, online, or at the club.”

We’d appreciate your support of the articles with links or comments.

We are very proud to be working with Pathway Genomics.  Pathway is a San Diego-based startup dedicated to providing everyone the ability to discover the secrets of their DNA.  We have been working diligently for the past month for the upcoming private launch. They have an all-star leadership team and incredible potential to bring a technology, that was nearly unattainable a few years ago, to the masses.

dt was hired to help craft the communication strategy, extend the Pathway brand online and create a rich user experience design for visitors and members of the website. The project has been an exciting and fast-paced challenge so far.  We will keep you up to date on the website launch and product availability.

About Pathway Genomics
Pathway Genomics has developed a safe, secure and affordable way to unlock the secrets of your DNA. Their simple procedure scans your DNA SNPs and provides accurate information regarding known genetic risk markers associated with adverse health conditions, potentially harmful pharmaceutical drug interactions, genetics traits and ancestry.

Champion Sound is an web application that we have been building with our spare time here at dt.  It’s a free email marketing and information broadcast tool to help musicians, promoters and venues promote their music.  We’ve been hard at work on and have some great new features to report.

We just got out of the studio and produced this tasty video to explain Champion Sound in a bit more detail.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ve recently built a mobile marketing tool that allows musicians to manage their fan base in the studio, on the go or at the club wherever they may be. Venues can ditch the clipboard and manage guest lists or VIP lists via their mobile phone with our free guest list management tool. Event promoters can add fans to their marketing list or email last-minute reminders from wherever they may be. The mobile version of the broadcast and guest list management tool is available on the iPhone and Blackberry, as well as many other mobile phone models.

We put out a press release today in collaboration with Jen at RockStar Communications. Here’s a summary of the new features, benefits and capabilities.  For more details, take a look at the full press release. It is also embedded below with the new PRTube feature of PRLeap.com.

• Building and promoting guest lists online through email, website and social media
• Venue door staff managing the guest list from a mobile phone
• Overseeing one or hundreds of email lists for by venue, artist and VIPs
• Personalizing by uploading a band flyer or other tailored graphics
• Tracking how many people opened, clicked on and forwarded the invitation email
• Adding people to the list at the club during the event for future mailings
• Harnessing full email promotional power at no cost

Champion Sound Offers Free Fan Promotion And Guest List Management Online, On The Phone And At The Club

Press Release on PR Leap

So some of you will be thinking right now that I am a scrooge or a Grinch but that is not the case at all. In fact if anything I am more like the Grinch’s dog Max. I am fully immersed in a hatred of all the things that Christmas has become and yet somehow it still manages to melt my frosty heart and suck me into the holiday spirit.

So without further ado, here are the 12 reasons Christmas sucks…one for every day:

#12 – Christmas songs actually make you spend money :: From malls to street corners the tunes of the holidays remind us that we have gifts to buy in order to show our holiday spirit
#11 – Jack frost nipping at your everything :: Shopping in cold weather sucks, but so does Christmas in a warm climate (I’m in San Diego…it just doesn’t feel right.)
#10 – Starbucks is the most festive place on earth :: With 6 disgustingly festive drinks, 10 holiday mix/remix CD’s, and a plethora of decorations and themed mugs, its almost the perfect place to shop for loved ones (relax…I said almost!)
#9 – Christmas lights cannot be left up all year :: It would be so much easier if we could just turn them off and leave them up for the other 11 months, but noooo!
#8 – There is no Santa! :: When you’re an adult, wish lists are like holiday order forms. You might as well give me a gift card and save me the effort of returning the uh…”surprise” you bought for me on the 24th.
#7 – There are not enough weekends in December :: People have started to send out “save the date” emails in October… that’s just not right.
#6 – Jingle guilt, jingle guilt, jingle makes you pay :: The same sad looking little old men and women get posted by the salvation army every year to ring jingle bells that remind us that we are evil if we don’t put something in the big red bucket.
#5 – There’s no tradition of dressing slutty :: Ladies, you do it for Halloween, why not Christmas. I’d be very happy to unwrap a present with little more than a bow on it.
#4 – Egg Nog and Brandy :: Contrary to popular belief, this combination makes NO ONE happy. Not even grandma.
#3 – Hoe Hoe Hoe :: Because Christmas music has no shame and you get the Top 5 Christmas Rap Albums featuring “Christmas on Death Row”…really?
#2 – You get judged by the size of your package :: Good things come in small packages only works if its jewelry.
#1 – And the number one reason Christmas sucks (but we love it anyway)…because we have to wait 353.25 days to do it all again.

Happy Holidays from me and all of us at dt.

Here’s wishing a Merry Christmas to all and to all a good site

If you have ever visited us at our office in Bankers Hill, you probably were subjected to a collection of people sporting typical So-Cal gear with shorts, bare feet and the occasional 80s headband and shades.

Today was a bit different. Imagine yourself in a project status meeting sitting across from a dude in 40 pounds of chain mail and spitting image of Harry Potter ten years from now, even more Hairy. That was the scene today at a very special dt Halloween.

Here are a few shots from our day.  Let us know who you think has the best costume.

Dirty Hairy Potter

Sir Jonathan

Lumbergh

Lego Matt

We try not to get too political over here at dt, but in this case, we just-couldn’t-help ourselves. Here are a few reasons we think the infamous hecklers of The Muppet Show should run for President and Vice President!

On Tuesday, Monique and I drove up to Santa Monica to participate (as audience members) in the Mixergy event, Strut Your Stuff. Internet startups presented their sites to a panel of four amazing specialists, one being Alex Funk of digital-telepathy.

The Mixergy event itself was an awesome experience. Sean Percival of docstoc, Jackie Peters of Heavybag Media, our very own Alex Funk and Nicole Jordan of The Rubicon Project provided the startups with valuable feedback about their websites.

Sean Percival spoke about search and we were impressed by his SEO knowledge. He always told the startup what he liked about their site and then went into some search strategies that would help optimize their site. Dedicating someone solely to the job of SEO, watching and analyzing Google analytics, and having a good page design were some of the techniques he offered. We are both following Sean on Twitter now and are looking forward to the words of wisdom he will share in the future.

Jackie Peters of HeavyBag Media presented her views on social media and was very captivating. We have been researching social media all summer, and we think she nailed it in terms of giving the startups some good ideas about building communities around their websites. She encouraged the startups to create a story for their brand that users could connect to.

Alex Funk was of course awesome. He spoke about different ways the startups could implement and utilize a widget strategy. Before working at dt, we never knew that embeddable content could be so effective.  Alex’s knowledge is definitely not limited to widgets, but he did an amazing job of coming up with strategies on the spot.  Monique and I agree that he definitely belonged on the panel of EXPERTS.

Finally, Nicole Jordan from the Rubicon Project was helpful with some PR tactics. Since we do not have very much experience with PR, it was nice to hear Nicole reminding startups to find their target market.  As marketing ladies, we can relate.  She also reminded them to work on an “elevator pitch.” We think this is important, especially when trying to get funding from some VC’s.

Some startups from the event that we found particularly interesting and groundbreaking were:

• eCar Services
  • Provides price transparency for car repairs
    • The site offers four services: an estimator, Ask Tommy (live car repair advice), find a mechanic, and a database to keep your car repair history
  • We like this site because it provides a service that a variety of people need, it’s user friendly and the clever mechanic Tommy serves as a mascot for the brand
• Quiz School
  • Allows the user to create, share and take quizzes
    • There are several different categories of quizzes, ranging from educational to entertainment
  • We find Quiz School appealing because it has a clean design and has already implemented a widget strategy for their site
• Creative Citizen
  • Creates a community where people come together to share green solutions
    • Features include user-generated solutions for sustainable living and a point system that rewards philanthropic organizations
  • We enjoyed the ideas behind Creative Citizen because being green is a topic many are passionate about, and this site gives people the tools to share their passions with others

We found the Mixergy event to be very insightful and thought provoking. It was amazing being able to see the startups’ ideas presented to an audience of established web professionals. Hearing the panelists’ feedback was not only valuable for the participants, but also for the audience members. Thank you to Mixergy for putting on such a great event, and a big thank you to those who presented and also to those who sat on the panel. We realize that it took a lot of courage for the presenters to showcase their ideas and that it took a lot of time and energy for the panelists who provided great feedback throughout the event.

–Lacy and Monique

Question: Do you want to build a better internet company?
Question: Do you want to gain insight into how to market your startup?
Question: Do you want to work on your pitch before you get in front of a VC?

If you have answered yes to any or all of these you should really plan on being at Mixergy’s Strut Your Stuff tomorrow night in Los Angeles. Mixergy put together a panel of experts who will each teach a different element of web development.

• Nicole Jordan – Will teach you how to use PR to build your brand.
• Jackie Peters – Will teach you how to use social media to grow your business.
• Alex Funk (ME) – Will teach you how to use widgets to grow your audience.
• Sean Percival – Will teach you search engine optimization.

There are two ways to participate in this event:

Option 1: Strut Your Stuff

In this option, you get on stage and show your web site. The panel of experts will give you feedback on how to grow your business. This is an incredible opportunity to learn from the best in the business, and to show your site to the tech community.

Option 2: Sit in the Audience

If you don’t have a site to show off grab a seat and learn. Each expert will teach you a different web strategy and then you’ll get to see them demonstrate how to put their tools to use on real businesses.

To register (more tickets have been made available) or get more information visit: http://mixergy-strut.eventbrite.com/

Here’s an equation for you:
Great Venue+Great Speaker+Great Format=Amazing Event!

Do you ever walk out of an event thinking “WOW I just got more than my money’s worth!” ? It doesn’t happen too much in today’s society where you often walk away from an event feeling uninspired.

The San Diego Ad Club played host to an event last night entitled An Evening with Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter+Bogusky critical acclaim.  The event was well worth it as many of the people I talked to on the way out were blown away by the experience to sit in a room and asks questions of the man who has the hottest ad agency in the country.

Alex Bogusky’s famed work including VW, Burger King, Coke Zero, Dominoes, and Truth (anti-tobacco) do more than just get a little buzz, they increase sales, by a lot. In an industry where the client’s bottom line is really all that matters Alex knows that to stay in business your work has to tell a story and that story has to sell your stuff, in an honest, funny and in some cases shocking way.

What made it great was a combination of things really. Of course the venue was great – held at the esteemed USD Center for Peace and Justice. The room held only 300 people, so to say it was an intimate event was to speak truthfully. The format was more of an open discussion (James Lipton style) than the typical stand up and lecture blah blah blah you get from most speaking events. And the speaker himself was awesome. Alex Bogusky made us laugh (a lot), made us think, ask questions and really get inspired about marketing.

He talked about his modest upbringing with no plans of going to college because his parents didn’t expect much of him. He explained the benefit to starting his shop in Miami and how similar the it is to the small market environment it is in San Diego. It gives you the ability “to stew in your own creative juices” without being distracted by Madison Avenue.  He told us his strategy from moving up from local to regional to national clients and what were the challenges along the way. And he had lots of examples with lots of stories – the case studies were used to prove the point that a great story, taking a chance on the creative and embracing the power of the masses (viral marketing) will help boost your brand’s awareness and sales and lead to your own success.

There is really so much to talk about from this event but I though I would sum it up with 10 takeaways:

1. The only thing you should fear is mediocrity – anything else should be discussed
2. Don’t market by lying, find the strengths in any product and  broadcast those
3. Your campaigns should always start with a powerful story. Don’t start with the media, start with a press release that tells that story and then go from there
4. Be bored of the past work, striving to be different with every project
5. You can hate ads but still be an amazing advertising professional
6. You should build up your brand equity and pull it out as needed. Don’t kill anything that was created a year ago
7. Do away with time sheets. Why? Your best work may come out of a project you are actually loosing money on, but you are investing back in the company
8. Embrace small market independence and delusional positivity
9. Live to work – work because there is nothing else you would rather do
10. If you are looking for a job – come prepared, bring your portfolio and raise your hand first. Alex hired a new intern on the spot – now that’s spontaneity!

I think everyone is looking forward to what comes out of the agency for Microsoft’s first big ad push at a time they are looking most vulnerable.

The video tape of the event should be made available soon through the San Diego Ad Club – check back for me to post the link:)

Top Photo Credit: BusinessWeek.com
Bottom Photo: Alex Funk

Hey, everyone. I don’t believe we’ve formally met: I’m Lauren, dt’s new Event Planning intern. I’m loving my time here– everybody at dt is absolutely rockin’ (but I’m sure you already knew that!). I just wanted to let y’all know about an awesome event that’s coming up. The event is titled Net.Working, and it’s presented by StartUpSD and sponsored by MindTouch. It will be taking place on Monday, June 23, and is an opportunity for recent college grads to network with employers in web-related fields, including entrepreneurs, developers, designers and startup businesses looking to hire. The Art Institute and Platt College are already promoting the event to their students, with more schools to follow. So come on out and get to know San Diego’s top businessowners, web-sters, and grads—and me! See our events page for more info, and I hope to see you there!

Additional info about the event:

When: Monday, June 23, 2008 @ 6-8pm
Where: J6Bar, 616 J St. San Diego, CA 92101, (619) 531-8744
Cost: Free!

RSVP here!