Aloha Summit - get your business “social media-ready” in just two days

Aloha Summit: March 18-19th, Waikoloa, Hawaii. It's custom-made for savvy businesses who want to understand geek secrets like how Google works, what's behind YouTube, not to mention Twitter, Flickr, podcasting, and more.

Of the many disruptions we are seeing in the marketplace as a result of the internet, the trend toward unconferences and lobby-styled events are some of the most interesting to me. I am a communicator. As much as I have enjoyed giving formal presentations for the past 20 years, the real juice usually occurs in the one to one and small group discussions in the hallways between and after the didactic sessions.

What's In It for You?
Coming up in a few weeks is The Aloha Summit, being held here on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is a two-day event limited to only 28 guests, plus several experts in social media and internet marketing, including me. This is designed for the participants to dive right in and:

• Learn about and see demos of how social media, podcasting, and web 2.0 networking applications work, up close and personal.
• Ask your personal questions as they come up in the conversation, and as detailed and specific to your business as you want to get (or not - you are in control.)
• Create new marketing, communication, and advertising strategies for your business, using the hottest web tools.
• Show you how to manage your time and filter out the things that may not apply to your business.
• Share power user secrets so you don't make costly and embarrassing mistakes as you venture into the always-on, transparent, and personal nature of today's leading business practices.
• Understand what things you can get for free online and what things are worth paying for when it comes to both strategy and implementation.

Your Own Team of Private Experts and Tutors
We know how busy you are. It's like having a team of experts at your private beck and call. We won't be covering anything that is not directly relevant to the people sitting in the room with us.

We will be walking the talk and helping you learn to do the same. It will be private, intimate, hands-on and hand-holding: a two-day working class with smart, friendly, connected instructors. You help guide the questions; you set the pace; you reap the rewards. We are here to support and educate you.

Still Trying How to Decide to Attend?
On the other hand, it's not for you if you don't like immersion-style learning or don't want to get your hands on the secrets of the web today. If your business is doing fine without knowing how to find out what others are saying about you or without finding and supporting customers via technology, then you can skip this.

However if you think your business is being affected by unknowns on the internet or if you want to use the internet more effectively but don't know how, then this event is perfect for you.

Ideally, you may want to bring one other person from your company. The social web is all about having buddies. If you come alone, no problem. I'll be recommending some tools the attendees can use post-event to continue your learning and support together too.

Special Pricing for Hawaii Residents: $495
Click here to get a very special rate of $495 for locals only. Use code "kamaaina" for HI residents and pay only $495 or use code "rox" for non-residents and save $250.

Though we here in Hawaii are so great at networking locally amongst ourselves, many are really behind the curve when it comes to networking our businesses with others around the world. The most frequent comments I get when speaking at local business events, are that "our company is not that tech savvy" or "the majority of our staff are older than 30 and we just don't understand a lot of this stuff that's happening online." If you can put two days in to The Aloha Summit you can single-handedly change this and catch up on the amazing changes that have taken place online in the past three years.

Tourism is a key industry that would benefit from using social media, both for our visitors as well as kama'aina. It could even bridge some of the growing gaps between those two groups. Other industries IMO with untapped opportunities are some of the innovative startups we have in Hawaii, especially those related to energy and lifestyle products and services.

Think Your Business is Too Large or Too Small to Matter?
It's not. Companies as large and sophisticated as Walmart have tried to use social media with unexpected negative results. If you're big and you don't have social media experts on staff or on-call, this program is critically important to your business.

Meanwhile, very small companies are using social media to create global brands on shoestring budgets. It's an opportunity that has never before existed.

Personally, I would love to see some of my friends in PR, Communications, Advertising, Tourism, and government at the conference. There are so many ways we can build our own businesses (and those of our customers) by using the collaboration tools of web 2.0. It's close, it's convenient, it's private, it's efficient. I can't think of a better way to go to the head of the social media class.

Got questions?
Please call my mobile and we can talk directly: 808-384-5554. I am traveling across time zones so try 6 am - 4 pm HST (which is 8 am - 6 pm PDT). Use code "kamaaina" to pay $495 if you are a Hawaii resident. Not lucky you live Hawaii? No problem! Enter code "rox" to save $250.

We Have a New Site Design

Time to stir up the water and get a new blog design. Our previous design was very minimalist. We've decided too minimalist. We want you to be able to see the range of topics we care about, the various projects we are managing, and have room for things like Twitter and Comments too! Please tell us what you think. We splurged and bought this theme from a top Wordpress designer, Brian Gardner. (Internet oddball perhaps, but I like paying for quality services.)

One of the coolest things about blog software is how the design elements and the content are separated, kind of like how editorial and advertising once used to be. In theory, it's possible to swap out a new "theme" on the Wordpress blog, and the database of posts and comments simply gets wrapped in a new look.

In reality of course, it's not that easy because inevitably we want to tweak a little here, change a color there, add a widget, hide a widget, and make all new graphics too! It's so emblematic of the state of the web these days. On the one hand the glass is half-full: so many things are free and creativity abounds. OTOH, the glass is half-empty: it takes hours and hours to find stuff and make it work the way we want it to, a full spectrum of brain matter is useful when managing the wide and deep terrain that covers coding, design, and ultimately writing a coherent message!

I interviewed a marketing exec from IBM back in 2002. He said they had already survived 11 iterations of their web site over the past 6-7 years! Meanwhile, many small businesses are content to have one iteration every 10 or 11 years! (OK - so maybe I exagerrate a little.) Here's a list of things to think about to see if it is time to redo your website.

We want some of our clients to update their sites; "unfortunately," we built them with the most modern tools available at the time, so the sites are surviving, if not thriving. If it's not broken, don't fix it makes sense. But then there is the question: what opportunities are being missed that can only be gained with new technology?

One last thought. I used "we" a lot in this post. Really, it is Shane who gets the big kudos as he researched the WP themes, did all the extra programming, and even added some upgrades to the templates that he is sending back to Brian, the original developer. Mahalo nui Shane. You are no ka oi!