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Best Interviews and Funniest Moments from Spark Media Solutions

David Spark — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:33:35 +0000

Recently, my business, Spark Media Solutions celebrated our fifth anniversary. Business has been going great and one core part of what we do is interviewing people at live events. So we decided to put together a short “sizzle” reel of some of our favorite moments and people we’ve interviewed. Watch, I think you’ll like it.

Here are all the people, companies, and events represented in this video:

People

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Kevin Rose, Adam Curry, Jason Calacanis, John C. Dvorak, Randi Zuckerberg, Vint Cerf, David Meerman Scott, Kara Swisher, Tony Hsieh, Jeff Pulver, Pete Cashmore, Jim Louderback, Tim O’Reilly, Brian Brushwood, Darren Rouse, Andy Ihnatko, Alex Albrecht, Bill Gates, Sean Parker, Nicholas Negroponte, Leo Laporte, Gary Vaynerchuk, Michael Ian Black, Marc Maron, Jay Adelson, Haim Goldenberg, Carlos Rodela, Patrick Mauro, Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Will Power, David Spark

Companies/Organizations

Ignite Technologies, Ortsbo, Indycar, Dice, Yammer, Spark Media Solutions, Fusion-io, Tripwire, Microsoft Robotics, Angry Birds, Revision3

Events/Shows

Security B-Sides, Appnation, Techcrunch Disrupt, RSA Conference, Diggnation, Enterprise 2.0, Mobilize, SXSW, WTF, Witstream, GigaOM, Interop, Future of Web Apps, Web 2.0 Expo, Streaming Media West

Edited by Diana Brodie

Build Strong Industry Relationships Through Content Marketing

David Spark — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:37:09 +0000

Last week I got to appear on Murray Newlands’ show “Future of Engagement.” We talked about how content marketing has become all the rage as of late. It’s been around for a while, but I’m happy that everyone thinks it’s “all the rage” because it makes my company appear a little more hip. Regardless, we talk for about six minutes on content marketing, how it’s necessary to be visible when people are trading information via social media and seeking it via search. That’s why we stand by our credo that “Content is the currency of social media and search.”

Content also becomes a point of contact, an icebreaker, or development step for relationship building.

Watch the short interview, especially to see the absolute worst angle and close up of my giant misshaped head.

My Five Favorite Videos from Interop 2011

David Spark — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:20:21 +0000

Were you at Interop last year? Want to relive all the excitement? Probably not, so why don’t you just check out some of the best videos I shot at the event while I was reporting for Dice.

Here are my five favorite videos from Interop 2011

	Google’s Vinton Cerf on the company’s culture of tolerating failure – Watch me make an incredibly stupid mistake interviewing one of the legends of the Internet
	Interop 2011: Tour of the Network Operations Center (NOC) – The coolest thing they do at Interop every year, and I take a tour of the entire thing.
	Funniest trade show booth I’ve ever seen – This was awesome, a mechanical bull on the trade show floor.
	The latest trend in IT is the democratization of IT – My interview with Lenny Heymann, General Manager of the entire conference.
	CIO Boot Camp: Is your IT department a Terminator? Is it Sponge Bob? Or is it Colin Powell? – IT departments get no respect.

Here are 25 more videos from Interop 2011

	CIO Boot Camp: Meet EnviroTech’s entire IT department, Vincent
	Do you need (or want) 169 terabytes of traffic per second?
	Ciphertex’s handy five terabyte carry-it-with-you RAID storage
	Vint Cerf: More applications need to share and reuse spectrum
	Google’s Vint Cerf on flowing in and out of multimedia conversation modes
	Netscout provides deeper insight into voice and video traffic
	Digital analytics for foot traffic
	Vidyo’s video conferencing solution lies somewhere between Polycom and Skype
	Interop 2011 Grand Prize Winner: Performance analytics for your virtual environment
	The best way to prepare for a giant network attack is to create one yourself
	Cisco offers application administrators real-time insight into the network
	Extracting the benefits of fiber when you only have a copper network
	Spiceworks — Free network monitoring and social network
	The best testing environment is the one that simulates real traffic through your network
	NEC’s Programmable Flow Switch automatically configures switches
	Citrix Receiver: One solution for onboarding any mobile device
	Moving everyday files quickly to and from the cloud
	CIO Boot Camp: Decision making under massive uncertainty
	CIO Boot Camp: Letting students pass digital notes in school and church
	CIO Boot Camp: What I really want to do is virtualize
	CIO Boot Camp: What technology do you want to retire?
	CIO Boot Camp: How can my technical infrastructure compete against the agility of a start up?
	CIO Boot Camp: What do IT directors have in common?
	CIO Boot Camp: Jumping the Curve: Switching from old to new technology
	What’s everybody talking about at Interop?

Tips to Energize Brand Advocates

David Spark — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:20:51 +0000

Earlier this year I produced and reported at an event for Zuberance, a tool that helps companies energize their brand advocates. Tons of marketers and social media goons were there, and offered up some fantastic advice. Here are all the videos and their advice.

	How Do You Energize Brand Advocates?
	Build a relationship with an Advocate like you would with a friend
	How do you convert a passive fan of your brand into an Advocate?
	Advocates love brands and brands love Advocates
	Give Brand Advocates special access
	How JetBlue built long lasting relationships on their 10th birthday
	The ongoing confusion between Advocates and influencers
	Microsoft knows that their customers sell their product better than they do

Creative Commons photo attribution to ThinkPanama.

My Five Favorite Videos from the 2011 Game Developers Conference

David Spark — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:20:36 +0000

I was looking back at my collection of videos and realized I had a ton of videos that I had yet to share. So going back to the way back machine, about eight months ago, I pulled out all my videos that I shot for Dice at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. Here they are:

My five favorite videos from Game Developers Conference 2011

	What game inspired you to be a game developer? – Love their responses. Every developer was inspired by a different game.
	World of Warcraft Game Director on how to upgrade an insanely popular franchise – His session was PACKED, and I caught him for a quick interview about revamping the most popular MMORPG.
	Three tips from @MistressMousey for getting a job in gaming – Gamer or not, these are good tips.
	One game developer’s plan to advance his career – This guy was completely open about wanting to leave his job.
	What’s more valuable at GDC: Roaming the floor or the parties afterwards? – Game developers trying to figure out how they should best network the conference.

And here are 21 more videos from the 2011 Game Developers Conference

	What are you bad at?
	The advantages of developing casino games
	The psychological benefits of videogames. They’re not just for fun anymore
	Building a talent pipeline with your local university
	The hardest part of game development
	Top three challenges for technical artists
	Could Zynga’s CityVille be the most perfect social game?
	Sony Computer Entertainment is hiring, hiring, hiring
	Why do you want to develop games for RockYou? They’ve got great food!
	Independent developers and GDC are the hotbeds for great gaming talent
	Soldiers play videogames to reduce nightmares that result from traumatic combat
	Surprise, you need experience and passion to work for Microsoft
	Networking at the San Francisco Game Developer’s Workshop
	Are schools helping gaming students prepare for the real world of game development?
	THQ is looking for senior talent across the board
	Ex-TV producer looking for developers to launch a new social gaming network
	Key to getting a job in game development is networking and a clear portfolio
	Want to get a job in game development? Do a team project
	Demand is high for developers, but breaking into the gaming market is still difficult
	Best skill you can learn in game development is team building

My Seven Favorite Videos from SXSW 2011

David Spark — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:37:16 +0000

We’re coming up on SXSW 2012 and I’ll be there once again reporting for Dice. The event is always insane and I was inspired to go back and look at my coverage from last year and put together all my videos, with my seven favorites up first.

My Seven Favorite Videos from SXSW 2011

	Live action Angry Birds – This was hysterical. People lined up to put on Angry Birds costumes and to play a live action version of the game.
	What makes you a geek for life? – Asked a bunch of people this question as they were waiting in line for the Diggnation event. CNN iReport picked up this video.
	Group Crowd Surf at Diggnation at SXSW 2011 – Another funny moment and I had a great angle. I caught Brian Brushwood and Leo Laporte afterwards to get their reaction.
	How come your conference notes don’t look like this? – These are the COOLEST conference notes I’ve ever seen and I was way impressed with her talent.
	Michael Ian Black on WitStream: a channel of snark for live events – One of the funniest guys on Twitter talks about his curated funny Twitter stream for live events.
	How Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast has changed his career – Comic I’ve known for years. Watch me try to take credit for the success of his podcast.
	Are you a geek or are you geek-ish? – Just a funny moment with crowd members at SXSW.

Lots more great videos from SXSW 2011

	Diggnation fans are either geeks, or love geeks
	Creator of the “Fail Whale” reveals the image’s four-legged origins
	SXSW proves that your social media friends actually exist
	How comedian Shane Mauss tests out material using Twitter
	Think more like a publisher and less like a sales person
	ReadWriteWeb needs great news writers
	HowStuffWorks’ Jonathan Strickland exposes an incredibly geeky tattoo
	The most important part of a social media engagement is retention
	Has social media communications allowed us to live in John Lennon times
	Diggnation fans gobble up Dice t-shirts and dice!
	Is Robert Scoble in the room?
	Are influencers a viable marketing channel?
	Situational awareness at Geek Spring Break (a.k.a. SXSW)

Our 10 Favorite Videos of 2011

David Spark — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:17:34 +0000

The year is wrapping up and while I posted Our 10 Funniest Videos of 2011, I also wanted to post our favorite non-funny yet really interesting, videos. Here they are.

1. A tour of an IndyCar steering wheel

This year Spark Media Solutions began covering IndyCar Racing. While we loved interviewing all the drivers, the geek in me wanted to learn more about the technology. Here’s a very simple explanation of all the buttons and readouts on an IndyCar steering wheel as explained by an engineer on Simona de Silvestro’s racing team.

2. The Best of the SocialDevCamp Hackathon

By putting a severe time limit on an open-ended project it forces the participant to rise to their fullest potential or completely give up and fail. That is the architecture of a hackathon and it always makes a great story. For 36 hours at SocialDevCamp in Chicago I followed all the participants as they struggled to come up with an idea, work with their team, parse out responsibilities, execute, and present their project without failing. Oh yes, and do all that with little sleep and very little bathing. This nine-minute video tells the whole story.

3. What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you about development?

At the same conference with the SocialDevCamp hackathon, I asked the throngs of developers about tips they learned that inspired them to become developers. Some really great tips here, even if you’re not a developer.

4. What do you wish you knew about web development two years ago that you know today?

At the Future of Web Apps conference in Las Vegas I got the developers to admit to past development failures that make a lot more sense today. Had they only known, development would have been a lot easier.

5. My interviews with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS

Here are my interviews with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley after they broke the record for the most global online conversation using Ortsbo, a real-time chat translation tool. Both incredibly nice guys, and I learned that Gene Simmons has never uttered the phrase, “No comment.” He’s literally got an opinion on everything.

6. How do you energize word of mouth?

Word of mouth is arguably the best form of advertising. At an event Spark Media Solutions produced for Zuberance, the brand advocacy champions, I asked attendees what techniques they use to get people to talk about their product.

7. What game inspired you to be a game developer?

Game developers were gamers before they became game developers. For most, it took the inspiration of a certain game to become a game developer. At the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco I asked attendees, “What game inspired you to be a game developer?”

8. Andy Ihnatko’s take on Apple’s iPad 2 launch

Andy Ihnatko is a well known tech journalist and author, specifically about Macs and Apple. The two of us went to junior high together. While we knew each other when we were 13, we didn’t reconnect until both of us entered the world of tech journalism. Now, once a year, at MacWorld, Andy and I reconnect at the conference and I often get him on camera to talk about whatever the hot issue is in the world of Macs. This year, it was the introduction of the iPad2.

9. RSA Conference 2011: End of show report

The RSA Conference is the biggest conference every year about IT security. Everyone and everything in the industry is discussed at this event. Here’s my 5-minute summary of the event.

10. How to make your product go viral

A little known conference in the tech world is ICIS. It’s held every year in December, a poor time for conferences, but a great time for educators who are on winter break. This conference is for people who research and teach technology to young people entering the IT workforce. One of the people I spoke to was a doctoral student at NYU who had done some interesting research on online contagion.

Stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Our 10 Funniest Videos of 2011

David Spark — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:41:37 +0000

For my business Spark Media Solutions we produced a lot of videos at different conferences. Sometimes we needle attendees, or ask their opinion about a pertinent subject. And sometimes we get lucky and those interviews come together to make a funny video. Here are ten videos that turned out to be our favorites.

1. Have you suffered from coworker TMI?

A great example of turning lemons into lemonade. I had a really hard time getting people to answer the question, “Thanks to social media, what do you know about your coworkers you wish you didn’t know.” The number of answers are short, but the incessant badgering and needling goes on for about two minutes.

2. Geek Confessional: Your Worst Manager EVER!

You thought you’ve had bad managers, these stories are much worse. My favorite is the manager that required you to wear as much cologne as he wears.

3. Annoying habits of developers

At the Silicon Valley Code Camp I learned that to work with developers requires you to put up with their endless quirks. Think you can do it?

4. Is “Dead Island” the most gruesome game ever?

My jaw dropped when I saw this game at Comic Con. With the gruesome head splattering going on in the background, I interview one of the product managers as to the “realism” of a zombie apocalypse on a resort island.

5. Comic Con 2011: The Power of Hotness: Blessing or Curse?

Comic Con is not my scene, but pretty girls are. So I went around and asked these women who had “The Power of Hotness” was it a “blessing or a curse?”

6. The funniest trade show booth I’ve ever seen

I love showmanship especially at incredibly boring trade shows. One company that was selling solid state drives wanted you to toss the hard drive like the hard drive was going to toss you. It was a mechanical bull, and a really funny barker egging people on to ride it.

7. Are you a geek or are you geek-ish?

A funny moment at SXSW when a guy was trying to prove he was the geekiest guy at the show.

8. What makes you a geek for life?

I asked a ton of geeks waiting for the Diggnation show at SXSW what makes them so geeky. My favorite answer was the guy who said he had more computers than friends. Piece got picked up by CNN’s iReport.

9. Group Crowd Surf at Diggnation at SXSW 2011

One great moment at the show where I caught many well known geeks such as Leo Laporte, Brian Brushwood, Kevin Rose, and Alex Albrecht.

10. What’s the most over-hyped issue in security? (Hint: it’s white and fluffy)

When I asked this question at the security IT RSA Conference I didn’t realize almost everyone would say, “The Cloud.” Funny how they’re all interested in it, yet all fed up with it at the same time.

Stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Have you suffered from coworker TMI?

David Spark — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:59:57 +0000

Here’s some of my coverage of Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, CA, where I was reporting for Dice. For more coverage and job news, check out Dice News.

When you engage in social media and choose to collaborate you turn on the fire hose of information. Some of its valuable, some of it’s not related, and some is information you wish you didn’t hear. Do you really care where people are checking in, eating, or the music they’re listening to? We all talk about the importance of sharing, but when is it too much? At the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, I asked attendees, “What do you know about your colleagues you wish you didn’t know?”

I got some people to answer the question, but more interestingly were the people who refused to answer the question. Watch the video and you’ll see how hard my job is sometimes.

Stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Android Developers’ App Jealousy

David Spark — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:42:20 +0000

Here’s some of my coverage of AnDevCon in Burlingame, CA, where I was reporting for Dice. For more coverage and job news, check out Dice News.

Ever been jealous of someone else’s success? We’re all guilty of this, even Android developers.

At the Android Developers Conference, or AnDevCon, in Burlingame, California I asked attendees what application they wished they had developed. In order to induce developer jealousy is to hit the right mix of branding, programming, clever mashup, and fun. Watch this video for a lineup of great apps and great app ideas.