Apple Lovers Unite! Get ready as Apple is holding an invitation only event for reporters, bloggers, and analysts here in SF on September 1st at the Yerba Buena Center. If you were not among the elite chosen ones, you can tune in with the rest of us to hear about some of their exciting new products. This event is expected to be geared around Apple’s devices such as the iPod/Pad, Apple TV, and iPhone. There is also a small chance that we finally see the Verizon iPhone get announced. The rumor mill is running like crazy on this one, but it could be a bit too close to the Apple iPhone 4 launch to really see this product.

This is what we’re hoping to hear about:

• New iPod touch: With a back-facing camera for still images and videos and a front facing video camera for FaceTime video calls.
• Lower-cost iOS-based Apple TV – possibly at $99
• 99-cent TV show rentals
• 7 inch Ipad
  
• Cloud-based iTunes service

Which of these products will you be purchasing? And, more importantly can someone get us on the list?!

Depending on your answer, Fiverr may be the site for you! This new service provides a place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5. The “gigs,” available to buy and sell, range from silly cards, a variety of lessons and instructions, medical advice, and songs and videos.

When the site first launched many people were skeptical it would succeed, but entrepreneurs Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger realized that the mix of internet boredom and frugal consumers would create an ideal environment for their site to blossom. In essence, Fiverr is similar to sites like Etsy that connect buyers and sellers in a facilitated economy. For now Fiverr continues to grow and offer new gigs, because quite frankly, a lot of people out there know how to do some pretty cool stuff.

What would you do for $5? On that note, what would you buy for $5?

On Monday, Steve Jobs announced the phone that we’ve been waiting to hear about all year: The Iphone 4G! This phone is 10x more impressive than the last Iphone 3G and I can tell you that I am very impressed. I am definitely buying the new Iphone and can’t wait to get it in the palms of my hands, regardless of the long lines!. Enough talk, let’s see what the new Iphone has to offer. It comes with 100 new features, so take a look here at some of the best ones.

Features of the iPhone 4

9.3 mm thick (that’s 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS)
Front-facing camera
Micro SIM
LED flash for the camera
A second microphone for sound cancellation
Integrated antennas
Glass on the front and the back
326 pixels per inch display
Powered by Apple’s A4 chipset

FaceTime brings video chat to the iphone 4G

This front-facing camera is going to be very useful to make video calling.
Here’s a video to see how this works:

A huge improvement is: A bigger battery. This means the Iphone can last a lot longer than before!!
7 hours of 3G talk time
6 hours of 3G browsing
10 hours of wifi browsing
10 hours of videos
40 hours of music
300 hours in standby

Also,check out the integrated antennas
If you look at the edge of the iPhone 4G, you can see 3 lines that are part of the structure of the device. With the iPhone 4G, Apple introduced something new.

Retina Display makes the iPhone 4G an HD device

Retina Display dramatically increases the pixel density by 4 in the same amount of space.The result is that you get far more precised display.

What do you think of the iPhone 4? I’m personally really excited about FaceTime…Are you impressed?

Every event planner in the industry, experienced or not will benefit from the newest Apple App “Mark On Call”. It’s designed to keep all those pieces of papers and stickies with numbers, figures, sample layouts, and tailored customer requests organized into a clean (paperless) software. Now all those files and notepads can be a thing of the past!

For the bargain price of $2.99 (download at www.iTunes.com), you can have:
*All of your units of measurement questions answered
*The ability to take pictures of actual rugs, painting, floral arrangements, fabric ideas, and table linens to directly show clients
*Customized room items for use in all your floor plans
*Creation of shopping lists, or write down last minute notes for a client.

And, get this…it’s easy to use!

BONUS: The reviews for customer service are superb. You are able to send emails write to the creator and get a response back within one hour! This app was created by event planners and interior designers so it’s not too far fetched. Watch the short clip above from the creator of the app, and hear more interesting tips and ideas!

Looking for new creative ideas or expert insight for the future of your event planning company? Well, look no further, the annual 2010 Event Solutions Conference & Trade-show will be hosted in Las Vegas with an estimated 5,000 attendees and more than 800 exhibit booths. The event is happening at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Paris Hotel during March 8-11, 2010.  Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will discuss some of the current and upcoming trends in the travel, hospitality, and events industry.  Straying away from the Las Vegas reputation of the adult film industry, gadget geeks, and all the other characters that help hold true to the motto, “what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.” The city has been hit devastatingly by the current economic status, and all efforts are being made to turn around the city to get it back on its feet. The Mayor will be advocating the endless possibilities the city has for future events as well as the positive lights the city has.  With several other big names in the industry speaking about budgeting for your company, selecting a site, RFP’s, food & beverage, audio/visual technologies, and design & décor.

Over the course of the three day event, there are major event planners attending, speaking, and joining in on the new ideas to be spread around.  With several different seminars, meets and greets, and event boot camps to attend, everyone is guaranteed to walk away with new tips, ideas, and confidence for their business. Whether you are entering the business, have several years under your belt, or an old expert, everyone can learn something from this three day event. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re available, and if you’re serious about expanding your knowledge of the business from the experts!

We have been noting how technology and social media has changed society and how we spend our time. While we may be spending more and more time on social media interfaces, technology has also allowed us to save more and more time doing tedious work. This is prominently seen in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in one of their most exciting breakthroughs:

Taking medicine to target the symptoms will soon be a thing of the past, something that dates us, like knowing a time before the Internet and cell phones. Using the infinite progress technology has given society, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have changed the way science and medicine is done. While only 57 years ago, we did not even know the structure of DNA; now we can sequence entire genomes for a mere $50,000!

Dr. Quake’s new machine for sequencing genomes is going to revolutionize the manner in which medicine is practiced by easing the process of genome sequencing. This in turn will increase our bank of fully sequenced human genomes, currently at a grand total of seven, and allow for scientists to find the differences among people’s genomes. Thus, allowing medicines of the future to target not just a cough or scratchy throat, but the root of the disease and “fix” it. This new boom in biotechnology is the first step in creating the cure for some of the most deadly diseases afflicting humans. How much more progress can you ask for?

Technology has truly changed our society by bringing people together, sharing information, saving time, saving money, and now saving lives!

Excerpt from Entrepreneur by Barry Farber: Move from “I Hate” To “I Love to Sell.” Five great tips for those of you out there who hate cold calling and sales as much as we do!

It would be great to wake up every day full of enthusiasm about moving your business forward through the sales process. But there are days when we get tired of sales calls to new prospects and feel as if what we used to love has morphed into a feeling of “I hate to sell.” No need to worry; it’s normal. And there’s not a top sales producer I know that hasn’t gotten into a rut once in a while. You just have to figure out how to get out of it.

Here are some ways to turn your “I hate selling” days around:

1. Show up. Activity that introduces you to new contacts not only can open up more opportunities for business but also give you that boost of energy that accompanies adding qualified prospects to your pipeline. How many times have you been on your way to a sales meeting or networking event thinking to yourself “this is a waste of my time,” only to meet a person who brought you significant business several months later?

2. It’s not about you. If you think selling has to do with how well you can talk, then you’re missing out on a huge part of your business. After you show up, shut up–doing so might help you love selling. Every time you’re with prospects or customers and they start asking questions about you, answer quickly and then turn it around with questions to get them talking about themselves. Since so many people love talking about themselves, you’re in no danger of listening yourself out of a sale. Nobody’s ever said, “I don’t like her; she listens to me too much!”

3.Attitude is king. Maybe you’ve heard over and over that attitude is everything. Well, there’s a reason for that. When you have a negative attitude people pick up on that, and it’s contagious. Every day you wake up, your attitude that day has more to do with your sales success than any other factor. Let this knowledge influence your choices: Read positive materials and surround yourself with people who drive you and inspire you. A study of top executives determined the four attributes that contributed to their success were knowledge, experience, intelligence and attitude. When the executives were asked to rank them by importance, knowledge, experience, and intelligence together only comprised 7 percent, while attitude determined 93 percent of their success.

4.Plant seeds in the right soil. One of the biggest factors that contributes to your attitude about selling is rejection. The more rejection we experience, the more we feel like what we’re selling is of little value or worth. Many times rejection has more to do with whom you’re calling on to make a sale. When the person isn’t qualified to make the decision or doesn’t have a real need for your services, you have to learn to walk away and move on to more worthwhile accounts. Imagine planting seeds in the desert–it can be very frustrating. If you employ the advice from tip No. 2 above, “It’s not about you,” you’ll know the person you’re speaking to and can target questions to determine where your product could be of service.

5. Hard work. This is one of the best ways to beat the salesman blues. It makes up for our deficiencies. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

ABCey Events was most recently hired to produce the Michael Moore Event here in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, Justin Herman Plaza. He was in town promoting Capitalism: A Love Story, his latest venture and assessment of American economic policy. Michael Moore spoke to over 1000 people and also gave out 300 Boxed Lunches to guests. The Specialty’s on Spear St. reportedly had their biggest one day sales ever!

We were hired for our event planning and management services including Audio and Equipment, Rentals, Catering, Social Media, and Street Team Promotions.

Capitalism: A Love Story- In Theatres Now
WW.CAPITALISMALOVESTORY.COM

Are you an Entrepreneur with a great idea, but not sure how to reach more customers, investors, or both? Or are you a Small Business Owner with a great product and service, but feel like your marketing just isn’t working and you are wasting a great deal of time and money?

If you answered “YES” to any of the questions above, please come join me at BizTechDay 2009.

When: October 22-23,2009 (Thursday & Friday)

Where: Hyatt Regency SFO, Burlingame

BizTechDay 2009 is a practical, hands-on and experiential Small Business Strategy, Social Media and networking conference where expert speakers and business leaders (from Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Yelp, Virgin America, Elance, Constant Contact, Justin.TV, WordPress, CBS 5, and Comcast Business Class) share their insights and experience and help your business get up to speed in this economic downturn.

Tim Ferriss (the author of 4-Hour Workweek) and Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg.com) will be joining this year!

Through high-impact keynotes & panels, small group executive round table sessions, hands on demos and one-on-one meetings, you will learn about Raising Money, Selling and Social Media Marketing for your business:

MONEY TRACK
* How to Raise $100,000 to 3 Million. Meet Paypal Angel Investor and Founder of the Keiretsu Forum.
* How to Raise $5000 – $100,000 for Your Business.
* How to Access Investment Capital and Make the Federal Stimulus Program Work for You. Meet Experts from the Governor’s office.
* Building Partnerships with Fortune 500 Companies

MARKETING/SELLING TRACK
* Building a Strong Business Brand. Meet Experts from Google, Yelp, Linkedin, Facebook & Twitter
* Securing Your Number One Spot on Google
* Selling to the Baby Boomer and GenY Communities
* Selling to Women & the LGBT Communities
* How to Make the Media Love You – Join Sue Kwon, Emmy Award Journalist with CBS 5
* 13 Things All Business Owners Must Know About a Compelling Business Website
* How to Use an Email Marketing Campaign to Build Your Database and Close Sales

SOCIAL MEDIA TRACK
* Twittering with the Star with Kevin Rose & Tim Ferriss
* How to Get Media, Celebrity or Blogger Attention for Your Business
* Strategies of Building Your Online Community from Zero to Millions
* Turning Visitors into Customers Using Viral Videos
* How to Market Your Business on Facebook
* How to Make Money on Twitter

Here’s the list of speakers you will meet at BizTechDay 2009:
* Tim Ferriss – New York Times Best Selling Author of the Four Hour Workweek
* Kevin Rose – Founder of Digg.com
* Porter Gale – VP Marketing at Virgin America
* Michael Gerber – World’s No 1 Small Business Guru per Inc Magazine and the New York Times Best Selling Author of the E-Myth
* Matt Mullenweg – Founder of WordPress
* Kevin Hartz – Paypal Angel Investor
* Fabio Rosati – CEO of Elance
* Joel Comm – Creator of iFart iPhone App – Over 1 Million downloads
* Gary Swart – CEO of oDesk
* Mark O’Leary – Regional VP for Business Services for Comcast
* Randy Williams, Founder of Keiretsu Forum. The World’s largest angel investor network – over $180m invested in 200 companies
* Chris Larsen – Founder of Prosper.com
* Michelle Broderick – Director of Marketing at Yelp
* Alison Covarrubias – Founder & CEO of Hatch Network
* Julie Castro Abrams – CEO of Women’s Initiative
* Justin Kan – Founder of Justin.TV
* Ramon Ray – Chief Editor of SmallBizTechnology.com

And 40+ more thought leaders and successful entrepreneurs.

Plus, you can sign up for one-on-one consultations on Raising Money, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Blogging, SEO, Paid Search Marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many other essential business topics.

COST
* Regular Conference Pass: $595

Click here to register. Use this Discount Code: “AmandaCeyVIP” for $200 off.

The iPhone application slogan: “there is an app for that” has rung true. Everything from MyStarbucks to BubbleWrap (Yes, you actually pop bubbles with your finger on your touchscreen) has made the iPhone capable of pretty much anything you can imagine.

Here are our most recent top ten (in no particular order):

Blog Press ($2.99)

Our blogging app of choice. use this app to write blogs, upload pics, everything you can do on a computer on the go. So next time a wave of inspiration overcomes you, or you just to to share your latest news, you don’t have to wait until you get home to do so.

Sugar Sync (Free)

SugarSync allows you to access all of the files on your home computer without having to store any of it on your iPhone! This app works in conjunction with SugarSync desktop software which you can download as well for either a mac or a PC.

Tweetie ($2.99)

Twitter is all about real-time updates…so don’t let an opportunity to share pass you by. This is the highest rated twitter app.

Share Services ($4.99 LiteVersion Free)

Twitter, Skype Chat, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo, MSN and AOL and many more. This app does it all. Messages are free so save on MMS and SMS (50% off in anticipation of next release)

JotNot (2.99)

Converts your iPhone into a portable scanner. Quickly copy paper, letters, notes, receipts…whatever!

Biz Cards ($3.99)

Add new business cards by snapping a photo. Also, can scan your business card and extract text so you can easily text message or email information.

Bump (Free)

Swap other contact info by “bumping” two iPhones together. Information is automatically saved to your contacts and photos to your camera roll.

Business News ($0.99)

In this industry it is so important to stay up to date on the latest news. Catch up on your favorite news provider while you wait in line with this app.

Analytics App ($5.99)

Gives you anytime access to your google analytics data. Must have a google analytics account to use this app but its free to download. Stay informed on the activity on your site all the time.

TechCrunch also gives a good list of both business and personal apps too: The 35 best iPhone Apps of the Year (So Far)

Any other great suggestions? Add your favorite app in a comment below!

Apple App Store