Do you need a running partner? How about the world famous ultra-marathon man, Dean Karnazes? Zozi’s new program makes that possible. This San Francisco-based startup recently launched Guru Experiences, where celebrity experts conduct unique adventures for small groups.  National Geographic Explorer Mireya Mayor and world record kayaker, Tao Berman, are among the ranks of professionals that zozi found to kick off their service.

Since their launch in 2009, providing new experiences has been the goal of the company.  Now serving most major cities in the U.S., their daily deal service includes a broad range of activities for people looking to get out of their comfort zone.  Dance classes, cooking courses, and exclusive tours have been the norm for zozi, but the Guru program takes it to a new level.

For the Dean Karnazes experience, guests will run all morning in Big Sur along the California coast.  Dean will share inspiring experiences, advice, and insight. Afterwards, a healthy lunch is served overlooking the Pacific. Sounds great to us, but we might need to hit the treadmill a bit to prep for that one.

Here are the other current Guru Experiences: Snowcat or Squaw Valley Skiing with Jonny Moseley, Sunset Safari with Mireya Mayor, Find Your Stride with Eric Orton, Whitewater Skills with Tao Berman, and coming soon…Chris Lieto-Ironman Champion, and Maya Gabeira-Big Wave Surf Champion.

These exclusive experiences come with a nice price tag, but their rarity makes them hard to pass up. There are set dates for each of the opportunities, so check out the zozi website and register for your own one-of-a-kind Guru Experience.

Here at ABCey, we’ve found that adventure can be just clicks away! Zozi is great for the brave, Sōsh finds all the hot spots, and Wanderfly gives guidance when you’re on the road. How do you find things to do? Which zozi Guru Experience would you like to try out? Let us know in the comments or say hello on Twitter!

We’re always scouring the web and trade mags for new and creative ideas to bring to our events. We came across some great design elements in the December issue of Event Solutions Magazine and thought we’d share. Please let us know if you’ve used any of these cool products at your events, and also what your favorites are this season!

Beautiful Buule: Rental options can sometimes be stagnant when it comes to dressing up a stage or providing an amazing backdrop. For the designers out there, make sure to check out Buule (rhymes with Jewel) if you haven’t already. These are beautifully crafted drapery panels that can be seamlessly attached to one another in five foot increments creating a variety of different looks, from one-column to an elegant full-stage backdrop. According to the manufacturer, a 24-inch shipping cube can hold enough panels to create a 30-ft by 50-ft display.

Paint Your Own Projection Screen: Screen Goo High Contrast is simply awesome. If you can paint it, you can project on it! This is a coating that can turn any paintable surface into a high performance projection screen. It can produce an impression of depth on a flat surface, and thus perfectly complements the actual physical depth of the structure. The product can accommodate high performance front, rear, or 3D projection, expanding the palette of projection possibilities available to lighting, stage and art directors. Some of the larger Screen Goo screens can be found at the brand new Cosmopolitan, at the new Las Vegas City Center, the Hard Rock Casino, Caesar’s Palace, the Tropicana and almost everywhere else!

Wrap Your Venue: When wind can blow through banner fabric, even the largest outdoor banner systems are possible. That’s the secret to AdMesh windproof banners. Air and music flow through the vinyl-coated banner mesh, so there’s no billowing or hazards. Outdoor mesh banners can be crafted to any size, and can be digitally printed with a logo or message.

High-Styled Outdoor Heaters: Lava recently introduced a new line of pyramid shaped heaters in the US as an answer to the outdated mushroom heaters we all know so well. The major advantage, aside from how cool it looks- is that the unit’s ambient heat radiates from the sides for better 360-degree warming. These heaters are available in five colors, can endure rain and snow, and are easy to assemble. An electronic ignition makes it super easy to fire up the propane tank enclosed in the base, and is even operable by remote! Whoohoo!

 We always love to hear your feedback! Please leave a comment here or email to events@abcey.com.

Do you ever find yourself coming across beautiful things on the web and not knowing what to do with them? Trying to remember everything you see can be difficult, and remembering to share them with your loved ones can be even more difficult.  That is why we fell in love with Pinterest!  Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share all of the beautiful things you find around the web.  According to Lauren Drell, this invite-only social platform, launched in March 2010, has the mission to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting”. People can pin and organize items to help them plan their weddings, decorate their home, organize recipes, and sort their favorite images. Images are shown in a bulletin board format with links to the original URL of the item and the user who posted it first, so you know where it came from if you are in need of more details.  To add to the excitement, you can browse other people’s pinboards to discover new things and get inspiration from other people who share similar interests. This wonderful invention comes from designer, Evan Sharp. Below is a recap of an interview Mashable conducted with Sharp. We hope you find it interesting and take the initiative to join Pinterest!

Backstory of Pinterest- How the idea came about…

Sharp grew up printing images off the web and collecting them in a folder.  He and two friends wanted to create a place where you can go to upload or collect things on the web and simply organize it the way you want to.

Why the Bulletin Board-Style Aesthetic?

They wanted a style that felt personal but also the feel of a collection of a variety of different images.

Where Does the Inspiration for the Design Come From?

Sharpe’s inspiration arises a lot from physical spaces of discovery like: museums, libraries, or retail spaces.  ”If you think about how things are presented and laid out, you start to realize that the entire space is organized to allow you to discover all the things the store is selling”, said Sharpe.

What Was Sharpe’s Original Vision of the Target Audience for Pinterest?

Although Pinterest is huge with the ladies in planning for weddings and decorating their homes, Sharpe originally envisioned it being popular with architects and designers.  He is happy with the way it has turned out though!

Pintrests Growth Has Trickled Up — why is that?

They didn’t spend a lot of time trying to get tech coverage.  ”We didn’t build this company to build a really hot tech startup; what we wanted to do was build a product — and also a company — that we wanted to work on for the next five or ten years.”

How Does Having a Background in Architecture Help When it Comes to Web Design? 

Architecture is difficult and takes a long time to master the “third dimension”.  Sharpe explains that he worked hard to master this tough process and,  ”a lot of [the process] is about technique and spending the time designing, but there’s such a rich history of architecture and a great body of theory and knowledge, and an enjoyable part of [moving to web design] was learning to take abstract ideas and concepts and then solve them tangibly.”  This explains why Pinterest runs so smoothly.

Lessons Brought from Facebook to Pinterest:

Having worked at Facebook prior to his invention of Pinterest, he explains that learning how Facebook operated was very valuable for Pinterest’s success as a design product.

What Does Sharpe Pin?

He pins stuff he finds interesting and inspirational about architecture.  Star Wars fans follow him, because he pins stuff about Star Wars as well!

Judging From the Userbase and the Pageviews and Anecdotal Evidence- why is there an obsession with Pinterest?

Sharpe think it’s twofold — at a basic level, it’s just a great place to go to see things that are interesting to you. Every time you go, you should see 50 to 100 things that hopefully are relevant or interesting to you. But the flipside of that — and something [he] didn’t expect when [they] built the product — is that there are are tons of people using the pictures to find things that impact their everyday life. People doing crafts projects, planning birthday parties, designing a home on the cheap. There are all sorts of life tips that come out of Pinterest. So now, not only are you finding stuff that’s interesting, but you’re also getting off Pinterest to do the things you’re finding on the site. What that means is that, at the end of the day, Pinterest can really complement your life instead of being a timesuck.

In “Pin Etiquette,” it says that Pinterest is not a Place for Self-Promotion. How, then, can Pinterest best be used by brands as a marketing tool?

A lot of brands are using Pinterest to promote and share more about their brand.  The idea behind the brand makes sense on Pinterest.

What is the Company Culture Like at Pinterest?

Filled with exciting people who want to work, love the product, and everyone has real interests and passions outside of Pinterest.  People who are generally interested in the world is what makes it a very fun environment to work for.

ABCey Events just can’t get enough of Pinterest! Make sure to check out the website, get an invitation, and start your pinning! We look forward to following your pins soon!

We’re slightly overwhelmed with the amount of Social Gifting startup sites that have popped up this holiday season encouraging us to outsource our decisions, but still think this whole movement is great. Many of you may have already heard of Wantful, a startup founded by serial entrepreneur John Poisson,  which aims to revamp the gift-giving process. This is a site that takes the experience of a high-end shop, and makes it fun and affordable for you and your gift recipients. It has a super simple design, and lets you log in with Facebook so that it can pull in all of your friend’s birthdays. These companies are offering to save customers from the task of choosing items themselves. They hire editors from the retail world, personal shoppers charged with sifting through hundreds of options, surfacing only the very best products and doing the dirty research.

It’s part personalized pop-up shop, and part gift certificate. The site helps the gifter put together a custom catalog of 16 items that all fall within a certain price point, then delivers the book either electronically or as a physical copy to the receiver, then ships the chosen product. By marrying tech and tradition, the service seeks to relieve shoppers from the burden of having to choose exactly what to buy that special someone, while preserving the sense that thought and care went into picking a present.

Wantful is also different in its affinity for paper and the postal service. They realize that an email can’t replicate the fun of unwrapping a gift so Wantful will print and ship a customized book that showcases the possible presents the gift giver has selected for a $5 fee. Not bad! Wantful is backed by a few tech industry heavyweights such as Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, Path CEO Dave Morin and One Kings Lane co-founder Alison Pincus. The site doesn’t rely solely on fancy algorithms but moreso on old-fashioned means such as good taste and wrapping paper to deliver a personal, and memorable touch to help it’s user select gifts.

We love this idea and think it could be fun to experiment with this holiday season. It will be interesting to see how the etiquette of sending a Wantful will evolve once the novelty wears off. Will it be seen as little more than a souped-up gift certificate? Which of the new social gifting sites are your favorite so far? Gift Side Story, Trunk Club, Givvy, Quarterly…the list goes on!

There sure are an amazing amount of social and curated gifting sites popping up this season! It’s clearly a great idea, so it will be interesting to see which ones succeed and which ones don’t. Quarterly is a new way to connect with the people you follow and find interesting. We spend so much of our lives connecting with people online that we forget the value of authentic interactions that happen in the real world. This new service from the former editor of Good Magazine let’s you subscribe to tastemakers like Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic or Scott Belsky of Behance, every three months you get a gift curated by the person you’ve chosen to subscribe to. You can receive physical items in the mail from influential contributors and cultural icons of your choice.

What kind of stuff will you get? Quarterly says that you’ll see a blend of original, exclusive, and consumer items that are timeless, practical, exciting, and fly under the radar. The idea is not to fill up your house with clutter, and they are mindful of the waste that we all generate each day. They also recognize that consumption isn’t inherently bad, but just a matter of making smarter choices about the things we surround ourselves with.

Quarterly users can subscribe to as many contributors as they like. Support for multiple subscriptions was by their most requested feature ever since the launch, and it’s now being offered. We’re thinking this is pretty awesome. What you are getting is an experience, just like getting a letter in the mail from a good friend. Instead, you’re getting a gift from someone super cool that you admire! Super!

Will you be testing out Quarterly this holiday season?

Christmas and Hannukkah are just around the corner, so it is time to start preparing! Here are some creative and fun photography tips that we hope you’ll enjoy.

1. Prepare: Making a List, Checking it Twice

• Make sure you are prepared to capture the moments of this holiday.

• Check that you have everything and find some good places to take some shots

• Pack the camera

• Make sure the batteries are charged and you have extra memory cards

• Put someone on ‘photos’.  Make sure someone is taking charge and photographing the whole event!

• Consider the light in the room that you’ll be photographing in. Is there enough light? Will you need a flash?
• Are the backgrounds too cluttered and distracting?

2. Get Your White Balance In Check: Pay attention to what type of light you’re shooting in and set your white balance accordingly.  If you have a camera that shoots in RAW, however, you can change it later.

3. Set Up a DIY ‘Photo Booth’: Time to be creative and set up a photo booth station where the party is.  An idea would be to photograph everyone as they come in and then leave a tripod set up with a self-timer on the camera for people to take pictures of themselves during the party.  As the party goes on, the photos get crazier!

4. Capture the Preparation Stages:

• The meal or party is the best part of the day, but there are other photographic opportunities; mainly the preparation stages of the day.

• Food preparation

• Putting up decorations

• Wrapping gifts

• Kids throwing a tantrum while getting dressed in their Christmas outfits

• Setting the table

5. Before and After Shots: Take pictures of the place before the party starts and after it has finished. It will show you what a success it truly was!

6. Time-lapse Christmas Series: A creative idea would be to set up a web cam on the table looking down the Christmas tree. Set the camera to go off every 5 minutes over the day and you will end up with one of the most wonderful series of shots. Of course can be applied to a Hannukkah bush as well;)

7. Christmas Lights: This can be tricky so read up on it!

8. Find a Point of Interest- but just per shot: Work hard to de-clutter your images

9. Fresh Group Photos: Take the group photo before the day gets started and when everyone looks their best.

10. Opening Gifts- Shoot in Continuous Mode: Opening gifts bring a wide array of emotions, facial expressions and excitement, so be ready to capture all of them! You will find a lot of really exciting, memorable photos.

11. Fill Your Frame: Fill your frame with your subject either by using your zoom or getting up closer to the subjec

Together with the convenience of digital cameras and advances in offset publishing, and fun new apps, this holiday season we will surely be seeing lots of digitally printed holiday cards. While we know this is more convenient for many reasons, there is still something to be said about handwritten cards. Digital images are great, but they don’t capture the feeling you get when you hold a real photo in your hands.

If you are interested in going digital, and saving time with address labels, stamps, etc…be sure to try Sincerely Ink or Postcard On The Run. Both of these apps will let you design your card and then they will send it out for you.”Just snap, tap, and send.” If you have some spare time, and want to go traditional, we’ve got a few recommendations for you this season. California Home + Design shares some of their favorite finds from local San Francisco stationery makers.

Greetings from San Fran: Wish your friends and family happy holidays from The City by the Bay! The cards can also be printed as customized photo cards. Greetings from San Francisco Cards ($16 for 6 at Hello! Lucky)

Say it in Black and White: Keep it simple with these bold holiday cards from San Francisco’s In Haus Press.The Merriest Holiday Cards: ($18 for 6 at In Haus Press, Etsy)

Merry Mistletoe: San Francisco’s famed Yellow Owl Press offers an unexpected take on the traditional holiday card this year. Botanical prints of seasonal plants are surprisingly festive and sophisticated.Botantical Card ($4 each at Yellow Owl Press)

Merry and Modern: If cutesy holiday cards aren’t your thing, consider these from the SFMOMA Museum Store. The red hue on the featured Mark Rothko’s 1967 says “Holiday” but is still sophisticated. Mark Rothko Holiday Card ($16 for 12 at SFMOMA Museum Store)

Doe a Deer: This unique card is merry, without being over-the-top. It comes from one of our favorite purveyors of fine stationery, Austin Press–who, despite their name are based here in SF. So hop to it and send it to everyone on your list. Holiday Doe Visiting Card (price upon request at Austin Press).

Shutterfly and Moo will also let you design your holiday card, but they won’t mail them for you. This year you will have no excuses! Will you be going Traditional or Digital?

Social media has clearly become a main medium for many businesses. Therefore, it is highly important to stay on track and avoid mistakes.  At ABCey Events, we are always using social media to connect with our clients and community, and to share our local knowledge. Brian Solis, tech guru and social media connoisseur, offers some great tips that we think are very helpful.  Here is a quick recap of what he shares with us.

1. Showing Up Isn’t Enough: While it is important you have a social medium and make a name for yourself, it is most important to learn how to engage with your followers.  Whether it be through Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social medium, make sure you really engage in conversation to attract potential consumers.
2. You Can’t be Everywhere, Nor Should You: With the extensive new up and comings of technology and new social mediums, you may be really excited to try everything. Don’t.  Be where your followers are and excel within that medium.
3. Authenticity and Transparency are Nothing Without a Connection: Authenticity and transparency are the two very important aspects to social media.  They act as a “guiding light” more so than an effective form of engagement.   Therefore, it is most important to make sure you add value and content to your social media, and in return, authenticity and transparency will support your content.
4. Talking to People Isn’t a Business Strategy: Make sure you have a purpose before you engage in conversation! It is important you engage in conversation and make people who don’t know about you, find out about you.  You want the people to start talking about your brand, so engage, engage, engage!
5. Keep Your Customers Tuned in: Adding one video is not going to make you go viral.  According to Solis, “Companies believe that uploading a video to Youtube is the key to anything going viral. What they don’t know is, 48 Hours of video is uploaded every minute to Youtube. The chance of your video going viral naturally is basically nil”.  So if you want to go viral and you are sure that going viral will help your company, seek out people that will help you share and make yourself known.  ”If it creates lift, leaves an imprint or if it drives action or outcomes, that’s when you’re going viral. “

What other common mistakes have you made as part of your social media strategy?

We recently saw the launch of a new lifestyle brand, HelloBrit.com which aims to find helpful, yet creative new ways for busy people to live more simply, beautifully and imaginatively. Brit Morin (wife to Dave Morin, the founder of Path) has been working in the tech world for several years now and was a former Apple and Google employee. She is already being touted as the Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley and has recently been featured in The LA Times, Huffington Post, and TechCrunch. Brit gives new ideas and tips to live a more simple and creative life whether it be through technology, food, style, health that she either created or curated from scouring the web, something that is becoming very popular! Brit says “The ideas should come to you, and they should come through a channel whose expertise and taste you trust.”

Her site is looking like a cross between Real Simple and Wired Magazines with videos showing you how to make Christmas tree cheese appetizers, how to use electrical tape to make candy cane cups, DIY Holiday welcome mats, wearable dinner party napkins, and more. She recently featured a great gift guide for the holidays and showcases 20 of her favorite products and apps. Thanks Brit!

The brand’s first offering is a wedding app called Weduary, which was inspired by the process that Morin and her husband used in planning their own ”Pixel Cowboy”- themed wedding this summer. This will be a new service for brides and grooms, and will hopefully make for a more interesting experience for guests online and off. Make sure to sign up on the website to be notified when the new site arrives! There will be some other apps launched in the future which will likely be centered around ways to be creative around the home and novel ways to perform everyday activities like cooking, decorating and shopping.

We hope you enjoy and use Hello Brit for a little inspiration into your own creativity! We know that at ABCey, we will be keeping up Brit’s innovative ideas and using them for inspiration of our own, especially this holiday season.

Do you ever spend hours in a store or shopping online, trying to find the perfect gift for someone, but just can’t quite figure out what to get them? Well, now your days have become much easier, and just in time for the holidays!  Givvy is an “open community that let’s you participate in shaping the next gift-giving trend”. Whether it’s for a birthday, holiday present, housewarming party or a little something for yourself, our community of curators makes it easy to discover trendy new gifts that will inspire you and delight your friends and family.  You can also keep track of your most important occasions and social events with a personalized calendar and gift reminder service.

Givvy is uniquely designed for use inside Facebook—so you can discover gifts and share occasions while staying connected to the friends you love most. Givvy is an open community that let’s you participate in shaping the next gift-giving trend. Simply share your favorite gift ideas with friends and earn points as your influence gains in popularity. The members with the most influence earn exclusive rewards and join our community of Curators.

Your Holiday season of gift giving has now become much easier.  Make sure to check out Givvy’s Facebook page for great ideas for the perfect gift.

ABCey Events would like to thank Larry Rubin, one of Givvy’s founder’s for making our gift-giving days much easier!