I’m sitting here at my desk in this New Year trying to get organized like most others. For a business owner, and for those who rely on social media marketing to draw new customers and gain recognition, it gets a bit more tricky as you have to organize all of your social networks as well. First, I made a list of all the sites I needed to update my company information on. There have been many new platforms that have popped up as of late, and if we don’t keep up we’ll be left in the dust. Others, we may have just neglected as we tend to focus on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. Then there’s Pinterest, Quora, YouTube, Stumbleupon, G+, Tumblr, etc. I then took a look at my Klout score to measure how much influence my posts and social actions are having around the web. I scored a 49 out of 100, which is probably not terrible but not as great as I’d like.

In the past, people mainly relied on radio announcements, TV hosts and more traditional media to get their information and news. Today, you are able to connect with people all over the world using social media and can voice your opinion as often as you’d like. Klout says that “Social media has democratized influence” and it’s very true! Influence is the ability to drive action.

Klout uses data from your social networks to measure your influence. Anywhere you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, comments and more. The more engagement your posts receive, the more influential you are. Klout uses this information to provide you with a Klout Score that measures your overall influence and also explains how you are influenced by the world around you. Klout can also be used to help open the door for new opportunities, such as using your networks to find a new job.

Have you gotten your latest Klout score? We noticed that Guy Kawasaki is at 81 so that’s going to be tough to beat. I wonder what it takes to get a perfect score and if anyone has one? ABCey would love to hear how much influence you have, so please leave us a comment or email us at events@abcey.com. Happy Klouting!

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.

We’re super excited to finally attend the Event Solutions Idea Factory Expo this coming February 26th-29th, 2012 at Cesears Palace in Las Vegas, NV. This has always been on ABCey’s “Must Attend” lists, but our hectic schedule hasn’t permitted us to do so until now. This is regarded as “the” Event Industry event of the year, where creativity, success and connections are founded. Planners, producers, and marketers from across the country and around the world will come together to explore ideas and strategies that can help take you and your company to the next level. It’s a perfect mix of fun and informative events, educational sessions, a massive resource Expo, networking opportunities and more.

Here’s a recap from last year!

We are always up for learning and staying on top of current industry trends, so this is a great opportunity for those interested in the same. And, it’s in Vegas…how can you go wrong? Okay, just make sure not to stay out all night so that you don’t miss the morning sessions!

EDUCATION: Take part in more than 100 sessions, presentations and demos and keep your
business ahead of the curve and ahead of the competition.
EVENTS: Many included and optional events will bring the latest event and catering trends and concepts to life. Bring your camera
and take home ideas you can use.
TRADESHOW: The Tradeshow floor will bring you hundreds of essential resources for successful events and meetings.
NETWORKING: Connect with other event planning professionals to share ideas, discuss the issues and create solutions.

To register, click here! Make sure you get your pass by January 31st to save. The complete ES Idea Factory Brochure can also be downloaded on the website. We hope to see you all there!

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!

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?

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!

WIth Thanksgiving just around the corner, we thought we would give you a few fun facts about this special holiday.  M.J. Stephey, from the Times, tells us 10 bizarre facts. Enjoy!

1. T-Day or a Tray: In 1953, Gerry Thomas, from Swanson, had 260 tons of frozen turkeys to serve, so he ordered 5,000 tons of aluminum trays and got an assembly line of women to dispense small amounts of turkey, corn bread dressing, peas and sweet potatoes, which became the first ever TV dinner.
2. Football & Feastin’: The tradition of watching football on Thanksgiving started in 1876, when the newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game. Less than a decade later, more than 5,000 club, college, and high school football teams held games on Thanksgiving Day.
3. Franksgiving:  In 1939, FDR said that Americans should celebrate Thanksgiving one week early, hoping the decision would spur retail sales during the Great Depression.  Americans did not like this new deal, so the mayor of Atlantic City declared that the residents would have two meals, Thanksgiving and “Franksgiving”.  It wasn’t until two years later, in 1941, that Congress adopted a resolution and declared Thanksgiving to be held on the fourth Thursday of November.
4. Mary Had a Little Thanksgiving Obsession: The woman who wrote the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” also played an important role in making Thanksgiving a national holiday. After a 17-year letter-writing campaign, Abraham Lincoln was finally convinced to issue an 1863 decree recognizing the historic tradition. 
5. Americans at the Abbey: In 1942, London’s Westminster Abbey held Thanksgiving services for U.S. troops stationed in England. The Church’s pew sang America, the Beautiful and The Star-Spangled Banner, with more than 3,500 soldiers in the church.  This was the first time a foreign army was invited to take over the grounds of a 900-year-old church.
6. Pardon Me, Mr. President:  When President Harry sympathized with a Turkey in 1947, the annual tradition of pardoning a turkey before thanksgiving began in the White House.  
7. Slow Roasting Tradition: It took more than 150 years before all 13 colonies celebrated Thanksgiving at once, in October 1777, although the first Thanksgiving was held in 1621.  George Washington loved the holiday, while President Thomas Jefferson disliked it, calling Thanksgiving “the most ridiculous idea” ever conceived.
8. Turkey and Chicken and Duck– Oh My!: A store in Louisiana claims to ship more than 5,000 turduckens a week before Thanksgiving day.  I bet you wonder what a turducken is? It is a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken.  Now that is a lot of meat.
9. Fast vs. Feast: Thanksgiving is all about eating an abundant amount of great food.  Ironically, it was initially supposed to be a fast, not a feast.  The settlers at Plymouth Rock celebrated the day by prayer and abstaining from food.  But when Wampanoag Indians joined them, celebrated the 3-day celebration with dancing, games, and feasting.  
10. What’s in a Name?:  Three towns have been named after this special holiday — Turkey, Texas, Turkey Creek, La. and Turkey, N.C. — each with less than 500 residents.  It is said that t the pheasant’s name came from Christopher Columbus, who thought he was in India when he arrived in “The New World” and, therefore, named the pheasant a “tuka,” an Indian term for peacock.