I’ve been up to a great deal which I will update you all on soon!

One of the most exciting of these activities is an upcoming series of free classes I will be teaching in Atlanta called Hands On Small Business, sponsored by Kirtsy and Microsoft Office Live.

Here is the schedule of Atlanta classes and links to register:

All of the classes will be held at:
ATDC Headquarters at Georgia Tech
Tech Square, 75 5th Street NW, Suite 202 Atlanta, GA 30308
(404) 894-3575

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 6:00PM-8:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH, 6:00PM-8:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH, 7:00PM-9:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST, 2:00PM-4:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH, 2:00PM-4:00PM

• Click here to Register for this Event

Learn more about Hands On Small Business after the jump!

More about Hands On Small Business:

Women across the country are coming together this October and November for the Hands On Small Business (#HOSB) series — all brought to you by the Politics, World and Business section of Kirtsy and the very good people of Microsoft Office Live.

All 100 individual events will happen between October 5 and November 20, in 20 cities across the United States and Canada.

The practical, hands-on sessions will offer direct advice, instruction, and application tips for free online and social media solutions to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.

“The ‘hands-on’ sessions started as things often do, with neighbors and friends asking each other for help and advice on something new,” said Gabrielle Blair, one of the founders of Kirtsy. “Women often get together to compare notes. And there are a lot of us who want to talk right now about how social media and online applications can simplify our lives and enhance our small business pursuits.”

After hosting 10 Hands-On Social Media sessions with Microsoft Office Live in June, Kirtsy received a fleet of requests to host more of these informal, intimate gatherings across the US and Canada. At the events, attendees cover popular platforms and get hands-on direction setting up accounts and applying them to their lives.

The Fall Kirtsy “Hands on Social Business” sessions will be held in the following cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Charlotte, Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Washington DC, Columbus, Seattle, Portland, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Miami and Toronto.

Each session is free and open to the public.

Last night was the inaugural IgniteATL!

About Ignite

Started by Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Etsy.com, formerly of MAKE Magazine, Ignite was inspired by Pecha Kucha Nights, where speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame. The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, and since then the event has become an international phenomenon, with gatherings in Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; New York, New York; and many other locations.

Ignite has two parts: the Ignite contest, where people make things, and Ignite talks, where presenters get 20 slides and five minutes to make their point. You can opt to only have talks, but the contest is fun and can serve as a great warm-up for the talks.

I helped organize the event with Colin Ake, Michael Mealling and Brandy Nagel and had almost 500 people RSVP for this kickoff event! The crowd gathered at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Midtown excited and curious of what the evening had in store.

We saw presentations about everything from beer to liquid nitrogen and transportation to artificial intelligence! Huge thanks to all of our sponsors, especially MailChimp who enabled our great afterparty at Octane Coffee. An official wrap-up of the event will be over on the IgniteATL site soon with links to the presentations, photos, and video coverage of each.

In addition to my help coordinating the event, I also contributed a presentation on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One).” I don’t have video of it yet but below are the slides with commentary — some of which I got to during the presentation, some of which I didn’t (numbered in coordination with slides)! I definitely need to practice with the 15 second time restraint before my next Ignite presentation.

2. You really think you know more than everyone else? Nothing left to learn? Does your intellectual discipline manifest as a divine incarnation? On whose authority?
3. Yeah… because you attract spam bots with the amount of trending topics you partake in and social media lingo you drop. It’s about quality, not quantity. Forget the numbers and pay attention to the value.
4. My Twitter team twold me to twost a twerrific tweetup! He twit. He twat. He twot.
5. Yes! We saw that post you made on Facebook. And FriendFeed. And Twitter. And Digg. And Tumblr. And…
6. Always armed with Flip cam, iPhone, Blackberry/Android/Palm Pre, MacBookPro, digital SLR, USB modem, etc. Always flashes socially and will eagerly discuss with anyone. So where’s the content again?
7. It doesn’t always fit. Just because you have seen it done, know the tools and have read all the critics and evangelists, doesn’t mean you know how to apply those to a company.
8. There’s a big difference between SEO copy, SEM copy, tweets, Facebook status updates, blog content, mailing list content, and so forth. Stop and rethink while considering the format, audience and function before your next communication effort.
9. The 250 is a term “describing the small, cliquey group of self-appointed Web 2.0 insiders who seem to spend their days blogging and Twittering about each other” giving off the appearance that they feel they are “the only people who matter.”
10. Don’t model yourself after this idea and create your own cliques. There’s much less room for fresh ideas, innovation and growth when you’re in bubble.
11. Read or don’t read. Learn. Form your own opinion. Relate it to your own efforts. Don’t imitate.
12. Who would you rather have a drink with? Who would you be able to learn more from? I’d choose the Snakeoil Salesman — at least he has his own stories.
14. These sheep hide easily and many don’t even realize that they are sheep. Look for those with past experience, who work hands-on with fit metrics designed to drive results, and have developed their own roadmaps and processes.
15. Don’t try to impress — try to help. If you are being hired, that is what your client is looking for.
16. Metrics are unique to every project and effort within. What do they mean in relation to these? Does it affect your next steps? Should it?
17. This is where the magic and progress occurs.
18. Not all social networks are created equal. The type of messaging that may be appropriate for one platform, doesn’t necessarily fit on another. Observe and learn the differences.
19. The social web is developing rapidly and because of this, there is always something to learn. Be open to listening to others and evaluating their points before dismissing.

One of the biggest conferences of every year (and my personal favorite) is SXSW, held every March in Austin, TX. The entire conference comprises of Music, Interactive and Film tracks over a two week period. Last year, I attended both Music and Interactive which was a great experience though quite exhausting!

This year, I am pitching to speak on a panel with a friend I made through a mutual contact at SXSW 2008, Greg Swan, Editor of Minneapolis music blog PerfectPorridge.com. The topic of our panel is “The State Of Music Blogs In 2010.”

Panel Description:
Just how important are music blogs to the industry today, is that prominence growing or fading, and how will new technologies and strategies impact the marketing mix in the coming year? Join prominent music bloggers, record label and PR firm executives to discuss the state of the industry, what’s around the corner and how musicians and record labels can develop relationships with these blogging influencers.

Questions We Will Discuss/Answer:

1. Journalist or super fan: what does it mean to be a music blogger these days?
2. How will the new FTC regulations on freebies to bloggers impact today’s marketing practices?
3. How important are aggregation sites to a band or record label’s marketing strategy and bottom line?
4. If video killed the radio star and blogs killed the music mags, what will kill the music blogs?
5. While the RIAA is suing fans for illegally downloading music, bands and indie labels are begging blogs to give away their albums for free. What’s the future of profitability in selling music versus giving it away?
6. What new technologies (e.g., mobile phone, embeddable players, interactive video) are being used by bands to reach fans directly and what’s next?
7. Will microblogging and lifestreaming of musicians directly interacting with fans affect traditional marketing strategies?
8. How do burgeoning and established social networks help and hinder artists?
9. What’s the worst pitch you’ve ever received and why?
10. What’s the guaranteed strategy to position a band for ultimate blogosphere buzz?

Please vote for our panel on the SXSW Panel Picker! Today is the last day for you to do so. The Panel Picker partially determines which panels are chosen for the conference. SXSW should begin to announce the chosen panels in October.

For those of you who enjoyed my IgniteATL presentation last night on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One)” should check out the “How To Not Be A Douchebag At SXSW” panel as well.

Stumbled across this interesting blog post: The Hierarchy Of Tweets – Analyzing The Psychology Of Twitter

Alex Bogusky, Chairman of advertising powerhouse CP+B (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), has officially entered the world of blogging. His first blog post is being hosted on a popular new blogging platform, Posterous, similar to competitor Tumblr.

And while Crispin is on the table, Fast Company discusses how Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s Crowdsourcing Experiment Backfires when trying to crowdsource designers for a logo.

This afternoon, I twittered a link to the blog post about my unemployment and among the responses included was this one:

I would advise to everyone in this unstable economy, the following five essentials:

1. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK Many other people are capable of doing the exact same job you are. If you lose your job, your best leads and opportunities will come from within your professional network. Opportunities are also often very timely. You want to be the first on their mind when a position suitable for you arises. Strive to develop relationships with people who have good reputations both inside and outside of their company.
2. LEARN COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS Learn a new programming language, foreign language, project management tool, application, or how to shoot and edit video. Whatever is applicable to your field of work. Possessing a larger toolbox of knowledge makes you more valuable to your current employer as well as potential employers.
3. FIND WAYS TO GET MORE EXPERIENCE Whether it’s volunteering for extra projects within your area of work, assisting outside your department or doing contract work in your spare time, you’re building your portfolio of experience. The more experienced, the more equipped you are with first-hand knowledge on how to tackle initiatives. Establish yourself as a resource.
4. MASTER YOUR INDUSTRY Who are the notable individuals and companies in your space? What did they do to achieve this? Study their work and determine what qualities of their work made them excel above the rest. Watch how they communicate. Explore what they might have been able to do better. Try applying this knowledge to your own work then measure whether it enhanced your outcome. You will need to adjust per effort. Continue to study successful work in your industry and utilize the knowledge deciphered with your own work. Don’t hesitate to consult with mentors, bosses and coworkers in your studies.
5. BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST Have an updated resume on hand in the event you should lose your job. If you are in a field that can translate across multiple verticals, create a resume and cover letter targeted to each of those verticals. Always have a professional conservative outfit on hand for interviews and meetings.

The more you can do to set yourself apart from the rest of population the better. This is a continual process. The exercises I listed above pay off best when practiced regularly and will make you work smarter.

In response to Roger? Starting a blog can offer you a place online to host conversations about your industry, broadcast your personality and show-off your knowledge. As when starting any blog, decide what the purpose(s) of your blog will be before creating it.

Creating your own business is a way to guarantee you will have a job but it doesn’t guarantee you will have work. Make sure you understand everything that is involved in creating a small business before deciding what is the best option for you — financials, time allocation, legal considerations, and so forth.

If you do decide to proceed with starting your business, I favor the Single Person LLC option a good deal and have a cheat-sheet on how to form an LLC in Georgia on this blog for others’ reference.

The recession is affecting everyone. This is nothing new. What is new? Scores of individuals are now looking to the internet for how they can empower themselves with the tools to self-supplement and sustain income beyond traditional options.

This afternoon, I was invited by the ever-awesome Hollis Gillespie (humor columnist, author, radio commentator, and morethanyoucanhandle) and Mike Alvear (Huffington Post blogger, co-host of HBO’s Sex Inspectors, author) to contribute to their “Blog Your Way Out Of The Recession” workshop. I spoke with a group of about 15 who were interested in starting blogs — about three had already taken the plunge.

I began by discussing blog publishing software such as WordPress, MovableType, Blogger and Typepad. While all viable options, my personal favorite and the platform I recommend exclusively to others is WordPress. This website is powered by WordPress as are many of the biggest news sources online including the New York Times and The Washington Post. WordPress is fantastic for a number of reasons. Among the notable: It is very easy to use for individuals who are not tech-savvy; and it is very robust and pliable. WordPress can be very slick and professional aesthetically or you can opt for a more plug-and-play traditional blog format. Whatever suits your fancy.

I continued to discuss the upmost importance of owning your domain and the benefits you sacrifice when not opting for a self-hosted blog, tracking and analyzing traffic and referral information, recommended WordPress plugins, how search engines communicate in regards to your blog, and monetization options for both short-term and long-term revenue growth.

For future workshops, I am very interested in putting together a presentation that focuses on the meta of blogs. It will cover meta-tagging, post tagging, categorization as well as archiving and sitemaps. This may be my project on my flight to NYC next week!

All-in-all it was a great time. I highly recommend you check out both Hollis and Mike online for some fantastically entertaining reads. Stay tuned for future workshop collaborations between the three of us!

Some quick cheat-sheet links:

• I register domains with GoDaddy.
• I host with A Small Orange.
• I use WordPress for all my blogging needs.

I will be doing a blog post about my recommended plugins and traffic/analytics tools soon — check back.

Tomorrow I will be liveblogging Startup Riot 2009 taking place at the Twelve Hotel in Atlantic Station (Atlanta). The liveblog will include all updates from Twitter that include the #startupriot hashtag as well.

Startup Riot Agenda
9:15 am introduction
9:45 am morning keynote and Q&A
10:30 am 1st hour of pitches
11:30 am chaotic lunch pairing exercise
1:15 pm 2nd hour of pitches
2:15 pm networking & demos
3:15 pm 3rd hour of pitches
4:15 pm wrap up discussion & networking

I will also be putting up polls throughout the day to get feedback from the viewers on the pitches, products, coverage desired and so forth. Feedback encouraged! The liveblog will launch shortly before the Introduction at 9:15AM.

Qualifications: Competent and resourceful

I dropped out of North Atlanta High School my senior year, one month before my five Advanced Placement (AP) exams (Biology, Calculus, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, US History). I had been offered my first “real job” as a Marketing Coordinator at Wiley Music (who later merged with Sixthman), a music management and marketing company based in Atlanta. They never asked when I was suppose to graduate and I never told them. I suffered from senioritis for two solid years and was annoyed by the “busy work” and laggard pace of my classes.

The following year, I earned my GED with a perfect score in two sections. The woman who administered the test asked me why I was there. I told her I had received a job offer that I felt was a step towards the career I was interested in pursuing (music marketing). She allowed me to leave early since I finished so quickly, despite policy.

Skip ahead to 2007. I determined music marketing in Atlanta would not make me happy and took a paid internship at an interactive/search company in town. I had five years of music and online marketing experience under my belt but was eager to pursue the technology side of my previous campaigns more hands-on. In 2007, I also registered for my very first college classes at Georgia State University as a Computer Science major. A semester and a half later I was forced to drop out due to a death in the family.

I am almost seven years into my adult life and not having a college degree has not cost me an opportunity or job yet. I believe in the importance of education but I feel an individual’s needs vary. Programs are too cookie-cutter to work for everyone. I don’t want to be retaught the same four lines I have known for four years. I have learned everything I know from experience, peers, research and trial and error. Learning in this way, I feel my knowledge of certain areas is stronger than those who learned from a class. However I don’t come with a course outline or list of suggested reading materials — which leads to gaps in the knowledge base aka my brain. I have decided that I don’t want to spend any more money taking remedial classes in order to achieve “credits” necessary to move ahead with my education.

How I plan to teach myself a college-level education without a college: I will take advantage of Google’s inclusion of PDFs & DOCs within their search results. I am searching for college courses at leading universities that cover topics I would like to study further in depth. Using Google, I plan to locate a syllabus for each course and aggregate resources (books, case studies, websites) and so forth to develop my own at-home course. Many of these texts are available on Amazon used. There are also numerous lectures available online via free podcasts and audio files. My goal is to begin in January with no end date.