Starcast 199: Started with a Perfect Kiss Then We Could Feel the Poison Set In

If you've followed my blog and tweets long enough, you know that me and my friends are foodies. So, when we heard that Five Guys burgers was coming to Greensboro, we started planning for our opening day visit weeks in advance! Haha! I know we're crazy. Anyway, the day finally came last week, and I archived the entire thing on video. So, hold onto your hats, and watch below as me and my crazy crew attempt to entertain you... and maybe clog a few arteries at the same time! :-)



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Ghetto Fab's All Over the Place

Today, I posted my 20,000th tweet on Twitter believe it or not! Wow! It's kinda hard to think I've been tweeting for so long! Not only has Twitter become a way to communicate what's going on in my life and become how I get the majority of my news, but it's also become one of my favorite avenues for socializing. I have met so many incredible people on Twitter, and each month I meet more and more amazing people.

I promised a fellow tweep, Jeff Rago, that I would dedicate my 20,000th tweet to him, and I did just that today when I reached the 20k post. I used the Vidly video service to upload a special message, and I posted it along with the tweet. The video quality wasn't as good as I had hoped, so I'm posting a higher quality copy of the video in this blog post. Be sure to check it out below.



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So Cheap and Juicy

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who likes to record video shout-outs for their favorite products! See below for Josh Holden's latest homage to Jamba Juice! Josh is back in NYC and excited that he can enjoy Java Juice again... because, as you might guess, Jamba Juice isn't racing to open a location at Holden Beach just yet. Anyway, his video is fun & will make you smile, and I think you'll especially enjoy the "chunky strawberry topper!"



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Sparkling, Clear, and Lovely, You're My Lady

Wow just realized I haven't blogged in a while-- bad Scott! It happens, though... every once in a while, I stop blogging (or vlogging or podcasting) for a bit, I realize how much I miss it, and I then come back full force! With that said, it's not that I haven't wanted to blog lately, I've just been busy... and, as some of you know, blogging is just one of those things you have to make time for.

So, what's been going on with me since August? Well, if you didn't hear already, I bought a new house at the beginning of the summer, and I've been working hard setting things up in my new place. The propoery has alot of trees in the backyard AND a pool, so, needless to say, I've got alot of things to take care of!! Not sure how much I'm gonna like the maintenance part yet [ha!], but I do have a pool boy (and before you comment, he's not a hot, strapping stud)... and I predict I'll soon hire someone to do the other yard work, too. Gotta weight my opportunity costs-- think of all the lost time that I could be spending working on my businesses when I'm out fiddling in the yard!

Speaking of my businesses, I'm still working on all of my entrepreneurial endeavors (in fact, both of my companies, TiM and TapTrend are doing well). Btw, I have some really good news related to one of our products, Troubl, ready to announce very soon, so be sure to watch this blog for that news. Also, as some of you also know, I'm still actively involved in encouraging budding entrepreneurs to get involved with startups... and, along with Josh Holden, I'm hosting another StartupHB Splinter Cell retreat this month.

Other than the things I've mentioned above, I'm still alive-- another birthday has come and gone (my b-day was this past Monday)... I'm still single (you probably had to read between the lines of my blog to pick up on that one)... and I'm mostly happy. So, since blogging and vlogging are two things that make me even happier, I'm hoping to pick myself back up (once again), and publish content more often. So, tighten your seatbelts, ladies, the ride's about to be start back up!

Starcast 198: Food, Glorious Food, We're Anxious To Try It

I've finally got some more video footage of the 1st Greensboro Tastecasting event at Table 16 (see below). In this episode, you'll see Josh Holden and Ryan Robbins walking on the way to the event (I'm behind the camera), footage of Table 16's Chef Graham discussing the night's menu, and Ryan Robbins and me giving some feedback on the night's event.



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This Beat That I'm Banging Is Delicious

I finally had the time to put together a second blog entry follow-up to our inaugural Greensboro Tastecasting event, which was held at Table 16 restaurant in Greensboro a few weeks back. Previously, I used my blog and Twitter to share information that others have written and posted about the event. However, In this current blog entry, I focused more on MY thoughts related to the event.

First off, I must say that Chef Graham, co-owner and head chef at Table 16, and his wine specialist, Scott, certainly gave us a night to remember during the Tastecasting event. The food, the wine, and the service were all spectacular! Chef Graham had put together a "chef's selection" experience for us where he prepared dishes based on the group's tastes as well as dietary restrictions (for example, @RyanRobbins has a wheat allergy, and he was able to make adjustments to each course for her). All in all, we got to experience 8 courses, with each course being paired with a wine that was selected to compliment the flavor of the course. And, I must say, I was pleased with every aspect of the evening--the food, the wine, and the service!

A couple of my favorite courses included a tuna tartare dish, which was served with wasabi and fava bean pureé, and a NY strip steak w/ tasso ham & fried green tomatoes, both of which were paired with a fantastic white wines. Sounds fancy, right? Well, most people in Greensboro who know about Table 16 would certainly agree that the restaurant is a fine dining establishment. However, Chef Graham does a fantastic job of creating food experiences that, although sound lavish by name, are combined with down-home ingredients that can connect to everyone's palate. For example, I was pleased to see ingredients with southern roots--particularly low-country and cajun--incorporated into just about all of the dishes. Sure, the dishes were gourmet dishes, but think gourment with a hint of down-home comfort.

So, if I had to describe the Table 16 Tastecasting experience in just one word, I would have to say, "excellent." Excellent food, excellent wine.... and all prepared and served to be as accessible for everyone.

To read more reviews of Table 16 from the first Greensboro Tastecasting event, please click on the links that follow.

Eating Up Greensboro

Greensboring

Gedblog

Ryan Robbins' Blog

And They Be Linin' Down the Block Just To Watch What I Got

Two weeks ago, Adam Arney and I organized the 1st Tastecasting event in Greensboro, NC. Tastecasting, a platform for socially networked people to help restaurants build their businesses, was started in Ohio and has slowly grown to include a dozen cities across the nation.

The 1st Greensboro Tastecasting event was held at Table 16 restaurant in downtown Greensboro, and I must say the food was fantastic! Chef Graham of Table 16 made arrangements for 10 local Tastecasters to visit his restaurant. Instead of having us order off the menu, he planned a "Chef's Choice" dining experience for us where he cooked a series of New World cuisine dishes that the restaurant's wine expert paired with some exceptional wines!

Over the next couple of blog entries, I will feature stories relating to our Tastecasting event at Table 16. To start things off, I'm posting a video of Josh Holden reflecting on his experience at Table 16.

They Kill Like Men, They Die Like Boys, The Dream That Fills My Head

My staff at UNC Greensboro is doing more and more with social media to support our various distance education and extension programs. Our programs are very divergent and attract a variety of folks from all demographics-- we have programs for folks as young as 6 to 18 (we run some summer kids camps and we offer college classes to high schoolers), we offer online degree programs for working adults , and we offer extension programs for older adults (e.g., our Emeritus lecture series).

As part of our social media initiative, we are working with the staff of each of these programs to develop a blog, twitter, and facebook presence. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be featured in one of the videos we put together for our young adult population--it's a short video featuring some of my staff (and me) giving our impressions of this year's summer blockbuster movies. You can check out the video in this post...


Click the Image Above To Watch Our Summer Blockbuster Movie Reviews on YouTube

Starcast 197: Nothing I Want Is Out of My Reach. I'm Free.

A short while ago, Ryan Robbins found a cute turtle on the side of the road and proclaimed that it must have been a pet that had been set free by its owner. I was skeptical, but I let her convince me. She claimed that selling turtles as pets in the state of North Carolina was not legal and that "Hugo has to be a domesticated turtle that was either set free or escaped." Well, after a few weeks (and a little turtle education from the pet store), it was determined that the turtle was probably a wild turtle and that this particular breed, while once was mostly a breed sold as pets, is now found in the wild in NC and common in ponds and lakes around the state.

Ryan kept Hugo in a small make-shift pond for a few weeks but started feeling guilty about keeping him in the confined environment. Therefore, she decided to let Hugo go free. In the current video podcast, you find Ryan telling the story of Hugo's release. It's kinda sad (well, maybe not THAT sad)....

Oh, before, I forget, at this end of this episode, I feature a shout out to TweedleDM. In case you missed it, TweedleDM is a new service developed at Startup Weekend Holden Beach that allows users to search their Twitter direct messages.



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Starcast 196: Every 1's a winner, Baby, That's the Truth

I finally had a few minutes to pull some of the final presentation footage together from the last day of Startup Weekend Holden Beach. Eventually, you will be able to see all of the final presentation footage at on the StartupHB site, but this should tide you over until then. See below.



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Starcast 195: He Says, "Lord, This Must Be My Destination"

We're all sad that Startup Weekend Holden Beach is coming to a close. In this video, you will see some footage of our last group beach walk... and a little footage of the BoomClickaBoom team working on TweedleDM.



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Two Trailer Park Girls Go Round the Outside

Two teams formed at Startup Weekend Holden Beach this weekend: BoomClickaBoom and PayToPerfect. The BoomClickaBoom company actually worked on two projects-- PracticePlanr (a soccer-related app) and TweedleDM (a Web service for searching Twitter direct messages). The PayToPerfect team put together a Web-based service designed to crowdsource the writing of blogs to improve content in the blogosphere. Bloggers who are active with PayToPerfect can get paid for their participation.

In the following videos, you will see Adam Arney report on BoomClickaBoom's Day 3 progress and Brett Bumeter do the same thing for PayToPerfect.

Let's Go Outside in the Sunshine

From earlier today: An interview with Adam Arney where he talks about 2 projects that his StartupHB team is developing.



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Starcast 194: While I Turn Around You Watch Me Check Up On It

In the latest podcast, you see Adam Arney and Brett Bumeter report on their teams' progress on startup projects at this weekend's Startup Weekend Holden Beach.



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Starcast 193: A Toast To That Invincible Bunch, The Dinosaurs Surviving the Crunch.

Josh Holden and I ordered pizza for the StartupHB group today and hosted lunch right on the beach! So, if you were wondering just what makes our event unique compared to other Startup Weekends, wonder no more!! :-)

As you might guess, I recorded some video footage of our pizza luncheon on the beach, and I've included the video in the latest podcast (see below). Btw, if you are in NC or close by and interested in attending future Startup Weekend events in Holden Beach, we plan on hosting future events here-- just go to our http://startuphb.com, click on "contact us," and fill out the information form.



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Power To the People, Right On

In the following video that was filmed today at Startup Weekend Holden Beach, I interview Brett Bumeter, business developer, writer, blogger, and social media marketing expert, who discusses his team's startup--a system to crowdsource and monetize the editing of blog content.

Starcast 192: Close Your Eyes and Use Your Mouth and Tell Me About Your Song

The 2nd day of Startup Weekend Holden Beach is underway. The current video podcast features footage filmed this morning as the teams were reconvening for Day 2.



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There's a Freakout Brewin' at My House, My House

In this video, Josh Holden and I reflect on the pitching session from the first night of Startup Weekend Holden Beach. Eleven ideas were pitched and then narrowed down to three: TweetleDM (a service that sorts Twitter direct messages), PracticePlanr (a sports-related iPhone app), and a yet-to-be titled service that connects the blogosphere with more robust content via crowdsourcing. Watch the video below and look out for more as the weekend progresses.



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Starcast 191: Hey, Hey, Give 'Em What They Want

See how the pitching session went last night at Startup Weekend Holden Beach in the current video podcast.



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I Say Hello, Hello, Hello

Below is the first video official from our Startup Weekend Blog site. In this video, you will see Josh Holden and me introduce the weekend event.



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Starcast 190: Kick on the Starter, Give It All You Got

I've posted the first video podcast from Holden Beach Startup Weekend in the current blog post, so check it out below. In the video, you'll see us getting things started... the first guests arriving... and then Adam and I getting room assignments ready. If you haven't heard, Josh Holden and I procured a couple of beach houses for the event! FTW!



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Follow Your Heart, Your intuition, It Will Lead You in the Right Direction

I'm at Holden Beach for the 2nd weekend in a row working with Josh Holden to finalize plans for Startup Weekend Holden Beach. We're also working on our new company TapTrend. Hehe... I know you're thinking, "Hell, Scott, how many companies can you be involved with?" I guess I sometimes spread myself too thin, but eventually one of my endeavors will rise to the top... and I'll then know that's where I need to put the majority of my focus. :-) Maybe that's a bassackward approach, but it's how I do. :-) So, what is TapTrend? Well, I'm gonna keep quiet about this project for a while--if you're a regular reader of my blog (or if you catch my podcasts), you'll find out soon enough. :-)

Starcast 189: I'm a Fine-Tuned Supersonic Speed Machine With a Sunroof Top and a Gangster Lean

April was a crazy month for me in terms of traveling, and May looks like it's going to be just as busy! I guess that's the price I pay for being involved in so many things, so I can't complain. One of the highlights of this month will be a visit from my mom (she arrives this Thursday). I must admit that I'm kinda bummed that she's visiting over a weekend when I was invited to two parties; nonetheless, I'm grateful to have her visit. We don't see each other often, so the visit will be nice. And, anyway, there's plenty of time for partying later, right? ;)

Speaking of partying, today is Cinco de Mayo, and our Taco Tuesday group is gearing up for a big night. In fact, the plan is to start the festivities at David & Elizabeth's house at 5:30 p.m. and then head over to eat $1 tacos at 8 p.m. I don't like to drink that early b/c it makes me tired too early... and I will be especially tired tonight b/c I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to get my workout out of the way!!

Ok, I've blabbered on long enough. Now, it's video podcast time! In this episode, you will see me, Ryan Robbins, and Joel Smith on the last day of the Kansas City Startup Weekend event getting a little crazy--we were majorly hyper from the natural high of the weekend.



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Starcast 188: If You've Thought It, It Better Be What You Want

A good friend of mine, Josh Holden, and I are coordinating our own Startup Weekend for what the SW folks are calling Startup Weekend World. The goal is for cities around the world to host their own SW events the first weekend in June of this year. We're hosting our SW event at Holden Beach, NC, at two beach houses, and we are pscyhed! Because of space limitations, our event will be invite only; however, you can still score an invite. Here are the deets: If you are in NC and are a coder/programmer, designer, project manager, or business developer, email me with a short bio. If you fit well into one of our open slots, we'll send an invite out to you.

Even though some of the video footage I've collected from the Startup Weekends I've attended is kinda crazy, that's just how I roll. If you attend one of these events yourself, you'll quickly see that everyone who attends is really serious about putting together Web-related businesses over the span of a weekend. I've now been to enough of these events now to know that it can really be done! Anyway, if you're interested in the entrepreneurship and Web-related services, you should check the SW site to see what other cities are sponsoring events at the beginning of June for Startup Weekend World.

Ok, enough of the serious talk for a while! I've been tearing up my blog lately w/ lots of SW talk, so you guys deserve a little comedy break. Check out my latest video podcast below for a little craziness from me and Ryan Robbins. Again, this is footage I filmed at SW Kansas City, but this is some of the fun footage I picked up during some of our breaks! ;-) Enjoy!



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Starcast 187: Just Tea for Two and Two for Tea

If you have kept up with my last few blog posts and/or video podcasts, you are aware that I was away at yet another Startup Weekend recently--this time in Kansas City. In my latest video podcast, I feature team members from my new startup, Rare Brew, discussing the concept of Rare Brew--a tea lover's community. You may or may not know this but tea (and I'm not talkin' about your mama's good ol' sweet tea) is one of the biggest growth beverages in the world. More and more people are discovering exotic teas, learning the health benefits of teas, and/or replacing some or all of their coffee consumption with tea. So, we think we're hitting on a trend here! Hopefully, you will agree. Anyway, check out my latest podcast below and then check out Rare Brew and join the tea community. ;)



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