(photo by webtreats)

1 - Twitter IS real life 

2 - Does the IRS want to restrict non-profits' use of social media? 

(photo by Affiliate)

1 - How to fail/succeed at blogging w/ @chrisbrogan Post by @michellebruno 

Social Media offers us some WONDERFUL opportunities to connect with like-minded people that we would never have otherwise connected with.  I feel extremely fortunate to have actually had brief Twitter conversations with several of my social media heroes including Liz Strauss, Tim Sanders and Chris Brogan.Then there are those I meet first as Twitter friends, & then come to view as heroes later. Justin Locke is one of those.  

Folks in the #eventprofs Twittersphere may be familiar with Justin Locke. Justin's event profession is that of a speaker. He tells amusing stories of his life as a professional musician, and shares a unique artistic approach to management, leadership, marketing, and creativity. He's also been known to drop in on the #eventprofs Twitter chat from time to time. As a bassist for the Boston Pops for 18 years and then later working in a managerial capacity, Justin learned a lot about leadership and uncovering personal potential. Now a speaker, author and playwright, his programs for family concerts have been done for hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Here's a quick sample, his latest demo:

1 - Make your conference not "suck" 

1 - Event Camp comes to your region 

The following is a guest blog article by Ash Mashadi. If you are interested in guest blogging for Sound n' Sight, please read my guest blogging guidelines . And if you have any thoughts, please comment. Ash and I both would love to hear what you have to say!

1 - 5 things you'll forget that your event planner will remember =

1 - Top 8 diet & exercise tips for conference travel

1 - 3 steps to achieve marketing success in any venture by @MarketLikeAChik

The following is a guest blog article by Lindsay Fultz. If you are interested in guest blogging for Sound n’ Sight, please read my guest blogging guidelines .

A wonderful way to help your friends and establish a strong, positive presence on Twitter is to tweet links to informative articles on the internet. Helping to educate your Twitter community is also an essential component of the #EIR (Engage, Inform & Retweet) plan for success on Twitter.

1 - Engage, inform & retweet! These #eventprofs are masters!!

All of us have our own methods and philosophy for choosing who we follow on Twitter. I know many who will return any follow, as long as it's not from a spammer. I know people who only follow others who share their professional interests. Still others, on a continuous quest for more business, will only follow those who fit their customer profile.

Sometimes the events in life just seem to mirror what's going on inside you. I actually think this happens most of the time, but we usually fail to notice it.

Professional tradeshow presenter Emilie Barta shares her thoughts on trends she sees in the tradeshow industry.

 (photo by alancleaver_2000)

1 - 30 things you should not share on social media

The following is a guest blog article by Liz King. If you are interested in guest blogging for Sound n' Sight, please read my guest blogging guidelines . And if you have any thoughts, please comment. Liz and I both would love to hear what you have to say!

1 - Tradeshow Presenter Emilie Barta shares examples of Worst/Best tradeshow exhibits (video)

 (photo by Karen Horton)

If only there were an E-Harmony for event planners and AV companies! In lieu of that, I offer a few tips that may save you time, energy and money in the latest issue of Planet Planit's Event IQ

OK. I'm a BIG proponent of the retweet. In fact, I think it's a great philosophy for life. I got really romantic about it recently in a guest blog article I wrote for the awesome Liz King of Liz King Events. Please check it out and let me know what you think!!

Debra Roth, owner/operator of Pink Inc. Design fabric structures (aka @PinkDeb on Twitter) paid a visit to the Coachella Valley over the weekend. She very graciously invited me to spend a little time with her and her friend Mark Musters of Studio Mamu, at a polo match not far from my home in La Quinta, CA. Here she talks a little bit about winning the Spotlight Event Supplier of the Year award.

1 - Top 10 dirtiest hotels

 (photo by andyadontstop)

The following is the second part of my interview with The Social Collective's Clinton Bonner concerning online event communities. Please go to "Online communities for events: An interview with Clinton Bonner" for part 1.

It seems only natural that in their quest to increase opportunities for attendees to network and extract more value from events, planners have turned to social media.Twitter and the use of hashtags, webcasting and virtual conferencing are becoming more and more common place. All serve to help spread information and nurture a community.

1 - Treat your AV company like your hairstylist

Liz: Reading, trying and evaluating. This is my personal branding model and it's what I did over and over in the last 18 months or so. I would read an article with some tips and I would tweak my profiles (or create a new one). I would try to do one thing at a time and give it a couple weeks. Then, I would evaluate it to see if it was working for me. If I didn't, I scrapped it. If it did, I kept doing it. Then, I would read something else and try something else. It's really been a trial and error process and that's how you learn so much!

Today I find myself in a reflective mode. A tweet I read has made me question my Twitter footprint, if you will. The comment was: "#eventprofs tag makes me cringe. It used to be cool but now all I see is RT & FF spam from self-promoting suits. I'm not learning anymore."

1 - Eventprofs Facebook group discussion of Seth Grodin's call for no more big events

1 - 16 fun things to do at a tradeshow

Event Camp, or #EC10, took place Feb. 6 and was the first unconference for events industry professionals. It was organized by members of eventprofs, the group of events industry professionals that meets on Twitter twice a week for chats, and also posts helpful events industry information under the #eventprofs hashtag. After months of tweeting with my eventprofs friends, I was fortunate enough to attend #EC10 and the following is a list of new things I learned about

Hybrid events are where the new internet technologies meet with audio visual. So naturally, I was very interested in this component of Event Camp,#EC10, the event industry's first unconference focusing on social media for events and originating from members of the Twitter group #eventprofs. I'd read a lot about hybrid events, but hadn't experienced one for myself, so I was excited to attend.