Yoono Community

Is it August already? Time flies when you’re racing across the States holding SocialMediaCamps in seven different cities. No one on the Yoono team really knew what to expect when we decided to help organize the events, but we found the experience to be truly rewarding.

The best part? No, not the parties. Seriously. In each city we stopped in the amazing people we got to meet was the most rewarding part of the tour (amazing is a word that gets overused these days, but in this case it is entirely appropriate.) If home is where the heart is, the Yoono team now has seven new second-homes .

Each city had its own unique perspective on social media and as a company with an enormous interest in that topic, Yoono finds different takes on social media as valuable as anything. Sometimes it can be hard to relate to what’s going on across the country when you’re bangin’ away at the keyboard in SOMA all day long.

It can be hard for a company to justify a wild summer tour of free conferences when you think about things like ROI, but what we got in return was invaluable. We hope that if you attended an event you took something away as well. And if you did and want to keep the conversations going we encourage you to start your own (and we’d love to help!) There’s already word of Camps starting up in DC, Raliegh and London! We couldn’t be more excited.

We finished the last two legs of the Summer tour strong, heading through Boston then wrapping things up in the Big Apple. We had a strong attendance at both SocialMediaCamps with some great discussions around topics ranging from “How Social Media is Like High School” to “What New Media can Learn from Old Media.” And of course there was Half-Baked. Check out the recap…

The Boston Big Board

"How Social Media is Like High School" with Adam Zand

Great talk on podcasting with Adam Weiss

Chris Brogan in the House

Wristbands!

CollarFree.com made it out to N.Y.C!

Dean Landsman and Howard Greenstein on how new media can learn from old media

We saw some very “comprehensive” Half-Baked presentations in N.Y.C

Guest judge Jeff Pulver

Howard Greenstein and Dean Landsman on “How New Media can Learn from Old Media”

Another huge thanks to everyone who came out and participated. It couldn’t have happened without you.

Wow, what can we say. It’s been a blur since we landed in Miami (we’ve just now finally found a minute to give you all an update about all that’s been happening on the road.

Miami has a flavor all it’s own and that’s what we love about traveling, meeting the unique people that are driving the social media scene in each city.

We tried something new in Miami (when in Rome, right? .) At this stop for SocialMediaCamp, we asked a couple of people to test out Yoono in the morning, then we did a live demo and asked our testers to provide feedback. We think the experiment was a success. Some people said the criticism was a little rough, but we got some very constructive feedback and for a us that’s like gold.

Check out the photos from the camp and of course, the party.

Great turnout.

Thought this was appropriate for a SocialMediaCamp

Post Half-Baked

The Miami venue was amazing!

We love Stickam!

We’re in NYC right now for the last leg of the tour, but we owe you an update from Boston. Check back here tomorrow for that. For now, we have to go party. Yeah, yeah, life’s tough .

Wow, what a day. We had a great SocialMediaCamp in Austin today. (More later, we have to run to the Mashable Party!) In the meantime check out the photos.

UPDATE: The tech scene in Austin is buzzing. We got the pleasure of meeting some of the smartest people in tech as well as a ton of people interested in social media at SocialMediaCamp and the SummerMash party.

William Hurley and Giovanni Gallucci gave a presentation on authentic participation in the community. Both were brutally honest (and ridiculously comical) on the tactics they use to communicate.

We’ve heard presentations on Data Portability in nearly ever city, each with a unique perspective on the issue. In Austin, Michelle Greer (with some help from Juan Sequeda) discussed the philosophy behind truly owning your information and how the semantic web might look.

In Austin, Half-Baked was taken to another level yet again. It’s truly exciting to see what a few groups of talented individuals can do with an idea and 15 minutes (even if the conversation inevitably leads to drinking and fornication .) At SMCAustin we saw ideas for everything from a Beer-based social network to an integrated time-management system. The winner: LoveCookies.com a site for ordering customizable cookie designs.

A crew from The Austin-American Statesman came out and shared a few experiences they are having with social media and local reporting. Be sure to follow them on Twitter. And check this video of Omar Gallaga talking about his experience with interviewing Sarah Lacy at SXSWi.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to Austin. We couldn’t have done it without you.

And be sure to check out the recaps of SummerMash Austin here and here.

Yep, just like Randy Newman. We had an amazing time at SocialMediaCamp LA. A huge thanks to everyone who came, the participation was awesome. A big shout out to Mr. Pete Cashmore, our celebrity judge for Half-Baked. Check out the photos and videos below.

Half-Baked Presentations
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ft3d3-Ughk

Virtual World Presentation

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=rI-MYyXCZco

Wow, the dust has settled and we’ve closed the books on SocialMediaCamp San Francisco and SummerMashSF.

We had a great turnout at SocialMediaCamp and saw some really cool presentations. Thanks to all the attendees, the presenters and the folks that pitched in. Check out the photos and videos from the day below. And if you have anything you’d like to post here or have us link to just let us know in the comments!

Check out the videos from Half-Baked

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtATK9b15WU

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9LwCPc6KEc

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS2tmS17q30

The Cool Kids hang out in the balcony 

Filling up the boards

VodkaPimp.com in the making

Thomas Knoll from Seesmic, in the house

We’ll see you in LA!

We are gearing up for SocialMedia Camp San Francisco. Due to the huge success of Seattle’s event and the high number of participants expected we are going to kick things off early. We’ll be starting at 10 am rather than noon at the Swedish American Hall, but if you can’t make it by 10, no worries we’ll have plenty of exciting things going on all day. Hope to see you there.

SocialMediaCamp Seattle is in full swing! The one and only Erica O’Grady gave a awesome presentation on the state of the Web and the origin of BarCamps, we’ve killed about 30 gallons of French Roast coffee and now we’re playing a little game called Half-Baked (more on that later.) And that’s just half the half the day! Check back in a bit for a bunch of photos and video from the day. And if you’re in town, come meet us then join up for the Mashable party tonight!

UPDATE: We’ve upload the videos and photos!
A brainstorm session for Half-Baked
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw3OfOGfS-c

InflatableBling.com
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=006GbopsURY

CrunkCrush.com FTW!

Jason Kelly on DataPortability

Justin Thorp from Clearspring talking up widgets

Be sure to check out Clearspring a service for creating and distributing widgets.

Pascal, Pete and Regan

The Big Board!

Whrrl Demo

Be sure to check out Whrrl, a really hot location based service.

And a HUGE thanks to our sponsors!

Mashable

StrategicLee

WordPress

BlogCatalog

Social Media Club

StickerGiant.com

Babylon Burning

Next stop: San Francisco!

Calling everyone in Seattle and San Francisco!

We’ve locked in the venues for the first two legs of this Summer’s SocialMediaCamps are we are ready to go. Yoono is bringing together the top local names in Blogging, Podcasting, Live Streaming and New Media from seven cities across the country to share what they know with the world. We’ll have more on our special guests later. If your into learning more about social media or sharing what you already know then you’ve got to join us!

Find more info about the SocialMediaCamps here. Register for the Seattle event here and the San Francisco event here.

And don’t forget that following each SocialMediaCamp Mashable will be holding an event for their US Summer Tour 2008!