SF Small Business Week

Flavors of San Francisco @ The Metreon, CityView Room         

Monday, May 13th 5:30-7:30 PM       

Steve Adams -President of Small Business Commission 

Sold Out?
No way, Jose (but it was true) so I crashed this event to get piece of it too. I went to show my support for Mom & Pop shops because it's SF Small Business Week and this was their kick-off event. I joined Steve Adams, the President of the Small Business Commission to honor the small business community and their contributions to San Francisco's prosperity.

Flavors of SF is a great opportunity to connect with leaders from across the small business community while savoring and sampling the local food from more than 230 restaurants, catering companies and bars. These are a few businesses that I tasted that make San Francisco better place to live (probably better than wherever your living).

The Secret Recipe

1300 Fillmore and the incredible grits

1300 Fillmore St. was the most unexpected win of the evening. I don't even like grits and apparently the chef and creator of these, David Lawrence, didn't either before he had to please his wife and her love for grits. What were in these grits? I had to find out this secret recipe just for you and me, and now all of Facebook to see. It was amazing and had to be shared -BBQ chicken, white grits, pesto and goat cheese. With 'Soulful American' cuisine David combines classic French cooking techniques with hints of southern flavors using fresh California seasonal ingredients, drawing on the rich cultural history of SF's Fillmore District and making 1300 Fillmore a live jazz music destination.

The Sisters of Socola Chocolatier

Next, I met the sisters from Socola Chocolatier and just like their chocolates they were delicately daring and absolutely delightful. "Socola" is a Vietnamese word for chocolate and these handmade artisanal confections are comprised of high-quality local and organic ingredients with modern flavors such as Mango & Vietnamese coffee. The sisterly love of chocolate at Socola.

Chelsea Lopez, The Cake Artist at Kingdom Cake 

Last, but not least, I wanted to feature Chelsea -the Cake Artist from Kingdom Cake. She left her day job to pursue her dreams of creating edible art and in 2008 Kingdom Cake was born. Chelsea creates delicious pieces of art through cakes and cupcakes for all occasion. Whether you need sophisticated couture or whimsical and playful, she makes one-of-a-kind cakes for any special occasion. Not only was Chelsea the coolest small business owner there but even if she wasn't I'd still invite her to my next birthday party.

SF wouldn't be the same without all our small businesses.

CRASHED IT... To enjoying the many flavors of San Francisco!

California Academy of Sciences

Creature Carnival Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

May 2nd 6-10pm

The Green Guy

Butterfly

Every Thursday after the museum shuts down it re-opens in the evening to transform into an alcoholic science adventure for the 21+ crowd, and especially for couples. Their motto is "Let the wonder begin" so I followed the green guy in and crashed this event with a butterfly beside me. 

I kept the butterfly theme going and went straight (well not exactly straight) into the butterfly genome.

COUPLE #1 (they started trend): Two butterflies sharing an orange in the genome

COUPLE #2: Admiring in the fish tunnel

COUPLE CAUGHT #3: Burning Man pair  with butterfly balloon photobombing it 

COUPLE CAUGHT #4: Couple aboard for the ride

This 4-story rainforst is enclosed within a spectacular 90-foot diameter glass dome where dripping water sets the beat for a symphony of croaking frogs and chirping birds. It's the largest spherical rainforest exhibit in the world, and my favorite exhibit in the Cal Academy. With each level representing a distinct rainforest habitat containing its own special zoological garden, you can then descend in a glass elevator into the Amazonian flooded forest where an acrylic tunnel allows you to walk beneath the catfish and arapaima that swim overhead. To learn more about the findings in the Butterfly Genome http://video.calacademy.org/details/509

COUPLE CAUGHT #5: A couple of frogs on a date

This type of raw beauty makes it a perfect place to take a date, and here are eight couples I caught on camera that evening: 1) Two butterflies sharing an orange 2) Admiring in the fish tunnel 3) The Burning Man pair 4) Just aboard for the ride 5) Frog couple 6) Trying to drive away on a snail 7) Possibly a gay couple 8) Diverse underwater couple 9) The two that looked like they had the most fun.

Couple #6: Trying to drive away on a snail

As you can see this event through the eyes of a pair, the Velocity Circus took over the museum that night as the fun was inspired by the Academy's marvelous menagerie of creatures. With jugglers, gymnasts and animal themed Burning Man sculptures including Dusty Rhino, I ran into a peacock that made me a butterfly out of balloons.

 

COUPLE CAUGHT #7: Possibly a gay couple

COUPLE CAUGHT #8: The diverse underwater couple

COUPLE CAUGHT #9: Couple of fun people

The California Academy is full of fun surprises, as it's also starting to offer the adult version of "Penguins + Pajamas" which would essentially be a grownup sleepover in the Museum -this secures the California Academy of Science as the #1 place to take a date. Some rules that I found out for this event though is that cell phones are not allowed and you can not use the tanks as a writing surface nor bring a tent. They did say I could wear my slippers though (as long as they are soled). My strategy suggestion: Forget about trying to sell me another branded t-shirt, make a nightmask that has penguins in pajamas on it and I'd buy that.

CRASHED IT -to the couples of Cal Academy!

Wine Luxury

Wine Luxury Soiree

April 26th 6-10pm @ City Club

CRASHING the Soiree with my photographer

People often as me what event has been my favorite crash thus far and now I can confidently say the Wine Luxury Soiree. They dominated their first event by using this simple equation that I came up with: Fine Wine + C-List Celebrities + Sexy Fashion Models = Success.

No big deal

It was an evening of luxury unveiled as I danced away swinging the ladies around me. No one could believe I had those dance moves in me until Jonathan Cain from the band Journey jumped on stage and reassured the crowd by singing 'Don't Stop Believin' and the whole place echoed along with their phones out recording.

Daniel Feder, CEO of Wine Luxury

Jonathan Cain, from Journey

It all wouldn't be possible though without Daniel Feder. Daniel founded Wine Luxury (WLX) in March 2012, which is a multifaceted online platform and magazine dedicated to the celebration of a wine and culinary lifestyle. Their mission is to be the leading digital platform for the curation of all elements of this lifestyle, and to promote world-class wineries, dining establishments and related luxury experiences. They bring the foremost wine producers and restaurants together with consumers who share the same passions and appreciation for wine and food. Soiree was an ideal opportunity for people to explore Wine Luxury and also get a glimpse of the digital platform they're launching. To learn more they put together this video that provides a little color to this wine situation. http://youtu.be/DmX9lvdydLM (Great video but feel free to stop at 2:27 because the last part is unnecessary) 

The Jew Crew: Zamir Gotta, Adam Richman & J-Me Kornick

Adam Richman, from Man vs. Food had photobombed my picture so I took on the challenge that evening of woman vs wine. I caught up with him and Zamir Gotta, from the Travel Channel to form the Jew Crew. These two guys and I L'achimed for coming together to celebrate some delectable kosher wine (the Kosher part not confirmed).

Throughout this event beautiful garments were standing tall on fashion models showing off the designs of recycled materials, custom made, elegant garments. The sexiest person at the party though, voted by my photographer and I, was in fact not one of the fashion models but a writer from Wine Luxury.

Sexiest thing at party

CRASHED IT... To a successful celebration of the wine lifestyle!

Fun in the photobooth

Fetch

Launch Party @ Fetch

April 17th 5-8pm 

Keoni Chavez, Managing Editor

I followed Fetch to crash this event because their keywords were "Party All The Time." Fetch brings apps to you that you'll love (the ones you want to keep installed). This personal search-companion was officially launching so I danced into this party and within minutes had the chance to get a demo of this new app from Keoni Chavez, the Managing Editor ... /Genome Wrangler /Spirit Animal /Penultimate Fighter. The most important aspect of his role though is that he plays games all day. Many boys dream of growing up to do this, with parents saying it's not a career -but Keoni is doing it. He plays these games and tags them with keywords such as "jumping" and "shooting" so you can find the games (and hopefully apps soon) that you would enjoy most. By searching for these traits and telling Fetch to follow them this app has a level of customization, advanced filtration, and depth offered by Fetch (and Keoni). With unique trait-search and similar-search features, Fetch gives you the most comprehensive ways to express your individual interests. Only here can you pinpoint an app's consistent, fundamental traits and link them together however you want to find exactly what you’re looking for, like “3D+Undead+Realistic Visuals” and instantly browse the most relevant results. Start a similar-search with an app you already know and then add new traits to find amazing games you never knew existed. Add traits like "Military" to Angry Birds to find games that upgrade you from slingshot to grenade launcher while keeping the same, fun gameplay elements you love. Fetch constantly looks for new games/apps that match and puts them in a personalized feed for you. With Fetch, the possibilities are endless... kind of like a computerized dog. 

Anu Nigam, CEO Fetch 

Fetch CRASHED IT keyword YOLO (You Only Launch Once)

Online Marketing Institute

Digital Cocktail Hour by OMI @RocketSpace 

April 16th 6-8:00pm 

I crossed off someone else's name and sub'd in for this stranger to crash an OMI gathering. Aaron Kahlow, CEO & Founder of the Online Marketing Institute (OMI) told me to say nice things about him after we took our photo which makes me wonder if he knew why I was taking a picture with him, or if he just tells that to every woman he encounters. 

OMI is the leading eLearning platform & training destination for digital marketing education. Their core mission is to enable professionals to execute efficient campaigns, drive higher ROI and advance personal career goals. OMI has educated marketing professionals on digital marketing for over five years with all of their online learning opportunities delivered via there proprietary eLearning center, which can be accessed with an online subscription or purchased individually. 

That evening they were presenting the Digital Leaders Cocktail Hour with Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners and author of Landing Page Optimization. Tim has a PhD is Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence, which led him to develop an expertise in user-centered design, persuasion and understanding online behavior. In the mid-1990s Tim became one of the early pioneers in the discipline of website conversion rate optimization. Tim went on to start SiteTuners, a firm that improves website conversion rate via a conversion-focused redesign blueprints, landing page testing, and training of internal optimization teams. 

Tim Ash, CEO of Site Tuners
and Author of Landing Pages Optimization

Memorable Quotes

"Screw the HIPPO (highest paid person's opinion) -stick with the big data when it comes to building your site and user experience."

"The two hottest digital marketing trends: Mobile and Neuro-Marketing."

"There is no such thing as a perfect process."

"The law of sunk costs say live in the moment and don't look at what you've already invested as logic for your next decision."

World Savvy Gala

World Savvy Gala

April 11th 6:30-10pm @ WineWorks 

Dana Mortenson, Co-Founder 

I crashed a Gala (not pronounced 'gay-la'). World Savvy's mission is to educate and engage youth in community and world affairs, to prepare them to learn, work and thrive as responsible global citizens in the 21st century. I came to support Dana Mortenson, the Co-Founder & Executive Director as we stood together for the photo -please ignore the veins that are protruding from my neck I was trying to flex. When World Savvy was founded in San Francisco eleven years ago they began working with just 20 teachers and 90 students from a shared cubicle in Redwood City.  Today, they serve a network of more than 56,000 constituents annually as leaders in the field of global education from three offices nationwide- San Francisco, Minneapolis-Saint Paul and New York. During the gala celebration with hours d'oeuvres and unlimited wine was a silent auction with trips to Hawaii, the Rocky Mountains, box seats at AT&T, the Adobe Suite and beyond... and I stayed silent for most of it. With a dedication to education, global awareness and thoughtful dialogue about the issues that affect us all as global citizens, this was a gala that was worth crashing.

No-name wine lady. 

The other person that stood out for me that night (beside the Founder) was the the wine lady who was equally amazing -although I forgot her name.

World Savvy Gala was taking place at Dogpatch WineWorks -San Francisco's only collective tasting room, wine bar and event space in a working winery. This local urban winery offered up an assortment of wines that evening in there industrial setting that even gives you the option to create your own wine in-house.

CRASHED IT.. For the children (and the wine)! 

Mozilla

Mozilla Research Party 

April 2nd @ Mozilla

Brendan Eich, Co-Founder & CTO of Mozilla 

I crashed Mozilla's Research Party because I was excited to expand the foundations of the Open Web, but more importantly their office overlooks the Bay Bridge and I was even more excited to find that out. Brandan Eich co-founded Mozilla.org and is currently the CTO. Brendan is widely known for his contributions to the evolution of the Web, including inventing JavaScript and spearheading its ongoing standardization and evolution (not a big deal). Brendan kicked-off the event with a keynote speech as it was streamed live on Air Mozilla.  

Mozilla is 15 years old and it builds software very differently than any other company because they're not really a company, but in fact an open-source project backed by a not-for-profit foundation for the public benefit to promote choice and innovation on the internet. Brendan is the ultimate decision maker for any technical issues and sees the goal of Mozilla engineering as "expanding up the stack to fight proprietary lock-in that diminishes developer and user experience", to not just work on excellent products but make them successful by partnering up with other organizations. 

Back in 2004, Mozilla ran a Technical Advisory Board or TAB which mostly took advice from Enterprise companies, which they proceeded to mostly ignore. The last TAB meeting though was the biggest, and the one where Sergey Brin showed up representing Google. Due to a back injury, Sergey stood a lot. This tended to intimidate some of the other TAB members, who were pretty clearly wondering "What's going on? Should I stand too?" An accidental executive power move that I now will employ. Mozilla has come a long way, and today Mozilla Research is laser-focused on the Web with lots of research projects and industrial partners in the future.

CRASHING and hacking at Mozilla!