So, we have always gotten little pings from valued advisors…about how our name ExpoTV may be holding us back. Here are some comments: 1) “Expo” doesn’t connote anything 2) “Expo” connotes a B2B 3) “Expo” connotes the world’s fair 4) “TV” anything is bad
My comeback has always been…Amazon was once a rainforest region. Back in ‘the day’, I worked for Oxygen Media, the women’s programming network. The name Oxygen came to Gerry Laybourne in a dream…it was meant to connote a breath of fresh air for women viewers, and a refreshing place to create for show producers. An exec in the marketing group who had the daunting task of owning the word Oxygen for American TV viewers once said to me, “If I could name it ‘Cable-network-for-women-18-to-49′ I would have done that.”
Expo came to my co-founder and me one day while traveling. It meant to us a place where like-minded enthusiasts gather to exchange ideas, see new things, and get to interact — all with stuff, products, things — in an atmosphere of no high-pressured sales people. Like the MacWorld Expo, Web 2.0 Expo, here is even the Waste Expo 2008. These are all people who share a passion for something — mostly products — and feel this is the place they can express themselves and be valued for their enthusiasm.
So, yes, Web 2.0 convention is to have a nonsensical (read: copyrightable) name with two of the following: 1) “Z” sound, which can be an X or a Z 2) end in a vowel 3) have a double o “oo” That includes squidoo, kaboodle, xobni, zoho
So, ExpoTV doesn’t really fit. But we did get the copyright.
clean out your email box. this unbelievably fast simple program will list the largest files on your computer. You will be surprised how much you (vs Microsoft) junks up your hard drive with useless videos/pictures/files, that you might not even know you had. Click here: http://www.delphiforfun.org/Programs/Utilities/list_large_files.htm
Select “Download Executable” even though every fiber in your body feels that you should never click something that says Download Executable.
If you do not know what a file is, DO NOT DELETE IT. I disown you and your kin if you delete files and you don’t know what they are.
Here’s a video from a guy that shows how to use it.
If you are in a long term contract, or about to enter one, think about reopening pricing. A few things: 1) retainer companies are losing clients as clients take a closer look at overhead 2) with the emergence of startup activity in 06-07 and outsourcing overseas, there is a lot of price competition in the service industry 3) you’d be surprised what a company with high fixed costs (ie staff) is willing to do to keep some semblance of a retainer
I signed a 12 month contract with webex.com because I just assumed the sales rep was selling me the right sized product. Turns out they had a cheaper product available online that the rep was not allowed to sell on the phone. I am trying to cancel the contract, and they are trying to keep me as a client. The conversation has been fascinating.
I’m not saying to try to nickel and dime your outsourced firms because they need to survive, too. But all is fair when you simply do your homework on what the current environment is yielding. Your partners need to stay competitive, and you shouldn’t be funding their other clients who may be getting a better deal.
Am trying a new service, Xobni, that is a little app attaching to Outlook. Gives you a history of your correspondence with an email address, combs for phone numbers in the email, remembers attachments the person sent you. There’s a nice flash demo, but really you just need to try it. I tried to take a screenshot from my computer, but i realized i probably shouldn’t show you my inbox.
Two cool features that make it worth introducing into your life so far: 1) It completely sees old mail and mail in personal folders outside of my Exchange server mail. The search function is fantastic since Outlook won’t let you do a universal search of multiple .pst/.ost files. 2) You can see an hourly breakdown of how often the sender has written you, so you can tell their emailing habits (or at least their email habits as it pertains to writing you.) That way, you know if you’re most likely to catch them at their email in the morning or evening.
Warning: Use it now since they got acquired by Microsoft so I’m sure the product is going to totally suck from here.
New sites I’m addicted to that have helped me solve business or personal problems. I cannot say they’re the best, fastest, slickest — or even new, but I love what they’re trying to do and use them myself. Ask any questions about them. Glance.net. In love with it. I think it’s not as reliable and probably not as fast as the page refreshes, but whatever. There is no downloadable app for participants! I got a cool URL and just send people there to see my browser. Free trial (we have 17 employees, so I can probably get 17 months free….)
Phanfare.com I actually ponied up to pay for this one. $50 for the year, unlimited bandwidth. Put up gigs and gigs of pictures that my friends can fly through. I hate flickr. There. I said it.
Rubicon.com The jury’s still out on this one, but I love the concept, and they tried really hard to integrate us at expotv.com. Feel free to ping me if you want to hear about our experience with them.
Thefunded.com This one i’m not addicted to in a daily way, but when I actually get on it once in a while, i stay on forever. If you want to know what i’ve written about VC’s, i’m under “anonymous”.
I totally think I don’t have the time for this blogging crap. “Post everyday” “Post twice a day” “Write on searched topics” “Build a following” “Have a point of view”
My god, if I had the time to do all this stuff, shouldn’t I be fired from my job? How do you people all do this?
My turning point was the sxsw Interactive 2008 conference in Austin Texas. Find some podcasts here. So awesome. So inspirational. So fun. Met and talked to bloggers, developers, cool people, who all seem to find the time.
So, I decided I’m just a loser.
I hope that I can post often, on searched topics, for a following, with a point of view. Doubtful, but let’s give it a whirl.
Co-founder and CEO of Expo, video commerce solution based in New York City. Former CFO of Oxygen Media and member of founding team. Entrepreneur, wife, mom.
