And my birthday gift to the lovely and Super Alan Amerault…

My birthday gift to the multi-talented and height challenged Matty D…

We all have them.  Here’s another of mine.  Season one is in the books and I absolutely loved the JabbaWockeeZ.  They ended up winning the whole things and these guys can dance.  My favorite one was the Thriller episode and bout 1:30 in you can see what I mean: 

In February of this year I had the great opportunity to run an event called Microsoft adChamps which is our yearly event where we bring in 40 or so SMB advertisers to share the latest and greatest with adCenter as well as get their feedback on their experiences. 

This year I had the chance to film some conversations with those that attended.  This week on the I am showcasing my conversation with SEM and Contextual Advertising guru, Jennifer Slegg.  We had the opportunity to sit down and discuss her background, views on the industry and other SEM/Contextual gems.  Be sure to check out Jennifer’s blogs a http://www.jenniferslegg.com/ and http://www.jensense.com/.

Ah the anticipation of another disappointing Cubs season. It’s amazing how 6 months can completely erase the pain one feels of a playoff sweep and 100 years of futility. All it took was one game into the 2008 season to bring back the stomach pains and stress levels. Gotta love the Cubs.

Despite the loss, it was an exciting game and included yet another storied late inning heroic HR by our best off season acquisition Kosuke Foukudome. What a game he had. That was about the only highlight as Kerry Wood failed miserably in his new role as closer. It’s still early, so we’ll see how that experiment pans out.

I found a real gem online of the Fukudome HR and I’m posting it here using the new Silverlight streaming service from Microsoft. It’s a real ass kicker, and I definitely will be slowly transitioning to hosting all my videos using this new technology. It’s got a pretty big learning curve and they are going to have to make it easier (Youtube easy), if they want to penetrate the market, but it certainly is some fancy tech. Be sure to download the Silverlight plug in if you haven’t done so already as some major sites are already jumping on board.

I’ve always loved movie trailers from the music to the way they are edited. This was my first attempt at making one for a video I did for the old group I used to work for on a video I eventually did satirizing the dynamic between teams.

Last while at SES NY, the group that I work with launched our brand new advertising community portal, www.adcentercommunity.com.  I’m quite excited about this not only because I work there, but also because this is one of the much needed “innovations” I think we’ve been able to demonstrate at Microsoft, specifically in the advertising space.  While G & Y certainly have blogs and forums for their advertising customers, no one in the industry (until now), has been able to deliver an all encompassing experience that wraps everything up in a nice package.  I’m proud to say that we have now changed this.

The site provides Microsoft adCenter customers the ability to interact with Microsoft employees and peers through blog posts and forums.  It’s a great and simple way for advertisers to get answers to their questions quickly and easily whether it be from an employee or a site user.  The site also showcases the multimedia efforts that I am driving from employee and customer interviews to some other creative plans I have up my sleeve.

It will be interesting to see how successful the site becomes.  The launch was hugely successful with lots of traffic, so I hope that momentum continues.  We still have a lot to prove, but there’s never been a more exiting time to be working not only at Microsoft, but in the online advertising industry as a whole.

A few co-workers and I were approached to film a sequel to the awesome Breakin series.  Here’s an early looksy…

So I’ve spent the past week in NY attending SES and this was definitely a much different experience for me this time around.  This is my 2nd SES NY show and 5th overall and in most cases I’ve gone to attend the sessions and assist with Microsoft’s booth presence.  This time around with my new role I had a much different journey that included shooting video for the new adCenter Community site and coordinating the launch party. 

I’ve got lots of post video work to do, but keep your eyes peeled for all the SES videos on the adCenter Community site next week.  I had the opportunity to shoot some discussion panels with a few of our NY account teams as well as some “man on the street” shots at our booth.  It will be interesting to see how these turn out as this is my first go around with this.  Traveling with camera equipment is an incredible pain in the ass, so I’m not looking forward to having to lug that around all the time, but it’s worth it because I’d much rather be doing the video thing then attending tradeshow sessions.  Been there done that.

Then we had the grand daddy responsibility in running the adCenter Community site launch party.  I ended up choosing Slate Plus which was a high end pool hall.  We had our own room and early word on the street is that it was a good time had by all.  I lined up pool tables, ping pong, casino table and karaoke for all to enjoy.  Food wasn’t too shabby either.  Be sure to check out all the photos here.

Like most NY trips, lots of fine dining.  One of my favorite spots is Plataforma which is a Brazilian steakhouse.  Nothing like having different cuts of meat served to you throughout the night.  As you can see, my good friend Matt Roberts was down for the count relatively early in the meal.  It’s OK, he’s old and his teeth don’t work like they used to.

Finally got around to getting some food from a street vendor.  There’s this one right by the Hilton where we stay that ALWAYS has a line.  Around 3am one of the nights, another partner in crime, Media Specialist superstar Kristen Cline desperately wanted nachos, but we settled for what ended up being bowls of deliciousness.  Some combination of chicken, lettuce, sauce, and what we originally thought was cheese, but actually turned out to be rice.  Either way, it was amazing.  Now I know what the lines are all about.

Good food, great meeting and catching up with industry folks, and lots of fun to boot.  Be sure to check out www.adCenterCommunity.com for more on what’s going down and how SES went for some other folks.  Also be sure to check out the SES NY Flickr group for all the photos I was able to take and scrounge up.

Last year I was asked to create a video for The Giving Campaign which is a month long program at Microsoft that encourages employees to donate time and/or money to their favorite charitable causes.  This is what I came up with on short notice.