This is the first “test” episode hope you like it, and please write a review so we can get your feedback. Thanks Tampa Bay

There have been issues brought up that this a job fair where you have to “pay to get a job”. That’s ridiculous. Entry is either $5 or two canned items, which they donate to charity. With hundreds of jobs at 45+ companies available and so many people out of work, is two cans of corn really going to stop you?

Secondly, there has been a number of accusations of Tavern not paying it’s invoices and ripping off it’s vendors. The contact I spoke with offered to hand over his books to me (or any other member of the media) for examination.

So, all of that said, if you’re looking for work and you want a chance to meet prospective employers, you should attend the job fair this weekend.

http://www.jobsfortampa.com/

June 26th, 27th and 28th.

18061 Highwoods Preserve Parkway, Tampa FL
(Former Circuit City Building, next to Muvico on Bruce B Downs)

I also managed to get a few pictures in the packed upstairs meeting room. Here they are:

For us Tampa Bay residents (and those in the surrounding counties of Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota), you may find some help in the hyper local shopping site, LocalShops1.com. They are committed to promoting locally owned, independent shops. The mission of this site is to be a place where shoppers and business owners can come to network, on social and business levels to exchange ideas, post sales, become involved in the community. Out in the “real world,” they plan lots of fun community events, charity fundraisers and store parties.

About to celebrate their 1st anniversary, Local Shops is focused on highlighting high quality businesses in and around Tampa. This site does what other yellow-pages style sites do, but in a cleaner format and each business is hand selected and reviewed for inclusion instead of an across the board inclusion that many directories do. Signing up is FREE, and can be done here:
http://www.local-shops-1.com/LocalShops1/membership-options.html

There’s lots of good news coming out of this organization. They recently began embarking on a $250,000 advertising campaign with the Tampa Tribune, WFLA, tbo.com, Tampa Bay Magazine, Tampa Bay Business Journal and Genesis radio stations 1040 and 820. They are in the midst of a complete redesign of the website to make it easier to use. In August, they are launching “1Card”, the ultimate discount card for local business.

Overall, the symposium was a great success. Saturday opened with “Poets of Popular Song, The Lyrics and Lyric Writers of the Great American Songbook”. Featuring the piano work of Paul Wilborn and the 107 year old Rosa Rio. After their performance, many of the attendees broke for the lunch while the rest of us sat at our tables and handed out free swag and met with people.

As the day raged on, the crowd continued to morph. After noon, the rock kids all awoke and made an appearance, many to show off their demos and many more to attend seminars including “Marketing, Touring and Band Management” and “Alternative Media Promotion” with BrandTampa’s own Queen of Social Media Julia Gorzka. Classes on getting the most out of studio time, shooting a music video and a “meet the press” session provided even more value to those who came looking for help getting their music careers off the ground.

There was a good showing by all the key players at the vendor tables including Bay Area Beat, WMNF, Creative Loafing and Reax.

Here are some random photos from the event:

The event was not what I expected. Being billed as a top class event ($40 tickets), I figured it would be a lot of fun with a lot of people and plenty to see and do. It turns out that it wasn’t nearly as robust as I had hoped.

Firstly, let’s examine the name and why it’s misleading. When you think of Tampa Bay Music Conference, what do you think of? I think of musicians from Tampa Bay coming together, preferably from all walks of life and musical backgrounds, to meet and “confer”, jam and socialize. This was a very acute version of that ideal, as the musical scope was limited to rap, hip hop and R&B and very little of this had anything to do with Tampa Bay. While I don’t know the background on all of the acts involved, I was told by several people there that very few of the musical acts actually were from Tampa.

Secondly, when I picture a music conference, I picture vendors that are suited to the music industry. Where was Guitar Center? JBL? Fender? Shure? Where were the brands I come to know and love? Who was there? LaCie, the hard drive manufacturer. Why were they at a music conference?

Thirdly, for a highly publicized event, there were very few warm bodies. I hung around for about three hours and in that time counted maybe 100 people total in and out of the door. One would think that an event with this potential could draw thousands of people. Perhaps other people knew what I didn’t and simply chose to avoid paying $40 for a half-hearted rap concert.

Fourthly, when I think of a Music Conference, I don’t think of one guy on stage rapping while 20 people sit around looking bored. Where are the additional stages? Where is the crowd participation? Where is the excitement in the air? There wasn’t even anyone near the stage calling out the rapper’s name. There were three people standing up front with camera phones snapping photos, but where is the crowd that a big show should bring?

All of that said, there were a few good things going on. The waitstaff was awesome. Bartenders made me several good drinks. The side room was full of people actually talking about music and attempting to network. I just wish the whole event had the kind of chemistry that the side room was flirting with.

The thing I’ve come to expect from Tweetups was proven at this meeting. Everyone is supposed to come together to mix and mingle, but there’s really just a lot of thumbs on keypads as people compete over the tweet wall. This wall, being updated constantly by tweeters in the room, occasionally makes me laugh but a lot of it is self service non-sense as well.

The Tweetup was organized by Julia Gorzka of BrandTampa fame. She made a quick introduction with that crazy energy that she has. Then, we had to sit through a presentation by the aquarium staff, a small payment of time in return for getting to use the aquarium for our meeting (no cover charge!). Thankfully, I was already pretty liquored up by the time that started so I kind of drifted in and out of consciousness.

I got bored of the Tweetup aspect pretty quickly and moved out into the aquarium with a small group, snapping photos and taking in the many exhibits. The aquarium itself has some interesting stuff, but nothing I’d ever pay the $20ish to attend.

For instance, their “shark tank” didn’t have a single Great White, or even a Bull Shark. The sharks they did have were the kind you can buy at an exotic fish store. Not impressed. The scariest thing they had was a giant grouper, which I immediately thought would make an awesome sandwich. I also didn’t see one squid. Really? An aquarium without a squid?

Here’s a few picture highlights:

Friday June 26, 2009 – Sunday June 28, 2009 from 11:00am – 7:00pm
Circuit City
18061 Highwoods Preserve Parkway, Tampa, fl
Tampa, Florida Get Directions

Over 1000 jobs will be available! All fields from entry level to mid level careers and employers will be on site for jobs in retail, food service, insurance and professional services.

http://www.jobsfortampa.com/

The Green 100 Class of 2009

The Green Bloggers for CL’s new Green Tampa initiative.

Everyone was encouraged to take a tree home and plant it. Mine is now growing in my backyard.

Joshua from Zen Glass, makers of eco friendly glass materials.

Presentations were made, explaining our green impact and how we can help.

I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed 360 Vodka, the world’s only fully green alcohol. From processing to bottling, the whole deal is green. They even take the tops back for recycling!

Sherry Smith from Creative Loafing MC’ing the event, and sharing the spotlight with the 360 Vodka guy.

Joe Redner makes an appearance.

It’s Heidi, from Got Jokes? Fame, hanging out with Karl Simon.

The paparazzi were all over this.

Human pyramid!

After a few drinks, even the most sophisticated can do the pop-n-lock.

.. and some more random photos from the event:

What: The Tampa TweetUp

When: May 23, 2009 3:00 PM

Where: Click the link below to find out!

Meetup Description: I am proud to announce our next Tampa TweetUp location for May:
THE FLORIDA AQUARIUM

This is a very exciting event which we have put together with the Aquarium! We are following our normal Tweetup format, but with a little added bonuses for everyone thanks to the Florida Aquarium – This is one Tweetup you dont want to be late too!

The Florida Aquarium will be putting on a special Animal Encounters Penguin Promenade for the Tweetup! Two LUCKY Tweeple will have the opportunity to Swim with the Fishes! – Be sure to follow both myself @SIGEPJEDI & @JuliaGorzka for a chance at this giveaway! And, as if that wasn’t amazing enough one of our Tweetup members are actually going to Dive with the Sharks!!

Tweetup Schedule:

3:00 PM – Arrival and Welcome in Taylor Great Room
3:30 PM – Animal Encounters in Taylor Great Room
4:00 PM – General Aquarium Viewing (Swim with the Fishes and Dive with the Sharks taking place in the tanks)
4:30 PM – Cantina food service ends
5:00 PM – Coral Reef Dive Show (and SCUBA divers special welcome to Tweeters)
5:30 PM – Penguin Promenade in the Coral Reef Gallery
5:30 PM – Cantina bar closes
6:00 PM – Tweetup ends

Tweetup giveaway winners will need to arrive absolutely no later than 3:30PM. Just bring your bathing suits and towels!

** Please be sure to identify to Aquarium parking and ticketing employees that you are with the Tweetup!

EVENT LOCATION:
Florida Aquarium
701 Channelside Dr
Tampa, FL 33602
813-273-4000
http://www.flaquarium.org

EVENT DATE:
Saturday May 23rd

EVENT TIME:
3:00PM – 6:00PM

EVENT CAPACITY:
There are NO limitations!

** We appreciate your sharing this event with your friends and online followers.
Please HashTag with #tbtweet

Whats this TweetUp stuff about?
Meet other local Tweeple (People in Twitterspeak) who enjoy Twitter, blogging, podcasts and just all that is social media & beyond for an evening of drinks and great conversation. Enjoy a night out of the office or home, Away from your computer, to dork out with others who share similar passions of social networking and have a few drinks.

Like minds gathering to both share and learn. Whether your a webmaster, business professional, professional blogger, PR or Marketing professional, social media junkie, or even just looking to learn this event is for you! Its an all you can eat brain food buffet, with fellow tech dorks sharing their passions & discoveries. Business deals have also been known to go down!

Stay Informed:
If you’re not already following us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Tampabloggers

We aggregate all Tampa Twitter chatter over at TampaBloggers.com! Join the conversation!

Hash Tag: #tbtweet

For those looking to connect with me (Josh Carrico) directly: @SIGEPJEDI on Twitter

Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/tampabloggers/calendar/10333946/

Saturday, I found myself rubbing elbows with a group of approximately 50 Tampa Area bloggers, photo-bloggers, twitter users, P.R. people, marketers and other internet 2.0 types in an open discussion and meet-n-greet about all things technology. Walker Brands (1810 West Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa, Florida 33606, 813.875.3322) was gracious enough to host us in their fabulous new green building, as well as involve us in various round-table discussions about branding, using technology for marketing and the future of internet marketing.

The Tweetup brought all kinds, though admittedly many of us were on the geekier side of the social circle. There were people of most every background and income level and they all seemed humble about the fact that we’re in the same boat, especially in this economy. While discussing how this site has evolved over the last few months, the topic came up of how professional bloggers are now being picked off as mediums for mainstream media change. The overwhelming sentiment was one that I’ve had for a while, “You do this because you love it, or don’t do it at all.”

The collaboration was more than just person to person and in small branch groups. We were encouraged to post twitter messages as we conversed and took parts in these temporary unions. While some took to this, the idea of tweeting about a tweetup while at the tweetup with other tweeters wasn’t my idea of fun. Thus, I handed out a bunch of business cards, made some new alliances and put MyTampaLife out there as a brand. I think I was well received, as were many of the unique off-the-radar professionals I met there.

I’m looking forward to the next Tweetup, and anyone who uses twitter can sign up to be involved in the next one as well.
http://www.meetup.com/tampabloggers/

One of the perks of having a Miata in the local area is the Tampa Bay Miatas group. These rag-tag group of guys (and ladies!) are miata owners of every breed. You have daily drivers, like we are. You have mechanics and tinkerers. You have enthusiasts who build them into track-only cars. You have every shade of driver from those who just got their license to those who have been driving racecars for decades and enjoy the civilian charm of their little go-about while knowing it can still make quick waste of the skidpad in cone country.

The TBM crew is an organization without a lot of the car club issues (and costs) that other clubs have. If you want to belong, you simply express interest in belonging and you belong. There are those in the club who are about to buy their first Miata and join to ask questions. There are long time Miata owners looking for support. It doesn’t matter what you come to the Tampa Bay Miatas for, you’ll find advice and possibly even help turning a wrench if you need a repair or upgrade. Regular tech sessions are organized where several members get together to assist on repairs or upgrades to vehicles.

The reason I belong to Tampa Bay Miatas, besides the tech support, is the comradery of belonging to this diverse group. We meet every wednesday, usually at Ricks on the River. Of the several hundred members, typically 10-25 show up at these meetings. It’s relaxed, low key, and a good place to meet with car guys to discuss what we all love: cars.

If you’re a Miata owner, a wannabe Miata owner or a previous Miata owner and want to join in on the fun, you should come out tonight (or any Wednesday) to join us. We’ll gladly welcome you into our collective.