I think I’m getting good with my $300 camera, I have fun doing my “Walk-throughts”

Lots of people here at the Palo Alto Apple store.

This post has nothing to do with technology, web strategy, or social media. This post has everything to do with sharing some of the sights and sounds that I’ve seen while here in Singapore.

It’s a modern country-state-city (it’s all the same you know) with a population of 4 million, one of the highest per capita incomes of all Asia, very modern, clean, safe, and easy to get around in. The primary language is English, so anyone who can read this blog would feel comfortable getting around. There are races present from all the continents, and no one bats an eye when they see a tourist or friendly, it’s easy to get around. The weather is hot and humid, and the cost of living is high, even higher than New York.

My Google analytics indicates that most of my readers are from Silicon Valley, so for direct comparison, it’s far cleaner and safer that San Francisco, as expensive, and appears to be a good place to do business. The bay area culture is still a very very open and unstructured community, while Singapore appears highly structured –but wanting to undergo a change to be more flexible, especially when adopting social media tools.

After we got acclimated, we took a walk through Singapore, we didn’t sissy it and hail a taxi, we wanted to see what the city was really like, so we walked from Little India to Marina Bay in the middle of the afternoon.

Here’s a video I took at Santosa Island, a resort on the southern area of Singapore. I was particularly impressed with the cleanliness of the beach, and lounge like area that anyone could rent and be served at, quite nice. My last video at the Apple store received over 10,000 views, I wonder if this one can beat it.

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I’m heading back for day 2 of the IX 2007 conference (I present again today to the main hall) and will be reporting back in to you all from this blog. My notes from Day 1. I’ve two interviews with the local tech press and will be writing up a report for the whole world to read and better understand doing business (if you’re a web company) in Singapore. To come soon.

I was invited by Tajee to attend a product show off for Sanyo’s Xacti (difficult to find product on website, so Ill send you to Engadget instead, attention Sanyo Web Strategists!) and Voicebank’s Alligator uploading software.

What was really interesting was the new Xacti camera line that could be fully immersed underwater. A demo video of Nora and Irina from PodTech was shown messing around at the pixelodeon conference down in LA.

What’s really important is showing that video capture can occur from anywhere and at anytime, these very mobile devices (these Xacti’s fit in your pocket) record decent quality and are often backup cameras for even field news reporters. Jay, Ryanne, and Irina from PodTech presented after the two product demos, an interesting conversation talking about the ‘bigger picture’ was interesting.

The next generation of phones will have video capture and faster upload (or easier at least) to websites like YouTube, Blip, and the disruptive LiveLeak. I like Jay’s quote while he was presenting, these tools will help the world connect and get smaller, we’ll be able to learn more about other cultures, connect with people outside of our immediate neighborhood, the promise of the internet. The most exciting thing of the event? Meeting Vee of VeeTea, she’s launching a video blog around her passion and business, tea!

I snagged a video with my Canon SD700 camera ($300) it’s really designed for still pictures, but it’s decent for video in tight spaces and events. Here’s my video walk through on blip:

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(Left: LinkedIn provided each guest a 4 square ball, the latest rage in the valley)

There were hundreds present at the community event at LinkedIn in Mountain View. Even the fSan Francisco Chronicle, Justin TV, , Ustreamers, Business Week, and bloggers were there covering the event.

LinkedIn provided Armadillo Willy’s BBQ lunch for all, four square balls as gifts, and gave the four founders of Lunch 2.0 lunch box gifts. My role? Founder Mark Jenn nominates me as the “promoter” of Lunch 2.0. Mario Sundar, Kay, and others at LinkedIn did a great job with this community event. No demos, not pitches, just a friendly welcome and invite to talk further.

I was asked, “What’s the ROI of Lunch 2.0?” Well I would guess that hiring a PR firm, an event company to manage an event to get so many ‘viral’ social media folks (even Guy Kawasaki was present) would cost over $100,000. On top of that, to get the media buzz of such an event (hundreds of pictures were taken, lots of video and press) would be quite a bit. For example a quarter page ad in a newspaper would cost about.

The cost of this event is just a few thousand dollars for food and giveaways. The net net? Well if Markets are conversations It was worth it to LinkedIn to embrace the community.

I did my usual walk through using Viddler, (my longest one yet) so if you weren’t able to attend you can live through me.

I hope to see you at next week’s Lunch 2.0 at NetGear in Santa Clara, I’ll be there, along with the PodTech video crew.

Was this event as large as the Hitachi Blowout I held last year? Maybe, you be the judge.

Left: Founder Reid Hoffman welcomes guests and introduces CEO Dan Nye.

What are the chances of a web startup making it? 5%? 2%? not very good for most? We should take a lesson from business networking tool LinkedIn.

LinkedIn celebrates over 14 months of profitability, which is an amazing feat for the thousands of web companies in Silicon Valley that sprout. I first started using LinkedIn in 2000, when my Exodus colleagues were being scattered to the winds during the fallout. (Before I used my blog as a networking tool, I was one of LinkedIn’s early evangelists)

While for many bloggers like myself, we rely on our blog as our primary online networking tool, LinkedIn has many benefits. For those that don’t have hours to spend blogging each week, LinkedIn is the likely one of the best ways to increase one’s network online.

LinkedIn matters for many business folks, as it helps them to keep track of colleagues, alumni, college friends and find new opportunities. We know that 30% of all employers “Google Search” a candidate before being hired, and for many, due to heavy Google juice (page rank of 7 out of a possible 10), a personal LinkedIn profile will come up first, this is the case for many of my friends.

How has LinkedIn been helpful to me? I’ve had a handful of interview requests because of this tool, in one case at a previous employer, our competitor found out who was in the role they were seeking and asked me to come interview, smart. I’ve also been able to keep track of numerous colleagues at a variety of previous jobs and college alums.

LinkedIn has quietly kept to itself over the past few years and has emerged a winner, thanks to Mario Sundar, LinkedIn’s community evangelist for inviting us to this wonderful gala of fine food, wine, cheese, and decadent chocolates at San Francisco’s ferry building. Update: I’m told that Dave Sanford of LI had a lot to do with the wonderful pairings.

Congratulations to LinkedIn’s founders, members, and investors.

I was hanging out with videoblogger and colleague Irina Slutsky last night at the PodTech bloghaus, for some reason, it was more video bloggers than bloggers last night. There were several cameras filming and new shows were being created right on location.

The CES conversation was captured shared, and published using these new tools. Some corporate folks from a popular networking company walked in and were astonished, it was amazing to see their eyes light up, they couldn’t believe this were able to be part of the ‘new media’.

For many companies, they realize that social media will be a line item for 2007, but they’re still having a hard time figuring out how to be part of the conversation. Things are changing and communication is flowing.

I had a few corporate folks walk up to me and say they thought the BlogHaus was interesting and they want to know more. I’ve got a strong feeling that PodTech will be hosting more of these in the future.

Warning: Please note this video is NOT work safe as Irina’s initial language may offend. If at work, please put on some earphones. With that said, here’s the video.

Also check out Scoble’s video, he did a one shot roll as he walked through nearly the entire show, it took him 13 minutes.