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Our awesome events, a year in review…
Looking back, it’s been one crazy year for IMG. Here’s a quick overview of all the events we’ve worked hard to bring to campus last school year. If you are interested in getting involved next year or wish to learn more, please contact Matt Newberg at matt (at) interactivemediagroup (dot) org.
Joseph Ansanelli, Serial Entrepreneur
Joseph Ansanelli joined IMG for breakfast to share his experiences in building organizations from the ground up. He recommended following your passion and separated working at a consulting firm (“telling someone how to do something”) to working at a technology company (“actually be out there doing something”). Joe also spoke about his new investments in mobile security startup Lookout and realtime translation company Smartling.
Frank Eliason of @comcastcares
IMG hosted Frank Eliason for a talk on how he started a worldwide trend of public brands engaging consumers via social media. Frank discussed how his team monitors 6,000 blog posts and more than 1,000 tweets a day. He recommends putting a face to the brand’s name on social media outlets, as he has done for @comcastcares.
Andrew Chun of CBS Interactive
Andrew sat down with a small group of IMG members and shared his experiences from some of the largest media companies in the world. Discussing his role in mobile applications at CBS, Andrew shed light on how media companies are adapting to their new industry landscape.
Digital Day 1: NYC
IMG made a trip to New York City to visit Microsoft and Dogpatch Labs. Students visited the Microsoft Envisioning Center to take a peek at the upcoming technologies that Microsoft is concentrating efforts on. At Dogpatch Labs, Jon Steinberg recommended that students interested in entrepreneurship go and start something to benefit from learning that is only accessible through the startup process.
Venmo
Venmo introduced its mobile payment system to IMG and had students passing virtual currency around the room within minutes. Students had the opportunity to win some real Venmo cash to use at their favorite local food trucks. Currently based in Philadelphia, Venmo is expanding its network of stores and restaurants that accept payments through its system.
Secrets of Successful Recruiting: The Missing Manual
Yujin Chung (WG ‘10) held a talk for IMG members on building genuine relationships with industry professionals to get on the path towards and internship or career. He gave students a very practical toolkit for connecting with people and showcasing one’s strengths. Several students had a chance to ask questions and learn from Yujin’s experience in practicing what he preaches to receive offers in consulting and media companies.
Shaun Abrahamson of Mutopo
IMG hosted Shaun Abrahamson for a talk on his latest project, the betacup. With so much waste from paper cups as a result of the emergence of the coffee shop, Shaun launched a contest to determine the best strategy for reducing paper cup use, taking a mass collaboration approach to this growing problem.
Digital Day 2: Social Media Edition
Image by Sacca via Flickr
Back by popular demand, IMG visited Firstborn and Charity: Water in New York City to learn about each one’s success with social media.
Russ Fradin of Adify
Russ sat down with students to talk about his undergraduate experience, how he started his career, and the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Before founding Adify, Russ ran biz dev at Wine.com, comScore, and Flycast.
Dinner with Jim Young of Hot or Not
Image via CrunchBase
A select number of students were lucky enough to have dinner with newly minted partner at i/o Ventures and founder of HotOrNot.com. Jim spoke about his new iPhone app business and nearly convinced everyone to work for a small startup, or start a company, as opposed to working for a tech giant like Google or Microsoft.
Chuck Cordray of Hearst Magazines Digital
Members had an intimate lunch with SVP of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Chuck Cordray. We had a long debate about the future of paid content, behavioral targeting, and old media titans (like AOL).
IMG GeoHunt with Venmo and SCVNGR
IMG organized a 4-day, campus-wide scavenger hunt, sending students through Penn’s mysterious past to collect clues and unlock cash prizes up to $200. Several students participated and learned about the advantages of using Venmo through a fun and interactive process.
IMG Meetup
IMG held an end of the year meetup (at Capogiro of course) to give IMG members a chance to catch up, enjoy some gelato, and geek out a bit before finals. IMG had a great year with some amazing speakers and events, and it was great to see some of our members come and just hang out for a bit.
Meetup Friday 3PM @ Capogiro!
Who: You, IMG members, and the IMG Board
What: IMG Meetup (Free Capogiro!)
When: Tomorrow (Friday) at 3PM-4PM
Where: Capogiro (40th and Walnut)
IMG is all about bringing people and ideas together and we’ve had a blast making that happen over the past year. We want to continue that trend with an IMG meetup tomorrow, giving us another chance to get to know each other before the year wraps up. Come by and chat with us about tech, social media, or whatever else you are excited about (we love learning about things we haven’t heard of). We’ll have a tab going at Capogiro so you can enjoy free gelato and coffee!
This event is open to everyone, no matter how knowledgeable you are about the tech space. We were all newbies once, and we’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have or help you get set up with things like twitter, facebook, foursquare, venmo, hotpatato, gravity, etc. We even have some Google Voice and Google Wave invites that we can give out if you are interested!
IMG hits SXSWi 2010!!
From March 12-15, Matt attended the annual South by Southwest interactive conference in Austin, TX. The five day interactive portion is also joined by music and film. Over the years SXSW has become the leading conference for tech innovators and nerds to network and attend panels featuring industry thought leaders. In 2007, Twitter launched its first beta at SXSW. Ever since, the conference has become a “launch pad” for other startups such as Foursquare, which debuted in 2009.
Check out Matt’s blog post here and an interview he did with MBA student Yujin Chung for the Cisco Eos blog below!
Secrets of Recruiting
We really enjoyed having everyone come out to see Yujin Chung talk about tips for successful recruiting. In case you couldn’t make it, here’s the slide deck from the event!
Upcoming: The Missing Manual – Secrets of Successful Recruiting
People always talk about getting opportunities through “networking”, but so many people go about it the wrong way resulting in unanswered calls and dead ends. It seems like there is a “missing manual” on how to do this effectively.
- Connecting With The Right People
- How to write a networking email that isn’t annoying
- Building a social media presence: Linkedin, twitter, blog
- How to build a base with alumni
Building Genuine Relationships
- What do THEY need vs. what do I need?
- How to identify what THEY are looking for
- How you can build yourself to meet their profile
- What can you do RIGHT NOW? (side projects, research, school projects, etc.)
- How to use resources you have at Penn (alumni, MBAs, the Wharton brand, clubs, etc.)
- Where should you work? What should you be looking for? (how to screen startups, media, and tech companies)
RECAP: Venmo…Say Goodbye to Cash!
Venmo introduced its unique text-message-based payment system to the Interactive Media Group yesterday evening. Founded by Penn alums, Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Kortina, Venmo is seeking to replace cash payments allowing for a simple and reliable way for people to make payments like splitting dinner costs, dividing utility bills or paying club dues! The Venmo team is also carefully observing what else is going on in the social media world. Venmo would be a great addition to emerging interactive media apps like Foursquare and Iqram acknowledged Venmo’s interest in potential collaboration.
Within minutes, the entire room full of students created accounts on Venmo. They only had to text the Venmo phone number a username and email address. Simple enough. The students were each given $5 and were instructed to try out the system and pass money around the room. It was extremely easy to use and everyone was able to use the system at once. After playing around with Venmo, the students were given the chance to win some real Venmo cash prizes. I spent my money today on a nice Hemo’s chicken sandwich.
Iqram then fielded many insightful questions concerning security and the future of Venmo. The Venmo team decided to start up solely in Philadelphia but they are looking to spread the word quickly. Coffee shops and food trucks are now accepting Venmo in Philadelphia, New York and even Texas! The entire system is fully-secure and approved by all standards, so need to worry about the money you have with Venmo. The Venmo team also has interns throughout Penn’s campus promoting the system. If you refer a friend to Venmo, you even get $1 added to your account!
Thanks Venmo for coming by and we look forward to hearing more!
Event w/ Venmo tomorrow!
Tomorrow- Monday, February 8th, we are proud to present, Venmo, a Philly-based start-up seeking to eliminate cash by introducing text-message-based payments. You may recognize the name from all your favorite food trucks as they have recently began to accept payments through Venmo! Recently voted Best Mobile Company in the Eastern Region, Venmo is on the rise and looking for marketing interns. Come join us in an interactive presentation with the founders to learn about Venmo and how you can get involved!
Recap: Digital Day 2010 NYC
15 students trekked up to New York City to visit Microsoft and Dogpatch Labs. Digital Day seeks to expose students who are passionate about tech and entrepreneurship to real world companies both on the large corporation side and innovative startups side.
At Microsoft, Paul Treichler and Sean Seibel brought us to the Microsoft Envisioning Center, a showroom with all the up and coming technologies that demonstrate how Microsoft sees technology will change the world. The focus of this talk was how computing will change in the future. We got the opportunity to get our hands on the Microsoft Surface and lots of big touch screen LCDs targeted at the consumer end.
We then went to Dogpatch Labs, a startup incubator run by former Googler Jon Steinberg (@jonsteinberg). Dogpatch was an interesting place as it was essentially one huge white room with desks that served as the office space for over 10 startups. Jon spoke to us about Dogpatch’s philosophy behind injecting collaboration into the process innovation. The startups literally sit right next to each other and can bounce ideas off of each other. Jon provided a very unique and refreshing perspective on pursuing a career through pursuing your passions. He gave us a lot no BS super candid advice. His key takeaway for us was that if we wanted to get into the startup space, the best thing to do is to simply get our hands dirty and start something. That something does not have to be anything special. He described how he had a very simple idea that he wrote up and outsourced to a developer through elance. It cost him about $500 to develop what he would describe as a very rudimentary Twitter app. This project however got the attention of some very important people in the VC community and got him meetings he would have not been able to get otherwise. His point was that the value is not necessarily always in the end product, but in the act of doing the project and what you learn along the way. So even if you have an idea that is not exactly revolutionary, but is just a simple and somewhat useful tool, go ahead and invest $500 in outsourcing and get it made! Every great idea has to start at a baby step. Jon also wrote a post on his blog about our visit.
We think this event was a huge success and hope to do another by the end of the semester focusing on agencies!
IMG X CBS INTERACTIVE
On November 23, 2009, Andrew Chun, Wharton MBA grad and product manager at CBS Interactive, sat down with a small group of IMG members for an intimate talk to discuss the changing face of digital media strategy. Over a cup of coffee and some gelato, Chun shared his experience working with some of the biggest media companies in the world, including CBS Interactive, Verizon Wireless, ESPN Digital Media, AOL Sports and more. With a particular interest in mobile applications, Chun answered questions relating to cellular media, changing the discussion to completely suit the interest of members. The talk allowed for an up-close and personal information session on marketing in the new digital age, leaving members not only with a contact into the industry, but also a better sense of how media companies are adapting to changing times.
Frank Eliason of @ComcastCares comes to Penn!
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