IGLCC Conference and OutGames 2009 in Copenhagen

I write this as I sit in the airport's SAS lounge, one of the finest lounges I think I've ever seen, on my way home from a whirlwind trip to Copenhagen to attend the IGLCC Conference here, held in conjunction with the Human Right Conference being held by the World OutGames 2009 here in this city.

A word needs to be said about Copenhagen... it's a wonderful city and I wish I could have spent more time here. Staying in a hotel in the old city center area, I felt the entire city was at my fingertips for exploring, with some of the coolest and hippest restaurants spread throughout within small, medieval streets and open, picturesque canals.

Despite some negative press related to the OutGames in terms of two hate-crimes being committed, the overall feeling here is definitely one of acceptance and tolerance, along with a slightly edgy feel when one stays out past midnight meeting some of the locals at the gay bars spread throughout the old part of the city. And can these Danes party! At 4 am, they are still going strong, and during the warmer summer months when the sun can rise before 4 am, it can be quite a scene as one leaves a club in the wee hours of the early morning with full sun and crazy revelers roaming the streets.

On the business side of life, the conference overall was a success. It was a bit tough at times, in that our business group was mixed with a wide variety of conference attendees who had come for the various educational/workshop tracks including a variety of GLBT human rights topics. But we all decided to make the best of it, and this mix allowed us to meet folks we normally wouldn't have met under a purely business setting.

The week began with an opening reception at City Hall, where everyone had a chance to reconnect after not seeing each other for perhaps over a year or so. The reception was also mixed, so we mingled among some new faces from the very beginning. After connecting, a few of us headed out to the local nightlife, which seemed to be primarily focused on Oscar's, a trendy gay corner bar that had hundreds of guys spilling out on the street outside of the bar every night of the week. Oscar's became the de facto meeting point for everyone to start in their after-hours revelry, and night after night we ran into old faces, along with a few new.

On Tuesday, many of us attended the IGLTA Reception held at the Hotel 27, a really cool hotel just one block from Oscar's in the center of the old city. By the time Wednesday came around, we were all enjoying the final night's reception hosted by the CGLCC (Copenhagen Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce - www.copenhagen-gay-life.dk) and IGLCC (www.iglcc.org) at Goldsmith Mads Heindorf (www.madsheindorf.dk).

The conference workshops, by the way, were quite varied... I moderated a marketing panel with Ian Johnson of Out Now Consulting (outnowconsulting.com), Tom Roth of Community Marketing (www.communitymarketinginc.com) and Andreas Citak of IBM, which went quite well. I also attended a workshop held right after ours, focused on some of the new social features being developed into the ILGA website (www.ilga.org), which sounded very exciting.

So overall it made for a great but short trip to Copenhagen. It seems from here everyone is either on their way to Stockholm for Stockholm Pride this upcoming weekend, or Amsterdam for their over-the-top Gay Pride festival coming up this same weekend. I wish I could go, but alas eventually we all have to return home at some point!

Below are some links to photos from this trip. Enjoy!
Matt

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Social Networking Guru Matt Skallerud on Reaching the LGBT Market on Snowibiz247


Check out this video interview shot by Nicholas Snow of www.Snowbiz247.com!

Matt Skallerud is an internet entrepreneur creator of web sites and campaigns targeting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered markets. He founded GayWired.com in 1995 and subsequently created a network of sites including LesbiaNation.com, GaySports.com, GayBusinessWorld.com and GayMonkey.com, to name a few. Also created GLBT B-to-B sites GayLinkContent.com and GayMediaExpress.com. Having sold these sites, he created PinkBananaMedia.com and helps companies, large and small, reach GLBT consumers online. Skallerud has been instrumental in the nurturing and success of the NotesFromTheWorld.com family of web sites. Snowbiz247. Small screen. Big host. Worldwide audience. See most episodes at www.Snowbiz247.com.

Matt explained, "My focus is online marketing, starting with the basics of banner ads and e-mail, but expanding into the more advanced world of blogs, social networking and online video, and how those components can tie into an overall online marketing campaign including banner ads for some of the best performance for his clients. My goal is to work with companies wishing to increase the efficiency and performance of their online marketing endeavors, using some of the tried and tested of the past few years and merging with some of the new, since new is where the eyeballs are continually migrating to on a daily basis."

GNetwork360.com Gay Marketing and Travel Symposium in Buenos Aires

I returned recently from what was one of my best trips to South America ever! After spending an incredible week with my Brazilian friends in Rio, I changed gears and went into business mode, heading down to Buenos Aires for the GNetwork360.com Gay Marketing and Travel Symposium, held at the Axel Hotel.

I arrived early, which allowed me to spend some quality time with both my local friends and some of the other presenters arriving early as well. Of course, quality time in Buenos Aires almost always includes food and drink, of which there was plenty of both to go around. The city itself has some of the best restaurants, and for travelers coming into Buenos Aires, the price is sinfully inexpensive. I enjoyed several dinners in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires, including a Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant called Osaka, as well as several incredible meals in the San Telmo district, an up and coming area reminiscent of old neighborhoods in Madrid.

We started the conference with a pre-conference dinner and cocktails at Inside, a local gay restaurant/bar (called resto bar) where the energy was high as we all reconnected with the other presenters and our local hosts, Gustavo and Pablo of GNetworks360.com. We also got a chance to meet the GNetworks360.com host team of volunteers helping to keep the week organized, and we had the pleasure of working and hanging with them the entire week up to the closing party at Rheo @ Crobar on Friday night.

The conference itself went very well, as it was a mix of presentations by the NGLCC (nglcc.org) and IGLCC (iglcc.org) to start, as well as GLBT travel presentations by the IGLTA (iglta.org) and ABRAT (abratgls.com). We also had marketing presentations by OutThink Partners (Steve Roth - www.outthinkpartners.com) and Out Now Consulting (Ian Johnson of www.outnowconsulting.com)... I also had an opportunity to present social network and Web 2.0 marketing to the GLBT community.

The conference wrapped up with a closing party and marketplace GLBT travel trade show at Chueca Downtown, which was absolutely packed. After that, we presenters all joined the GNetworks360.com team for dinner in San Telmo at La Banqueano, where I also had the pleasure of meeting Gustavo Colombo of Manhunt Argentina (great guy).



Just when we thought the conference was over and the city of Buenos Aires was ours to enjoy before our departures, Luciano Cazenave of Friendly Apartments (www.friendlyapartments.com) invited us all over to his home for a lovely evening of dinner and cocktails. It seems everyone was there and ready to let off a little steam... by the time the evening was over, Luciano had cranked out his array of hats and we all decided it was time to pose for a crazy-ass photo shoot! Then we all headed out to Rheo, a gay club that made for an incredible last night out in Buenos Aires. The place was multi-level and PACKED with hot men... I don't know what is in that water, but those men (and Brazilians) are over the top! Just another good reason to return to Buenos Aires in the months ahead!

What a week it was... it made for a perfect opportunity to get spoiled rotten by TAM Airlines on my way home. Their business class seats make for a perfect overnight flight of dinner with fine wine and a restful sleep!

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Independence Day '09: The Grand Parade

(This is a first of posts on the Independence Day 2009 events)
What an awesome day we've had celebrating our country's freedoms. We started the day early staking out good seats for Provo's Freedom Festival Grand Parade, an annual event that gathered 150-200K spectators.

The parade was fantastic featuring: floats; Miss Provo & court; marching bands from the high schools across Utah County; military vets, ROTC, and active duty as well as an array of past and present combat vehicles; baby contest winners; BYU President Samuelson as well as the Cougarettes; our year-old Utah Valley University and UVU flight school, multiple Scottish bands with bagpipes in full regalia; police, fire, and public disposal depts; equestrians and llamas; Uncle Sam; LDS Elder and Sister missionaries; and perhaps our favorite: a virtual "who's who" of Utah politics.


First on the political scene was the tallest of America's Senators, 6' 6" Junior Senator Bennett walking at a brisk rate wearing a cowboy hat adding to his height, waving to the crowd. He seemed fit enough to race in the 5K and 10K Freedom Run held just before the start of the Parade. Bennett is a great asset to the conservative movement and a friend to Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.


Then came Gary Herbert, our Lt. Governor who will assume the Governorship as the Senate moves sometime this summer to confirm our current Governor Huntsman in the role of Ambassador to China. Herbert, an Orem native, will likely be an even better governor than Huntsman.



Next came Senator Hatch who has led so many valiant fights, particularly on the Judiciary Committee, on getting nominees who won't legislate from the bench on our Supreme Court.

Also in the parade were our own--the great--US Rep. Jason Chaffetz who didn't drive by close enough for a picture, our Utah County Comissioner Larry Ellertson, our retiring mayor Lewis Billings, and our Provo City Councilmembers including our own Sherrie Hall Everett. What an awesome display of patriotic power!

Before the parade was the balloon fest featuring a dozen or two balloons including this piggy bank from Bank of American Fork which looked to themostsearched more like the Porkulous spending bill passed the Democrats this spring complete with Obama's face on it. (Who says you can't put lipstick on a pig?)


We enjoyed the parade and want to thank all the many volunteers who helped put together the event. We are also grateful for the friendly crowd gathered from around the county who all squished together and got along just fine during the 2hr parade and few hours beforehand. We enjoyed the mood and each other.

There's Something Special About Sarah Palin


Since themostsearched became introduced to Governor Palin a year ago, we have become remarkably impressed with her innate sense of love for country, family, and God; her unabashed conservative views; her stunning wisdom and her remarkable sense of integrity. Every time we hear her speak we are enthralled and inspired. We are energized to build our country up and choose the right. Just last night we were listening again to Sarah's April 16th, 2009 speech at Vanderburgh County's (IN) Right to Life banquet. What an inspiration!!!!


Rarely has a national leader has spoken such truths to the soul of themostsearched--and indeed America--like Sarah Palin. George W. Bush did it once when he stood on the rubble of 9/11 with a bullhorn. "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."





Ronald Reagan, the best President of themostsearched's life, did it all the time. His quiet, but firm and reassuring manner got us past terrible inflation, a recession, and a Cold War. When Ronald Reagan said "God Bless America" you knew he meant it. He loved America and was ever the optimist. He was kind and principled; you knew where he stood.

Today Sarah Palin announced her resignation in the near future from her Alaskan Governorship after a healthy but brief transitionary period. themostsearched has high hopes she will choose to remain on the national scene and continue to inspire us. We will need her to fix our country after Obamanation is removed from office, to reverse the awful waste, corruption, out-of-control spending, and Chamberlain-esque policies in dealing with those who seek our destruction. We stand ready to support Sarah however we can and look forward to Sarah running for President in 2012.

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