A friend pointed me to a great article on “How the journalist prom got out of control” by Dana Milbank. He recounts the state of corporate, political and entertainment orgy around the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and related events.

My late colleague David Broder once recalled how, when he began newspapering in mid-century, journalists embraced the credo that “the only way a reporter should ever look at a politician is down.” He said they “prided themselves on their independence, their skepticism, and they relished their role in exposing the follies and the larceny of public officials.”

For PR and journalism professionals to create such an air of collusion certainly doesn’t help engender trust in the public’s eye. What are your thoughts? Harmless celebration or poor professionalism?

Hey Friends, I’ve joined a team trying to change the face of men’s health. By changing my face. I’m growing a moustache for Movember, and I’d like you to join me.

Movember raises funds to fight cancers that affect men (and roughly one in two men will be diagnosed at some point during their lifetime). I have an uncle fighting late stage prostate and bone cancer, so it’s certainly personal to me.

Funds go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong. So please join the over 137 members of Team Austin and grow a moustache. Or, for the women, join Team Austin and not grow a moustache. We need your support either way.

Growing moustaches and participating in Movember events helps. So does donating. You don’t need to donate much. Can you donate a dollar? I’d like to see 100 people donate a dollar. Last year 50 people on Team Austin raised over $18,000. This year we’d like to do more. Even $1 per supporter could easily take us there. Click the button to visit my MoSpace, where you can join Team Austin, or donate, or both.

Thanks so much for your support!!!

Today I got a last minute invitation that I just couldn’t pass up. My friend and neighbor Adrienne Carter is the President of the Board at the International Hospitality Council of Austin. From their site:

The International Hospitality Council of Austin (IHCA) demonstrates community leadership for providing a broad array of intercultural services for international students and visitors to Central Texas. …the organization is a forty-six year old nonprofit designated as a Center for International Visitors and therefore is the local contact agency for the U.S. Department of State. It is also a member of the National Council of International Visitors.

Basically, they host international visitors on business or government missions and make connections to local people and culture, non-profit and non-partisan. They are famous for hosting a yearly Consular Ball in partnership with the Mayor of Austin’s office and the Texas Secretary of State.

Adrienne invited me to join her at a dinner for Ambassador Tran Van Tung and Dr. Nguyen Manh Ha of Vietnam, fresh from their meetings last week with Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissenger. They attended a conference in Washington D.C. “U.S. & Vietnam: Commitment to a shared future” discussing our countries’ history together and the future. They are introduced by Clinton in the second paragraph.

Tung and Mahn Ha discussed American and Vietnamese food with us, the climate and environmental differences between Texas and Vietnam (could they be any more different?) and also heavier topics of learning from the war, politics of war and personal experiences. They told stories of families split between North and South, sometimes by politics, sometimes by chance. The devastation that American deforestation chemicals wrought on agriculture, medical issues on both sides caused by Agent Orange and the loss of family members. They told us of a monument to mothers represented by a 106 year old mother that lost her 9 sons, husband and brother to the American/Vietnam war.

We also spoke a little about Vietnam’s economic future, education goals and trade. Tung said they are very focused on education, sending thousands of students abroad for advanced degrees to help build business back in Vietnam. He spoke enthusiastically about Bill Gates‘ recent trips to Vietnam to encourage health, education, manufacturing and especially technology innovation. In the next sentence though, they mentioned they were also both very excited to have purchased iPads to bring back to share with their colleagues.

Mahn Ha also let us in on how much of a soccer fan he is, from Manchester United to Argentina’s River Plate team… unfortunately, I had to disagree with him, as my wife (who is from Argentina) is a HUGE fan of River Plate’s arch rival, Boca Juniors. It’s a small world when an Argentina futbol rivalry extends to Hanoi, Vietnam and back to Austin, Texas.
Thanks so much to my friend Adrienne and the IHCA, it was a pretty amazing experience to meet and have such great conversations with such prominent figures on the world stage… and to share such simple and powerful connections. I can’t say I have a good hook to bring this back to some marketing topic, but it was a great connection experience and a reminder that we have so much in common with each other, no matter what our history.

As you may imagine, I’m very interested in the announcements at today’s Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference, so I thought I’d share some of the resources I monitor for
up-to-the-minute news (besides Apple Developer Connection, of course).

There are several “Live Blog” sites and several Twitter users you can follow for updates:

• Ars Technica
• gdgt
• Gizmodo.com
• Engadget.com
• CNN Tech on Twitter
• Mark McClusky from Wired Magazine

After the announcements, let us know what you are most excited about!

I shot some short video interviews with some of the software and service folks that attended the Door64.com Tech Fair yesterday, you’ll see several of them before this post. It was a packed event with over 900 people set up by Matt Genovese, founder of Door64, a community of over 5,000 high tech professionals. Thanks Matt!

Here’s a great AAStatesman article covering the event.

Matt has grown Door64.com’s community so quickly from the ground up, it’s a great example of how social media, personal networks and executing well to fill a need.

I had a great time chatting with so many people doing great things. I hope you enjoy the videos too.

I didn’t get video time with Nik of Turn2Live.com, Bridget or Travis of Werkadoo.com, Cari of ExSquared.com, Cesar of Common Sense or Lisa of SmartBear.com. Guys, if you’d like to send me a link or have lunch and make a 30-second video to share, I’d love to share it. They all looked like they have a great things happening, check them out.

One of the highlights of the Door64 Tech Fair me was chatting with Larry Warnock, President and CEO of Phurnace Software. They offer software to accelerate enterprise Java application deployment and they have a very cool name.
I’ve been a fan of Larry Warnock since his Vignette CMO days and hearing his excellent talk to the Acton MBA program via their podcasts.

Leah Chaney of OtherInbox.com shares an overview of the Other Inbox service. Basically it helps you manage both the email you want and the email you don’t want. I’ve been using it for a while and it’s really a time and inbox clutter saver, it helps keep me focused on what’s important. OIB founder Joshua Baer is a really smart entrepreneur that has a great track record of success, I’m sure this will be a great addition to it.

Brian Massey has a great presentation and book about marketing yourself for a new job or business development in general through a cultivated “lifetime career” network. Check out MarketForMeBook.com for the overview and a free book deal in partnership with CardboardResume.com. They offer a CRM-type site for job searchers.

Brian also shares insights at The Conversion Scientist, very good info.

Here’s Jonas Lamis of TechRanch Austin talking about their services for pre-seed and seed stage companies that can change the world. Jonas and Kevin Koym also presented an overview of their “Employee to Entrepreneur Program” at TechRanch. Really smart guys doing some great stuff for Austin startups!

Ash Maurya of GetCloudFire.com shares an overview of his interesting photo and video sharing service. Basically it saves you from having to actively upload your photos and videos to online sharing sites. I may have to test this out!