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!

Prashant Kadam of Mopac Studios a design firm gave me a quick overview of his company. They do branding design, 3D, Flash, ecommerce and marketing presentations.

Just found one of Techcrunch’s new projects: http://pitches.techcrunch.com. It’s a site with 60 second videos of CEOs/founders of startups/companies giving their “elevator pitches” to the public. You can rate/comment on each.

I’ve heard of about 3 of the companies that have video pitches up, but I’ve found a few things worth checking out. I have no idea why they “style” the videos with that annoying cartoon filter… some startup called BeFunky provided it. May be fun for personal videos, but annoying in this context.

I’ve encouraged several clients to create similar videos for their websites to quickly and personally show customers the value of their site/service/product. I think it’s a great way to get personal with customers and quickly get your primary message out.

Would a quick video overview of your company help your customers understand your value better?

Thanks to StartupDistrict on twitter for the link!

According to a new Forrester survey:

“In a recession, marketers typically cut interactive spending. But our survey of 333 interactive marketers revealed strong support for maintaining or increasing budgets in categories including social networking, email, blogging, and search optimization. Among 12 major categories only online displays ads looked soft. Professional services, financial services, and media marketers are most likely to plan increases in interactive marketing. In a recession like this, marketers should focus on the measurability of their online and social applications and think in terms of building long-term assets, not one-off campaigns to boost quarterly sales.”

Forrester’s Groundswell Blog shows a nice graphic of the results too.

I certainly have seen an increase in activity and interest around social media/online conversations, such as clients asking about blogging, site comments/reviews and either participating in online communities or even starting their own. I think the sometimes immediate results and very measurable nature of online campaigns give these a permanent place in marketer’s toolboxes.

I was a little surprised about online video and mobile marketing showing only 20-30% growth optimism. But I suppose the survey was at large to medium sized companies/agencies, and not all of their client’s business may have mobile or video content needs. I do think that many companies could give much more personal impressions if they used video more… for example, why not have the CEO introduce the company via video on the main “About” page of your site? Why not have the VP of HR tell you why you should come work for that company in a quick video? These are quick, contextual and very rich interactions that would benefit greatly from online video.

Email, the old standby is still working quite well and marketers are optimistic about in in the future. Although most of the emails and landing pages I’ve seen lately could certainly use some work, email is still producing results.

I was not super surprised about the only online marketing area not producing much growth (10ish%) is display ads. I know many websites depend on those types of ads, but between crap creative, poor targeting and obnoxious execution, as well as general “banner blindness” fewer customers are finding them interesting and relevant.

Are these results reflective of your plans for the next year?