2011 January «

awesome questions and discussions feature to be launched next month

January 26, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

I wanted to provide an advance announcement, of a new feature that we are adding to the awesomize.me platform. This new feature will provide you the ability to enhance your personal and corporate profile by responding to questions that are raised from the community. In order to get maximum value and to improve your ranking, please answer questions as accurately as you can, and refrain from directly pushing your product or service offerings in the answers. Read more of this post

Filed under social media Tagged with answers, awesomize.me, awesomize.me for business, business marketing, business Networking, business promotion, business social networking, discussion, facebook for business, how to promote business, intelligent social media, product marketing, product promotion, q&a, questions, questions and answers, social marketing, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media networking, social media sites, social media strategy, twitter for business, what’s missing in social media, why social media

International Film Festival in Freer Gallery

January 19, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

Another awesome event for everyone particularly the Iranian-American community to celebrate their love for Persian art and heritage in Washington, DC. The Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian Museums of Asian Art is hosting the Iranian Film Festival in Washington, D.C. The film festival starts this Friday, January 21^st, screening five new Iranian films plus a special documentary program.

Here is a the partial list of the movies

The White Meadows
Fans of Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iron Island will find even more densely-woven symbolism and uncanny imagery in his latest film. Shot on a lake dotted with tiny islands and otherworldly salt formations, this visually stunning, allegory-rich work is full of indelible scenes, from a woman who marries the sea to a dwarf who carries jars of secrets to the bottom of a well. These and other haunting incidents are witnessed by the film’s hero, a man who rows from island to island, collecting human tears. This inventive collection of surreal stories radiate the power of classic mythology, but also present a cutting, if deliberately veiled, critique of Iran’s current political situation. (Dir.: Mohammad Rasoulof, 2009, video, 93 min., Persian with English subtitles) Read more of this post

Filed under Entertainment, Events Tagged with Freer Gallery, International Film Festival, Iranian Film Festival, My Tehran for Sale, Salve, Smithsonian Museums of Asian Art, The White Meadows

Distinguish your Quality Friends, Fans, and Customers vs Quantity Types Online

January 16, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

Now that our core products (awesome people, awesome companies, awesome products, and awesome services) are built and over 270 companies have set up their pages on awesomize.me, here is the blog post to address what the site is all about for you, the user/consumer…”why bother having a page on awesomize.me when I’m already so engaged with my other pages on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages?” Read more of this post

Filed under social media Tagged with awesomize.me, awesomize.me for business, business marketing, business Networking, business promotion, business social networking, facebook for business, how to promote business, intelligent social media, LinkedIn for business, portal, product marketing, product promotion, router vs hub, social marketing, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media networking, social media portal, social media sites, social media strategy, twitter for business, what’s missing in social media, why social media

Social Media 2.0: Market Yourself, Your Business and Your Products The Awesome Way

January 12, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

On the eve of our second month anniversary, we just launched two new features, awesome products and awesome services where you will be able to create a page for your companies’ solution offerings with a link back to your company site where the product & service description resides as well as all a link to all your social media channels. The new features helps you to promote and market your solution offerings utilizing the power of the community. Read more of this post

Filed under social media Tagged with awesomize.me, awesomize.me for business, business marketing, business Networking, business promotion, business social networking, elias shams, facebook for business, how to promote business, intelligent social media, LinkedIn for business, product marketing, product promotion, router vs hub, social marketing, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media networking, social media sites, social media strategy, twitter for business, what’s missing in social media, why social media

The New Sheriff of Washington DC Is In, So Are the Washingtonian Entrepreneurs

January 9, 2011 by Elias Shams 1 Comment

The Good looking one is me, Jamey is the other one

I am very excited to announce my involvement with the Technology Business Innovation Taskforce of the incoming DC mayor, Vince Gray. The task force is being co-chaired by my awesome entrepreneur friend, Jamey Harvey, CEO of another exciting DC startup, Sponto.

I think that this will be a good opportunity for me as I try to help tackle some of the problems that I’ve been bitching about, from an entrepreneur’s perspective for the DC area. I hope my participation to the team brings me closer to my goal in positioning Awesome Washington, DC as a technology hub.

The Technology Business Innovation Taskforce will focus on attracting and retaining technology companies from these and other high growth industries:

Alternative Energy
Health Care
Cyber Security
Internet/Software/Social Media
Optics
Mobile
Gov 2.0 service providers
Read more of this post

Filed under Tech Tagged with Alternative Energy, Capital availability, cyber security, DC, DC mayor, District of Columbia, entrepreneurship, Gov 2.0, Gov 2.0 service providers, health care, Higher Education technology transfer, internet, Jamey Harvey, Leveraging proximity to federal customers, mobile, Optics, Reducing regulatory burden, social media, Software, Sponto, Startup incubation, Tax incentives, Technology Business Innovation, Technology Business Innovation Taskforce, Technology workforce development, Vince Gray, washington

One Crazy Persian Night @ Lima Lounge DC

January 8, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

After a full week of non-stop testing and bug fixing of the new awesomize.me from 6 a.m till 2 a.m, I dropped everything last night and headed to Lima Lounge for dinner and hunting with friends

I have been always enjoying Lima, but certainly last night was the best. Literally, everyone had returned from an overseas trip, me included. So, it was like reunion Persian party…Awesome crowd, like always, Awesome ambience, Awesome music, and Awesome Wine! Later on the night, things went a little bit out of control. Everyone was drunk!!!

Enjoy the photos: Read more of this post

Filed under Clubbing, Parties Tagged with Ardeshir Namazi, clubbing in dc, DC, dinning in DC, elias shams, Farshid Cage, Hamid mohajer, Lima, lima dc, Lima Lounge, lima lounge dc, Saghi Eftekhari, Shahrzad Mahdavi, washington

The New awesomize.me To Be Launched on Jan 15th

January 7, 2011 by Elias Shams Leave a Comment

As we are getting closer to introduce the new kick ass enterprise features on awesomize.me, I decided to give you guys a heads up with a sneak peek of the new homepage. We are still coding and bug fixing, so, it is not quite complete yet. Here is a part of the new homepage:

Finally, Met The New Sheriff of Awesome Washington, DC: Vince Gray

January 6, 2011 by Elias Shams 2 Comments

Thanks to the VIP tickets provided by my good friend James Howard, Assistant VP for Development and Alumni Relations at the GWU, I was able to watch the GW vs. La Salle Basketball Game last night with our new mayor, Vince Gray. I also invited Mike Bogdanov, another awesome Washingtonian who had won the giveaway VIP ticket to tag along.

We were greeted at the front door of the Charles E. Smith Center by Jim who was waiting for us with Colonial Club access ticket And, I tell you… The newly established club was just fantastico! the ambiance, the food, the wine, the big glass window to see the game, etc. were just awesome! The mayor arrived shortly after we did. Thank God there were only a limited number of people in the club, so I finally got a chance to shake the mayor’s hand and introduce myself. I told him about my potential contribution to his team for his initiatives in boosting entrepreneurship and technology in DC – (we’ll see how that goes, I’ll fill you in on that later). Read more of this post

Filed under Entertainment Tagged with awesome washingtonian, Basketball Game DC mayor, boosting entrepreneurship, Colonial Club access ticket, DC, elias shams, giveaway VIP ticket, GW vs. La Salle, GW's Charles E. Smith Center, gwu, New Sheriff Washington, technology in DC Mike Bogdanov, Vince Gray, VIP tickets

awesomize.me Poised To be the Intelligent Platform for the Social Media

January 3, 2011 by Elias Shams 9 Comments

In a few days, it will be exactly one month that we introduced the Awesome Companies feature that allows the users to create a page for their companies on awesomize.me. From the start, I knew that there was something complimentary about this feature to all other pages that companies create on other social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I just didn’t know what and how to spell it out. Thanks to my telecom & networking background, and particularly thanks to the feedback from the 200 companies including The Huffington Post, Qwest Communications, HP, Ascom Testing Wireless, etc. that are already utilizing awesomize.me, I think I now have the answer Read more of this post

Washington DC Got a New sheriff: Vince Gray

January 3, 2011 by Elias Shams 1 Comment

Thanks to my web 1.0 era buddy Jamey Harvey, CEO of sponto, I was invited to the inaugural ball for the mayor last night. It was freaking awesome, except for the food; there was no Kabob, no caviar, no Persian style rice . Having said, the ambiance, the laughter and joy from the beginning to the end of the party made it easy for me to overlook the food, which I’m actually not sure anyone minded but me, being the spoiled brat I am. Read more of this post