#140 Meet-Up – Boston,MA
Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Community, Events, Hotel
Adam and I are always honored when Jeff asks us to speak. We believe in his goals, his ability to connect wonderful people and his serendipitous outlook on life. When asked to speak in Boston Adam and I jumped at the chance. We were honored to be part of such a great line-up:
Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver) - Welcome / State of NOW Update
Adam Wallace (@adwal) - New Media Manager, The Roger Smith Hotel
Alicia Staley (@stales) "Here Come the Cancer Survivors: Awareness to Action
Charles McEnerney (@wellroundedradi), Host + Producer, Well-Rounded Radio
Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) - "Sharing Video Now!"
Special Thanks to Chris, Nicole and Katie from The Colonnade @Colonnade for taking the time to give us a tour and have lunch. I strongly suggest following them on twitter, visiting their restaurant and when Summer hits they are prepared for Poolside Tweet-Ups on their roof overlooking the South End and the Back Bay !
Love That Dirty Water…NYC -> Boston
Posted on 12. Jan, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Community, Events, Hotel
On Thursday, January 14th, Adam and I (Brian) will be at N.E.R.D. in Boston to speak on behalf of midtown Manhattans Roger Smith Hotel at Jeff Pulver’s #140 Meet-Up. This is a special event for us because although we live in NYC we are both New Englanders, Adam is from from Antrim, NH and I am from Kennebunkport, ME. We will be arriving in Boston Thursday afternoon and heading to The Elliot Hotel in The Back Bay. After checking in we are hoping to meet some of our loyal supporters from Boston – In Real Life!
If you are unable to attend the event and would like to meet up please contact us via twitter @RSHotel @AdWal or @Bsimi and let us know when and where, we will try to accommodate. Looking forward to many familiar faces and hopefully a lot of new ones.
See you Thursday Boston!
Looking Back on the Future: Recapping Next Year
Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Events, Hotel, the LAB
2009 was the year of ‘social media’, gurus, experts, mavens and using ‘TW’ in front of every word possible. In Twenty-10 it was all about social engagement and the idea of ‘social media’ was replaced by the concept of ‘just doing business’. The shills were weeded out and the workhorses shined! The Jets are now drinking wine instead of Gatorade, David Blumenstein now actually knows EVERYONE in the world, Brogan isn’t just talking about bacon anymore, Cupcakes have become their own food group, iJustine is now just known as Justine, Our friends at Panman Production have created a video empire, Julia Roy got COACH tattooed on her arm, We found out what the ‘CC’ stands for in C.C. Chapman, The Lab Gallery goes to MoMA, Jill Hanner becomes a Ferrari Agent, Sarah Prevette finally buys an apartment in NYC (but still stays at The Roger Smith Hotel), Adam Wallace becomes a member of every frequent flyer program available and I ( Brian Simpson ) convinced everyone I know that all you have to do is CARE.
Thank you all for a wonderful year ! Enjoy the Holidays !
Please let us know what you ‘did’ in 2010…
Visit us at: rogersmith.com
Tech Toys The Team @RSHotel Thinks You Need For The Holidays:
Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community, Hotel
The holidays are upon us and the talk of ‘toys’ at the hotel is crazy. A year ago it was about golf clubs, vacations and Flip cams. Now, after a year of being ‘social’ and doing everything we could to create, capture and share content our, our lists have changed. Grown if you will…
Here is a glimpse at what some of us think you need for this holiday season.
Mr. Knowles, CEO and Owner of Ther Roger Smith Hotel
Tech gifts that I think are worth what we pay for them and are useful to us:
1. Check out the Sony mdr-g75
2. The scribe device with paper and ocr recognition
3. How about the Leica LUX-4
4. Zoom H 4
Ek Wongleecharoen, Assistant General Manager
This is what I would like to have in my pocket when I travel:
1. Kindle: Reading Device
2. Panasonic DMC-ZS3K or DMC-ZS3A
3. Dell Latitude XT or Mac Book Air
Adam Wallace, Director of New Media
This is what I would suggest:
1. A Netbook (don’t know a specific kind)
2. Mophie iPhone extra battery pack
3. Kodak Zi8
Brian Simpson, Director of Social Hospitality
What you can’t live without for twenty-10:
1. Wireless Sony headphones
2. Cannon 7D
3. Macbook Pro
John Birdsong, Professional Videographer Panman Productions & All-Around Amazing Guy
Saving the best for last ~ Our resident gadget expert chimes in with:
Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory (add another 4gb yourself and save $800)
250GB Hard Drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour battery
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Illuminated keyboard
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
$1,299 – save $200 off of list. fully guaranteed with one year of apple care.
Netflix subscription (if you don’t have one get one!!!)
as little as 7.99 a month includes one unlimited disc and unlimited streaming content
connector for laptop to flatscreen TV
around $20
BEST inexpensive speaker systrem – I have these and they are INCREDIBLE. 200 watts THX certified
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/231&cl=us,en
$169.00
Air mouse iphone app
$2.99
Control your computer from your iphone. Best wireless touch screen mouse around. Control volume, select netflix and hulu content, surf youtube, and email. It just works.
Happy Holidays From ALL of Us
@RSHotel ~ the roger smith hotel
Why Fly To LA When You Can Drive…
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community
Day 1 :
At 4:26am on Thanksgiving morning I ( Brian Simpson )
climbed into a, yet to be released, Ford Fiesta with Jill Hanner and our journey to the LA Auto Show began.
Our first stop was Alexandria, VA where we had and amazing Thanksgiving meal with friends and relatives. 
After recovering from a mini food coma, we forged ahead, next stop Charlotte, NC, to see our friend and Roger Smith Hotel regular, Jason Keith (@JakRose). The trip to Charlotte was a hard stretch… We had been up for 15 hours, eaten way too much food and were driving through a downpour most of the way.
We arrived in Charlotte at approximately 1:30am. Jason greeted us, poured us each a glass of wine and then one of the days highlights was having a video chat with NYC’er Nicole D’Alonzo before falling fast asleep.
Day 2:
Alarm goes of at 6am and I really thought it was a joke…wow! We shower, pack and are on the road by 7am.
With her Starbucks in hand
Jill took over the driving duties for the first leg of the day, my hero ! Jill and I each mentioned over Twitter that we would be swinging through Atlanta around lunch-time and would like some recommendations and/or companions… First to respond was my friend Tessa, who suggested Holy Taco and said she would meet us there. Then came Chance, who neither of us knew yet and Russel a friend of Jill’s from YouTube. The five of us had a great lunch, took pictures swapped stories and did what all good ‘social media’ people do, exchanged twitter handles and parted ways.
The second part of the day was going really well until we hit New Orleans and were confronted by thousands of Bayou Classic football fans. After circling The Hotel Monte Leone for about 30 minutes we were finally in. Bags were dropped, (literally) and dinner followed. After dinner we went for a quick drink at the famous rotating carousel bar in our hotel… big mistake, huge mistake. First of all trying to position yourself for a seat at a rotating bar means ‘stalking’ the people you think are getting up next. Normally you can wait quietly in the shadows and as guests pay you swoop in, not the case. You must, as casually as possible, walk around the bar following your ‘targets’. Finally after about 20 minutes of ‘stalking’ Jill and I had two seats. The best part was the couple getting up laughing and congratulating us on our efforts. I feel compelled to tell you this: Do NOT wait for a seat at the carousel bar. We sat for about one minute and felt so sick from the movement we left. Really? A moving bar… sounds cool, it isn’t. Its nauseating. Zzzz….
Day 3:
Local born n' raised !
Breakfast at the Bourbon House, after a failed attempt at IHOP, was great. We had a ‘local’ as a server and he made the buffet better than expected. After nomz we headed to the hotel, retrieved the car, showed the car to a twitter follower ‘sketch’ and were headed out of town! After only about 30 minutes we came to a standstill. Jill sent out a request on twitter to find out the source of the delay. We were frustrated, we had to get way into Texas to stay on schedule. We quickly found out there had been a bad accident leaving 8 critically injured and 5 dead. Our frustration turned to appreciation and the 3 hour traffic jam seemed small in comparison. It was a full day of driving and we thought it was going to be a full night as well. Somewhere on the drive we lost a day and thought we needed to drive through the night. Our big question was how to stay awake…A brilliant idea came up – we sent my phone number over our twitter and facebook accounts and asked people to call us and call they did. The best was George from CO. He was warning us about the ‘shape shifters’ & ‘skin stretchers’ ( A.K.A. Aliens) as we cross into Arizona. Around midnight Jill (thankfully one of us was still thinking) realized we had the whole next day to drive to our next destination. As the sentence crossed her lips a hotel sign appeared, we were asleep within minutes.
Day 4:
Not in NYC anymore...
6 a.m. Off across Texas with Phoenix and other Fiesta agents ( Jody and Seth ) in our sights. Texas consisted of long, straight roads, a lot of road-kill (seriously more dead animals than I have ever seen in one day), sand storms, rain and interesting food… I think the fondest memory of this leg of the trip was walking into the mens room on our breakfast/brunch stop.
Nomz???
With one swing of the rickety door, yours truly, dressed in baggy jeans, a T-shirt and tattoos everywhere, is in the middle of four authentic Texans, covered head to toe in camouflage. The greatest part was that none of them were taking advantage of the one stall… they were instead just hangin out chatting… fastest use of a urinal in my history… after some bad coffee (really bad coffee) and marginal eggs, we were back on the road. We flew through El Paso, do not remember New Mexico (I think we went through it) and pulled into Phoenix in time for a quick drink at Jody G’s with Seth and co. before passing out.
Day 5:
Up early, showered and ready for the easy 325 mile jaunt into LA. First a little detour up to Anthem to visit an old friend of Jill’s from NY. After a wonderful morning, a tour of a beautiful home and being entertained by a 3yr old with more energy than both of us combined at this stage we were off to Starbucks and on our way. The ride from Arizona to California was fairly uneventful except for the fork in the highway when I swear the Fiesta really wanted to go towards Vegas, not LA… Once in LA it was off to the hotel, sushi and a little rest before the big Sunset Strip cruise and meeting at Mel’s Diner.
As a bonus my friend Rachael even showed up !
An added bonus was going by the Roxy and seeing Nic Adler, whom I had just met as a co-speaker at Gravity Summit in NYC, standing out front chatting it up with people in line… thats why he gets it!
My mantra for ‘social media’ is great, like minded people meeting more great people – this trip connected me with some amazing people. I have new friendships and
memories that will hopefully last a lifetime !
I would like to thank Jill Hanner for allowing me to be her co-pilot and for editing a lot of video, The staff at Roger Smith Hotel for the time away and the people at Ford for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful experience !
Bsimi
Social Media Bacon Pays Off
Posted on 07. Dec, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community, Hotel, Lily's Restaurant
Back in the Spring Adam Wallace and I (Brian Simpson) wanted a hook to bring people back to the Roger Smith Hotel during Internet Week and Jeff Pulver’s #140conf.
We decided on Bacon. Even if you don’t eat Bacon, you have to admit the aroma alone is enticing.
It was a hit and through our loyal followers has put us on the social media bacon radar. Chris Brogan even exclaimed during a keynote “if Bacon had a God he would live at The Roger Smith Hotel!”
We cannot just let that go – thanks to our creative sales team we are now proud to offer the following:
The Bacon Package
Travel Dates: January 3rd to March 31, 2010
12% Discount off of the best available rate.
You will receive a free side of Bacon with any purchase in Lily’s Restaurant and Bar and complimentary house-made Bacon Truffles
upon arrival to your room !
To book your room and take advantage of this promotion please call 212-755-1400 and ask for sales
or go to rogersmith.com and use the promo code BACON.
We look forward to seeing you soon and sharing your Bacon !
Cross Country With Ford Fiesta Agent #51
Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community
While most of America is busy eating turkey, watching football and enjoying family ~ I, @Bsimi ( @RSHotel ), will be the co-pilot, on a cross country journey in Ford Motor Companies first world car, the Fiesta, as part of the #Fiestamovement . Jill Hanner, A.K.A. Agent#51, and I will be driving to the Los Angeles Auto Show on a Southern route across the good ole’ U.S.of A. Although the main goal is getting Jill’s car to LA, our secondary hope is to meet and interview as many unique characters as we can along the way ! Here at The Roger Smith Hotel we pride ourselves in hospitality, making friends and sharing stories. What better way to get new stories, make new friends and share ourselves than to actually go on the road with one of YouTubes most respected personalities, XgobobeanX (Jill)?!
We will be starting our trip on Thanksgiving day and traveling from NYC > Alexandria > Charlotte > New Orleans > Dallas > Santa Fe > LA ! Please look for our updates on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube… #RSHFiesta
Brian’s info:
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Tumblr
RSLife – Blog
RS Twitter
Please travel along with us and have a safe and happy holiday !
It’s All About People: The Roger Smith Hotel at #140conf at the Kodak Theater
Posted on 30. Oct, 2009 by AdamWallace in Community, Hotel
Brian and I (Adam Wallace) just got of the stage at the Kodak Theater in LA for the #140conference. Our talk was called “It’s All About the People”. It was amazing to be there on the stage at the Kodak theater to talk about all that you (our community) has done for us in the past year. It was a great conference to be a part of and a great stage to be on. Below is the video from our talk and the slide-shows of the images that we projected behind us. Thank you to all of the employees of the Roger Smith Team and to all of you who have become a part of our community.
- Adam Wallace
Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson from @rshotel speak @140conf: It’s all about the people. from Panman Productions on Vimeo.
Our Roger Smith Community
Our Roger Smith Team
@140conf Media Stream from @rshotel (click through the video playlist)
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by Birdsong in Community, Events, Hotel
Dear friends,
Welcome to our special coverage of Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference. What you can expect to see here on this page is a growing body of short profile videos we will be gathering and posting throughout the two day conference. Think of it as a video yearbook of sorts. Each time a new video is posted we will tweet to let you know. We encourage you to RT and share the videos we will be creating together to tell the story of @140conf and the “state of Twitter right now”.
The Roger Smith Community is extremely excited to be a part of your experiece with social media. We look forward to meeting you IRL @140conf. Some of you have called us “The social media hotel”, because we embrace the vibrant social media community in NYC and beyond and use Twitter to facilitate our charter of hospitality and communication with our friends and guests. Thanks for letting us be a part of your community. We have met so many great new people.
Twitter and social media as a whole have very quickly become an invaluable tool for real human communication and are changing our lives in new ways everyday, as well as ways we have yet to imagine. If you remove the technology and consider the utility, what social media does is this: it simply connects people. Yup, that’s right. You and I, we’re connected.
Our team @140conf is Adam Wallace (@adwal), Brian Simpson (@bsimi), John Knowles (@pancity), Abianne Prince (@panmanprod), Aleks Degtyarev (@floatingopera), and myself John Birdsong. If you see us, come up and introduce yourself, and please don’t be shy, find us at our video booth and share your story, we would love to hear what you have to say.
Thanks and enjoy.
-John Birdsong (@johnbirdsong)
Producer for Panman Productions
and a HUGE fan of @rshotel and NYC.
ps. We’re human, and we’d love to hear what you think, so please share and comment!
Building Online and Offline Community at the Roger Smith Hotel
Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by AdamWallace in Community, Events, Hotel
Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson spoke at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference NYC Meetup on Sept 16, 2009. They spoke on how the Roger Smith Hotel has built business through a focus on people, relationships and community. The Roger Smith has always been a place of community, but with the online tools now available to us the hotel has built a major online presence and reputation and the Social Media Hub in NYC.
