Category: technology

technology, Twitter

Beautiful: I’m the Featured Guest Today on Rocksauce Studio’s Twitter Chat #appdevchat About the Power of Storytelling for Your Mobile App

Christa Avampato
Rocksauce Studios
Rocksauce Studios

I’m honored and excited to be the featured guest today on Rocksauce Studio‘s Twitter Chat #AppDevChat. We’ll talk about the power of storytelling in a mobile app. Including the way the information ladders, written content, art, and user experience, we’ll explore how all of these pieces hang together to create a property that users love. #appdevchat is a weekly program. I’ve participated in the last few since connecting with Rocksauce after Advertising Week and they’re a blast. I’ve learned so much and connected incredibly talented people through them.

The details
Time / Date:
1pm – 2pm Eastern on Thursday 11/14/13

How to participate / follow:
Typically, we meet here: http://www.tchat.io/rooms/appdevchat. You can also follow along on Twitter and participate in the discussion by typing #AppDevChat into the search box at the top of your Twitter homepage.

Structure:
There will be a series of 8 questions asked by Rocksauce Studios to guide the discussion. Just respond with an answer or comment to any of the questions that intrigue you. You’ll also be able to ask questions as well.

Catch up later:
If you aren’t able to join us live, don’t worry. All of the tweets from the chat will live on long after it’s over. You’ll be able to get to it through the #appdevchat hashtag and the fabulous Michael Manning at Rocksauce will post a recap. To see what a recap looks like, click here to check out the one from last week on wearable tech.

Why I’m doing this
I love technology, stories, culture, and business. I live at this intersection and I write about it all day, every day. This is a topic close to my heart and always at the top of my mind. In 2010, I worked on my first mobile app project at American Express and I’ve never looked back. The projects I did at American Express changed the way I view technology and my role in its development. I can’t wait to share with and learn from everyone at #appdevchat!

business, technology, writing

Beautiful: Covering ad:tech New York Conference This Week

Christa Avampato
ad:tech New York
ad:tech New York

Today and tomorrow I’ll be poking around the hallways of the Javitz Center as I cover the ad:tech New York Conference for Allvoices.com. I covered Advertising Week for this same publication and I’m excited to have a second act with them. Though smaller in scale, I expect the learning at this conference to be every bit as eye-opening. I’m actually counting on it. And you can come along for the ride. Follow me on Twitter through the hashtag #adtechny. Also, read my Allvoices column for breakdowns of the different sessions I attend and the interesting characters I meet. Glad to have you with me. As always, questions, comments, and observations are both welcomed and encouraged.

hope, technology

There is hope for the human mind. Our smartphones prove it.

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Whenever I tell people I teach meditation they say to me, “I wish I could meditate. I just can’t get my mind to calm down. It’s always going a million miles an hour.” And then I see them totally absorbed by the shiny screens of their smartphones and I see the potential they can’t see. They can focus; they can get their minds to calm down. Attention is a matter of intention.

My yoga teacher Douglass Stewart explained to us this week in class that the old yogis and rishis of the mountains many centuries ago used their bodies as instruments for attaining attention and focus. Now we use smartphones in the same way that they used their bodies. The same could be said for being absorbed in a book or a painting or a movie. I often see people doing crossword puzzles or playing games on the subway and they are focused like laser beams. It’s quite something to see the exterior effect of a highly attuned and quiet mind. Serene, calm, alive.

We feel pulled in many different directions. We might feel scattered, stretched too thin, even frazzled. Some people think our potential, as individuals and as a society, is going to hell in hand basket because of our toxic dependence on mobile devices. I see something different.

I see that we are abundantly capable of focus and awareness, that we can still be consumed through connection of some kind. Our version of focus certainly looks different than the focus of the rishis, but the mental and physical result is the same. An absorbed mind creates a relaxed body. A relaxed body is able to move through the world with agility and facility in a way that helps us achieve our potential for a full and well-lived life. The path may be different. The tools may be different. The goal is the same.

business, technology, writer, writing

Beautiful: I’m a Motley Fool

Christa Avampato
An example of Dove Real Beauty Sketches

It’s with a rather ridiculous amount of excitement that I announce I am officially part of The Motley Fool. I’ve been a fan of the Fools for many years and last week found out that I was accepted as a freelance writer for their new section, The Business.

My first post is about the viral video Dove Real Beauty Sketches and how inspired I am that corporations, finally, are joining Team Human. I hope you’ll click-through and read my post – How to Make a Viral Video: Dove Beauty Sketches.

business, creativity, culture, future, technology, writer, writing

Beautiful: We Are on the Brink of Something Amazing. It’s Called The Future.

Christa Avampato
A pic I snapped during one of the tech session at Advertising Week

Day 3 at Advertising Week blew my mind. Literally. Technology is taking us right to the brink, in a good way. The brink is where you want to be. The brink is where we push the boundaries of possible, where our wildest dreams become the realities that we seamlessly integrate into our daily lives. The brink is where it’s at. It’s where I want to spend all of my time.

In one particular session, I began to see my future come together, how all the pieces of experience I’ve collected throughout my life gel. I may have even heard a “schumpf” as the picture of my future as a writer in the fields of technology, culture, and business became so much clearer. The steps to the end game aren’t all laid out in a perfect sequence. There are holes that I don’t quite know how to navigate, but I do know where I’m going and why. And I do know the very next step I need to take. That’s enough to keep going.

I also know this: I needed every job I’ve had, every person I’ve ever met, and every place I’ve traveled to make sense of it all. Some were delightful and some were awful. They were all necessary. It is a satisfying thing to look back on our days and see the logic in the madness, the order in the chaos. It makes the day-to-day so much more manageable.

creativity, friendship, technology

Beautiful: Gone Exploring…

Christa Avampato

3d98c6f1b73dc380bc780cd74bbbf7ae I’m off to DC this weekend to celebrate the upcoming wedding of one of my dearest friends with a bridal shower and bachelorette party. It will be nice to get away from my screens and spend the vast majority of my time connecting in real-time in real-life. I hope this weekend holds the same for all of you. Get out there and enjoy some fresh air. Fall is almost here.

art, business, creative, creative process, creativity, music, technology, time, writer, writing

Beautiful: What We Can Learn About Time from Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, Black Sabbath, and Angry Birds

Christa Avampato

robin_thicke_blurred_lines_album_cover_ARIA_120613_640x360Singer Robin Thicke has something to celebrate. After 10 years in the business, the 36-year old has his first #1 album with Blurred Lines. His first album never got out of the triple digits. Think Thicke has grit to stick with it for all these years? The band Black Sabbath recorded music for 46 years before their album, 13, hit #1 in June. The crackerjack team over at Rovio Entertainment created the wildly popular app, Angry Birds, after creating 51 other apps.

Age has nothing to do with it
Hollywood, Broadway, Silicon Valley, and American Idol have created a culture obsessed with youth. The wild rise of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech moguls in their 20s has caused a dangerous and unfortunate fixation on youth among the venture and investor community. Many VCs and investors refuse to even hear the startup pitches of any founders older than 30. We bemoan getting older and so we nip, tuck, pluck, lie about our age, and workout to the point of breaking our bodies, never happy with how we look or where we are along life’s path. Robin Thicke is 36. Ozzy Osbourne is 64. Peter Vesterbacka, one of the Angry Birds creators, is 44. If you think you have to be at the top of your field before you see your first wrinkle or gray hair, think again.

Success takes time and talent
When we aren’t as successful as we’d like to be at something right off the bat, we often throw in the towel. Too often and too soon, we sulk back to our homes, hide under our beds, and hope for brighter days ahead. Sometimes we resign ourselves to the idea that time has passed us by. Don’t do that. Figure out what worked, what didn’t work, and try again with this knowledge in-hand.

If your work isn’t its own reward, then find other work
Success is a personal and daily process. Even if I never receive any kind of critical acclaim as a writer, I’ll never think of the time I spend writing as a waste and I’ll never stop writing. The act of writing, putting my story out there and knowing that it helps others, is all the reward I ever need from it. Certainly critical success on a large scale would be lovely, but I don’t sit down every day and write with that as a goal. I’m trying to tell a story as honestly and as clearly as possible. If you’re working only for external rewards, you are wasting your time and setting yourself up for enormous disappointment.

If you found work you love, stick with it. If you get up every day, excited to create something, then keep creating. If your work fills your heart as it grows your portfolio, then you’re on the right track.

job, teaching, technology, yoga

Beautiful: Programmer and Front-End Designer Needed for a Therapeutic Mobile App for Compass Yoga

Christa Avampato

CollabFinder_Block_logoSo here it is – I’m unveiling the details of one of the big projects I’m working on during my creative break in LA this summer. For about a year, I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a therapeutic yoga app. I’m now actively searching for a front-end designer and a programmer for this project. If you have either of these skill sets, please let me know. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them my way.

Details about the project are available on CollabFinder. Click here to view my project page.

community, creativity, social change, society, technology

Beautiful: Robots Set to Become Important Members of Our Communities

Christa Avampato
Say hello to NAO

Last week I watched the movie Robot & Frank. The movie follows the story of Frank, an aging, slightly-reformed thief who is facing dementia-like symptoms. Divorced with adult children who have busy lives of their own, Frank (portrayed brilliantly and powerfully by actor Frank Langella) fights against being moved to a nursing facility. Though the movie takes place in the not-too-distant future, several significant leaps in technology have been made. One of these leaps involves creating robots who serve as caretakers to the aging. Frank’s son buys him one of these skilled-care robots and so begins Frank’s sweet, bizarre, and tangled friendship with his robot who records Frank’s every move, including his return to crime.

Think it’s far-fetched for robots to play the critical role of senior caretaker? Think again.

Earlier this week, Fast Company ran an article about the NAO humanoid robot. Though invented about 5 years ago, it is now available commercially and helps autistic children in schools. Why has a robot proven effective with autistic children? Interaction with other people is a key challenge for many people, adults and children, who have autism. Because robots have predictable behaviors (after all, we program them and they can only do what we tell them to do) and offer far less stimuli during interactions than humans, people with autism can relate well to them.

The days of personal robots are quickly moving from the dreams of science fiction writers to members of our society. With the collaborative vision and determination of programmers, designers, and product developers, they may well be the  critical component to solving some of the greatest social challenges in our society. To take a peek at videos of the NAO humanoid robot at work, click here.

business, entrepreneurship, SXSW, technology

Beautiful: I’ll Be a Mentor at the Inaugural SXSW V2V Conference in Las Vegas This Summer

Christa Avampato

I’m excited to announce that I’ve accepted the invitation to be a mentor this summer at SXSW V2V in Las Vegas from August 11th – 14th. (For the official announcement of mentors, click here.) I love mentoring and am honored to play a part in shaping this important event and program.

What is SXSW V2V?
“SXSW V2V is the newest addition to the SXSW family of events, joining SXSW Music, SXSW Interactive, SXSW Film, SXSWedu and SXSW Eco. SXSW V2V is an extension and re-imagining of the legendary SXSW experience with an emphasis on the creative spark that drives entrepreneurial innovation. This four-day event brings the startup and venture capital communities together with the creative industries that have helped to make SXSW so special. V2V serves innovators and entrepreneurs from across all the industries at the core of the SXSW Family of events – technology, music, film, fashion, health, education, sustainability, and more – as they learn the skills, make the connections, and find the inspiration to take their ideas and talents to the next level. You can learn more by reading the FAQ.”

How does the mentor program work?
The goal is to give mentees a chance to ask career-related advice from a well-established professional. Mentees will be able to sign-up for mentor sessions prior to V2V.

How does the mentor program fit into V2V?
The mentor program will be the cornerstone of V2V. The goal is for experienced professions to personalized one-on-one counseling to less experienced professionals. Mentors will be will be available to counsel you on your ideas, projects, portfolios, pitches, startups, and aspirations.

Registration for V2V is now open. I’ll have more details on the mentor program as we get closer to the event. Stay tuned!