This pairing of local with visitor, whether blogger or not, was one of the successes of the tour.  Another success, is the embracing of the tour’s official website, So Much More Hawaii: A Blogger’s View of Paradise by the State of Hawaii now managed by the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau.

During the month of October, I’ll be sharing articles about my Hawaii and the things that I do with Lilinoe and our children to give visitors an idea that there’s so much more about Hawaii.

My first article is already posted about the time Lilinoe and I went parasailing.  Check it out, and I hope you get inspired to book a reservation: Water Activities: Parasailing

I volunteered to bridge the local social media and blogging community with the So Much More Hawaii team. I have always believed that the State of Hawaii‘s best evangelists are its residents, its people. Additionally, one of the best ways to experience a new place is through the recommendations and conversations with the locals. Borrowing the concept from the late, Rap Replinger I put together a team of Puka Shell Tour Guides.

Oahu

Burt Lum is a self-proclaimed digital ronin; the co-host of Hawaii’s leading tech radio show, Bytemarks Cafe; and the social and new media expert at one of Hawaii’s largest medical insurance companies. Professionally, Burt seems to tip the scales heavily towards tech, however if you have spent time with him and have come to know him like I have you’ll realize that he has a very spiritual side of him. Burt is a member of Protect Kaho’olawe Ohana and applies Eastern philosophy practices to his daily life. His knowledge of Eastern spiritual practices are a good match for Leah Lamb‘s curiousity.

Melissa Chang, Twitterlulu’s “pushy Chinee broad” is also an accomplished writer for Metromix and has one of the most popular blogs on the Honolulu Advertiser. So popular that her posts have been known to resurrect a “Little Oven” with oh, a modest 80,000 page views for a single story. She has inspired me to discover my inner foodie, and she will definitely serve Oahu on her finest China for Chef Mark Tafoya.

Who doesn’t love the wit and charm of @ParkRat? If you follow him on Twitter then you know that majority of his day is spent shuttling his children to their different sports activities. And, at times his twittersteam is so busy, if you didn’t know him in real life you’d think he has a dozen little parkrats! He has a terrific sense of humor which is why Sheila Scarborough will have a LOL IRL time with @ParkRat!

When I first met this man, he said that he had such admiration and respect for my father that he’d follow him into battle — powerful words that touched my heart. Olin Lagon, Director of Tech & Social Ventures, Kanu Hawaii; his passion is social entrepreneurship. I just heard from Olin and he and Aric S. Queen have planned a full day of activities on Oahu.

Bruce and Yaling Fisher owners of HAWAII-ALOHA.COM love in no particular order; Hawaii, social media, and each other. Being a Puka Shell Tour Guide for the So Much More Hawaii Tour was almost godsend. In truth, their generosity to the local community is godsend. Bruce and Yaling did not wait for the official start of the tour, they’ve already had lunch with Christine Lu!

Maui

Liza is the Kama’aina blogger behind A Maui Blog. She  has been living on Maui since 1994 and considers Maui as her “home”. She’s a 40 something mom who likes exploring Maui with family. She’s a busy working mom to two tweens (11 yr old Hapa Boy and a 10 yr old Hapa Girl).
Sarah Burns is The Ohana Mama that traded traffic filled freeways and the cold west coast waters for a beach house in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. A Mom and Entrepreneur, she is building a place in the blogosphere that highlights and supports women entrepreneur.

Melanie Kosaka is the owner and founder of First Daughter Mediaworks a company specializing in culinary television production and interactive media. She is also the creator and Founder of Share Your Table, where food traditions, recipes and memories feast. Melanie, Melissa, and Mark have planned an itinerary for Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island!

Big Island

Leslie Lang is an award-winning business, book, and magazine writer whose work has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, Hawaiian Airlines InFlight Magazine: Hana Hou!, and Homes of the Big Island to name a few. Her blogs include Big Island on the Cheap and Honolulu on the Cheap.

This year, Pono Media has launched two (2) web properties: Hawaii Tech 5.0 – A history of research, science and technology development in Hawaii’s emerging innovation industries and Hawaii Traditions: Traditions, Values, and Culture…Hawaii Style with several others in the works. My goals for SOBCon09 will be to learn innovative strategies to promote Pono Media’s web properties as well as those of our clients; reinforce or adjust current strategies; expand my network; and continue to foster my existing relationships with speakers and attendees.

The opportunities are there for you and your business to grow, take action now. Are there other conferences that I should be considering to attend?

SUBSCRIPTION

The internet and our everyday modern life is evolving to speed and convenience. Subscribing to a blog or newsletter is not only the easiest way to network with someone, but one of the fastest.

• Subscribe in a reader to From the Mind of NEENZ or Subscribe by email.

MICROBLOGGING

As I mentioned previously, I snack on information, and I know that I’m not alone. I’ve listed the following sites in the order of frequency that I utilize them. If you’re maintaining a blog or other type of website, I encourage you to explore the benefits of using these services.

• Twitter
• Utterz
• Tumblr
• Pownce
• Jaiku

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

Social bookmarking is the evolution of the act of clipping articles and pasting them into notebooks to share with family and friends in your living room. Help me to broaden my subscriptions and quest for information, and network with me on the following sites.

• Digg
• del.icio.us
• StumbleUpon

BLOGGING NETWORKS

Some say there’s success by association, and I agree. These are the networks that encourage blogging and bloggers, I’m always looking for more. Take a look at the ones I belong too, and if it’s for you I welcome you to join. Also, if you know of others, I welcome your suggestions.

• MyBlogLog
• Technorati
• HawaiiStories
• FuelMyBlog
• Blog365
• NaBloPoMo
• Blogoria

NETWORKING TOOLS

While everything I’ve listed are social networking tools, the following sites serve a specific purpose whether it’s networking with peers, acquaintances, businesses or family and friends.

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Flickr

I look forward to connecting with you on one or all of these social networking sites, and I welcome any recommendations on social networks that have worked for you.

A few months ago, my friend Ryan Ozawa invited me to CLIQin. CLIQin is “a group of bloggers working together to increase their collective readership and audience engagement.” The commonality of the CLIQ was Hawai’i so of course I could rally and support the other bloggers. At the time I was authoring INFINITY at HawaiiStories.com, and while the reports didn’t make any sense to me, I was amongst great company.

CLIQuers,

I am writing to let you know that we’re going to be turning off the CLIQ service on Jan 31st.

Offermatica, Inc. originally created CLIQ as a way to research and explore the role of content merchandising in Social Media. As of last month, Offermatica has been successfully acquired by Omniture — a market leader that already offers solutions in this space.

If you have the CLIQ widget installed on your blog template, we’d suggest that you remove it by Jan 31st. We designed the widget embed code so that it should be completely invisible when the service is turned off — but it’s probably best to remove it from your template to keep things tidy and be on the safe side.

We hope you have enjoyed using the CLIQ service as much as we’ve enjoyed providing it. I especially want to thank those of you who helped spread the word, gave us feedback — and put up with the occasional glitch.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact us at support@cliqin.com.

Thanks for CLIQin,

The CLIQ Team

And so I won’t be CLIQin anymore. In the meantime, there’s FuelMyBlog, Blogoria, and Blog365!

The type of person that I am, I am extreme when something peaks my interest, and if the object of my attention plateaus then I migrate away. Fortunately, my interest in blogging is connected to the ever changing world wide web, and I have invested in this site knowing that there will always be something new to learn.

In order to help me to blog daily, I made a commitment and joined the Ning group Blog365. Since I was late launching this site, I was forced to post, “das Nuts” and “Learning Process” on my Tumblr blog. If you’re wondering, there is no fee or any requirement except to blog daily, even if technology is uncooperative blog the old fashioned with a notebook and pencil and post it to your site when you’re able to.

Blog365 evolved from National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) where bloggers commit to one blog post per day during the month of November. NaBloPoMo was inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which is also held in the month of November, with the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by the end of the month. And so, I’m sure you’ve guessed that Blog365 is one post per day for the entire year, except on February 29 you have the option of taking a day off. Blog365, NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo all have one common award, satisfaction of accomplishment.

My challenges thus far have not been lack of motivation or content because the journey of my life is full of different stories, but the ever elusive time. This individual, personal commitment must be balanced with all of my other personal and professional responsibilities, and on the ladder of priorities sometimes blogging hasn’t even taken a first step. So far, so good. I’d like to say this is exercise for the NaNoWriMo, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.