In the past month, Techzulu has hit up some great conferences and shows, including New Media Expo, TechCrunch 50, and Blog World Expo. One of the cool companies I loved at New Media Expo & Techcrunch 50 was Qik, a free social networking and video blogging service that allows users to stream video from their mobile devices to the internet.

The ability to instantly video blog live, and interact instantly with everyone viewing it has been effective tool in social media and citizen journalism alike. From protests at the Republican National Convention, to documenting car accident aftermath for insurance purposes, or a child's first steps or words, Qik's been successful in capturing and bringing those moments to their intended audiences.

I caught up with Jackie Danicki, Marketing Director of Qik, in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Hill Mobile Media Summit to tell us a little about Qik, and her thoughts on mobile media, and her keynote about using Technology to bring about positive social change.

Becoming part of the blogging and social media scene is easier than one may think. At the New Media Expo we were presented with a whole host of applications and tools designed to help anyone participate in the conversation. Social media is just that, social. It helps us reach out and connect to communities outside of our own that would otherwise be unfeasible.

After completing his session Robert takes some time out to show us a few of the gadgets in his travel bag, and shares some of the key tools he uses to get the job done.

If you're at all interested in technology or social media it is almost guaranteed that you have had some interaction with Twitter. Twitter, the 140 character 'microblogging' site, is interrupting our traditional online social interaction at a record pace. I personally couldn't be more thankful. What used to require endless amounts of nurturing and attention has been simplified by this new, essentially "opt-in social networking" site. When I say opt-in I mean that I don't have to constantly participate in the socializing part of social networking. In fact I could never read anyone else tweets and I could still be considered an outstanding member. Alternatively if I choose to, I can selectively interact at different points on the time line. I don't have to grasp the full picture, just enough to add my two cents or in this case my 140 characters. Now don't get me wrong, I spend hours each day twittering but I can use Twitter while I get all there rest of my stuff done. I can actually be about 95% productive and still be reasonably engaged in my social network. What an awesome concept!

Now lets take Twitter one step further, beyond the computer and into the real world. No, not second life or some other virtual nonreality, the actual touch things, real money, non flying real world. Basically get a handful of your Twitter followers and send them to a bar, give them beer, pizza and a sticker with their @name on it. That is exactly what's going on in San Diego and wow, it has really taken off.

Yesterday (Tuesday May 13th) marked the second SDtweetup which took place at a local San Diego brewery called Oggi's near the Chargers stadium. Believe it or not the crowd was awesome, there were easily over 50 people in attendance most of whom were San Diegans. In fact we did have one visitor from San Jose and I believe a couple ventured down from LA and Orange County. In addition to the crowd we were also fortunate to have Aten Syndicate sponsor practically limitless amounts of beer, pizza and apps (appetizers not web apps).

Unlike the first SDtweetup this one wasn't so awkward. Many of us have since attended other events together and of course we all are heavily entangled in each other twitter lives. Perhaps the most enjoyable characteristic of the event was the diversity of people there. Not everyone was part of the tech crowd which is usually an absolute must at all the other events I travel to. At the SDtweetup there were real estate agents, traders, clothing line creators, entrepreneurs, scientists, photographers, singers, teachers, techies and more. Everyone had a different story about how they got involved with Twitter and how they use Twitter to connect on a personal and business level. Another thing I found very interesting is the level of success that SDtweetup enjoys compared to other cities that I had assumed would be fairly successful. For instance I talked with someone who attended the San Jose tweetup and said that it was tiny and couldn't gain a strong following. Perhaps they're all too busy up there?

Nonetheless the SDtweetup was another successful San Diego networking event. Huge thanks to @jbruin who has coordinated both tweetups and has done a fabulous job.