June 30th, 2015 marked the sixth-annual official global celebration of Mashable’s Social Media Day.
These events took place all over the world, from Egypt to Spain, New York to San Diego, and even Palm Coast! No, we need to stop using the word “even” to describe our coming-along, little city. Why? Well, take a look at this . That’s Monica, an Office Divvy associate, in the SMDay2015’s opening image of this awesome Mashable article, listing Palm Coast as one of the six U.S. Social Media Day events you should attend this year. Look at her holding up her Palm Coast proclamation.
So, Yes, you read correctly – a global event took place in Palm Coast; and what better hosting venue than COWORK by Office Divvy. What is Social Media anyway, if not a virtual satellite-style Coworking?
On 6/30 at 6:30, #SMDay fused with #EntNight to create the most amazing Social Media nerdom party that Palm Coast has ever hosted.
Although this event was branded Social Media Day, the signifiers of the last Tuesday Entrepreneur Night were on hand: a chemistry-fueled, tightly knit crowd where the laughs were many among the meaningful conversation taking place all around, with reoccurring and new faces alike.
Then there was, arguably, the most important part: the food. And the drinks. Particularly Tiki Tender’s Mark Wood’s blue “TagMeTini.” Ideal for an Instagram post. Yes, we even had a DJ –who else but Pyramid DJs at the turntable.
Similar to April’s Entrepreneur Night at Foccacia, where the pizza could in no way be described as ordinary, the pasta being served at Social Media Day was most definitely not status quo. Though that may have not been immediately apparent to the naked eye. So some explanation is needed. And there’s no better explainer than Sal Moretti, AKA the “Pasta Boss,” the founder and one man army behind Moretti’s Food Inc. But to best understand the man’s ingenuity, let’s rehash what the status quo is.
When cooking pasta at home, you’re used to inuring the draining process of boiling pasta, releasing the water, and trying to finish the pasta and the sauce at the same time. Making sure they’re both hot and ready together. Timing everything just right. #FirstWorldProblems, I know, but still…
Well, Sal, a business manager, restaurant consultant, chef, and just bad ass Italian, has stripped down that burdensome process.
Sal’s pasta requires no boiling, no frustration, and comes out perfectly al dente. Every time. The key is the tapioca flour from which his product is hand-cut and dusted with.
“What I do differently is…this.” He sifts through the bowl of pasta with his hand, ladling a northern Italian sauce into the hot skillet in front of him as he regains his train of thought. As the sauce begins to sizzle he drops a few pieces of his homemade penne into the sauce.
“With the tapioca flour, it actually makes the sauce bind to the pasta. It’s very amazing!” he says. “Cooks right in the sauce, with no par-boil – so I can saute it right in the pan. Now you’re going to taste the flavor of the sauce instead of pushing it away.”
Orphaned in New York City at age 6, Moretti was brought up in an old school restaurant Vincent’s in Little Italy. They made fresh pasta everyday.
“You had to sit for 30 minutes if you wanted fresh pasta.”
Though he never went to school, Moretti’s education, and that’s to put it lightly, didn’t end at Vinnies Clam Bar on Mott and Hester an Street. The restaurant where he grew up, specialized in Southern Italian food, which is more typical fare in the United States.
As a young man, Sal took it upon himself to move to Northern Italy, where his late parents had immigrated from. To learn more about his heritage but also a whole another side of the cuisine–the healthier side.
He studied in Modena, Florence, Florence, Bologna, for four years. Learning the language as he went.
“I was taught by the masters in Italy” Moretti started.
“How to make a dough that takes 20 minutes to cook, takes only 15 minutes to cook,” he said. “I wanted to make it simple for the average person to make. So I just re-invented it so that it cooks in only two to three minutes.”
At this point in the conversation, the fresh aroma of Moretti’s pasta was dancing off the skillet. “You could drop it in soup, and by the time you get it to the table, it will be perfectly al dente. I have a process for every grain that there is: penne, rice, ramen noodles – real ramen, that is. Processes that are healthy for you.”
Not only does Moretti’s pasta cook fast, it also boasts an impressive shelf life. While most fresh pasta only lasts ten days, his pasta can last two whole months. And it can stay perfectly al dente in the pan for an hour and a half after it’s been cooked, while hard boiled pasta lasts only eight minutes.
Moretti’s pasta was – as expected – delicious, but there were other treats–that could more accurately be described as “treats”–to be sampled as well. Cupcakes by Christie’s Creations, for example. Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise, Chocolate Espresso Duo just to name a few flavors.
Christie Hyde DeNave started her business, Christie’s Creations, a few years ago, and can create tasty treats for any occasion. So how do cupcakes mesh with Social Media Day? A picture is worth as much as a bite and that’s where Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, come in. Duh.
But let’s talk about the #TagMeTini courtesy of “Tiki Tender” Mark Woods, representing Fun Coast Bartending.
Woods, a social media guru, had an interesting take on which social media platform he believed holds the business pulse. While a majority of the people who attended Social Media Day unanimously agreed that Facebook was the most useful, Woods had a different opinion. “Facebook is the Walmart of social media,” he says. Twitter is superior. Provocative, no? Woods could spend as many hours telling you why as Moretti could pasta.
Another cool feature of #SMDay2015 is the “Twofie” Contest!
We trust you understand what a selfie is. A “twofie” is the same concept, plus one person.The rules are simple:
- You must have a minimum of two people in the picture (hence the name “twofie.”)
- Nose and ears must be visible in the picture, or it will be discarded
- Person with the most valid pictures in 45 seconds wins!
Out of the handful of contestants, only one earned the honor of entering the lion’s den against last year’s “Undisputed Warrior Champion,” Maria Marte. The final countdown began. Marte, wielding her iPhone in one hand and pure determination in the other, dashed in all directions at once to show that she was still “The Man.”
Considering how clear her “twofies” came out, her speed was incredible; her maneuvering, near Olympian. Her pictures had no right to be so crisp, at least that’s what her over-matched challengers thought.
Maria Marte remains queen of the realm of the twofie for another year.
Sareth Ney, a concert journalist and filmmaker, takes advantage of the video side of Social Media. Ney has completed 5 short films, three of which are official selections, and one of them, darkly post-apocalyptic, has achieved acclaim in the world of Indie film. Ney has had the privilege of working alongside Clive Barker, the famous horror writer who happens to be his favorite director, ever. Barker is best known for his terrifying Hellraiser franchise.
Ney recalls the first time he reached out to his idol. “So I wrote to him and said I needed an internship. He wrote me back, and I told him I wanted to be just like him and be in books, and comic books, and video games, and movies!”
Amazingly, Barker had Ney flown out to Los Angeles. He stayed with him for a considerable amount of time, and Barker even had this to tweet about his new charge.
“Sareth is a gentleman, and much loved in my household. I hold him in the highest regard.” ~ Clive Barker, 2009.
No wonder, Ney loves Social Media!
“He molded me and shaped me. And this…” he said gesturing to himself, “is what came out.”
Since then, Sareth has enjoyed meeting and interviewing many famous musicians and artists. Like B-Real from Cypress Hill. Right after the hybrid rap star had just finished performing to a sold out House of Blues in LA. “It was just amazing.”
“I walked in there with the hugest grin on my face. I was like, I can’t believe that I’m interviewing B-Real from Cypress Hill – y’know! It’s like I grew up listening to his music, and next thing you know I’m sitting there and I’m able to just talk to him – find out what makes him tick.”
Cindy Dalecki is always at least a life of the party. While most people use social media to help grow their business, social media is her business. Dalecki, founder of Marketing 2 Go, introduced herself in characteristically bubbly, manner that carries over in her tweeting. “I’m Cindy Dalecki of Marketing 2 Go. I started my business about five years ago, and I’m here to create a buzz about businesses!” The yellow flower in her hair coordinated well with her bumble bee logo. And her hair.
What Dalecki’s has done is advanced public relations with Social Media being the engine. “We do this through effective branding and marketing campaigns,” Dalecki explains. “We try to get the media to write up nice stories about our companies – all the good things they’re doing. We typically get positive press releases on our companies giving back to the community, helping people, expanding, growing their business, or buying, shopping, producing and manufacturing locally.”
There’s no better-suited person for the inside scoop here than Dalecki. She used to work for the Daytona News-Journal. She, along with many other employees from various departments (She was in advertising) were laid off, just as many were recently when the paper was bought by a new publisher.
“I knew I had to have a Plan B,” Dalecki says. At the time, she was already involved with United Way Women’s Initiative, Power of the Purse, Teens in Flight, Rotary, and other non-profits, promoting them on social media. The good work she was doing with those organizations helped her formulate the idea for her business, though she was inspired and boosted by her contacts that already loved her enthusiastic way and her work.
“One day someone came up to me, and said, ‘ I see what you’re doing for those non-profits.
Can you do that for my business, and I’ll pay you?’
That was the first light bulb that went off, but I didn’t quite catch on.” The second light bulb, so to speak, ignited when the former European Village restaurant, Europa, wasn’t answering any of her calls.
“I’d call and he didn’t answer, I’d go there and he wasn’t there. So I thought,‘hmm, he’s always updating his Facebook status, maybe I can message him on Facebook!” So she sent him a message. It wasn’t even 10 seconds later that she got a response. “It was then that I realized that I just sold an ad on Facebook, and I went
DING, DING, DING!
And I had my ‘ah ha moment,’ if you will.” In the next couple of days, she had business cards shipped off with her brand new Marketing 2 Go logo: the bee. Everyone in the office saw it coming–that Dalecki was going to be laid off. Teary-eyes and sorrowful looks from everyone. But this was the exact opposite of how she felt. She said, “I’m going to try this entrepreneur thing!”
“Yes, social media is very time consuming. People often ask me, ‘how do you have time to do that?’ Well, I’m not doing anything else. I don’t have an insurance company to run. I don’t have restaurant to run, or a bank, or a school, or a Chamber. We’re just doing social media.”
When she first started Marketing 2 Go, Dalecki lacked staff and ran the business by herself, as entrepreneurs typically do. “There’ve been times where I got little to no sleep,” Dalecki says. “And showered every other day, but business moved quickly for me, especially because of those established contacts.”
Here we are, five years later, and Dalecki has a veritable hive of busy employees. Tweeting, posting, and everything in between.
SMDay2015 was sponsored by Marketing2Go, Fundrzrs, TalkiT, Flagler Spirits, Flagler Cigar Company, and Fun Coast Bartending.
Here are some of the finer Palm Coast geekdom moments from #SMDay2015 for you to enjoy:
Entrepreneur Night is a grassroots event for and by Entrepreneurs, which takes place the last Tuesday of each month – except July, August, and December at a different location and venue. It is free to attend. Complimentary appetizers are provided by the venue hosting the event as well as a cash bar. In each event you can expect to meet many new entrepreneurs, investors and service providers; and have meaningful conversations. You can check out the previous Entrepreneur Night events | or RSVP to the Next Entrepreneur Night Event