Impossible to believe, but July is upon us.

Please join Media Future Now for our July lunch meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 22, from 12:15 - 1:45pm. Please mark your calendars now as we look forward to your participation.

More details to come...

Today's nugget o' interest:

Yesterday's Washington Post profiled Danielle Allen, a political theorist at Princeton University's Institute of Advanced Study, "An Attack That Came Out of the Ether".

The story reported on Ms. Allen's efforts to figure out where the "Obama is a Muslim" internet campaign began. An interesting study, but what was fascinating, for our purposes, was the amazing - and scary - virality of the web and social media illustrated by this subject.

Happy Earth Day or, as some may say, welcome to the dawn of the Green Eon!

Please spend your lunch hour(s) with Media Future Now and join us on Thursday, May 1st, at USTelecom from 12:15 until 1:45pm.
We have an engaging and relevant program focused on INNOVATION in Advertising.

We are pleased to present and host:

Ernie Mosteller, Blattner Brunner, VP, Interactive Creative Director

Jeff Mascott, Adfero Group, Managing Director

We're very excited to be here at Google's DC office. Today's panelists bring us insight, experience, thoughts, ideas and success stories about operating in DC's "inside the beltway" environment.

We continue this month with our series on "Old and New", the transition of old media to digital media. Is there a way to successfully combine the "walled garden" and the "read-write web" in Washington?

PANEL:Charlie Mitchell, Editor, Roll Call

Michael Petruzzello, Partner, Qorvis Communications

Jack Quinn, Founder and Co-Chairman, Quinn Gillespie and Associates

If it's not another manic Monday (was that too corny?) and you have some free time, you may want to check out the premier of a show streamed at www.titlepage.tv. It is described as a "passionate conversation about books." The site has generated lots of buzz, probably because it features high-level, name-brand people talking about books. The show will include discussion among Daniel Menaker, a former fiction editor at The New Yorker and most recently former executive editor in chief of Random House Publishing, and four writers.

I am fortunate to have a friend who is a prolific forwarder of recycled jokes, inspirational lists, digitally altered photography, and other stuff that one with extra time might find on the web. Yes, I admit that I do delete many of these emails and devote half an eye towards others. The other day, while on hold, I scrolled through a long email featuring photos of cats in playful poses (and as someone who is not partial to cats am kind of embarrassed that I enjoyed the pics of cute kittens more than I wanted to).

Have you ever attended a formal affair and some guy puts on an ape mask and goofs around for the photographer? I have. It is a conversation piece. The guy got himself noticed and made it into the album, but, he didn't necessarily gain the respect of all of the guests. (Disclaimer for those who want to try this: Reactions to the ape mask will vary, depending on the host and guest list.)

Our first presenter is Peter Corbett, the CEO of iStrategyLabs. Peter is currently talking about the world of Social Media (everyone's favorite buzz word - at least for the moment) - 6 of the top 10 sites on the Internet are Social Media focused websites. Is Social Media a "trend of the moment"? No. According to Peter, this rise is a Tsunami. People are going to join these sites, people are going to be active and contribute interesting content.What does this mean?

Thank you to our panel participants and moderator - we had an engaging discussion about content, distribution channels: TV, Mobile, laptops, etc., advertising strategies, challenges, successes, bundled ad buying, advertising in today's economy, Social Media strategies, "Beltway Buying Trends", and more:

Our Panel Participants: