Shira is honored as one of the Five Inspirational Women to Know in 2009 for her avante garde reporting style. Read Article

Dopplr is a great way to organize your travel schedule and share it with friends. It’s basically a social networking travel site. Once you’ve put in all your dates, it gives you it’s own recommendations but also tips from your own friends of where to eat, stay and what to see.

As you can see, until June 10th things are crazy!
- I’m heading to Hawaii (Oahu & Kauai) to blog for Jaunted.com.
- Then it’s off to NYC where I’ll be the official video blogger for Internet Week NY.
- I’m making a quick 1 night stop in Banff to host NextMedia’s Digital Awards.
- Back to NYC to be the official video blogger and red carpet host for the Webby Awards on June 8th.

There you have it! A little glimpse into my hectic but exciting life!

Lon Harris and I bring you the best (or sometimes worst but always entertaining) of the week, from Heidi Montag’s music video to a banned Slushee commercial. We also respond to the “I AM A GEEK” debate.

I’ve always loved this “I Am Canadian” Molson commercial that made fun of Canadian clichés, but ultimately is all about Canadian pride (I am Canadian FYI). 3 months ago, I thought it would be fun to do a geek version of it. I look at myself as a geek, and I wanted to bring to light some geek clichés in a lighthearted video that ultimately embraced geek pride and brought everyone together.

I hooked up with my “This Week In Youtube” co-host, Lon Harris, and in an hour at Swingers in Santa Monica, we came up with the script for “I AM A GEEK”. While I was going to do the whole video myself, I thought it would be even more powerful if we got different types of geeks in the space to each say a line for the video that they would record themselves à la video blog. I set out on a mission and started getting people on board- MC Hammer, IJustine, Steve Wozniak, Leo Laporte, Wil Wheaton and many more. At this point, I realized that besides simply producing a video that would entertain, I wanted to show the power of us all coming together to help something bigger and make a positive impact. My friend Tim Ferriss of “4-Hour Work Week” fame, introduced me to an amazing charity called “Room To Read”. It was started by a former Microsoft Exec, John Wood, and they build schools and libraries for children in developing countries. They were a perfect fit for this project, because they provide the tools for these children to find their potential. Not only as a geek, but as an individual on this planet, I feel we have a responsibility to bring our skills and talents to those less fortunate as well.

The result, is the video above and the site (http://geekadvancement.com) where you can watch, embrace being a geek and “be the geeks who keeps on giving”. You can give back whether it be a direct donation or by buying the awesome “I AM A GEEK T-SHIRT” with proceeds going to the charity as well. On Monday, we had people around the world tweeting about their geek pride and #iamageek became a top twitter trending topic.

We also threw an amazing event at the W Westwood in Los Angeles with around 500 people raising over  $1,500, which enables Room to Read to change the lives of six girls, with a scholarship for an secondary education.  Room to Read is currently sponsoring almost 7,000 girls scholarships.

This project has been a blast to put together and couldn’t have happened without the help of everyone in the video and the community. I hope to now use The Society For Geek Advancement to spearhead other fun yet relevant and always philanthropic initiatives that bring everyone together to inspire change.

One of my favorite quotes to come out of this:

“Being a geek means being so interested in something that you don’t care whether or not it’s cool.”

Shira recaps the Noche de Ninos children’s crusade event. Read Article

Richard Branson is in one word- amazing! I’ve always looked up to him as the perfect combo of entrepreneur, innovator mixed in with a true passion and zest for life. Now that’s the ideal “living life to its fullest” cocktail if you ask me. He reaches for the sky, but doesn’t forget all that exists below and around him.

I got to meet the man himself this past week at the Virgin America SFO-OC flight launch. It was a 24-hour extravaganza, beginning on the tarmac at the John Wayne Airport, complete with spray tanning (courtesy of Sunset Tan), champagne, snacks and an appearance by the Real Housewives of Orange County. We were then shuttled to the Pacific Edge Hotel on Laguna Beach, where I was given the most incredible top floor room overlooking the beach. The party continued on the patio at the hotel with an open bar (shoutout to VeeV – the premiere “green” acai vodka), great DJ and some fun guests including MC Hammer, IJustine, and uber-cool pro boarder Shaun White. All I’ve got to say is Branson does it right! Besides throwing a kick ass party, he is consistent in all his endeavors, has created a unique, quality brand that delivers great service and he is constantly working towards innovation and what’s possible. If that list wasn’t enough, he maintains it all under the umbrella of a socially responsible, positive and fun culture/lifestyle- now that my friends is powerful!

Check out my quick interview with Branson on Jaunted.com and watch until the end to see his parting gift to me: