Have a passion for electronic music? Wondering how to market yourself or your event?

Next week, Boston will play host to Together: The New England Electronic Music Festival. Over 100 artists will participate in nearly 40 events during the inaugural 6-day event, which is designed to celebrate and promote electronic music in all its facets.

From Wednesday, February 10-Friday, February 12, the festival is offering a series of academic discussion panels and industry workshops on topics ranging from networking and promotion tactics to new and innovative technologies in the music industry. Panelists will include performing artists, professors from local universities, Boston journalists, media technology innovators and representatives from record labels and promotions firms.

The above videos can be described in three words: Doritos Meets FarmVille. You might deny being among the 76 million users who play FarmVille monthly on Facebook. To the uninitiated, it's a hugely popular game that has grabbed the world's attention as if it's a "Crop Circle"... well it is... kind of!

From the iPhone's popular Yelp app to Avatar and Coke's promo, augmented reality is one term that you are beginning to find on everyone's lips. A fairly new tool, it has been used in recent marketing campaigns and will definitely find its place in future marketing plans. As imagination is limitless and possibilities are endless, augmented reality is definitely not worthless. (That actually rhymed!)

Do check out Mashable's post on augmented reality. It describes some cool examples of what you can expect to see in the future!

What is persuasion? A salesman persuades the customer to purchase a product. A filmmaker persuades everyone to watch her next film. A homeless man on the road persuades you to drop that dime in his cup. A lawyer persuades the judge to rule in his favor. An advertiser... well, this is where it gets interesting!

We all were born with the art within us. Remember that toy you really wanted when you were really young? You held your breath till your mother fell into that trap and spent those extra dollars, just to get you to stop throwing that tantrum! Persuasion has always been of great interest to me, and the fact that we all use it in some form in our daily life truly amazes me.

After completing my undergrad degree back in India, I was working as a junior copywriter with a very small ad firm. I traveled at least 3 hours everyday to get to work in the worst of weathers that Mumbai had ever seen. What persuaded me you ask? It was this hunger to learn more... My colleague at the firm, the senior copywriter, was also very passionate about what he did and had spent a lot of time reading about other writers in the field. One such writer that he spoke about was Neil French.

I'm sure owners of netbooks and Kindle enthusiasts are laughing at the recent launch of the Apple iPad. Many of whom are saying, "Nice job, Steve, but try again." With an earnest love for their netbooks and Kindles, Apple may have a hard time convincing current users of the two devices to switch. But for millions of people who don't own a Kindle or a netbook and have the money to invest in yet another device, the iPad may have great appeal.

OK, without stating the obvious consumer (the salivating techie and Apple brand loyalist who will spend any amount to be the first to not only own but to also touch the magic that they believe lives in the device), who else will really be a target for such a product? Well, here is what I'm thinking: With 74 percent of iPhone users over the age of 25 and 31 percent representing iPhone users between the ages of 35-49 (AdMob), Apple is not really looking for Jeff and Melissa, two college students, to invest in the iPad (even though they might). I'm banking on the idea that Apple's primary target is grandma and grandpa.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is seeking an experienced and accomplished communications professional who can lead and integrate IFAW's communications, branding and marketing strategies worldwide. The ideal candidate will have successfully demonstrated management experience in developing and implementing integrated communications and branding strategies to a multi-cultural audience. The selected candidate, reporting to the CEO, will work very closely with the fundraising and program departments and will serve on the organization's Executive Management Team. This position requires demonstrated success and expertise applying/leading the technical aspects of communications (marketing, PR, journalism, branding, new media, etc.). This is a wonderful opportunity to join a dynamic and talented global team and to broaden IFAW's exposure in the United States and throughout the world.

Position Title: Vice President for Communications
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
Supervises: Communications staff
Location: IFAW Headquarters, Yarmouth, MA

With internet technology changing every day, we as marketers need to understand what the driving forces behind the technology are and where it is heading. Google and Apple are currently the biggest players in this domain. Although the spaces in which they innovate are distinct, at a broader level they are still competing.

Google is the biggest innovator in the cloud computing space and server applications. Search being the largest, there are several other applications like Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Adwords and the list goes on. Also, Google Wave might change the way we collaborate online. Google is basically providing numerous services to users online and most of it is free.

The expertise of Apple lies in providing rich clients. iPhone users can use a variety of apps. These apps although developed by third parties, iPhone has very superior clients which enable these apps. For instance, the maps app on iPhone uses the same API provided by Google Maps; however, the maps app on iPhone is much more sophisticated than Google Maps because of the rich client that iPhone uses.

So, what does this mean for online marketers? Basically, online marketers need to analyze where the future of online services is. Will all the applications be in the cloud or will we use local rich clients? For instance, will Google Docs replace Apple and Microsoft Office or will it be a mere supplement? With the changing internet infrastructure, the possibilities for server side applications are expanding exponentially. At the same time companies are focusing on developing richer and richer clients. An example of that would be Microsoft Surface which will be launched in a few years from now.

Both these technologies - server and client side - are expanding rapidly. The question is, in the future, will one take over the other or will both technologies coexist?