Wow. I am usually on the promotional end of things for others (Jesse/JESS3) and brands (e.g., Intel for New Media Strategies and Busboys & Poets for JESS3). This is my first entree into the world of serious “self” promotion and it is at once exciting and amazing. I want to thank everyone for spreading the love and the word — I will definitely do my best to live up to the hype.

Hit me with questions and thoughts while I am out and about — let’s really show Mainstream Media the POWER of the people.

Check out how my inbox is blowing up!

And folks are Tweet-linking too! Thank you all so much.

New Media Jim - https://twitter.com/newmediajim/statuses/797601775

Jen - https://twitter.com/HumanFolly/statuses/797589447

Jimmy - https://twitter.com/jjgardner3/statuses/797577873

Andrew (Hyde) - https://twitter.com/andrewhyde/statuses/797572831

Shana - https://twitter.com/dcconcierge/statuses/797583010

Aaron - https://twitter.com/technosailor/statuses/797576734

Andrew (Wright) - https://twitter.com/batterista/statuses/797586575

No, I didn’t qualify for a March Madness basketball slot. Rather, I will be joining my colleague and Team Public Affairs head coach (at New Media Strategies), the esteemed Howard Mortman at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner (which some beltway-ers know is called “Prom,” referring to the fancy-schmancy-meets-pre-party-meets-invite only-meets-see-be-scene-meets-after party nature of the event)

It gets even better… Howard and I will be conducting onsite interviews via my Twitter account. If you are interested in checking out a new angle on covering this event, please follow me by going to the site, or putting my “track” on:

www.twitter.com/leslieann44

I will also take your questions, if you @ message me, or Direct Message (”DM”) me

More details from Howard at his blog, www.ExtremeMortman.com here (he is calling it “Prom 2.0″ — how fitting, the Wit is strong with this one)

I wonder if anyone will roll-deep in a stretch limo like these prom-goers I found via Google images:

Kind of amazing. H/t to JESS3 trtl + ninja connect, Sean G of DLUX. Props to Chowder fan Chowderrockz for the overlay.

Ready to win at everything today? What do you want to win at? Let’s get another thread of AWESOMEIDEAS in the comments here =)

These videos are brilliant. I can’t get enough. So, what is you flavor? My friend Brian Devine and New Media Strategies co-worker is BRIANSTORM. Get creative today and hit me up!!I am TRTLBERRY!!!!

You have heard my Emile Durkheim reference before, but truly, studying certain cultural phenomena (penal codes, organizations, funding, activities, etc.) can truly serve as a shadow that speaks about a larger body behind it. In Durheim’s case, he studied the penal codes to understand what the society privileged and valued.

Looking at the Bible in the same way, one can exegete (yes, I actually get to use that word in its native form, Biblical reading) that food safety was high on the list of concerns (not mixing and not eating likely had more to do with undesirable after-effects than it did with God’s decree about food preference).

So, lengthy social science wind-up aside, looking at the shadows that are cast around the DC/MD/NoVA area with regard to gatherings in the new media, entrepreneurial and tech spaces tell us a lot about what this area values on the whole. While most of the meet-up events and un-conference gatherings have attracted a relatively young audience to date (20s, 30s, 40s and a few outliers — in both directions — from this bell curve), the Media Future Now lunches in fact shift this curve up about 10 - 15 years. This is a good thing. The more we have dialog with one another and those outside our cohorts, the greater the understanding and collaboration will be.

There were a number of quintessential DC professionals in attendance (the ties/bow ties give it away: baller status) from law firms, associations, communications shops and traditional news outlets like National Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, Washington Business Journal and Congressional Quartlely. Also in attendance were local bloggers, experts, consultants and start-up mavens, such as Dr. Alan Rosenblatt (Center for American Progress & Internet Advocacy Roundtable, among others) Mosses McCall (Paint The District Green), Chase Warmington and Thom Wallace of emPivot (update: potential redesign a’la nclud), Susan Chavarria (Flying Colors) and Michael J. Zamba (the magazine group).

Also rolling deep, was my NMS colleague and good friend, Erin Zimmer (yes, THE Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats, DCist and Washingtonian).

While more frequently a participant than a speaker at most events, I in fact had the honor of being a panelist this week at the Media Future Now lunch held monthly by Troy K. Schneider, Larke Paul, Debbie Miller and Andrew Mirsky (h/t to the NMS Public Affairs Director, my boss and friend Howard Mortman for the connect).

Look, it’s me!

I was particularly interested in hearing from Jeff Pruzan (running my favorite newspaper and the preferred source of the McLaughlin Group), Julie Rutherford (as a fellow woman of the cloth, so to speak) and Mike Mills (being a part of a family of sites, interested to hear what kind of cross-pollination and community-share goes on/not). Larke also did a wonderful job facilitating the discussion. A true art.

All in all, the discussion ebbed and flowed through the terrains of: consumption of news through multiple platforms (Internet, print, iPod, mobile, IM, Twitter, etc.) and what traditional news organizations are doing to combat the loss of subscribers (other than just having some monetized/ad-serving going on through their Interweb portals).

In addition to discussing the value of blogging for an organization - and how it differs (or not) from “just an online column” - I had a bit of a “Big Idea” that I shared. That is: Create Passionate Users! Help them connect and kick ass!! (h/t and all reverence in the world to Kathy Sierra; not original, but important to bring up with this audience).

For example, when you register for a site, like say the Washington Post, you actually get “more for your data.” Not just ads, but a community. As it stands, you know that the “income” and “industry” questions serve the news organization and them alone (godbless’em, but it’s true). They take our data, compile it with all the other smart money makers on their site and are able to position themselves as having “X” women from “Y” industries making “Z” annually “read our news online.” But what if that data was in fact serving me later in my user experience? What if I knew how many people in my industry recommended which articles? What if I had colleagues who dragged-and-dropped articles for me in a special folder that I could look forward to checking every morning?

From what I have gathered from the great Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users) and many others that subscribe to her philosophy, this kind of community-based, user-centric thinking is very important in retaining users, growing a brand and breaking through the noise that is the competition (especially aggregators! users are saying: “make a reason for your site to be a destination, or I am just going to consume my news through feeds, kthxbai.”)

What are you doing to help your readers kick ass? Connect with others? Kathy’s graphs are great at illustrating these points:

What are your thoughts on the transition from old media to new? What are the opportunities that “trusted brokers” (to borrow a term from Mike Mills of WBJ) have with online communities? Would love to keep the conversation going here, at the next lunch and offline!

Many thanks to Scott Stead and Jonny Goldstein for hosting Jesse and me tonight. Your project, energy and viewing community are a true wonder. And many thanks to all the DC friends and family that stopped by — Shana Glickfield, Jimmy Gardner, Aaron Brazell, Zvi Band, Andre Blackman, David Patton, Geoff & Christine Thomas, Shashi Bellamkonda … the list goes on.

We covered everything from Jesse and JESS3’s work for Busboys and Poets, Ellwood Thompson’s, Blue State Digital and the Heritage Foundation… to New Media Strategies, my family’s wine, growing up in Oregon/New Zealand, how we first met, ramping up JESS3, LLC to support all the creative ideas + awesome clients… and what it takes to be a collaborative couple.

The experience was life changing on some level: to have that much of my life, our lives, our work… discussed for an hour, with a live visual. Can’t say that I have ever done that before. Very interesting experience, will have to think on it some more. Feel like it is one of those things that you look back on in 10 years and have saved special. I digress.

Time for bed… feeling lots better (I think the par-tay has magic, healing powers, btw).

www.jess3.com- Broadcast your self LIVE

UPDATE: More live reporting… (does this man ever sleep? always documenting… it is a true gift to us all, thank you!! ) Jonny gives us the “after hours” lowdown on his way home from the metro. Check out Jonny’s utterz here.