click on view details for more information about the tour stop and schedule your Nissan Leaf™ drive time

So if you’ve been under a rock lately you might not have heard that the annual DotNetNuke conference is coming up. While in the past it has been branded as OpenForce, this year it is just simply DotNetNuke Connections, to better fit inline with the DevConnections banner.

This years event is once again going to be held in conjunction with DevConnections in Las Vegas Nevada, November 1-4. The conference is at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, a great venue that has been the amazing home to the DotNetNuke conference for the previous three years.

This years event promises to be even better than the previous three years, (some smart*ss will say that is because of what my next sentence says). I’ll be making my fourth appearance at the conference, though this time I’m not presenting a session at the conference.

Nissan has just announced a new ad campaign, leading up to a new Leaf commercial in September, you can watch some of the other commercials in the campaign now on Youtube! Links below, followed by the Nissan Press release

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XwL0SYcmdg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRvIxi0MgNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tcR2dU6HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-gXmVcj0g



NISSAN LAUNCHES ‘INNOVATION FOR ALL’ BRAND CAMPAIGN TO BUILD ON US MARKET GROWTH

New campaign to feature full line of Nissan vehicles, innovations that drive them

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (Aug. 25, 2010) – Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) today announced a significant new marketing initiative to showcase the strength of Nissan’s innovative product portfolio and build on 10 straight months of sales growth for the Nissan brand in the U.S. market. The campaign, to be headlined under the theme “Innovation for All,” will launch on Aug. 28 and permeate a variety of medium and targets over the next several months.

“Innovation for All” will begin with a series of five television spots that capture Nissan’s history, track record and process of innovation. The campaign features the full line of Nissan products – from the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF and Altima mid-size sedan to the Z sports car, Titan full-size pickup truck and cube ® activity vehicle. The versatile campaign also will appear in print and online with a consistent look and feel.

“Innovation has been the heart and soul of the Nissan brand for nearly 100 years,” said Jon Brancheau, vice president, Marketing, NNA. “‘Innovation for All’ isn’t simply a new marketing idea. It’s the very foundation of Nissan worldwide. This campaign captures Nissan’s spirit and continued drive towards innovation – not just for the elite, but for everyone.”

The campaign, developed by longtime partners TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, depicts Nissan’s innovation through a series of stories that are in turn whimsical, heartwarming, technology-minded, spirited and poignant. “We’re sharing Nissan stories that are as exciting, intelligent and innovative as the brand itself,” said Rob Schwartz, chief creative officer, TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles.

The first of the “Innovation” ads will debut Aug. 28 during the ESPN College Football Preview Show:

·         “Innovations” – A celebration of Nissan’s current innovations, including smart phone apps, recycled materials, air purifiers, the Juke – the world’s first Sports Cross – and the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF.

The second set of ad spots, set to air beginning Sept 1, include:

·         “Baby” – A soon-to-be dad transforms his 370Z into a Maxima sports sedan for the arrival of his first child.

·         “Kidzilla” – A little boy’s toy car collection endures a beating, from dog-chewing to water plunges, but the Nissan Altima remains unscathed – just like in the real world.

·         “Dime” – One of the most important safety innovations that Nissan delivers in every new car is its brake override system. This ad shows that a Nissan truly can stop on a dime.

Sept. 9 marks the debut of “Polar Bear,” a highlight of the “Innovation for All” campaign as it previews the Nissan LEAF – the world’s first mass market, affordable zero-emission 100-percent electric vehicle. In this story, a polar bear journeys from the icy Arctic through forests, highways, train tracks and over bridges to the big city and then on to the suburbs, where the animal finds someone who is trying to help – the owner of an all-electric Nissan LEAF.

The “Innovation for All” campaign represents a significant marketing initiative for Nissan, aiming to deliver over 200,000,000 media impressions before the end of 2010.

In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.  Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010 and has been recognized as a 2010 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.InfinitiUSA.com.

So we’re getting down to the final hours before the Hackathon, and those of us attending are getting ready for our trips! Nik and I both arrive from California tomorrow afternoon, while Joe is coming into St. Louis earlier in the day.

Wednesday (the 18th, tonight, depending on when you read this) we will be broadcasting the Hackathon kickoff from St. Louis DotNetNuke User Group. You will be able watch the session live, or watch the recordings later on.

The Hackathon contest will run until the 25th, when entries are due. For all the details on the event itself check out the rules and other details posted on http://hackathon.in

The live broadcast and video playback will occur here on DotNetNuke.com.

Why should you enter the Hackathon, even if you aren’t there attending live? You can win some great prizes!

There will be more blog posts coming in the next few days from both Joe Brinkman and myself as we post more details about mobile development and DNN.

For now, if you need some project ideas, here are some that ANYONE can create a project for. Most of these things will need a web service created to expose this data, I’ll have examples for you to see how to easily do this later this week!

An app to review your website Site Log data

An app to monitor your Event Log

An app to access the DNN Dashboard (host)

An app that exposes a user’s “work” from the HTML module

An app to list of blog posts and comments for the DNN blog module

An app to read and post data to the DNN Forum module

An app to interact with any other DNN module!

Don’t let our suggestions limit you in anyway, they are by no means the only things you could develop, in fact we encourage you to think outside of the box, they are just there to get your gears turning on something for the contest. These apps don’t need to be highly complex either, just a simple mobile app to perform a function is fine.

We will be releasing a sample application here this week as well that does a few different things with DNN that I think you will find very cool! I know I’ve used it and it’s pretty damn sweet to see!