14 hour flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was a bit exhausting, but I’m finally here in Shanghai.  Literally at a Coffee Bean near Jing An Si (Jing An Tempe).  It’s been 3 years since I’ve been back to China, 6 years since I lived here, and it’s changes quite a bit.  But here are some random notes in Day 1:

1)  Sat next to a US citizen who’s teaching english in Shanghai.  He pays $60 a month for his apartment.  Might as well be stealing from the Chinese.

2)  After sitting on the runway for an hour, they announced we could get off the plane.  The entire plane went up in a loud cheer.  Chinese people – 1 Swine Flu – 0.

3)  Taxi driver spent the entire 45 minute ride explaining to me the system behind Shangna’s… chinese brothels.  I proceeded to tell him that is illegal in the US, and he prompted relied in Chinese, “That is stupid.”

Man, there are lots of people here in China.  I forget what it’s like to get bumped on a minute by minute basis.

As the NAA Conference nears, I’ve been thinking about questions the industry would want to ask Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint. Instead of guess what the space would want to ask,

What would you want to ask Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint?

Put your questions in the comments below and I’ll try to ask it during the Thought Leadership panel Saturday morning.

See you all this week!

About the Panelists:

Panelist #1 – Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com

Tony Hsieh has grown Zappos.com from $1.6 million in 2000 to over a $1 billion in revenue in 2008. Before Zappos.com, Tony co-founded LinkExhange which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. After LinkExchange, Tony founded a startup incubator called Venture Frogs, which invests in early stage startups.

Panelist #2 – Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research

Jeremiah Owyang is a senior analyst at Forrest Research and a leading expert on social computing, social media and interactive marketing. Jeremiah’s blog was ranked 19th by Advertising Age, he has consulted for large brands such as Hitachi Data Systems, and he is a speaker and educator at many conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW and CES.

Panelist #3 – Pete Flint, Founder of Trulia.com

Flint founded Trulia.com in 2005 and it now is one of largest and fastest growing real estate Web sites in the United States. Trulia.com has over 5 million unique visitors a month and has raised more than $33 million in funding. Prior to starting Trulia.com, Pete was part of the original launch team of lastminute.com, Europe’s largest online travel company where he was responsible for Interactive Marketing and Business Development. During his 5 years with the company he helped it to grow to more than 2,000 employees in 12 countries and over $1billion in annual transactions. The company was acquired by Travelocity in 2005 for more than $1.1 billion. Pete earned his Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Oxford and his MBA from Stanford University.

The recent months, the hot topic in the multi-family housing industry has been social media. There are those who understand it, those who are experimenting with it, and those who deny it’s existence.

As we gear up for the NAA educational conference and the social media panel with Tony Hsieh, Jeremiah Owyang, and Pete Flint, I have noticed that there are some people that have never heard of large companies like Zappos.com. 

So to reward those who know what Zappos.com is and want to see Tony, Jeremiah, and Pete discuss Social Media, but cannot afford tickets, NAA has graciously sponsored a contest to give away 1 FREE NAA CONFERENCE TICKET and 50% off 1 NAA CONFERENCE TICKET.

Enter the contest and see if you are a social media guru. 

“I want to highlight two main problems with that old, tired, me-first approach. First, it distracts you from what’s truly important, and may lead you to compromise your values and your principles and commitments. Think about it. It’s in chasing titles and status — in worrying about the next election rather than the national interest and the interests of those who you’re supposed to represent — that politicians so often lose their ways in Washington. (Applause.) They spend time thinking about polls, but not about principle. It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits, and the bonuses that came with them, that so many folks lost their way on Wall Street, engaging in extraordinary risks with other people’s money.

In contrast, the leaders we revere, the businesses and institutions that last — they are not generally the result of a narrow pursuit of popularity or personal advancement, but of devotion to some bigger purpose — the preservation of the Union or the determination to lift a country out of a depression; the creation of a quality product, a commitment to your customers, your workers, your shareholders and your community.

…

That other stuff — that other stuff, the trappings of success may be a byproduct of this larger mission, but it can’t be the central thing. Just ask Bernie Madoff. That’s the first problem with the old attitude.

But the second problem with the old approach to success is that a relentless focus on the outward markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy. We too often let the external, the material things, serve as indicators that we’re doing well, even though something inside us tells us that we’re not doing our best; that we’re avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary; that we’re shrinking from, rather than rising to, the challenges of the age. And the thing is, in this new, hyper-competitive age, none of us — none of us — can afford to be complacent.

…

Many of our current challenges are unprecedented. There are no standard remedies, no go-to fixes this time around. And Class of 2009 that’s why we’re going to need your help. We need young people like you to step up. We need your daring, we need your enthusiasm and your energy, we need your imagination.

And let me be clear, when I say “young,” I’m not just referring to the date of your birth certificate. I’m talking about an approach to life — a quality of mind and quality of heart; a willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame; a willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink old dogmas; a lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige — and a commitment instead to doing what’s meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world.”

Text – Obama’s Commencement Address at Arizona State University – Text – NYTimes.com

For some reason, I always mentally note if an advertisement caught my eye and whether I clicked through.  Though I didn’t click through on this one, I thought this was a brilliant advertising campaign by Zeki’s.

1)  I went to the University of Arizona – background targeting

2)  I live in the same neighborhood of Zeki’s – location targeting

3)  I am male and enjoy basketball – this may be luck, but damn if that’s not spot on.

However, I’m going to Blue Light because the owner reached out to a prominent U of A alumn to organize an event.

Today, we launched a simple, but useful integration with Twitter. Goal… provide renters with additional tools = more transparency information when searching for a place to live.  Here is an example >>

So the question is, can you use Twitter to help you find a place to live?

Well…

Can you use twitter as a financial adviser? Answer: Stocktwits.com

Can you use twitter as a search engine? Answer: Search.twitter.com (Via Michael Arrington)

Can you use twitter as wholesaler? Answer: Dell makes $1 million in revenue on Twitter

Can you use twitter to find a job? Answer: Yes, I have two of my immediate friends get jobs on Twitter. And the WSJ agrees.

So before you jump on the naysayer bandwagon, consider that Twitter conversations give renters an idea of the local residents, social scene, and even specific reviews of the area. Furthermore, Twitter identifies who is a local, and provides an immediate and responsive way to ask that person a specific question. Or go all in and broadcast to 8+ million people asking for feedback or advice.

Twitter has evolved from the simple 140 character tool and is no longer limited to the question, “What are you doing?”. Our goal at RentWiki.com is to give people searching for a place to live real advice from renters living in that area. By integrating with Twitter, we are expanding the conversation beyond just our site and into the real-time social web.

We put a twitter feed on each neighborhood wiki. From the feeds, renters can glean the type of people that live in the area, listen-in on the conversation, and interact with locals by asking for advice. Though not all neighborhoods have discussions on Twitter, where there are conversations occurring, the content is very useful. Here is a current conversation on Cole Valley in San Francisco. You can see fellow residents moving into the area, view how much a properties cost, and get a sense for the nightlife.

Also, we gave users also have the ability to broadcast back to Twitter’s 8+ million users. With one click, renters can ask about the social scene, safety, and walkability of an area. Twitter seems to be hosting conversations that may prove to be very relevant to the rental search.

However, I understand there are restrictions, we’re still working on a few bugs, and not all the content is relevant. Just because people are going to dinner in XYZ neighborhood doesn’t mean I care. But it provides some subtle hints about the quality of the neighborhood, and at the very least, you’ve identified someone that lives in the area to connect with to ask for advice.

As usual line goes, we’re a startup and it’s a work in progress so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, we threw in a couple of other goodies such as Facebook Connect, Walk Score for Apartments, and Video/Widget uploading.

Via Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici, “I had to sit on the floor because every seat was taken by a 30-ish guy in jeans with a Mac laptop. Most of them seemed to be Twittering the conference as they went, and following each other’s Twitter feeds. Surreal moment: At one point, the guy sitting closest to me was reading a blog post containing a photo of the guy sitting immediately behind him.”