Tech Tuesday: 5 Apps To Help You Sleep Better

The week days can be repetitive– eat, work, sleep, repeat. But the weekend can mess with our sleeping patterns, and nothing throws you off more than a night of restless sleep. Or maybe you’re like me, and you have a hard time getting your brain to quiet down long enough to get some shut eye.

Luckily, there are tons of apps out there to help you ease into a relaxed state of mind and get to sleep more easily. At ABCey, we need to get those full 8 hours so that we can be sure to stay on our toes for those long events. Here are five that are worth giving a try the next time you’re having trouble falling asleep!

1. SleepStream: SleepStream not only assists in capturing a full night’s slumber, but it does so in a way that results in an absolute bodily recharge everytime you close your eyes. It contains 8 hours of relaxing audio, guided meditations and music, visualizations, moodlights, and 15 different brain programs designed to stimulate the brain’s activity associated with relaxation.

2. SleepCycle: An intelligent alarm clock that analyzes your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase – the natural way to wake up feeling rested and relaxed. Since you move differently in bed during the different phases, Sleep Cycle can use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in.

3. White Noise Lite: Features ambient sounds of the environment such as waves crashing on a beach and the soothing sound of rain fall.

4. Sleep Machine: Provides a huge assortment of professionally mastered ambient sounds designed specifically for achieving a total relaxed state and improving sleep. The multi sound player design is easy to play, mix, and create a lifelike sound for your sleep environment. You can mix iPod music with your favorite sounds too!

5. Netflix: This isn’t exaclty a sleep app, but maybe you’re the kind of person who just needs to throw on a movie on to fall asleep, so download the Netflix app to easily watch a movie or TV show on your phone while sinking into slumber.

We hope these apps are helpful in your quest for peaceful slumber! Let us know which ones work best for you in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

ABCey’s Weekend Lineup: 3.14.13-3.17.13

The days are getting longer and the the weather is warming up! If those facts alone can’t entice you to get out and do something, then at least come out this weekend for a beer (or five) to celebrate everyone’s favorite Irish holiday. You don’t even have to worry about trying to decide what your plans should be, ABCey has got you covered!

1. Tech In Motion Silicon Valley UX Meetup | 3.14.13 | San Jose | Join Jobspring Partners and Workbridge Associates for food, drinks, and networking as they host the 6th installment of TechInMotion in conjunction with the SVUX LinkedIn community. Whether you are a UX professional, have a love for products that provide a great user experience, or enjoy networking, you won’t want to miss this!

2. Bourbon Tasting & Mixology Happy Hour | 3.14.13 | The Brixton – SF | A full complement of bourbons will be on hand for your inspection, where specialists will be available to illuminate each spirit’s character.Director of Mixology David Depove will conduct a mini-academy to teach you the proper way to mix a classic cocktail.

3. DevFest Silicon Valley | 3.15.13 | Mountain View | DevFest is a series of community-led events that have technical sessions centered around Google developer technologies and platforms like Android, Chrome, Google+, and App Engine. This DevFest will have a particular focus on women-inclusion and bringing the female developer community together to teach, learn, code and network. Both men and women welcome!

4. Exhibit: Controversial Messages | 3.16.13 | Gallery 16 – SF | Gillmore’s work, which is held by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, is known for its distinctive deployment of controversial, often vitriolic text amidst abstract or graphic paint. The paintings have a deadpan yet provocative appeal that stays with a viewer longer than one would perhaps expect.

5. Irish Bank St. Patrick’s Day Block Party | 3.17.13 | Financial District | In reality, you’ll be able to find a St. Patty’s day celebration at just about any corner that you turn, but check out The Irish Bank Bar and Restaurant for a variety of different Irish music, food, and drinks! The fun starts nice and early at 9am.

*BONUS* Don’t forget to attend San Francisco’s 2013 St. Patrick’s Day Festival and Parade on Saturday! Festivities start at 11am and end at 5pm at the Civic Center Plaza.

We want to know which events you decide to attend this weekend! Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter.

Top 5 Futuristic Bar Trends

As the world around us transforms and adapts to the never-ending development of technology, we’re constantly seeing trends pop up all around us. Considering the fact that indulging in spirits with friends is one of the oldest traditions held by humanity, the bar scene has remained relatively unchanged in comparison to our other surroundings. But nothing can stay the same forever, so what does the future hold for bars, beer, and cocktails? ABCey has compiled some of the newest trends that you may be seeing in the not-so-distant future…

1. Bartendro – A fast, portable, precise cocktail robot that can mix your drink in just 10 seconds. Using your smart phone or tablet, you can personalize your drink menu by adding your favorite cocktails made just the way you like them, and Bartendro will do the work. Just put your cup under the dispenser and let it be filled with a delicious cocktail, no measuring or mess to deal with!

2. The Vaporized Cocktail – McCall‘s Catering in SF puts a twist on the regular ol’ cocktail with their vaporized cocktails. The trick behind a vaporized cocktail is the alcohol infused with different ingredients, giving it a delicious and unique taste. After igniting the ingredients, a vaporizer is used to turn them into pure aromatic vapor. The vapor is then captured under a glass bell jar and infused into the alcohol, leaving you with a cocktail flavored unlike any other.

3. Molecular Mixology – A special practice of mixing drinks using the analysis and techniques found in science to understand and experiment with cocktail ingredients on the molecular level. Molecular Mixology includes the use of foams, liquid nitrogen, gels, mists, heat, solidifying liquids, and countless other options to create a truly harmonious taste.

4. Edible Barware – In the effort to rid the use of disposable cups, Loliware is a line of edible cups that come in five flavors (sweet vanilla, spicy pepper, salty lime, sour lemon, and bitters) designed to complement classic cocktails. The two-ounce cups are completely biodegradable and made from all-natural, vegan ingredients.

5. Wall Of Drink Tanks – An interesting new way to let you get creative, getting bored of your drink is not an option with this wall! And say goodbye to ingredient errors, as well. Saunter up to the dispensers and mix up some of your favorite flavors before heading to the bartender to top it off with the alcohol of your choice.

Which of these do you hope to see popping up at your favorite bar? What other trends did we miss? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Startup Monday: Ask Your Target Market

In a time where it’s crucial to know whether or not your newest idea is going to be a hit or a flop, market research is key. It can be far too expensive to hire a firm, and often too time consuming and difficult to find the resources on your own. With the help of Ask Your Target Market, or AYTM, you can put your market research stressing behind you.

AYTM is a cool new way for companies of all different types and sizes to learn more about their potential customers. Using a panel of over 4.5 millions of consumers across 5 different countries, the firm helps you define your target market, create your survey, and make sense of the data that is returned to you.

If you’ve ever tried to conduct market research on your own, you know that having a tool like AYTM would eliminate countless headaches! We think it’s great the way that they can utilize their broad span of panelists to provide you with the most ideal respondents and information.

Would you consider using AYTM the next time you’re thinking about doing some market research? Tell us why or why not in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: Top 5 Camera Apps

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

Everyone loves to document the events they plan and attend. There’s just something fun about sharing the pictures with your friends to say “Hey, look what I did!” and we fully encourage everyone to do so. Here are five apps to help you capture the best images and edit them to look just right!

1. Camera+ is an app designed for not only editing your photos, but for taking them as well. The app has a built-in stabilizer for steadying your camera while taking pictures, a 6x zoom for getting close to your subject, and a grid to help you line up your shot perfectly.

2. Switchcam is a web app that automatically synchronizes footage of an event from multiple cameras and turns it into one tidy interactive video. Their philosophy is that most of the best video content contains multiple angles, so why shouldn’t you and your friends be able to compile footage to create an awesome video with different angles too? You can even set up events to let your friends know when you want to shoot something, and they can let you know if they’re going or not through the app!

3. Photoshop Express is a free, lightweight version of the popular photo editor that allows you to do things like crop and straighten your photos, as well as apply filters, effects and even borders to your prints.

4. Filterstorm can support up to five layers at a time, and allows you to make adjustments to the image including brush, gradient, color range, vignette or selecting opacity. You can work with the brightness/contrast in a photo, the temperature, exposure, and saturation as well as crop a picture how you would like and specify a specific aspect ratio you’d like the final image to be.

5. Pixlr-o-matic allows you to edit pictures that are already on your phone as well as take new ones with the app. With more than 100 effects, 280 overlays, and close to 200 different borders, your editing capabilities are endless!

Using any of these apps would make for even better photos and videos to post from all of your events! Have you used any of these before? Which are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Penetralia: Privacy Matters Event Recap

On Monday night, ABCey was excited to produce Penetralia 2013: Privacy Matters sponsored by SpiderOak and Silent Circle. The event took place in conjunction with the RSA Conference happening this week here in San Francisco. The conference focuses on advances in internet security and cryptography, attracting tech professionals from all over to gather and share the latest advancements in the information security industry.

To view the Facebook album of the Penetralia 2013 photos, click here or view our main photo gallery, here!

We were delighted to work with SpiderOak and CEO, Ethan Oberman for this important event. Their service provides a secure, central location to store all of your important data without compromising the privacy of your information. They are different from giants’ Dropbox and Box in that they make data backup, synchronization and sharing 100% private, flexible and secure.

SpiderOak — the ‘Zero-Knowledge’ privacy cloud technologies provider — launched privacy into the mainstream with the unveiling of Crypton, the world’s first ‘Zero-Knowledge’ application framework. Crypton makes it possible to build cryptographically secure applications and push privacy further into the web than previously possible. Their technology offers meaningful privacy assurance to end users because the servers running the application cannot read the data created and stored by the application. It’s the closest thing to storing your information in a locked safe!

This event was also co-sponsored by SilentCircle, a comprehensive suite of simple yet secure tools for your mobile devices that was created by NAVY Seals and Silicon Valley cryptography experts.

Penetralia 2013: Privacy Matters was a great way for professionals in the industry to further the privacy-in-technology conversation. Guests were welcomed with delicious food and signature drinks such as the Encyrpto Sour or the Alice and Bob. The atmosphere was cozy with music provided by DJ Mancub of the beloved San Francisco Space Cowboy dj collective. The walls and ceilings had interactive 3D mapping showing the history and evolution of internet privacy. There was also an experiential display of two boxes entitled “Privacy” and “Security” to emphasize the difference between the two terms.

What do you think the difference between Privacy and Security is? What does Privacy mean to you? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Startup Monday: iCracked

Time is of the essence in the event industry, and every second that can be saved counts. Startups and apps that aim to capitalize on our busy lives are making a killing off of our need for the fastest, most efficient version of whatever service they provide. Our cell phones have become a tool that we cannot seem to live without because of their capability to connect us to a world filled with these amazing, time-saving products and services. So what happens when your beloved smart phone is out of commission, and you simply don’t have the time to send it away for days, or even weeks, to be repaired? You need only to remember one brand new service: iCracked.

iCracked is the newest way to fix your precious iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Like many other companies, iCracked started in the dorm room of college students. These students decided they could no longer afford those pricey screen repairs necessary after multiple plummets from hand to floor. You know, those lovely accidents that leave you with a phone screen resembling a spiderweb.

The people at iCracked replace broken screens, LCDs, batteries and all other parts, as well as repair water damage for all iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad models. Here comes the convenience and time-saving part: iCracked’s iTechnicians can meet you in your own home or office to perform any repairs that you might need, usually taking only about 30 minutes to complete the job. They’re definitely not joking about saving you time!

We love that iCracked offers such a quick fix to the common iPhone mishap. We can see this service being super helpful when in a bind while preparing for events and needing all of the precious info we keep on our phones! Tell us what you think of iCracked in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

BlackJet SF Launch Event Recap

On Valentine’s Day, ABCey had the pleasure of producing the BlackJet San Francisco Launch Party in Union Square! If you’re not familiar with BlackJet, think of it as the “Uber for Private Jets.” It’s an online service and phone app that connects travelers with the reliability and convenience of a private jet with prices close to that of premium commercial carriers.

To view the entire BlackJet SF Launch photo gallery, click here! Or, to view our Aviation themed Digital Photobooth gallery, click here!

With a line winding down the red carpet and around the corner from Union Square before the event even started, it’s safe to say that attendees were very excited about BlackJet’s San Francisco launch. The first 1,000 people to arrive were given a free membership with companion seat –a coveted gift, seeing as the service is currently invite only and memberships are worth a whopping $2,500!

After receiving their sleek black membership card and vacation-reminiscent Hawaiian lei, guests had the opportunity to take a picture with the beautiful Sky Angels in front of the BlackJet logo or at the aviation-inspired Snapfiesta photobooth. DJ David Carvalho kept the crowd pumped with excitement while guests anxiously awaited the announcement of the Las Vegas trip winners; two of which were picked from radio station contests, one that was picked from a drawing done that day. The lucky winners were sent off to Vegas via Uber that very evening to enjoy their 3 night stay at the Bellagio and their $1,000 cash…all part of the GrandPrize win!

ABCey was live tweeting during the entire event and any posts & pictures using #BlackJetSFLaunch showed up on our Twitter Feed projected on a giant LCD in the middle of Union Square. A big Thank You to CEO and COO, Dean Rotchin and Joe Grimes for partnering with ABCey to kick off BlackJet’s new SF service route. Some of the key investors and co-founders such as Garrett Camp, Shervin Pishevar, and Steve Jang also came out for the event and took part in the fun. Thanks to all for coming!

Let us know what you thought of our event in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

Startup Monday: HotelTonight

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.

How often do you find yourself needing to make last minute hotel reservations? Maybe the place you booked in advance has lost your reservation, maybe you didn’t book anything at all, or maybe you just want to be impulsive and go on a spontaneous trip to Vegas! There are plenty of reasons as to why it would be convenient to have a resource that could help you find a hotel room for that very evening. The folks at HotelTonight have created an app to help you with just that!

Currently available in 10 countries and over 80 destinations, HotelTonight makes it easy and simple for you to book same-day unsold hotel inventory, providing you with some really great deals that otherwise would not have been available to you. You can even make a reservation all the way up until 2am, a convenience that is not usually offered at most hotels. Considering we all use our mobile phones to do pretty much everything, HotelTonight is a must-have to add to your army of apps.

It’s a win-win for everyone in this situation! You get convenience and great value for your sporadic trips while hotels get the opportunity to sell last minute rooms that would have otherwise remained empty. What a great tool to use when making those impulsive decisions to attend that conference in San Diego or to show up at that event in Chicago that you just didn’t think you’d have time to attend. If we’re ever in need of last-minute rooms for any of our clients from out of town, we know what app we’re using! Have you ever used HotelTonight? Let us know how it made your trip more convenient in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!

ABCey Weekend Lineup: 2.14.13 – 2.17.13

With plenty of events today alone, you’re sure to find something unique and fun to do in honor of St. Valentine. Make sure to stop by Union Square at noon to celebrate the launch of the SF Service route for BlackJet, produced by yours truly, ABCey! If you’re too busy to celebrate with your sweetheart today, fear not! Attend one of these super fun events and you’re sure to make up for it. No sweetheart? Don’t let that stop you from spreading the love! We’ve got plenty of ideas to fill your weekend with exciting events to attend with friends. HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

1. Swinging Valentine’s, Burlesque & Live Music | February 14 | 5pm | 50 Mason Social House | Join 50 Mason Social House on Valentine’s Day for free Swing Dance Lessons from 5-7pm by the Bay Area Swing Allstars, followed by live Burlesque Performances by Hunny Bunny & Her Hot Toddies at 8pm. They’ll be rounding off the night with a live performance by house favorites Eggplant Casino. No cover charge all night long.

2. Vestivus For The Rest Of Us: $5 Comedy & Music Variety Show | February 14 | 7pm| Red Devil Lounge, SF | W*A*S*H* is an experimental weekly variety show at the Red Devil Lounge which promises to blur the line between performers and audience. The night features stand up comedy from Joe Gorman, Mike Spiegelman & Natasha Muse plus Musical Guest, John Murry and a Valentine Swap hosted by BetaDater.

3. Viva Amore! Viva Wine! 2013 | February 15 | 6pm | Rock Wall Wine Company, Alameda | Grab your loved ones and join the Rock Wall Wine Company for a celebration of wine, amore and life! They’re turning the cellar into a land of romance, filled with beautiful wines, yummy treats, rockin’ music and lots of East Bay Love!

4. 4th Annual Chocolate and Beer Festival | February 16 | 12pm | The Craneway Pavilion, Richmond | Do you like chocolate? Do you like beer? Embark on a gourmet adventure at the Chocolate and Beer Festival at Craneway Pavilion at the Richmond Marina. Sample local craft brews and chocolates from the Bay Area’s finest chocolatiers.

5. Tulipmania 2013 Opening Day | February 17 | 10am | Pier 39 | Pier 39 comes alive with the vibrant colors of thousands of blooming tulips and seasonal garden favorites throughout both levels of Pier 39. Enjoy daily free, guided landscaping tours beginning at 10 a.m. in Pier 39′s Entrance Plaza. Make sure to bring your cameras to capture what’s blooming.

There’s something for everyone in this lineup! Which events will you attend? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter. See you this afternoon at Union Square!