What did was the fact that this happened right around the same time time Avatar was released, specifically the Blu-ray (BD) version.

What’s the connection?  Shortly after getting Avatar from Best Buy, I received an email from them stating a firmware upgrade to my Blu-ray player may be necessary to watch the movie.

Sure enough, my Sharp BD-HP21 was one of many players needing an update.  Articles here, here, and here summarize.

Luckily I found a forum thread which included a link to an available firmware upgrade from Sharp Canada, which went smoothly and all was well.

So back to my mom. I realize this seems relatively easy for some of us, but not someone like her.  She wouldn’t search for an update, throw it on a flash drive, and upgrade her player.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the advantage of new features, and I actually appreciate that my Blu Ray player didn’t just become obsolete.  And the picture quality is no doubt, outstanding.

But are these firmware updates too much for regular consumers?  Could this be a reason that the Blu Ray format could fail?  Or will internet-connected devices solve some of these issues?  Or is physical media already dead, regardless?

There was some great brainstorming going on, but not nearly enough time to discuss the massive changes and shifts happening on the Internet.  Thus, the reason I was inspired to share some ideas about what I see coming.

And while many organizations and face-to-face meetings are still important, from an online standpoint, I cannot tell you how radically things are currently changing right before our eyes when it comes to marketing and social networking.

Are chamber of commerce groups important-yes. Will there always be a need for television ads and print material such as newspapers-for some.

But at the same time, future generations are not going to want yesterday’s news once a day, and DVRs are already becoming the kiss of death for TV advertising.  What I see is that conversations are becoming the new way that we talk about businesses, products, and services.

Recently, I attended WordCamp San Francisco, and one of the themes I heard from various speakers was community, groups, and relationships.  And based on that, I wrote “conversations” on one of the tablets which asked “what does WordPress mean to you in one word.”

I know this is going to sounds extremely cliché, but social networking tools such as blogging, videos, FaceBook, and Twitter are where we’re heading.

Will some of these be around in the future? Maybe and maybe not.  But it’s not so much the forum, but the tool itself.  Blogs are not going away.  Videos are not going to disappear.  And maybe new social networking sites will replace FaceBook or Twitter, but the concepts will still be the same.

Both online and face-to-face communities, groups, and relationships will be the new evangelists, advertisers, and mavens.

What I would recommend is instead of brushing off these new technologies and trends, embrace them for what they are now, so you can stay ahead of the game in the future and maximize the potential for your business, while others are left to try and figure it out later and try to catch up.

And if you’re interested in the Bakersfield Business Referral Network Meetup group, you can find more information here about signing up.  It’s a great group of people who are trying to stay ahead of the curve, and are sharing ideas on how to survive in the future economy.