Maria Shriver

Weekend Update 10.31.09–Heartbreaks, Heartthrobs and Heart Attacks

Drake Martinet in News on October 31, 2009 at 12:10 pm PT

BoomTown’s week began onstage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, Kara wasn’t filling in for Oprah; she was doing something much cooler.

"Changing the World Through the Web": Video Interviews with Zuckerberg, Kutcher, Rospars and Shah

Kara Swisher in News on October 28, 2009 at 7:19 am PT

Yesterday, BoomTown moderated a panel at California’s Women’s Conference titled “Changing the World Through the Web” for a crowd of several thousand people. The panelists included Hollywood actor/producer, Katalyst co-founder and Twitter demigod Ashton Kutcher; Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, who leads the social networking site’s elections, breaking news and social change initiatives; Premal Shah, president of online microloan site Kiva.org; and Joe Rospars, founder and creative director of Blue State Digital and new media director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Here are video interviews I did with each of them.

Video Scenes From the Women's Conference (Even Barbie!)

Kara Swisher in News on October 28, 2009 at 7:16 am PT

Here is a video of some scenes from the Women’s Conference in Long Beach that took place all day yesterday, where BoomTown moderated a tech panel. The huge conference, attended by 24,000 people, was organized by California First Lady Maria Shriver, who can be seen on this video, talking about the recent death of her mother.

Kara Visits the Women's Conference (Questions for Ashton Kutcher, Please!)

Kara Swisher in News on October 27, 2009 at 1:57 am PT

This morning, BoomTown will be onstage at California First Lady Maria Shriver’s well-known Women’s Conference in Long Beach, Calif., to moderate a panel titled “Changing the World Through the Web.” The panelists include Hollywood actor/producer, Katalyst co-founder and Twitter demigod Ashton Kutcher; Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg; Premal Shah of Kiva.org; and Blue State Digital’s Joe Rospars, who was also new media director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In other words, as a group, they are all either prettier, smarter or better for the planet than anything I have ginned up so far.