Click the image to experience the 360 degree image of Reginald Wickham.

There is just something about Reginald Wickham that is different from most. Talking with him, it is evident that he has a zeal and joy for life and living that many only wish to possess. Reginald Wickham has been an artist for many years. Many know him for his work as an award winning photographer. In recent days, Reginald has included painting into his artistic repertoire.

While talking to Reginald about painting and photography, his positive outlook and joy in life comes shining through. He’s shared with us more than once how he has “never worked a day in his life”. He seems to always be enjoying the things he’s been blessed to do. Check out his photography on his website ReginaldWickham.com and, if you ever get to meet him be sure to say hello and chat for a while. No doubt, if you do, you’ll learn something about art, photography, and enjoying life.

Click on the following link to experience the 360 degree image of Reginald Wickham at First Friday Haddonfield.

Click on the image to experience the 360 degree image from Technically Philly at BCNI Philly

Sean Blanda did a great job again this year with Bar Camp News Innovation Philadelphia at Temple University. Experience the 360° virtual tour scene and audio from one of the Temple classrooms during BCNI Philly 2010. In this scene Sean, Brian and Christopher share humorous and valuable life and business lessons they learned while starting, growing and maintaining Techincally Philly. Techinically Philly is a hyperlocal news site ”Covering the community of people who use technology in Philadelphia.” If you’re not familiar with Technically Philly visit technicallyphilly.com to find out about the latest Philly tech news, local events, and job postings.

Click the following link to experience the 360 degree image from Technically Philly at BCNI Philly 2010.

To see our from BCNI Philly check out our posts from the 2009 event here: Swarming Local News at BCNI Philly and Bar Camp News Innovation at Temple.

This presentation was shared with the Associates Committee of the Builder’s League of South Jersey on March 9th 2010. Anthony, owner of the New Jersey virtual tour company, Samurai Virtual Tours,  was invited to speak about how businesses might make use of social media like Facebook Pages. During this presentation we discussed the basics of social media, the importance of determining goals and strategies,  Facebook Pages, the importance of analyzing and some tools used to measure social media ROI.

On January 27th Anthony, owner of  Samurai Virtual Tours,  spent half a day teaching a group of  business professionals about LinkedIn, Skype and Twitter. The class was sponsored by the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce and held at the Gloucester County College in Southern New Jersey. The presentation above was used during the class. It was built by Anthony using the new presentation software Prezi.

Click image to see the 360 degree view of the Business Pro$ event with Linda Lane.

On June 17, 2009 Samurai Virtual Tours attended the Business Pro$ event held at Beowulf in Cherry Hill, NJ.  The presenter for the event was Linda Lane, Financial Planner with First Financial Group/Mass Mutual.  Linda engaged with the audience to share about her experiences in networking.  She shared many do’s and don’ts for networking along with her own personal stories and experiences.

She gave useful tips that  included: bending the corner of a business card to remind you of a person you want to follow up with, dressing appropriately (men: polish your shoes, women: keep your shoes on & undergarments “under”) and call or email at least two people within a day or two to have a one-on-one meeting with them.  She reminded us all that there is no magic to networking; it’s simply a matter of building trust, following up with people and staying in touch.

Linda also suggested public speaking as a means to expand your network.  If you are an expert in a field, let others know by speaking for events and providing useful information.  You never know who is listening and when you may hear from them again as a prospective client or referral base.

One of Linda’s most important tips was to be yourself.  In the networking tips flyer she passed out she wrote, “Be yourself.  That is the most important rule.  Smart people will know the difference, and you can only sustain a facade for so long.  Most people like doing business and networking with people they like and trust.”

Thanks Linda for the advice and enjoyable evening.  Thanks The Business Pro$ for arranging the event and inviting us.

To see other still images of this event visit Samurai Virtual Tours’ photos on flickr.

Click above image to view 360 degree scene of Air Graphix wrapping a car.

At the Atlantic Builders Convention, the team from Air Graphix demonstrated their services by actually wrapping a car at their booth.  It was interesting to watch and see the processes involved in professionally wrapping a vehicle.

Click on above image to see 360 degree view of the Screeneze booth.

At the Atlantic Builders Convention we met David Seuberling, President of Screeneze Home Improvement Systems, Inc.  Screeneze is a company which provides custom screens to “bring the outdoors in.”  Check out thier website for more information.

Click the above image to see the 360 degree view of the Randolph Rose Collection.

At the Atlantic Builders Convention we met Jordan Rose, Vice President of Randolph Rose Collection.  His company specializes in bronze sculptures, antiques, and home furnishings. To see more of his unique sculptures visit his website: www.randolphrose.com.

Click above image to view 360 degree image of NewHomeGuide.com.

At the 2009 Atlantic Builders Convention we stopped by the NewHomeGuide.com table.   On the other side of the aisle, you can see the folks from Fishbein Design at their booth.

Click image to view 360 degree image of the Trex team.

While at the Atlantic Builders Convention in Atlantic City, NJ we meet several of the folks from Trex Company, Inc.

Inside of Trex Trailer

Their booth included a deck built specifically for the convention and their new trailer. Click on the image to the left to see a 360 degree panoramic image of the inside of the Trex trailer.

Click above image to view 360 degree image of Accredited Home Elevator.

While we were at the 2009 Atlantic Builders Convention, we stopped by the Accredited Home Elevator Company booth.  Their booth included a working elevator that could take you up a couple feet.  We got to talk with Scott Wallace about their company and the services they provide.  Accredited Home Elevator has offices in Barnegat, NJ as well as Cherry Hill, NJ.

Click above image to see 360 degree image of Professional Fireplace Services, LLC.

On April 22, 2009 we attended the Atlantic Builders Convention at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, NJ.  Pictured above is the Professional Fireplace Services, LLC team.  They had the luxury of enjoying the convention alongside a warm fireplace in their booth. It was a pleasure to meeting this smiling team.

Click the image to hear and see Voorhees Rapid Refill at Earth Day Festival

Rapid Refill of Vorhees, New Jersey attended the 1st Annual Earth Day Festival at Carusi Middle School as an exhibitor. Owner, Jody, shared with us a little about what Rapid Refill does including how using Rapid Refill can be both cost effective and good for the environment.

Click on the above image to experience the interactive 360 tour including a short audio clip with some words from Jody.

Click on the image above to see and hear the Bag Monster!

While visiting the 1st Annual Earth Day Festival at Carusi Middle School in Cherry Hill,  New Jersey we never imagined that we’d not only see a monster but have even have an opportunity to speak with one and learn about its life causing problems around the globe.  Click on the image above to see and hear the Bag Monster as he shares about how he feeds on sea creatures and damages the earth.

Special thanks to Justin of Chico Bags for being such a great sport and letting us talk to the Bag Monster and create this cool 360° virtual tour scene!

Click image to see the 360° panorama of the Philly and Cherry Hill chambers networking event

On Thursday, March 19th 2009 the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Cherry Hill Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a networking event at the Cherry Hill Mall. Attendees enjoyed breakfast and networking in this newly renovated area of the Cherry Hill Mall. The Cherry Hill Mall was opened in 1961 and was the first indoor shopping center east of the Mississippi River in the United States.

Click image to see the 360° panorama of networking event attendees.

This free (to chamber members) breakfast networking event gave business people from both sides of the Delaware River the opportunity to make connections with other business men and women they might not usually have the opportunities to meet.
Samurai Virtual Tours owners had a good time capturing photographs, meeting new people and helping some of our fellow chamber members make connections.

Anthony and Carole of Samurai Virtual Tours visit the March 09 Refresh Philly Event.

Monday night we had the opportunity to attend the Refresh Philly Event held at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia. There have already been some great blog posts written about the Refresh Philly meeting held on March 2nd. You can get a great moment by moment breakdown of the event from Maria by reading her post “Muxtape Prototypebreaker: Refresh Philly Recap” and you can get Jim’s perspective of the night by reading his post “march refresh philly“.

An attendee learns anyone can draw using lines, circles, triangles and squares.

Lots of great things were discussed at the Refresh Philly meeting. We learned about about upcoming events from HealthCamp Philadephia, BarCamp NewsInnovation and HigherEd Camp Philadelphia. We heard from Luke Crawford about how Muxtape can bring us back to the days of creating meaningful mixed tapes for our friends and how it can help bands promote their music. We also heard about how the Muxtape website was built and about some of the ideas behind its design. We also learned about the rise, fall and recent rebirth of this platform. Later in the evening we heard from Todd Warfel who challenged the group that it is possible to actually do good, fast, cheap, design using his rapid design methods.

Some of my notes from Todd's talk on rapid design methods.

Hearing how Todd uses pen, paper, and some time constrained refinement processes to tap the creative juices out of groups was interesting, practical and even good but I’m not so convinced it is actually a fast or cheap method of design. Todd encouraged us that anyone can draw using simple shapes. Since much of Todd’s rapid design method requires sketching, it is important that the people engaged in the design know that even with elementary art skills one can convey ideas and concepts important to a design.

Overall we had a great time at Refresh Philly. It was great sitting in a room with so many of Philly’s creative designers and developers. I look forward to future events and seeing how Refresh Philly will impact the people and neighborhood of Philadelphia and work to make things better.

Click on the following link to experience the 360 degree image from Refresh Philly. And if you haven’t already visit our flickr page to see a simple montage of images we took that evening.

NJ Senator Sweeney speaking at State of the County Breakfast

Samurai Virtual Tours had the opportunity to attend the 5th Annual State of the County Breakfast at Rowan University on January 9th, 2009. Of course we also brought along our cameras and audio recording equipment to capture panoramic images similar to those we use to create our virtual tours. In this 360 degree image New Jersey Senator Steve Sweeney has been introduced to the audience and begins his opening remarks. Senator Sweeney applauds the achievements of the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce and talks about the state of Gloucester County in Southern New Jersey.

Click the image above or here to experience the 360 degree image and audio of Senator Sweeney speaking at the breakfast event.

Gloucester County Chamber President Rhone Carr speaking.

Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce hosted the 5th Annual State of the County Breakfast at Rowan University’s Student Center Ballroom on January 9th, 2009. This event was attended by over 300 individuals representing the small businesses, government, and community of Gloucester County.

Chamber President Rhone Carr speaks about chamber charities.

Rhone Carr addressed the audience in attendance at the breakfast and shared about the goals of the chamber, advantages of chamber membership, the charities to which the chamber donates and other topics regarding business in Gloucester County.

Click the large image above or here to see the 360 degree image of Rhone speaking. Click on the smaller image in the post or here to see the 360 degree image in front of the sponsor’s banner of Rhone speaking.

Ribbon Cutting at Sunrise Signs

We recently had the opportunity to celebrate the official grand opening of Sunrise Signs Custom Signs and Graphics. In this image, owner Adam cuts the red ribbon along side his business partners and friends. It was a fun afternoon at Sunrise Signs and all seemed to have a great time celebrating the grand opening, networking, socializing and snacking on finger foods while sipping on soda or wine.

Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce President Rhone Carr was also at the event to officially welcome Adam and the team at Sunrise Signs to the business community of Gloucester County.

To experience the 360 degree image and audio click here

Click to see the Merchant's Street Dixieland Band

The Taste of Medford event put on by the Medford Business Association had great live music by the Merchant’s Street Dixieland Band.  They play Traditional Dixieland Jazz music and we enjoyed listening to them as we sampled tasty food under the tent.  There was also live music by Jennifer Mylod & the Boys of O’cean and Jim Riddle.

Enjoy experiencing this event by clicking the following link to view the 360 degree image of the Dixieland Band with audio.

Click to see the Hayrides given at the Taste of Medford

The Medford Business Association arranged a great event called the Taste of Medford on September 20, 2008 at Freedom Park in Medford, New Jersey.  In attendance, were a total of 18 restaurants from the Medford, New Jersey area.  We had a great time sampling the different food selections from places like PJ Whelihan’s, Lamberti’s Cucina, Izzie’s Eatery and Zallie’s ShopRite of Medford.  We also spent some time visiting with the many businesses exhibiting in booths set up for the event.

Click to see Pony Rides

The event had lots of things for the family to do like wagon rides, hayrides, pony rides, free balloons, and more.  Enjoy experiencing some of the things we saw and heard at this fun event in these interactive panoramic images.  You can read more about this event on Medford NJ’s Blog.

Click on the following links to experience the 360 degree images and audio of the Hayrides and Wagon rides and to experience the Pony Rides.

Click to view Samurai and Sunrise Signs Networking at BBQ.

At the End of the Summer Networking Barbecue event, Anthony and Carole from Samurai Virtual Tours had a chance to sit with Adam and Elspeth from Sunrise Signs.  We were having a great time sitting and talking with them, so we took a 360 degree image to remember the occasion.

This event was put on by the Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Twp. Chamber of Commerce.  It was held at Wedgwood Country Club in Turnersville, NJ.

Click the following link to see the 360 degree image of the Samurai and Sunrise Signs networking.

Click here to see Cookin' on the Grill

On August 21, 2008 Gloucestor County Chamber of Commerce and Washington Twp. Chamber of Commerce held the End of the Summer Barbecue event at Wedgwood Country Club in Turnersville, NJ.  There was good food and lots of great networking for business owners.

Click the following link to see a 360 degree image of the cook grilling some food for the attendees waiting in line.

Virtual tours are a great marketing tool.

Hi, thanks for visiting the Samurai Virtual Tour Blog. I’ll post on here weekly to share some information I think you may find helpful or interesting. On some of the other pages you may eventually find some featured tours created and hosted by Samurai Virtual Tours. You will also be able to see some other interactive panoramic images of sites I’ve visited for fun on Long Island and the surrounding areas.

For this first post, I thought I’d share an interesting article that I stumbled upon a while back. It is a great article that can be found on the New York Times website that talks about the benefits of professional photography and virtual tours. Check out the article when you get the chance to learn more about the benefits hiring a photographer and for other tips about photographing a home for sale. You’ll also find some other interesting statistics about how people find homes online. You can find the article here: “Making Every Pixel Count“