Take Pete’s New Haven Pizza for example. Today they are running a Groupon deal. It’s pretty modest, offering $5 for $10 worth of pizza and drinks, or $10 for $20 worth at their Arlington location. Only their Arlington location. Which is where this deal gets smart.

Pete’s placed the following restrictions on the deal so that they could drive foot traffic to their newest store (Arlington), while still offering a sort of early-bird deal for customers of their DC locations:

• $5 for $10 offered at all three locations.
• $10 for $20 only offered in Arlington.
• Maximum of 500 (+/-2) at the Columbia Heights and Frien-Ten locations.
• No maximum (or at least, not yet reached) at the Arlington location.

This fine-tuning of the daily deals model allows Pete’s to ensure that there’s more incentive for customers to go check out the Arlington restaurant, giving that specific store the revenue and momentum it needs to get off the ground. Given that Pete’s already does a great job at social media (@petes_newhaven), it’s nice to see that they seem to really “get” how to make daily deals work for them, too.

What do you think about the daily deals business? Is it getting too crowded? Anyone in particular doing anything innovative (have you seen GoFivo, for example)? Let me know.

• “Web sites let online lives outlast the dearly departed” – This one caught my eye just because I’ve heard of this before. It’s a unique form of “social” media (in the most indirect sense, I suppose) that uses technology to fulfill a role that was previously complex, often messy, and never enjoyable. This doesn’t necessarily make the process any easier emotionally for those losing loved ones, but it should make it easier in a logistical sense.
• “D.C. auto show gets higher profile this year” – This interests me just because I like cars. Also, it’ll be interesting to see how much media coverage this gets when it starts on Wednesday. Will it actually be as big of a deal as the Post says it will be, because of the auto bailouts? Or will it be mostly overlooked, as the D.C. auto show often is? I might try to go by on Saturday if I have time.
• “The Internet war” – This editorial lays out the situation right now between the U.S. and China re: Internet freedom. I think this is a great, great thing and I hope the Obama administration continues to pursue it heavily. The open nature of the Internet in the United States has, in my opinion, brought us closer to a full democracy (an almost unattainable concept, really) than anything in history. China is obviously not a democracy, but open Internet could be a step in the right direction for it’s still-repressed over 1.3 billion citizens.
• Horoscopes - I’ll be honest I’ve always gotten a kick out of horoscopes; I’m not really a believer, but they’re fun, anyway. Today’s print horoscope (for some reason they are different online, so no link for this one), seemed especially fitting for today: “You have so much work to do and no clue how you’re going to be able to accomplish it all. The answer is in using your support system. That’s what it’s there for, and loved ones will be eager to help.” Some context–today I ‘ve been to the Social Media Club DC breakfast, had five class (one block), one meeting with the AU Web Communications Manager, one meeting with a professor, written two blog entries, and I have an eco-sense meeting this evening. All while tweeting (naturally). But it’s been a fantastic day.

That’s all for now, folks.

The speakers included Geoff Livingston (on Twitter, @geoffliving), Alex Howard (on Twitter, @Digiphile), and Shashi Bellamkonda (on Twitter, @shashib). They had a lot of great things to say, and I even had the great opportunity to continue into a conversation with Geoff Livingston at our table after the speakers had all presented. Unfortunately, I had to jet a little early because of class, but here’s some of what I gleaned from the speakers.

Geoff Livingston had a simple message: “get mobile, get mobile now,” he said. Appropriate. I think most people in the social media and technology world are well aware now that mobile is certainly the next big revolution in communication and media tech. The iPhone and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have led the way to a more digital, more mobile, more connected life–24/7, wherever you are. He said that this next evolution in the industry is “your opportunity to be a visionary” and if you want to lead then “load up [your] reader” with every tech blog you can find. Thankfully, I’m well-covered on that front–Mashable is like the gospel for social media tech, and I must subscribe to at least 10 or 15 other big blogs, in addition to all the smaller, more personal format ones. There’s lots of info out there. Always learning.

Shashi Bellamkonda had much the same message–it’s all about mobile, it’s all about staying on top of trends, and it’s all about staying connected and active in the social media sphere. You can’t read about this and know it, you have to use it to know it.

Speaking of trends, Alex Howard rounded out the group and gave us a great list of what he thinks are the biggest trends coming for 2010. They are:

1. Search – traditional search engines being replaced by social media
2. Niche networks – using OAuth to log on, individual networks, platforms such as Ning
3. Privacy – much discussion on the “privacy is dead” controversy spoken by people like Pete Cashmore, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg; Howard disagrees, says there will be a big debate both in social realm and in congress this year
4. Social gaming – games like foursquare, “Farmville” on Facebook, etc. becoming huge players
5. Security - key: “STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER 6″
6. Open web - no more locked into platforms
7. App as the new Web site – quoted from Mathew Ingram, making mobile apps for revenue; es
   timated $7 billion in revenue
   for mobile apps in 2010
8. Geolocation – Twitter integrated geolocation, games like Foursquare, etc.
9. Online video – continuation of the growth seen since 2006, more mainstream content online, CNN streaming, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, Boxee; also, organizations like CNN and the White House using Facebook, YouTube as outlets for online video

And that about wraps it up. It was a great morning–I’m already looking forward to the next event!

Update: I’ve added Alex Howard’s presentation from the event to this post. It’s embedded below the jump, check it out, it’s pretty awesome! He uses Prezi, which has been one of my favorite tools since early last year.