Despite the media credentials I was granted, I somehow I managed to miss the Wine Bloggers Conference 08, hosted this October in Sonoma County’s Santa Rosa, California. No worries, the conference’s main attraction was video wine blogger and marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV.com with whom I recently had a chat for FineLife Sonoma Magazine.

Vaynerchuk makes some astute observations on the notion of personal-branding (which always sounds to me like some 1990s? body modification trend, after tattoos, piercing and scarification, but before amputation). The essential soundbites: “You are your own differentiator” and “Execute on your DNA” (to the untrained ear, this sounds less like marketing genius than eugenics-for-one, but trust me, it’s actionable advice).

Have a listen…

[audio:http://lumaville.com/podcast/DH-Pod-GaryVaynerchuk.mp3]

Tim Zahner of the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau (the gent who kindly dubbed me “Sonoma County Lifestyle Ambassador”), had FilmArt3 pop in for a quikie send-up Vaynerchuk’s schtick as part of a tribute dinner the SCTB hosted at the conference. The result is eerily compelling.