|
|
« May 2007 |
Main
| July 2007 »
Last week, Kelly and I headed to Las Vegas for LT Pact 2007 - hosted by our client Layered Technologies. LT invited all of their clients, potential clients and vendors to learn more about LT and their offerings, as well as meet each other and do some networking. It was a great opportunity for us to not only learn more about LT, but to talk with their customers and spend some time learning more about the LT experience. Speakers and panelists included Andy Schroepfer of Tier1, Jonah Stein of Alchemist (who just may be the smartest guy ever!), and Matt Mullenweg of WordPress.
The most anticpated part of the event was the Texas Hold 'em Tournament on Friday night. Never playing any type of poker before, I was a bit hesitant to join in. But with $5,000 in cash prizes up for grabs, I was easily convinced to play. With about 75 players all way more serious than me, I was expecting to lose all of my chips pretty quickly...not make it to the final table of 10 two hours later and then place 7th! Definitely beginner's luck...
Thanks to LT for a great event...and for new bragging rights!
Can you believe it? The hotel heiress has finally been released from jail! Now all of America can again go back to getting their daily dose of the drama that surrounds her daily life. The only reason I bring this up is because some of the most unimportant events have taken over all aspects of the media. When Paris was taken to jail a few weeks back, even ESPN’s SportCenter ran live coverage. I haven’t checked in while, but I didn’t think that she was on the New York Yankees 40-man roster or has ever played a sport for that matter.
A forest fire rages on in California. The war in Iraq continues as we speak. And the Apple iPhone goes on sale this Friday. I can think of a million things more newsworthy than Paris’ release. It just amazes me every morning when I look through the day’s news how many things are irrelevant and unimportant. But I guess that’s just part of the brutal reality. The media feeds it to the public because the public craves it. The market will provide the good if the demand is present. Just as the economics law states, as demand goes up, so does price. I just wonder, what is the price we are paying for being so enthralled in celebrity gossip, CEO scandals, and the newly crowned world’s ugliest dog? Don’t get me wrong, I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t take a peek at the horrendous-looking pooch or pay attention to a little of the Hollywood buzz, but not to the point of obsession. I just worry where we will be in 5 or 10 years. Will it get to the point where breaking news will be on the bottom line of CNN, and celebrity gossip is in the hour exclusive with Larry King. Oh wait, that is tomorrow.
Our Relay leader & team development chair from Forum Credit Union
For the past couple of months, we’ve been really busy at BLASTmedia. Not only have we had several great new clients join us, but we’ve also been devoting a portion of our time to raising funds for the American Cancer Society. Katie and I had the great honor of leading BLAST as Relay for Life team co-captains. Relay for Life is an around-the-clock team event to raise money for cancer research—each team has a member walking around the track all night.
We were convinced to join the fight against cancer by our local Team Development chairperson who happens to work in our building—the Forum Credit Union headquarters. We had a great time coming up with fun ways to raise money, like strolling around the office building with a cart full of sugary goodies for sale and charging office building employees to play Cornhole at a Forum company picnic.
Not only did we have a great time working as a team, but we raised nearly $2,000 for the American Cancer Society! What are your favorite charity events?
Katie and Carey
Carey, Lindsey, Mendy and Chris
On Saturday, June 16th our very own Chris Lucas became a first time dad. Over the last nine months, Chris and his wife Liz have been keeping everyone up to date on their pregnancy blog, The Littlest Bop, and now they are pleased to announce the birth of their little boy, Harrison. Weighing in at just over 7lbs and 22 inches long, he made his overdue arrival just in time for Father’s Day.
A BIG congrats to Chris & Liz and we hope the whole family is doing well!
It looks pretty terrible for a hospital when someone dies slowly on the floor of their emergency room – while staff is standing around watching. Many were shocked and appalled when they tuned into Good Morning America and heard the story of Edith Rodriguez.
The woman was ignored by hospital staff even as she was bleeding internally and externally. This prompted a 911 call from her boyfriend who claimed that the staff was “just watching her.” In fact security cameras show a janitor cleaning the floor around where she lay.
Not surprisingly the public is in an outrage. We’re all thinking that she could have been our mom or sister. I have to wonder how the hospital staff will recover from this publicity, if they recover at all.
How should the hospital handle this crisis aside from replacing their emergency room staff?
Last weekend I had the opportunity to do something pretty cool. No, I didn’t participate in Bay To Breakers, instead I spent my weekend with 140 high school sophomores from around Indiana. I flew to Indianapolis to volunteer with HOBY Indiana from June 7 – 10 as a facilitator. I’ve been volunteering with HOBY for 10 years now and have loved every second of it. Over the past 10 years I’ve participated in at least one HOBY seminar a year and each one has taught me something new. For those of you that don’t know me, this organization has a pretty special place in my heart. So special in fact, that several of my coworkers have developed a pretty nifty nickname for me: HOBY Wan Kenobi. Seriously. First, allow me to explain HOBY.
HOBY Indiana is an affiliate of Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of “tomorrow's leaders” by reaching high school sophomores. HOBY Leadership Seminars bring together a select group of high school sophomores to interact with groups of distinguished leaders within the community to discuss present and future issues. In addition, HOBY leaders are also challenged to return to their communities to perform at least 100 hours of community service within 12 months of their seminar. The Indiana HOBY Seminar consists of four days of activities where students are able to interact with their peers as well as leaders from across the state in order to hone their critical thinking skills. Students participate in leadership exercises that challenge their thought processes in an environment that encourages and stimulates free thought and open communication. All expenses for the seminar are paid for through donations from corporations, foundations, service organizations and individuals. Over 6,000 Hoosier sophomores have participated in the seminar over the program’s 28-year history.
What continues to impress me year after year is the caliber of students that attend these seminars. You would think that after 10 years with HOBY and countless state and global seminars, that I would have seen it all and run out of lessons - that couldn’t be further from the truth. Just this last weekend I observed something with these kids that was a far cry from the spoiled celebutantes we see in the news. On a hot, muggy day in Indianapolis I saw these high school sophomores roll up their sleeves and pitch in to make a community park a better place. These students worked hard painting, landscaping and cleaning. I never heard one student complain and I never saw a student without a smile on their face. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a very long time. At the end of the seminar I asked a few students what the highlight of their time at HOBY was. I expected to hear many of them say the dance or perhaps the fact that the dorm let them eat ice cream for breakfast. You know what the most common answer was: the volunteer project.
One of my favorite quotes is: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” After meeting all of these students this weekend, I’m pretty sure we’re headed in the right direction.
I was a PR major at the University of Georgia, and writing was a big part of what we were taught and on what we were judged. While a large chunk of PR people were journalism/communication/PR majors, many were not. People I know in the industry were finance, history, sports marketing - you name it. So, a lot of us were never really judged on our writing skills since that wasn't a focus in our program.
Carey was actually asked to overnight press materials to an editor recently - pretty random since they had been communicating via email and it would make much more sense to simply email the info. It got me thinking just how much we rely on email for communication, forcing weak writers into a sticky situation. This is true across many industries, not just PR - but it's more expected that people in PR be strong writers. While we try to make sure that pitches and press releases see a few pairs of eyes before going out, we shoot emails to clients, editors and vendors all day using our own judgment. Perhaps the most difficult part of email is conveying tone - I receive so many emails that seem rude and condescending, but then I have to remind myself that this is an email, and that I can't take it for face value. Sometimes an exclamation point can make all the difference!
Unfortunately, our writing is judged based on ALL correspondence, which is why I've become the office writing freak. I get easily irritated by common mistakes, but I need to keep it in perspective. There are people at BLAST that could smoke me in small biz or financial speak - I just happen to be the resident writing nerd. Regardless, I urge everyone to read and re-read emails, because spell check doesn't catch everything. Trust me, I recently sent an email to an editor and wrote "shave" instead of "have" - the sentence took on a whole new (and embarrassing) context! I've also written an email to an editor named "Doug" and, unfortunately, "Dung" made it through spell check. Lucky for me, old Dung had a good sense of humor and we have a great relationship now. If you want a few good tips, check out this recent NY Times story.
What's your worst email typo?
Did you jump out of bed with a smile on your face knowing that you have to go to work today?
Last week we had the pleasure of visiting the office of DriveSavers, a new client, and I’m confident that all 85 of their employees feel this way! While at their office, we were met with several key members of the DriveSavers team and noticed genuine excitement, passion and desire to work as a team to get the job done. DriveSavers as a whole is a very well-oiled machine….from the call center (you always get a live person), shipping department, clean room, the engineers and the executive team -everything is SO efficient and everyone seems excited about what they do. It could be because they bring happiness to many people who think they’ve lost everything on their computer, iPod, digital camera, etc. due to a fire, flood or the dreaded dead screen. They are daily heroes and it really shows in their attitude at the office!
Do you love your job (or, hate it) let us know?
|
