Market Her

A long break - but the Marketing Continued

2011-07-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

I realize it has been over a year since I blogged. It wasn't that I wasn't learning new things - it was that I was so busy doing marketing I wasn't writing about it. Many things have changed - we have now integrated communities into marketing so we can be better aligned on our messaging. I have a new marketing manager who is doing great things with our newsletter and collateral and is gearing up for her biggest challenge - our Grace Hopper Celebration. And we have gone international - so I am now looking at how we do pr in India.

So I will try to do better. I'm also goign to launch another blog on decluttering my life at 50 - many changes are taking place in my life personally and I'll be writing about them there.

Yellow Pages Arrived Today: The many marketing lessons I learned from the Yellow Pages.

2010-05-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

Not many of you know this but I started my career as the Yellow Page Marketing Analyst for Rochester Telephone way back in 1987. Now given that at the time I was completely clueless how the Yellow Pages were created it was a bit of a challenge, but it really was a learning experience that taught me a great deal about how to do marketing.

My first year my total responsibility was Marketing the Rochester Telephone Yellow Pages, at the time a 25 million dollar revenue stream for the company. I worked for a woman named Carol who was Assistant Director and was on a team with Mary (who did white pages) and our admin Gilda who was the only person who could actually type anything in our office since we all shared a single Wang Computer. Having come from Grad School where we all used Macs I was frankly stymied by the Wang, but I had to learn how to use it when it became clear that I needed to generate many reports. Imagine in those days it would sometimes take a week to do a single memo. Every word would be sweated over, my boss would have to approve it, and they would also be revised 5, 6, 7 or 8 times. It was a slower paced world. I even lived close enough to work to walk back and forth every day - arriving sharply at 9 and everyone leaving at 5.

From these women I learned many things:

- To be careful on the details - a typo changing $.50 to $.40 could mean the loss of 1000's of dollars in revenue and huge costs if contracts had to be reprinted because of it.
- That you shouldn't always listen to people when they critique your work - they may have been doing it wrong and you are getting it right - so stand up if you believe in something. I did a business case for a new product that was not only accepted (after being disparaged by one of my peers) but was held up to him as an example of how to write a business case.
- That being innovative and trying new things may not always make you money but it can save your business. We launched the talking yellow pages - one of the first in the country. It made us no money but it actually delayed another competitor from entering our marketspace.
- Take risks whenever possible. In later years I created a completely different kind of phone book cover in our Lancaster market with beautiful Amish quilts on the cover. It actually increased our phone book usage - ours was too pretty to put in a drawer.
- Never keep a vendor just because they've always been there - you can't let the cost of change factor into a decision - in the short run change can cost you money but in the long term it can completely change the game. Our VP taught us that when we made a proposal and had included those costs. It was really eye opening.
- Listen to the customer - if you don't address why they are unhappy you may lose them- something the vendor we let go of was slow to learn.

- I learned how to take care of your team by how they all treated me. When I broke my foot the three of them rallied around me. Mary drove me to and from work each day, Gilda helped me get my lunch from the cafeteria every day and Carol made it so I could work from home for the first two weeks when my foot was so swollen it had to be elevated above my head. On a side note - it even justified us getting the very first laptop ever seen at the company. I can show you the laptop - I saw it at the Tech Museum on exhibit - weighed about 50 lbs I think.

- I also learned something about assumptions. I learned that when setting up a meeting it would be good to brief the CEO on all the participants if you can so that the CEO won't assume the tall blond 20 something woman in the back wasn't the wife of one of the male executives but in fact the person doing the detailed financial analysis of their bid. The CEO of a multi billion dollar company actually asked me if my boss and I were going to enjoy going shopping while the men worked. I was a bit nonplussed but our VP said no Jerri and Carol need to stay since they are the ones making the decision. I'd never seen a man go pale quite so quickly before. I'm sure they all wondered if that played into their losing our account. I'll never tell.

All these memories came flooding back today as I brought in the new AT&T White and Yellow Pages. I was shocked at how thin the book has become. It has about 1/4 the listings the yellow pages had 11 years ago when I first moved here. Really sad. It's less than half the size of the first phone book I ever did. Yes I still have that phone book with me - it represents a lot of marketing lessons for me and I'll treasure it for ever.

One last great joke. My mom had called while I was working on the book and told me the phone book had arrived. I asked her if it was a talking yellow pages(meaning a book that had numbers in it that you could call for horoscopes and soap opera updates). There was a long pause then Mom said, "Well I threw it in the closet and it didn't say anything." And yes I LOL'd.

Women of Vision - the Aftermath

2010-05-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

So one of the major things after any event is the PR cleanup. And boy was there a lot of clean up last week. Let me start by saying Women of Vision was an enormous success. We had a record breaking number of attendees, all our speakers did a tremendous job and I had the great pleasure of being Arianna Huffington's handler throughout the event.

I was very glad that in a previous position I had the opportunity to work with celebrities so I was prepared for all the contingencies. Arianna was lovely to work with - well prepared, charming and so happy to help us with photographs, etc. Her speech was a crowd pleaser.

Our three winners were all amazing. I was a bit stunned that all three chose to wear red and black but it looks great in all the photos. Arianna had shared her talk's theme of embracing risk prior to the event and I'd notified the three winners. Each of them talked from her own perspective about embracing risk, and making a difference in the world.

Post event the work continued. I actually went home and did a final review of the newsletter we were issuing the next day since it was part of the launch of our Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award. I also fixed a few glitches along the way.

Then Thursday began the work with the press. We had 11 press people attend Women of Vision. The next day was spent working on our post event press release then issuing it to the 11 press people along with a picture of Arianna and the winners. The press release itself went out the following morning. The coverage has been amazing - San Jose Mercury News, Forbes, Silicon Valley Watcher all wrote about the event and more are still pending. We also posted the winners biographical videos on youtube so they could be linked to as well from the press release.

This week the work continues - I'll be editing the footage from the event and getting it back to our editors so we'll be able to launch the videos on Youtube in our next newsletter. I'm also waiting for the photos to come in so we can distribute them to the media as well as our sponsors, Arianna, the winners, etc. And of course we're tracking the coverage as it comes in.

I'd like to thank a few people who make my job possible - Megan McKenna from Total Media Group; Denise Nelson from Ventana Public Relations, Dang Le from Jungle Digital Printing and Alex Atkins from Alexander Atkins Design. These are the folks who make everything possible in doing the marketing for our events. I couldn't do it without them.

Countdown to Women of Vision - T-24

2010-05-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well here we are. It is 24 hours until the Anita Borg Women of Vision Awards. So what are the last minute things a marketing person does the day before a major event. Here's my list:

1. A flurry of emails and a confernce call with my PR person, Denise Nelson ofVentana Public Relations. Denise has done an amazing job - we have a dozen journalists from both print and online media attending the event. She did the reminders to the media and we finished our checklist. We also crafted our day after press release. So while the rest of our team takes a well deserved day off, the next day I'll be working with Denise to finish our press release and get our photos out to the news media. My day off will be Friday.

2. I finished our press kits yesterday - these are handouts for the media that include info on ABI, the press releases and information for them on how to get photographs of the winners and our keynote speaker after the event.

3. Loading the cars - we spent some time making sure everything on our checklist was packed up and the cars were loaded and went off to the Convention Center. I made sure the collateral box for our collateral table was fully stuffed and we also made sure the signs, awards and gifts all made it too.

4. Checked in with our printer - the delivery of our programs and new signs was confirmed for tomorrow morning at 10. The courier will be there and set up will commence.

5. Staff meeting this morning included an extended briefing on the event. I talked about our media presence and instructed our staff what to do if broadcast media appeared. You always want to be sure the soundbyte is given by someone who will have the most impact with the media whenever possible - the CEO, the Keynote, the award winners.

6. Made sure we are all systems go for uploading all the WOV videos I created with Total Media Group are ready to go up on Facebook on Thursday morning. Everything is all set up in my computer.

7. Made sure we were all set with our big announcement for Thursday morning. You'll have to check out our website then for more info.

8. Finished working with our AV folks on our slides for the event - only 7 but we had to make sure they looked good on the big screen.

Heading home to get a good night's sleep. Stay tuned for the followup on Thursday. I'll publish some links then.

Creating the Women of Vision Videos

2010-04-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

We're on Day 6 of our Women of Vision Video creation. By Day 6 I mean that this is the 6th dayI have spent sitting in a small editing studio in South San Francisco with the video editor. The editor and our producer have actually spent even more time doing this since in between they implement all the changes, adjust the soundtrack, etc. And I spent my time interviewing winners, writing scripts, getting approvals and gathering photos from our winners.

So why do I love making videos? There is something about literally having nothing and creating a fully rendered piece that will be shown to an audience that I find thrilling. It's also a little anxiety inducing since you have so many different people in the audience: the winner, her family members, members of her organization, my co-workers and the general audience members. And there are high expectations of the videos - that they will inspire the students to go on to amazing technical careers, that it will refresh and inspire the women in the audience to pursue their technical careers; that the men in the audience will be reminded once again how valuable the women's contributions are to technology and that the family and that they will please the winner.

With the creation of the videos themselves - it's all about the details. As those who know me are aware - I'm all about the details. We are constantly making edits to the video script to make the words flow with the photographs we use. We endlessly debate what photos to incorporate and hunt for disconnects between the text and the image. And occasionally we put in a photo that doesn't fit but is needed to help tell the story when the words do not. And we call the winners when we have doubts about how names and places are pronounced. And we're always looking for ways to enhance the visual image. I've posted on facebook about our challenges with some of the Universities who have not been responsive to our requests for logos and photographs. I find myself stymied when that happens since in this case - all the publicity is good.

The videos will be up on Youtube after the event in May. I'll post links then so you can see them. Back to editing.

Sympathy Letter to a Celebrity Flack

2010-04-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Celebrity PR Flack;

I wanted to extend my great sympathies to you in this time of great turmoil. The endless spewing of celebrity scandal has certainly made life difficult for all the PR people in the celebrity world. My sympathy goes out to both the reps of the good and the twisted.

To those who do PR for the good, the celebrities who have stable loving faithful marriages who are perhaps just trying to promote a new movie or tv show, I sympathize with your struggles. Read the cover of any and all celebrity magazines and all you see is Sandra and Jesse or Elin and Tiger. Two People magazines in a row featured such similar photos of Sandra that I thought I'd been sent the same magazine twice. Pity the poor PR person who is out representing someone who is organizing a big fundraiser. You have to compete with the celebrity mistresses of the world - whose PR people are doing an excellent job of parlaying their scandals into fortunes by the way. And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse Larry King and Tiki Barber jumped into the mix. While certainly not worthy of A-list caliber coverage they are sucking up all the B roll time on E and Entertainment Tonight. All I can say is keep on trying, eventually you'll catch a break. Perhaps they'll all end up in rehab together so they can be covered in a single story and you can catch a break with your pitch on whatever sequel your client is starring in this summer.

To the PR flacks of the twisted, my goodness you do have your hands full. It's hard to imagine what life must be like when your client is caught then keeps trying to lie to cover the truth. Hard to believe that one of the worst cheaters, David Letterman, is actually doing quite well. He cheated for years, with his employees no less, yet because he told the truth and took his lumps he's doing just fine. Seems he got good PR advice and actually listened and implemented it. And he didn't even have to go to rehab. Not like Jesse James who seems very upset about his marriage being destroyed but unaware that he is the one who is responsible for the whole mess. Run Sandra Run.

The saddest thing of all is that you know more scandals are coming. The PR folks can't stop it because of course they are being kept in the dark. I can virtually guarantee that none of the celebs are saying to their PR person - you know I think I'm going to cheat on my wife this week. And even if they did, none of them would listen when the PR person tries to point out that nobody gets away with that behavior these days.

Nope, the PR people find out months later - usually about 10 minutes before the story breaks. Then they scramble to help their client weather the storm as best they can, knowing that most of the time the client will ignore their advice anyway. Celebs pay 1000's of dollars to experts that they then ignore. It's sad really.

So good luck all you celebrity PR folks. Maybe George Clooney will change girlfriends again and take the heat off everyone.

No Limits on what women can achieve.

2010-03-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know this but I was a Biology major in college and worked as a research biochemist for two years afterward. The significance of this was brought home to me today when a friend (and fellow alum of Mount Holyoke College) forwarded me this link of letters to the editor in the New York Times . President Joanne Creighton of Mount Holyoke talks about why women's colleges turn out so many scientists. She writes that the keys to success are having role models, a lack of gender stereotyping and a hospitable institutional culture that sets no limits on what women can achieve.

I firmly agree with this. I was lucky enough growing up that my sister had gone to Mount Holyoke before me and that I had a women biology teacher in high school who believed in me. When I got to my junior year in high school the long time guidance counselor had retired and they hired a new guy who had zero experience. I went in to talk to him about my college plans - I intended to apply to Mount Holyoke early decision, major in biology and become a doctor. He told me that he thought it was a mistake, even with a 4.0 average, that I really should limit myself to local colleges so I could live at home. ACK. Not even an option. Then he suggested I go to a teachers college in Mississippi because really that's what women should be doing - teaching.

While I think teaching is a wonderful profession, at the time I had zero interest in that and I couldn't figure out why he wasn't listening to what I wanted to do. The fact that he had so stereotyped women into a single role was horrifying to me. Without my sister and teacher as role models I could very easily have listened to that guidance counselor (who yes I think was an incompetent fool) and my life would have been very different. He was creating an institutional culture that very much set limits on what a woman could achieve.

Mount Holyoke was a revelation, women ran everything - including the college itself. Role models were everywhere and there were never any limits set. I knew women who were training for the Olympics while studying economics, a woman who was a german/econ/dance major; and one who's goal was to work in Antarctica (and she did). The professors were fabulous - encouraging, supportive and who created opportunities for me to try new things. Because I saw so many women working in biology, I chose to work after graduation for a few years to decide where I wanted to go next.

My work led me to change directions and get an MBA in Marketing but I never doubted I could do it because that's what Mount Holyoke taught me - No limits.

This is why I am so passionate about the work of the organization I am in today. We all know that there are no limits on what women can achieve and we also know that we need to be telling this to our daughters, granddaughters, nieces and any young women we enounter. So just a reminder - tell a girl, young woman today that there are no limits.

Research - A Visibility Plan

2010-03-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Part of my job at the Anita Borg Institute is to work with Caroline Simard, our VP of Research and Executive Programs to package and release the research that she does. We published our newest research this week: Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success. So what role does marketing play in this process? It all started last year when we were setting our annual goals. We had identified two potential studies to put out this year. Once we had decided a general timeframe I started contemplating how we could promote this specific research paper.

First among the considerations is what is the content and how do we want to attract the attention of the news media? For this particular research I decided that instead of just the standard single press release we would actually publish two. The first described the research and some of its general findings. The second is a list of the Top Six Attributes of High Ranking Technical Women. Someone asked me why two releases. My answer was simple - the media really do like publishing lists. People in general love lists - hence the success of David Letterman's Top 10 list, The lists of Oscar nominees, and many magazines have a list of some sort featured on the cover. Our attributes list was perfect - the attributes are listed in the reseach and they have statistical data to back them up.

Doing the two press releases give the media options - they can pursue the more indepth findings of the research or if they want something that's very accessible they could publish the list.

Once we had the plan in place we had to finish off the research. From Marketing this means working with our graphic designer to create a cover that fits in with both the theme of the paper and also fits in with our general look and feel. We wanted to convey the concept of women on top. We found a number of silhouettes of people on a mountain top but they were all attired (or not attired) appropriately. So we had Alex use on of the visuals but modify it so it fit in with our overall desired outcome.

Throughout the entire process there is proofreading, at least a dozen rounds. The major challenge is that sometimes you do one fix and create a new problem elsewhere.

Once that was finished we counted down to launch. We did a media embargo with our PR firm, the fabulous Ventana Public Relations, who took our list of target media and for the 10 days before launch actively promoted the research. They did a great job and we did press briefings last week so reporters could write articles and publish them the day the research went public. We also responded to press requests this week from people who wanted to write about research post publication.

We have received a great deal of coverage - people really responded to both the research and the attributes. The media coverage includes Network World, Forbes, Businessweek, and San Jose Mercury News. I'm including a link to the Mercury News Article as an example of our coverage.

So what are our next steps? Well, we're still waiting to see if some of the interviews/briefings we did will become articles. I won't publish those names until we know. Caroline will continue blogging on her Fast Company Blog about the research. And I've signed up to write articles from some websites I know on the research. Stay tuned...

A week of great advice

2010-03-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

Last week was unique for me- I actually attended 3 different non ABI events during the week. The first was on Wednesday night. I went to the Women of Color Action Network meeting that we co-sponsored in our building here at HP. The women who presented were amazing. The lead presenter from Catalyst presented on their new study Unwritten Rules: What you don't know can hurt your career. Be sure to go to their website and download the study- it's a great read on all the things that you need to be aware of in your company and includes a great list of rules for advancement.

The next night I went with Rachelle to see Arianna Huffington speak at the Churchill Club, hosted by Microsoft. This was a very political talk, she was interviewed by a media person who asked questions about what's going on with the government, etc. Arianna was brilliant. I am so excited to hear her speak in May at the Women of Vision awards where her keynote will be tailored towards women. Her talk last week also addressed how she was able to very quickly build the Huffington post into a recognizable brand that clearly competes with traditional media. Some great quotes (and I may be slightly paraphrasing):

Self Expression is the New entertainment (this refers to all the blogging, tweeting, etc that everyone is doing).
The president needs to remember to encourage people to be part of the solution to the economic crisis.
"People with accents need to stick together"
Must remember Opportunity Cost (something I think of constantly from my grad school days) What we do, forgoes something else.

Saturday I spent the day at SWE's regional conference. I got to speak to an audience of about 45 on our research. I attended several sessions including one on finding a job that had a ton of great ideas come out of it. I'll share some of those in future blogs.

All in all a hectic and busy week last week but one that introduced me to a wide array of terrific women.

Movie Review: Valentine's Day

2010-02-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

It is not often I completely disregard every movie review and go see a movie anyway. But I was in the need this weekend for a light and fluffy movie so I emailed my friend and off we went to see Valentine's Day. Now I did want to say that we did agree to go to the Camera 7 theatre's because they recently announced that if you show a San Jose Library card you get a $3 discount off your movie tickets. So the three of us went off to the movies feeling good that we'd already gotten a discount.

Valentine's Day the movie is pure fluff. The interconnected stories of a wide array of pretty people are presented. Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts meet on a plane; Jennifer Garner(a teacher) and Aston Kutcher(a florist) are best friends each involved in relationships with other people. A small boy is intent on getting his gift of flowers to a special someone. And dozens of others.

I am not sure if any other movie in years has had this many underutilized Oscar winners. Jamie Foxx as a cranky sportcaster forced to report on V-Day; Shirley Maclaine as an ex movie star grandmother; Julia Roberts, a soldier coming home from Iraq; and Kathy Bates in a blink and you'll miss her minor part as a news show producer.

However, the movie did make me smile throughout - Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift are perfectly adorable as the embodiment of airheaded teens in love; Eric Dane really should spend all movies just wrapped in a towel; pink, red and white flowers really do make pretty arrangements. And the ending did have two really great twists that Marina and I failed to see coming. One twist in fact elicited a shout from the guy behind us that just cracked us up.

So if you want a light fluffy movie that is almost impossible to describe go see Valentine's Day. Going in with low expectations would be a good thing.

2009: My Year in Books

2010-02-21T15:19:00.001-08:00

I've been contemplating writing this blog ever since New Year's Day, but perhaps even as far back as Jan 1, 2009. I do love making resolutions every New Year, but I've tried to learn to parse them out as shorter term goals. The only year long resolution I made in 2009 was to write down every book I read. I knew I was reading a lot of books during the year but I had a habit of forgetting what I had read so I wanted to find a way to capture them. I did create just 2 rules for myself:

I could only write down books I read cover to cover - no writing down books that I punted on. Did this change my reading habits? Yes, I found I punted on books I was not enjoying much earlier. I also found that I had a habit of putting books aside and going back to them months later. I stopped doing that - if I got half way I would finish the book so I could add it to the list.
I had to write down all the books - that included the periodic trashy romance novels that I indulge in as mind candy. It also included all the books that I revisit every year. These include some of the novels of Louisa May Alcott - one of my all time favorite authors, Stephen King's The Stand (the original not his revised unabridged version); and some Emma Lathen mystery novels (if Wall Street was still in the hands of her characters my how different things would be) and the Amanda Cross mysteries - her James Joyce Murders is read almost every year at the start of the summer. I recommend all these books to everyone.

I sat down this morning, a somewhat dreary rainy day, and flipped through the small Moleskin calendar book that I had tracked my reading in and pulled out some of my favorites from the 222 books that I read last year. I realized as I read the list that I had a lot of trends in my reading - So hear are some of my top books and reading trends in 2009):

1. All things Vampire. I will be honest - I have always enjoyed a good scary story - I've been reading Stephen King since high school. The first of his books I read was Salem's Lot. It was a lovely scary book, and one I enjoy rereading even today. In 2009 I have discovered I read a lot of vampire novel series. Most are humorous takes on vampires though they all contain some great action. I've been a fan of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books (Dead and Gone)- the source material for the True Blood series on HBO - for a long time. I got to meet Charlaine in person when I lived in Texas and I enjoy her deft mixture of comedy and horror. I read not only her books but the books in the vampire series of Michelle Bardsley(Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home), Mary Janice Davidson(Undead and Unworthy, Dead over Heels) and finally I read the Twilight series. I resisted the Twilight books until this year when my co-worker Kim convinced me that I should take a shot at them. I wasn't impressed but I will admit the books were readable and a bit like chips - you read one and you had to read them all. And yes, I confess - I'm team Jacob.

2. Travel Memoirs - I developed a fondness this year for travel memoirs. The one that started me on these was Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The one that made me laugh the most was Honeymoon with my Brother by Franz Wisner. Both are great reads with terrific characters and wonderful scenery.

3. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen. I read 3 Cups of Tea with my book group, perhaps a bit later than many others. I adored it. Greg Mortensen is an inspiration as he tells his story of building schools in the mountains of Pakistan and how he overcame incredible odds. I was lucky enough to close out 2009 by seeing him speak in December at Foothill College. He retold the story of the book and from the first schools in his book his impact has grown as he has built 70 schools now. I think that everyone who works for a non profit should read his book and recognize the incredible impact an individual with a vision can have on making the world a better place to live.

4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. This novel is a moving story of what takes place during and after the World War II Nazi occupation of the island of Guernsey. I loved this book so much I gave it to several friends and family members as a holiday gift. I recommend it for anyone who loves a great read. My thanks to Deanna for lending it to me.

5. Cozy Mysteries - I am a long time mystery reader - from Nancy Drew on. The cozy mystery genre is engages me because often the characters are working in an interesting field in addition to solving a mystery. They all have the Jessica Fletcher problem - if I wasn't a police officer and that many people were dying around me there should definitely be concerns about whether I was a serial killer or not. Several of the series writers I continue to enjoy were Laura Childs (Eggs in Purgatory, Tragic Magic); Donna Andrews (Swan for the Money); & Maggie Barbieri (Murder 101).

6. Knitting Mysteries and Novels - yes, I love to knit. And I've found a number of authors who blend in their love of knitting into their novels. I find the murder mysteries especially entertaining that have knitting wrapped in - amazing how many people will confess over a skein of fine yarn. Some of the my favorite knitting series in 2009 were - Meggie Sefton (Dyer Consequences, Dropped Dead Stitch) & Monica Ferris (Thai Silk). Great knitting books included Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street Series; Ann Hood (The Knitting Circle) and Gil McNeil (Beach Street Knitting). I've tried a crocheting novel or two but they aren't among my favorites.

7. Michael Connelley - if you like a great serial killer story there is no one better than Michael Connelley. I especially love reading his books on airplanes - don't ask me why but a whole plane ride can pass and I won't even notice when I'm reading his books. I read The Poet, City of Bones, Lost Light, The Narrows in 2009.

8. Robert Parker - I must admit my heart broke when I learned that Robert Parker had passed away this year. I have been a fan of his from the very beginning. I read all three of his series - Sunny Randall, Jessie Stone and the amazing Spencer series. Robert Parker's writing is clear, and direct, his stories compelling and his heros flawed but stalwart. I understand there are three yet to be published Robert Parker books, I cannot wait to read them but will miss him greatly. The books I read in 2009 included Night and Day; Stranger in Paradies

9. Jane Haddam Living Witness - The Gregor Demarkian mysteries deliver an entertaining mix of serial killer, neighborhood folksy charm and Catholic church politics in ways that never fail to entertain.

10. Henning Mankell - I adored all the books in Henning Mankell's terrific series of Swedish Kurt Wallender books. I was lucky to read his book of short stories on Kurt Wallender as well as his non series book Italian Shoes. If you want a great series read start the Kurt Wallender series from the very beginning.

11. Cooking Memoirs - I started by reading Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone Memoir then Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. But my favorite this year was Julia Child's My Life in France. While I loved the movie Julie and Julia, the book is even better. Julia Robert's celebration of food and her incredible life in France makes for great reading. Bon Appetit.

12. For Kids - my friend Caroline recommended to me the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson books. I read the first two books in the series and heartily recommend them all for children and adults alike- The Lightning Thief & The Sea of Monsters. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series sometime this year.

13. Not a Genuine Blackman, Brian Copeland - the Silicon Valley Reads book for 2009 was terrific. I was lucky enough to get to see Brian Copeland speak twice last year. His story of growing up in San Leandro and what happened to him and his family is both laugh out loud funny and heartbreaking. I love being in a place where great books and authors are

14. Under the Dome - Stephen King - the last book of 2009. I think the book was a bit too long but it was an engrossing read. Very much like the Stand - the very best and worst of human nature is brought out by an unimagineable horror.

15. A few extra treats. If you like novels with big scary sharks go for the Steve Alten Meg Series. Meg: Hell's Aquarium is a treat. Seriously after 4 books you think people would learn to stay out of the water. Fire and Ice by JA Jance - a mixture of her two great series - JP Beaumont and Joanne Brady. The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn is an entertaining read about the competitive world of New York Private School Admissions. All things by Bill Bryson (The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid). The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - a truly great read and a book that was recommended to me by my friend Ellen.

So that's it - some of the most enjoyable books I read in 2009. As I keep flipping through the book I keep finding more and more books to recommend but these give you a good start. And yes, I have another small Calendar book that I'm recording all my books in again this year.

Movie Review: The Wolfman

2010-02-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, I'm finding what was normally a slow time for ABI has sped up quite a bit. I did get to take time out this weekend to go to the movies and Mike and I chose our Valentine's Day Movie to be the Wolfman. Now you might think this isn't a romantic choice but since I tend to be jumpy in horror movies it did lead to quite a bit of handholding throughout.

If you saw the original Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr then the story of this movie is all too familiar. Lawrence Talbot returns from America to the foggy moors of England to visit his estranged father. In this case he has returned to determine what happened to his missing brother. Soon he is bitten by a creature and all sorts of mayhem ensues. In this case Lawrence is played by Benecio Del Toro and his father by Anthony Hopkins. His brother's fiancee is played by Emily Blunt.

So did this movie make me jump - yes definitely. But then someone popping into my cube unexpectedly can make me jump. Did they update the movie - definitely yes. There is a whole new psychological element that is explored. And an asylum scene thrown in for good measure.

But there are some questions that haunt me. Who decided that it would be a good idea to have someone who's native language is Spanish play an Englishman who's lived for years in the US. I came to realize that the scenes where Lawrence Talbot speaks he seems depressed and speaks slowly - or is it just Benecio trying to remember how to say his lines with the right accent? And Anthony Hopkins is great but there are a lot of questions about his character's motivations that go unanswered. I can't say more without ruining the suspense but seriously we had questions about his gneral motivations. And Hugo Weaving is great as the Scotland Yard Inspector who comes down to investigate the murders. There is a great throwaway line about his involvement with the Jack the Ripper investigation and Lawrence Talbot but it is never followed up on or developed. A little more info would help.

I loved the original Wolfman - Saturday night creature feature or the Channel 9 4:00 movies back in New Jersey in the 60's made for scary fun. Lon Chaney Jr. had a great tortured face and you truly felt for his pain. Benecio - not so much. I say wait and rent the Wolfman on Halloween night.

Ten Tips for Building a Winning Resume

2010-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

I had dinner with a friend last night who's resume I've done some editing. I was thrilled to hear she has an interview coming up. After we ate we sat down with her resume one more time and also worked on her cover letter. Since it's been a while since we've talked job hunting I thought I'd do ten new tips for resume building based on resumes I've been editing and resumes I've reviewed for positions we've been filling:

1. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Typos in resumes may be overlooked by some managers but if you get someone like me who does a lot of editing for a living your resume may be eliminated for typos.

2. Do not use yellow highlights in your resume. They are visually distracting and frankly somewhat annoying to read. To quote one of my co-workers - "that resume is already making me crazy, I don't even want to meet the person"

3. Stick to two pages but don't use tiny font to make it fit. Stick with at least 11 point font so it's easy to read.

4. Do include a brief summary at the top defining who you are - think of it as your 30 second elevator pitch on paper. Who are you and what is your expertise.

5. Do include both your email address and telephone number on your resume and make sure that whoever is answering that phone is answering it in a courteous and professional manner.
Make it easy for a recruiter to reach you.

6. If you are applying to a company that offers a free email service be sure to have an email address from that service - applying to Google - use a gmail account; applying to Yahoo - use a yahoo account.

7. Don't include every detail of everything you've ever done. Finding the balance between too much and not enough information can be tricky so keep working at it. Don't use 10 words when 2 will suffice.

8. Have at least 3 other people read your resume - make sure they will give you honest feedback on what you are saying. And have them identify typos.

9. When you include the time period you worked somewhere just use the year - months just add unnecessary words and make the page appear more cluttered. 2002- 2007 is just fine.

10. Unless you are still in High School - don't include your High School on your resume.

More tips to come.

The 80's Brunch

2010-01-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got to play hostess to the Mount Holyoke College Club of the Peninsula's 80's brunch. These decade brunches began a few years ago and the 80's had never done one. I worked on the plan with Betty Cheng and in December we put it into motion. We selected a restaurant in Palo Alto - Nola. Then sent an e-vite to everyone who graduated between 1980 and 1889. The event was well received and on Thursday we had 12 yes's and 2 maybes. A very good turn out for 55 invitations (the overall club has around 430 members from Daly City to Fresno). When I called Nola on Thursday night for our reservations the very nice woman took the reservation and we hung up. She called back 10 minutes later to tell me that Nola no longer serves lunch - Not a good moment. Thankfully e-vite let me send notices to everyone invited with our new location at Il Forniao in Palo Alto (excellent excellent waffles - I highly recommend them) and we ended up with 8 attendees.

We all had a blast. The group talked for two hours on a wide range of topics and the info was fascinating. Of the 8, five had children, 3 did not. Only one of us was still doing what she had majored in during college and she had created her own major at Mount Holyoke. One had gone back to school in her 40's and just graduated with a law degree. Several of us, myself included, had ended up in marketing. 3 are in high tech and were interested in learning more about what my institute does. Everyone shared their stories on the challenges of work life balance. Perhaps most fascinating was the social media discussion. 5 of the 8 had facebook accounts and used it actively, 3 did not. Some had twitter accounts but most never posted on them or paid attention to what was going on.

So what did I come away from this event with? I have a feeling of great satisfaction at being able to connect with these women. I reconnected with an old friend who had drifted away because of her long commute and my crazy travel schedule a few years ago. We discovered that I don't travel much and her commute is now 3 minutes so dinner is on the to do list for us. I hope I made some new friends. And we've all agreed to do this again later this year.

That leads me to my marketing learning. Everyone was very interested in doing this again but most felt strongly in doing it locally. And the term local has a different meaning to each person. One person shared she would not have gone if we'd done it in San Jose - yet I had come from San Jose with no problem - it's a quick 20 minute drive on a Sunday. Others suggested doing something jointly with the San Francisco club tu others said they'd no desire to drive to SF. Some thought San Mateo might be a good in between place. All in all it showed me that doing the decades brunch is a great idea but to be inclusive we'll need to think very carefully about location. I also recognized that women in their 40's were very willing to engage in more group activities with their peers than many had been in their 30's. Children consumed their weekends in their 30's but now that the kids are older they felt they could take some time for themselves.

So yes, we'll be doing the 80's brunch again this year and I'll be giving the location a lot of thought.

The Recession Must Be Over Because Costco Doesn't Want My Business

2010-01-16T21:49:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true. The Recession must be over. There is no other way to explain the negative customer service experience Marina and I had today. Now, you must understand that Marina and I love to shop at Costco. I go with her every other month or so and buy a few bulk items. I should also admit up front I am not a Costco member.

Today, we found that a new sheriff has come to Costco. We were on line when wonder of wonders, a new line opened. We were first. High fives all around. There was someone besides the clerk at the counter and he started unloading our things and we asked him to hold on because we needed to pay separately and he told us that was against the rules. We were shocked. Why was it against the rules? He told us that we weren't allowed to do two separate purchases . We explained that we'd been doing it this way for years, and he told us that it was a corporate edict - he insisted that I had to buy my own membership.

At that point we began to get a little freaked. So I said no, I wasn't interested in buying a membership that day. Now, Marina and I are not easily intimidated, but this guy was acting very aggressively and was, in fact, a little scary. Very quickly, I was ready to punt - two hours in the store wasted but I wasn't about to let a bully force me to buy a membership. I found myself thinking - heck I'll just get go to Smart and Final. Then he said, if you do it I'll give you a pizza. I told him I didn't want a pizza right then. Then he said he'd give Marina a pizza too. Were we on some surreal version of Let's Make a Deal? No one needs a $60 pizza. He finally left us alone with a warning that this was a strict new policy - no more using Marina's Costco card. I told him I wouldn't return and his basic response was that was fine with him.

So that's how I know the recession is over. Perhaps its not all Costco's fault. Perhaps we just got one manager who decided that forcing people to get memberships is his mission. I understand that all companies have policies - we discovered tonight online the Costco policy is that only cardholders can actually pay, but it hadn't been enforce in the past and customers are allowed to bring in guests. Too bad he didn't try being polite and suggesting that we just let Marina pay, I could simply have repaid her. Instead he tried intimidation, browbeating, and ultimately bribery to force a membership sale.

Now, Marina and I just love our Costco runs too much to give them up. However we have vowed not to return to that Costco, we will just have to satsify ourselves at one of the other Bay Area Costcos. I'm still not buying a membership, we're happy to follow the rules. In the future Marina will now pay and I'll pay her back and his store will lose our business. The moral of this story is you can enforce company policy without being threatening. You always should remember that customers do have other options.

A Day in the Marketing Life

2010-01-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

I realized today that it had been a while since I'd actually blogged about Marketing. Not cool. So I decided to keep track of what I did today. First of all today was ABI's traditional work at home day. We all try and telecommute on Wednesdays - we don't schedule our company meetings though many of us do outside meetings and phone calls on Wednesdays. Whenever I have a video to edit I schedule it for Wednesdays. So when working at home I will admit - I split my time between my home office and my livingroom or deck.

Today started out with a breakfast with Jo Miller, who is the monthly columnist for the ABI newsletter. Her column is must read for every woman in business who is looking to advance. Jo's going to be moving in a few months and I wanted to be sure we had a strategy so the column was covered during the move and that Jo felt comfortable with the plan. We'll be having some guest columnists cover while she's away which makes us both feel good.

After the meeting I came home and hit the phones. I did calls with several co-workers and finished negotiations on a co-marketing agreement. The co-worker calls moved forward several projects and helped me update my to do list for the coming weeks - I have a naming/branding project; a schedule update for a research project launch; a new speaking engagement to record in my tracking materials and a reporter to followup with.

I also spent the morning doing some pitches to reporters. I subscribe to a service where 3 times a day I see a listing of what reporters are writing about and are looking for contributions. The requests range from ideas for gifts (don't laugh - we got included in an article on conference gift bags) to casting calls for reality shows (they never seem to want 40 something women marketers for reality tv). Today I did a pitch for including our research in an article on work/life balance and an article on what people should do after a job interview. Yesterday, in fact, one of my pitches worked and I completed an interview on tips for launching a newsletter. Pitching takes a little time but the investment is worth it - it can result in an article on the organization or at the very least it creates awareness of the Institute at various organizations.

This afternoon I worked on a variety of projects. We finished the postcard for promoting our upcoming Women of Vision Awards (if you want some to give out at your company drop me a line). Alex, our designer, and I also worked on two projects - the new GHC powerpoint template and a redesign of our newsletter Partners visual. I emailed with the artist who does the GHC covers on a new project to make sure it was moving forward. I worked on research for a new press release; edited documents for co-workers; worked with our webmaster on a problem on the site: worked on editing a piece of collateral for updating; selected quotes from our GHC research to use in the collateral; designed a form and worked on updating my 2010 goals to get ready for a meeting tomorrow.

Looking at this list, I realized the thing they never taught in business school - that marketing is all about being able to multitask and move things ahead. It feels great when a project is completed, but you always know you have to move on to the next project quickly. So a course on juggling would not be a bad thing to include in B-School curriculums.

Movie Review: Did you hear about the Morgans?

2010-01-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind - I've seen 8 movies in the last two weeks and only done 2 reviews. But I'll try and be a bit faster and get though the other 6 in the next few days. The first of these is Did You Hear About the Morgans - a very light comedy with Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant. The basic premise is separated New York City couple witness a murder and are sent into the witness protection program in Ray, Wyoming. There is nothing in this movie that is at all surprising. Hugh Grant is cute and charming, SJP is a little bit too shrill as the wife who's very angry that her husband cheated on her. He spends the movie wooing her, adopting to country life and being deathly afraid of bears.

Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen play the country Marshall and his wife who are protecting the Morgans. Though for people who are supposed to be protecting they spend an awful lot of time leaving our couple on their own and unprotected.

Is it worth the price? For a matinee probably, especially if you are a fan of Hugh Grant and miss the days when he made films like 4 Weddings and a Funeral. The ending was satisfying if a little predictable. All in all, wait for this to be out on Netflix - which shouldn't be too long. Or wait for Sex and the City 2 when SJP will be in all her Carrie Bradshaw splendor.

Movie Review: It's Complicated

2010-01-02T10:42:00.001-08:00

I have seen a lot of movies in the last two weeks and one of my favorites is It's Complicated. The story is very simple - divorced couple are reunited at the graduation of their youngest son, have a fling and hilarity ensues. And the movie is hilarious. Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep are the couple and are beautifully matched. Alec Baldwin has just the right amount of lawyer sleaziness that the audience never truly trusts him, and neither does Meryl. Her character is also being cautiously courted by her architect, Steve Martin.

I highly recommend this movie. It is definitely a chick flick - I saw it twice - first with my friend and her mom and then again on New Year's eve with my friends. We all laughed at the jokes, and sighed enviously at Meryl Streep's gorgeous house, bakery and vegetable garden. The woman seriously has the life we all dream about. As my one friend said, Did you see the size of those cabbages? And we all sighed in agreement. This type of movie is occasionally called food porn and justifiably so, the chocolate croissant baking scene was positively erotic, and all the food gleamed and glistened to the point that after the movie we were all starving.

So go see It's Complicated - take your friends, take your mom and just go. Then plan to eat someplace fabulous afterwards.

Movie Review: Avatar

2009-12-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

Thought I would squeeze in a movie review before dinner. Avatar is an amazing film. We were lucky enough to see it in IMAX and 3-D together. This created the most amazing visual experience I have ever had in a theatre. I strongly recommend you see this movie in 3D at least and Imax if you possibly can.

The basic story is very simple - on a distant moon, Pandora, a corporation is attempting to mine a valuable mineral (20 million dollars a kilogram). A crew has just arrived, including ex-Marine and now paralyzed Jake Sully. Jake is going to be working with the native tribe the Na'vi while inhabiting the body of an Avatar. The Avatar's are necessary because the humans cannot breathe the air on the planet. Jake adapts to his avatar incredibly well and he soon meets the leader of the Na'vi's daughter who teaches him the ways of her people. I won't tell you much more, anyone who has seen the trailer knows that things eventually do go wrong.

The story is great, and the digital effects are fantastic. You come out of the movie exhausted - the 3D effects are so real you feel that you've been running, jumping, and flying through the movie yourself. James Cameron has re-invented the way people will be experiencing movies. Sigourney Weaver is a wonderful addition to the cast - she has added yet another strong woman character to her repetoire and I loved seeing her in this movie.

So do go see Avatar. A great way to ring in the new year.

The Last Book - A tale of a digital Christmas

2009-12-29T18:04:00.001-08:00

This year's holiday season has been a little different for me - I seemed to be inundated with new technology. Most years I get books, calendars, bath stuff. This year was a little different. Because Mike and I got lost on our way to a comedy show in Redwood City (we ended up in the Port of Redwood City and were saved by his iPhone) we gifted each other with GPS systems - yes I now have a Garmin. Gone are the days when I will have to sit with a list of addresses in front of my computer printing out directions from Mapquest. Finding my way to Holiday fairs just won't be the same.

My cousin Chris also gifted me with a very special gift. Chris works for Sprint and he added me to his Family and Friends account for my personal phone - I now have a phone that costs about 1/4 of what my old phone did every month - but even better it is a Samsung Android Phone. So while I traveled this holiday I didn't have to carry a computer with me at all - I could check both my work and home emails from my phone. I haven't started downloading apps yet but it is on my to do list. My packing for Christmas got a little lighter - no need to bring a laptop.

My final gift leads me to the title of this post - the Last Book. As many of you know I am a voracious reader. My home office is filled with a desk, two chairs and nine bookcases heaped with books. And they aren't the only bookcases in my house - most rooms have at least one or two bookcases in them. I have always loved books and I really love reading on airplanes since it is pure uninterrupted reading time. So every time I traveled in the past I would have a suitcase loaded down with books - at least one for every day of my trip. (if you think that's crazy wait till I publish my report on the number of books I read this year - yes I kept track). Plane rides would often consume 2-3 books unless I brought magazines along as well.

All that will now change. This year I received a gift of a Kindle. Yes, a whole new world has opened up for me. I received the Kindle the day before I left for the holidays and was faced with a choice - do I just load up and bring the Kindle or do I also bring with me the book I have been waiting to read for weeks - Stephen King's Under the Dome. I had bought the book to read over Thanksgiving but my food poisoning put an end to that plan. So, when I packed for the trip I packed the Kindle, a stack of magazines, and Under the Dome. I was way behind on my magazine reading and gleefully discarded Time, Newsweeks,and O magazines on my to Rochester. While in Rochester I demonstrated for Kathy all the attributes of the Kindle and displayed the impressive list of free books which I'd downloaded at SFO while waiting for my flight. I read Kathy's books and magazines while in Rochester and a Christmas Carol on the Kindle.

Yesterday it was time to fly home and I put my Kindle and Under the Dome in my carry on and headed to the airport. I settled in at the airport and cracked open Under the Dome and commenced reading. The book was 1072 pages long and I just kept reading. Throughout both flights and at the gates I read Under the Dome, only closing it for brief breaks. When I got home yesterday I had 200 pages to go and I plowed through the rest of the book - finishing it at midnight when my luggage was finally delivered by American Airlines. So that was it - the last physical book I will ever take on a flight. Of course my house is still full of books and I certainly plan to keep buying books. But before I unpacked my carry on last night I compared the difference in the bag with just the kindle and just the book. The Kindle is so light it feels like nothing. Under the Dome was a back breaker. So while I will continue happily reading on flights my reading will now be strictly digital.

And for those who are interested I thought Under the Dome was a great read - better than some of Stephen King's latest books (Duma Key was unreadable to me) but not as good as Salem's Lot or his all time classic the Stand.

I also saw 7 movies while in Rochester so movie reviews to follow.

Deck the Halls

2009-12-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

Every year the question comes down to marketing from senior management - what are we going to do for the holidays? What will we do for our customers, our partners, our employees, the world? I just wanted to share a few examples from seasons past.

When I worked in New Holland, PA, the heart of Lancaster county and Amish country, I ran the business office and did the marketing for a telephone company with 25,000 access lines (we counted lines not people in those days). Since I also ran the phone store of course I did a holiday sale, hoping to clear inventory and get ready for the next year's phones. My second year I had goals for PR events - activities that would positively impact our customers. So I did a contest - stop by the office (hence walk past all those phones) and fill out a card for a drawing. The winner won a giant (taller than I am) stocking stuffed full of toys. I can tell you the winning family was thrilled - and we all gathered around for photos for the local paper with the winner.

The next year we decided to do this same event for all our subsidiaries in the state (5 phone companies ranging from 2000 lines to our 25,000 in Lancaster). We decided to give out genuine handmade Amish sleds. These wooden sleds were things of beauty and came with a lovely plaque reading handmade in Intercourse, PA. Yes, Intercourse was in our territory and the sleds were gorgeous. Unbelievably there were people who objected to the sleds having that name on the sleds. Even more surreal to me, the sled maker said it happened all the time and changed out the small metal plaques to read Lancaster, PA.

Several years later I was back in Rochester NY and was having a tough year, my mom had passed away and I had this urge to find a way to make a difference. I was volunteering at the Volunteers of America Daycare Center which was for children who were abused and neglected. The stories would curl your hair - think the orphans in Dickens a Christmas Carol. I was able to raise money through the internal communications system, even getting a check for $1000 from our Ceo when he heard about it. I got a list from the Daycare center manager with sex and ages and off I went to Costco. We had enough $ for every child to get two gifts. Volunteers wrapped the gifts (bringing in their own wrap, tape and scissors) and I even secured a Santa and the Telephone Pioneers donated a handmade teddy bear for every child. Three gifts per child. The day of the event I dressed all in red (yes, I was a youthful Ms. Claus - perhaps Santa's) and off we went. If you want a thrill drive through a busy city with Santa in your passenger seat waving out the window. We distributed the gifts - my favorite moment was one of my volunteers bursting into tears. He told me later that the little girl he was sitting with (he's the father of 3 girls) had told him moments before Santa and I arrived that all she wanted was a doll - she'd never had one before (she was 4) and Dave said he prayed over and over - dear god let Jerri have a doll for her. Yes, she got a doll and Dave was a puddle. How does this have anything to do with Marketing/PR? We had the local tv crew there and a camera crew - we were on the 6 p.m. news and were on the front page of the VOA newsletter.

At my last company each year we'd throw a holiday pot luck - everyone brought in a dish. We would do drawings and you won tickets by bringing in a dish, for showing up, and in the last two years you also got a ticket for donating a toy to our toys for tots drive. Our best year we had over 60 presents to donate.

Through the years I've dealt with a wide range of christmas card catalogs. I've had sales people convinced they would do 500 cards - up until the moment they were handed all 500 cards. I've struggled to find a card that has no religious connotations in any way - Happy holidays, dove of peace with a globe in the background is always a winner.

That brings us to this year. Telle and I discussed doing an e-card. I called our fabulous designer Alex and he and I brainstormed. A big part of this quarter had to do with our I am a technical woman video. So he created the I am a technical woman holiday card. Here it is so check it out.

Happy holidays

Movie Review: Up In The Air

2009-12-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

Up in the Air is a must see movie for everyone, but especially for those of us who have lived the life of the road warrior. You know who you are - someone who has ever had a wallet full of gold and platinum frequent flyer cards, Hertz Gold Membership and knows at least one flight attendant by their first name. I have been a road warrior many times in my career - for one year at the phone company, as Corporate Manager of Learning and training, I went to all 52 of our subsidiary companies- many more than once - in 37 states (this included one crazy drive from Miami to Statesboro Georgia). I was gold on five airlines that year. And one year for 5 months I commuted weekly between Dallas and Atlanta, before I finally moved to Atlanta. Every Friday night I got on the same flight home to Dallas, where I was greeted by name by flight attendants who would, on occasion, upgrade me themselves to first class for the ride home. Yes, I was a road warrior.

George Clooney's Ryan Bingham is the ultimate road warrior - on the road some 300+ days per year he is an American Airlines/Hilton Hotels/ Hertz Gold club member. He is a corporate terminator, going from city and city to carry out layoffs. The use of real laid off people and their reactions in the film is touching and heartbreaking. Ryan's primary interactions in the movie are a fellow road warrior, a woman named Alex(Vera Farmiga) who he romances across the country in places as diverse as Miami, Vegas and Wisconsin. His other companion, a fellow terminator named Natalie played by Anna Kendrick, travels along as a woman who is seeking to automate and remove the personal touch from the layoff process.

This movie resonates in many ways. The reactions of the people who are laid off are devastating. Ryan's romance with Alex is captivating. Clooney and Farmiga have a wonderful chemistry. And the trio's experience at a conference resonated with me as someone who has been to my share of tradeshows. I've even been on the yacht ride in Miami Beach just like the one in the movie.I strongly recommend this movie, be prepared for the unexpected twists and turns and enjoy the frequent flyer miles.

Why I believe in Health Care Reform

2009-12-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

This blog post is both an explanation of why I believe in Health Care Reform and also an explanation of why I haven't posted to my blog for a long time. 9 days before Thanksgiving I got very ill - the doctors weren't sure whether it was food poisoning, a virus or something else. Ill enough that we had to call my doctor and go to the emergency room at 9 at night. Ill enough that if I hadn't gotten treatment I could potentially have died. Ill enough that we were in the Emergency Room until 3:30 in the morning when I was finally released rehydrated, no longer delirious and myself again.

So why do I write about this today? I just go the bill from the hospital last night for the roughly 6 hours I spent in the ER. The Total Charges - $19,053.12. When I opened the bill my eyes were immediately drawn to that number since it was actually more than what I paid for my brand new car 4 years ago. How is this possible? I could just not imagine it. After sitting down and catching my breath, upon reading the bill more closely I saw that the amount I actually owe the hospital is - $35. Yes, I have health insurance that rocks. I may even send them a Christmas card this year along with a big box of See's Candy. Seriously - from 19,053.12 to $35 is a miracle.

So do I need healthcare reform? No I don't. But there are people out there, people who are living paycheck to paycheck. People on minimum wage jobs that get no insurance, or who are self insured (as I once was and my coverage was not good). People who at the end of the month are living on spaghetti because they are waiting for their paycheck to come in two days. Those people who don't have health insurance would be destroyed by that bill. I can't imagine someone seeing $19,000 on a bill in the amount due column when they only bring home $7.25 per hour - which is the minimum wage.

No health insurance can destroy someone's life in an instant. Or worse, the fear of such a hospital bill can kill them. I absolutely needed treatment that night And because I had insurance it never occurred to me to say no to going to the ER when my doctor ordered it. And because I have insurance I had a primary care doctor I could call to tell me I had to go.

So I don't need healthcare reform - but for those 1 out of 3 Americans out there without insurance something does need to be done.

Making of a Viral Video

2009-11-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

What defines a viral video? What is the exact number that takes it from a simple nice little video to something that is truly a hit? In looking at movie openings this weekend they are saying Disneys' A Christmas Carol (I didn't know Walt Disney wrote A Christmas Carol - I thought Charles Dickens had - silly me) is a hit having made $31 million. I'm sorry but I saw Transformers last summer and it made over $100 million on opening weekend - that's a hit.

In any case - at the 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando I was transfixed by how happy all the participants were. And their incredible diversity. When we got our video booth funded by SAP for the 2008 GHC I worked with the video crew and had them have everyone they filmed say I am a technical woman, or some form of that. My fabulous interns found all the instances of that being said on all our footage then our marvelous editors at Total Media Group laid it out. Then came the hardest part - the music. Megan and I spent about an hour going through my ipod finding music that had the requisite level of happiness in it for the video then she went to find music that had that happiness. And she did.

I thought the video was good but I was still incredibly nervous showing it to my co-workers. They had known that I was doing some sort of video but hadn't seen it. Their positive reaction made my day. It's not often that people tell you don't change a thing on a project like that.

We launched the video - I am a technical woman at the 2009 GHC in Tucson. What helped the initial kickoff was a well planned launch - we included a link to the video in a press release that went out exactly at the time the video was shown at the conference. The video got a key link on the front page of our website. And I asked all the attendees to tweet about the video after they saw it - BJ tells me 700 people tweeted in that hour. And the launch continued - we gave copies of the video to all our board of trustee members, to all 100 attendees of our K12 Workshop (100 teachers taking the video back to show in their classrooms), and we made it downloadable from our site so anyone who wanted to show it or embed it could. And of course we put it up on youtube.

And so it continues - a teacher I'd heard from in Colorado has shown it to every class in his school. The video has been shown at several other conferences including one in Australia. And it is embedded on multiple blogs and facebook pages including several of our board members.

The video has been downloaded 200 times from the website in over 24 countries. On Youtube it has been viewed 6400 times. The best feedback of all was from a co-worker who's daughter showed the video in her second grade class. One of the classmates said I didn't know technical woman could be so cool. They really are.

So what can you do to keep the video going - watch it and pass it on to others. Is it a viral video? I think so. Tell me what you think.

Marketing: Saying Goodbye to Publications

2009-10-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've noticed in the past few months that I've been saying goodbye to a lot of publications and as a reader and a marketer that makes me sad. Here is a short list of just a few that we've lost:

San Jose Magazine - I subscribed when I first moved to the Bay Area - I didn't feel it was really my taste since it focused on the more luxury market but it was a great magazine to learn more about what was going on in this area.
Pink Magazine - Pink did a great job celebrating women leaders - ABI was mentioned in it in an article about Helen Greiner. The editors were nice enough to send me a file copy when I couldn't get it in the stores here. Distribution is a major thing and a women's business magazine didn't seem to fly. The Magazine also did a great Best Companies for Women to work for listing.
Memories - my crazy little scrapbooking/card making magazine. I loved reading it for ideas of things to make. Since I did actually subscribe I found their method for fulfilling my subscription - giving me access to some other magazine online was very frustrating since they never send reminders that the new issue is available.
PCWorld.ca - who've covered ABI several times. They sent a lovely note to their online subscribers and directed us to other online newsletters. It's just sad to see some great people losing their jobs.

What do they all have in common? All 4 are niche magazines? Will niche pubs survive? Perhaps not. Online and print magazines face the same thing - shrinking advertising budgets, shrinking subscribers.

So what does this all mean? In hard times some companies survive and others don't and the same is true for the media. I know that personally I have taken a very long hard look at all the magazines that come into my house - and there are quite a few. I have taken note of what I read right away and what linger in piles for weeks and months before being read. The ones that linger are not being renewed, the ones that I consume immediately are getting my dollars. So what magazines are you cutting out of your mailbox and what have you noticed disappearing?

Marketing: Shipping is more important than you know

2009-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm way behind on my posts - my apologies to everyone. I've decided to go back and look at all the components of the event for my upcoming blogs. The first of these is shipping for events. I know that seems like a no brainer but you would be amazed at the things that can go wrong. Here are a few of my - sadly- real life stories.

At one show our shipment worked perfectly, sadly none of the sales team that were supposed to staff the booth showed up at the show. I won't even try to tell you the sorry excuses they gave me. Suddenly I was in a panic. We had a booth space filled with a sad pile of boxes in Portland Oregon while I was sitting in my office in Milpitas. All those items had to be relabeled and redirected home. Thank goodness for our shipper. He got in touch with someone on site or I would have had to fly to Portland just to bring everything back.

I heard about one show company that went out of business in 2007 but didn't tell exhibitors at their upcoming European show in time for people to stop their shipments. Someone from each company had to go to Amsterdam just to hunt down and ship back their shipments. Sounds silly? Not when your systems can cost upwards of $50-100K.

When I started my current job the worst shipping disaster took place - the shipment didn't arrive. It went to Chicago, which I'm sure was fun for all the signage - sadly we were all in Orlando. That shipper is no longer with the company.

One shipper I actually terminated during a show. The driver had shown up and violated the processes of the show by cutting in line- with an 18 wheeler no less. So he was punished by being the last truck unloaded at the show. Since we had an enormous booth we had to pay all our workers overtime so we'd be ready when the show opened. He had also taken some cash under the table and added another company's load on top of our load - breaking some of our booth components. He also lost several of our items. With all that info in hand I set out into the bowels of the convention center in Los Vegas and located and negotiated for a new shipping company. Then I came back and fired the wayward shipper.

My favorite shipping story is one where everything went according to plan - not that my CEO didn't do his darnedest. Picture this - we're in Barcelona Spain in a tiny 10x10 trade show booth at GSM Congress - the largest wireless show in the world with hundreds of exhibitors and over 60,000 attendees. 1/3 of the booth is taken up with our media server. A media server is not a single item but one that has to sit inside a rack that can hold all the various components. We had shipped the server to Spain at the insistence of my CEO who always likes to show customers what the equipment looks like. I had not let the workers at the show take away our huge crate that the server shipped in. Instead I had draped it with sheets I procured from our hotel (best not to think about that too much) and used it to hold literature and the copious number of briefcases and coats our staffers insisted on carrying to the show every day. It also simplified our move out from the show. The guys all worked together and lifted the server in its rack into the crate and helped me secure it. It was tightly packed ( I crammed all our leftover collateral and giveaways in amongst the components), I put a shipping label on it, returned all our rented equipment and off we walked.

Two hours later I was standing on the Ramblas in Barcelona in front of the Hard Rock Cafe waiting for my team to decide where we would eat dinner. Then my phone rang. It was our CEO who had an idea - instead of shipping the server back to the US we would send it to our sales VP's house in Amsterdam. "No," I said. He argued further, outlining all the benefits of this plan, how it would help them all to have the server. "No," I said. He continued the argument. I thought of the million reasons this would not work - one was that I was not with the server but about to have dinner, the second was the complexity of international shipping and customs forms, the third was that the server was not actually fully functional because we hadn't fully loaded all the hardware and 4th - it had all the stuff I needed back in the states packed around it. Instead I very simply explained, "Did you ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?" He said yes. "Remember the scene at the end when the Ark was sent into the giant warehouse?" He said yes.
"That's where the server is." There was a long pause. "Oh, never mind." He hung up and I went off to eat.

So lessons learned - a lot can go wrong with shipping so it makes sense to work with high quality firms that deliver what they promise.

Back From Grace Hopper Celebration: Many Posts to Follow

2009-10-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the 2009 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Tucson, AZ. I know that I should have been blogging throughout the conference but quite honestly I spent most of the time running. Over the next few weeks I will blog about all the different parts of the conference. I am on vacation the next two days then back at work. But I'm lining up my topics and will be back in the saddle shortly.

So have a great couple of days, enjoy the autumn weather and stay tuned.

Movie Review: The Informant

2009-09-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

I was looking forward to the Informant - mostly because it was well reviewed and starring Matt Damon who rarely disappointments. However, I was disappointed. The movie is based on a true story of Vice President on a large corporation who decides to go to the FBI about price fixing. What's truly amazing is that the FBI goes along with him and works to gather evidence when in fact he is lying to them in almost every conversation, yet in fact the price fixing is happening. Its too hard to explain in a review but somehow the movie just lacks a spark, the thing that makes great movies. Am I sorry we paid full price, yes. Would I suggest Netflixing it? Maybe. All in all I say save your money and time.

Movie Review: Inglorious Basterds

2009-09-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

First off let me say that I am a huge Pulp Fiction fan. Quentin Tarentino's other movies get mixed reviews - some are gory for the sake of being gory (see Kill Bill parts 1 and 2) but Pulp Fiction was the perfect blend of violence, plot, and stellar dialogue.

In Inglorious Basterds Tarentino once again mixes violence, plot and dialogue to make a riveting film. He introduces American audiences to a new star, Christoph Waltz who played the evil Hans Landa. Best villain since Darth Vader in my opinion. His character captures the audience from the very first "chapter" of the movie and every time he is on screen he is riveting. Compared to him Brad Pitt is just a pretty boy with a really strange southern accent.

Speaking of Mr. Pitt - he is the one thing I don't feel very sure of in the movie. The Basterds are a group of 8 Jewish American soldiers who's job it is to kill Nazi's and bring back scalps. I know that some scalping took place in the movie - however I didn't watch those parts at all - and I can assure you Marina did not either. Major yuck factor. The Basterds are terrific and even add to their forces as the movie progresses. But Brad Pitt is just not that good at accents - you can almost every time he speaks that he's thinking about his accent. And his effort to play a real man also seems forced. I found myself trying to cast the role of Aldo Raine in the movie and finally I came up with young Robert Mitchum - he would have been absolutely perfect in that role - he had the right mix of Southern Drawl (think Night of the Hunter) and real menace that would have made him perfect. Pitt becomes more a figure of humor every time he speaks, which is a relief during some of the more violent portions of the movie.

So do I recommend this movie - absolutely see it. Brad Pitt isn't in as much of it as you'd think from the commercials and the other characters are all fascinating. Be prepared for some violence - ok a lot of violence - but once you get through Chapter 1 you will see why I am voting Christoph Waltz for the Oscars. He literally blows you mind as he conducts the most civilized and horrifying of questioning in French, German and English.

When is a gift card not a gift card - at Santana Row in San Jose

2009-09-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don't normally do product rants - but this time I just have to. I received a Santana Row gift card about two years ago as a gift. I used it once or twice then it became lost in an old wallet. I rediscovered it during a recent purse/wallet reorg and it went into a little wallet where I keep all my gift cards. I went to use it last night and was horrified to find it had expired - which I challenged because in California gift cards can't expire. We went over to the Santana Row Concierge and found out that the card shouldn't have been expired but I did discover to my horror that Santana Row had been assessing a $2.50 per month "fee" on the gift card - so in the time the card lived in my old wallet it lost about a lot of its value.

I got home last night and immediately checked all my other gift cards. None of them are due to expire (I have a lot of Starbucks cards from an old boss who handed them out at the drop of a hat - since I don't drink coffee I use them very rarely but they are great for buying water in airports). So why does Santana Row, a bastion of high end shopping, feel that they have to charge such fees? You think they'd want to encourage shoppers to patronize their stores and if I have a positive experience I'm more likely to return to shop again. I doubt the purchaser of my gift card ever thought to look at the fine print (really fine - I had to get my reading glassed to read it) . As a recipient it never occurred to me that I should read fine print on a gift card since I knew they couldn't expire.

So this is just fair warning to everyone as they gear up for the holiday season - check your gift cards carefully - it seems that Santana Row has found a loop hole in California's law on gift cards/gift certificates. Who knows what other desperate retailers might do? The Santana Row concierge said - it's not really a gift card - she got that right.

Running a Charity Auction

2009-09-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was horrified today when I realized it's been a month since I blogged. My only excuse is that the Grace Hopper Celebration is looming and I have a boat load of deliverables - more about that when they are delivered, and I was also spending my evenings and weekends working on a charity auction I did up in Lake Tahoe last weekend.

On the way home tonight I was thinking about how to break down the auction into its component parts and I think I found it. So here goes.

Running a successful auction involves 4 key components:

1. The audience - you need to fill the audience with people who have a passion - either for the objects you are selling or the charity you are supporting. I was lucky - I was doing the auction at a fan convention so the audience was pre filled with enthusiastic fans who were eager to see just what kind of memorabilia we had collected. The other important part was that if you are doing the auction as part of a larger event, make sure you don't have competition for the audience's attention. I would have been doomed if there had been a panel against me . But since there was no competition even non bidders came in to see what was being offered. The more people the more pressure is being applied for someone to bid. And some of those non bidders will often bid just to fill a void.

2. The Auction Items - you need a wide range of things to fill an auction. If you only have high ticket items you lose your audience except for those with deep pockets. You want people to win and get excited about a perceived bargain. I saw people ecstatic over winning a $10 item and others thrilled about a $1700 item. Our auction was great because it had a mix of memorabilia, paintings, and some new items - specifically some beautiful quilts and wall hangings made by one of the attendees. I think each of those items (there were 4) each brought in more than $700. There was one I just adored but I had promised myself no more big items.

3. The Team - an auctioneer can not manage an auction alone. The convention leadership supported me by soliciting donations. I put together the auction form and sorted the items in order. My friend Marina (who loves it when I give her shout outs in the blog) spent an evening with me writing up the index cards for all the items. Then I had my intake buddy - Carla - who helped me collect all the donated items, the team who helped bring everything down from my room and setup for the auction; the runners during the auction who showed the items to the audience and delivered the winning cards; and then the team who helped distribute the items. But I will say the most critical person was my facilitator Susan who kept me running during the auction. She was the one who would hand me the card for each item - made sure the runners had it and generally kept everything moving. I know she did a great job because the auction was flawless - we finished on time and broke all our previous records. And we both missed the cruise on the Lake the next morning because we were both physically exhausted. Without Susan the auction would have been a disaster and I thank her for it.

4. The Energy - I used to be a trainer and I always believed that as a speaker of any kind you have to emit energy to the audience in order to engage and hold their attention. I have always chosen to do this with humor. I love it when the energy is there - and it was on Saturday - people responded from the very first and that made it incredible. The only rough part was at the end of the auction when all the energy was used up. I ended up flat on my back with one of our convention director's giving me a Reiki massage - which by the way worked wonders. Pat - I thank you so much.

So the stats- we raised $15,500 in the auction - selling 108 items in exactly 120 minutes of auction time. The next day we raised another roughly $300 with a mini auction which was great fun as well. Our highest ticket item was $1700. The lowest were I think $5. We even had one person bid on something that somehow we had managed to lose track of - it had literally disappeared. The woman very kindly bid to save us the embarrassment of dealing with the seller. When we found the item she kept the item and frankly what an incredibly generous thing to do. The money raised went to several very deserving charities.

So that was my 4th time calling a charity auction - hey I'm from New Jersey - I talk fast. I know this was our last gathering with this group but so many people came up to me afterwards and assumed I was a professional auctioneer I must admit I'd like to do more. Not every day- I don't think I'd survive it - but if you know a charity that needs an auctioneer - well give me a call.

Movie Review: District 9

2009-08-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm on my way to bed but just had to write about District 9. This very cool new movie opened this weekend and it is really terrific. Without any well known actors in it (though they may be well known in South Africa where the movie is set) the movie is the story of a spaceship filled with aliens that came to South Africa 20 years ago. The ship was filled with suffering alien "Workers" who were relocated from the ship to District 9 which rapidly became a ghetto. The first part of the movie sets the scene as a documentary film crew tells of how the ship came to earth, what's gone on in the last 20 years and follows a mid level management type as he begins the daunting process of moving 1 million aliens to their new settlement.

Where it goes from there is completely different than anything I've seen in a long time. It's amazing to have seen two truly unique movies in one weekend. District 9 is riveting, disgusting, horrifying and thrilling all at the same time.

Now, I have to say while I liked the movie Mike did not. He gave it a D+. He felt there was no plot and there were a few too many plot holes. I agree about the plot holes but I only thought about them after. During the movie I was riveted and fascinated. That they could make such a great movie for 30 million was incredible. And I didn't miss having a well known leading man at all. In fact I predict that Sharlto Copley who plays the lead character, Wikus, will be well on his way to being a leading man - he's attractive and hey he's on the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly.

One warning, there were several scenes where I did hide my eyes on Mike's shoulder - there are some gory parts that are not pleasant at all. Definitely not for little kids.

Monterey Aquarium: Save the Seahorses

2009-08-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

So this post is about 1/3 Marketing, 1/3 Non Profit and 1/3 the cool thing I did this weekend. Yesterday my friend Ellen and I went to the Monterey Aquarium to celebrate her birthday. It was a gorgeous day and we were going primarily to see the Seahorses and Seadragons exhibit at the aquarium. It was a case of repeated viewing of tv promotions for the exhibit driving our desire to see them. So yes, TV marketing does work -even on Marketers who recognize what is being done and should know better than to succumb. But a big part of marketing is informing people of what is available and appealing to them. So some personal responsibility must be taken.

Now I've always loved seahorses - I had a dried one when I was a kid I'm now horrified to admit. It was a post vacation gift from my grandparents who saw it on one of their many trips to Florida and brought it back as a souvenir. Those dried seahorses. which are sold in all sorts of beach gift shops, are literally driving these beautiful creatures to extinction. Millions of seahorses are harvested every year for these gifts. So please join the boycott and help save the seahorses from extinction.

If you want to show your kids a seahorse go to the Monterey Aquarium where they can see them alive and hanging out with their friends. You will also get the chance to see Seadragons. They are amazing - that is not seaweed in the pictures - it is a real seadragon that looks like seaweed - very gorgeous.

Movie Review: 500 Days of Summer

2009-08-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

I have to admit - Friday was not a good day for me. I was inundated at work, odd things had been going wrong with my computer all week and I was nearly hit by two different cars on the 101 who's drivers were talking on their cell phones when they decided to merge into my lane while I was right next to them. So I was very much in the mood for a blow em up type movie like District 9. But since I planned to see that on Sunday (review to come sometime this week) we decided to keep to our original plan to see 500 Days of Summer. And wow, am I glad we did.

This is a charming little movie about the highs and lows of a 500 day relationship between Summer and Tom, two co-workers at a greeting card company. The first thing you find out is that this relationship does end but we get to see how they get there - the highs and the lows - all playing out in a somewhat random order since you are bounced between the beginning, middle and end of the relationship throughout the movie. And it really works well.

Zoey Deschanel is very lovely as Summer, who doesn't really want a relationship with Tom but gives out so many mixed signals that poor Tom is just never really sure what's going on. Joseph Gordon Levitt as Tom is a revelation. He's grown up extremely well and his acting in this is superb. You can't help but feel for Tom throughout the movie and curse Summer for not appreciating just how much he loves her.

I strongly recommend this movie. It can make a bad day much better, I'm proof of that. I came out of the movie relaxed and happy and that's always a good thing.

Women Owned Business of the Year Awards

2009-08-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at my desk working on the GHC program when I received a call. A woman from the Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment was calling and asking me to be on their leadership council. I must admit I was taken aback. I hadn't heard of the organization before and I certainly wasn't used to be called to be on leadership councils of other non profits. As a marketer I'm used to securing speaking slots and awards for other members of my organization.

It soon became clear that the role of the leadership council was mostly promotional but I agreed to participate for a few reasons.

The first is that I think that unemployment and its impact on women is a huge issue in this recession. I couldn't help but think of friends who've been laid off. The Women's Initiative for Self-Employment's goal is to create a movement promoting women’s entrepreneurship and to get the word out about the Women’s Initiative’s training and support programs for low-income women who seek to become entrepreneurs. Anything that can help women become self supporting is to me a good thing.

The second reason I participated is that I enjoy using my marketing skills to help non profits succeed. I was able to include the announcement of the Women-Owned Business of the Year Awards in our newsletter and of course I'm telling everyone who reads this blog about it. I've also passed on the info to others I know so they can help seek more nominations.

The third reason is I participated is that I love to network and meet new people. The leadership council met a few days ago and it was great connecting with people in other organizations that are helping like the local Chambers of Commerce and the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The fourth reason is that as a member of the leadership council I'll get to go to one of the awards ceremonies which will be held in November. Google, as I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, is a major supporter of non-profits and it's always great to be able to participate in one of their events.

And the final reason I chose to participate is a personal one. When I was a kid my dad passed away and my mom needed to go find a job. We'd had the money for her to not work for a while but at one point it was just the two of us and something in the house broke. We had to trade my dad's small boat (which lived under our front porch) to have the repairs done. I remember being scared but we were very lucky, good friends of my father helped her get a job at his old company where she was very successful. I've always remembered that scary time and believed that everything possible should be done to enable women to be self-supporting, to earn a good living for themselves and their children. The Women's Initiative for Self-Employment supports women so they can be self supporting and self sufficient. It's a good cause and I encourage you to let women you know who own their businesses to submit for these great awards.

Seminar at Google on Google Tools

2009-08-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Life has gotten really hectic with everything converging on the end of this month. But last week I had the chance to take a day and spend it in a Google workshop on Google tools along with about 100-140 other Non Profit Marketing people. The crowd was extremely diverse and I had a wonderful time connecting with people at very different organizations. The best part was getting to learn from all of them about their organizations and what they're passionate about.

I got to meet the guy who is running Save the Frogs and learned that over 100 species of Amphibians have become extinct since 1980 and before that we were only losing about one species every 250 years. We all talked about how he can optimize his site - you should check it out for the awesome frog pictures and to learn how we can all save the frogs.

I met a wonderful woman who runs the website Kidsandcars.org. She had a great way of introducing herself - she is first non profit leader I've ever met who actually achieved her mission - she got a bill passed that forced car manufacturers to put release levers on the inside of car trunks. She's amazing and has moved on to do more great work to help save children.

I had a wonderful chat with a gentleman from NPR (of course I'm a huge fan) who talked with me about the difficulty of organizing vast quantities of information on a website.

What was fascinating was meeting so many different people all of whom believe passionately in their work and were equally interested in what I was doing. That day brought me back to work with a renewed interest in helping change the part of the world I can impact and also reminded me to spend a bit more time helping out with other organizations. More on that tomorrow.

Working on Grace Hopper

2009-07-31T09:05:00.001-07:00

August and September are for me the craziest most hectic time of the year. I try and take a vacation in late June/early July in order to rest up and get ready. Why is it such a hectic and crazy time - the coming of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Never have so many different projects all had to take place simultaneously. My to do list is heading towards the triple digits, my two interns are working madly and all of us have begun having bizarre dreams about work on a nightly basis. And yet, I'm having a blast.

There is something to be said for the adrenalin rush of being busy when you're in marketing. And marketing for a non profit means that on an almost daily basis I get to talk to or email with people who are being positively impacted by what we are doing.

So while my blogging has suffered my work productivity is ramping ever upward. Over the coming weeks I'll be blogging about all the different things that make up working on the marketing of the conference.

For today, since my to do list is looming, if you want to read more about GHC check out the interview I did for www.bitsource.com - http://www.thebitsource.com/2009/07/30/celebrating-women-in-technology-the-anita-borg-institute%E2%80%99s-jerri-barrett-talks-about-the-grace-hopper-conference/ and if you are a technical woman thing about coming - it's an amazing experience.

Movie Reviews: The Proposal, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, My Sisters Keeper

2009-07-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering what the three movies I've listed in the title have to do with each other. Well, they were the movies my friend Kathy and I watched over the 4th of July Weekend - which seems like eons ago. In fact so long that I didn't want to write three more reviews but rather do them all at once.

The Proposal: We saw this movie for two reasons - Sandra Bullock (we just love her) and Ryan Reynolds Abs. The movie is a light puff piece - perfect for a very hot (it was over 100 that week) Saturday afternoon. The plot was horrible boss convinces her secretary to marry her so she can stay in the country; he takes her home to meet the family; hilarity ensues. We liked the movie but if you haven't already seen it save the $10.75 and Netflix it. Note: Betty White steals the movie from them both.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: I liked the first Transformers movie - but I saw it on a really hot day and dehydration may have played a part in my enjoyment. I was well hydrated for number 2. The movie was very very very busy. Lots of running, lots of stuff blowing up. The problem I had was that there was no character development and I frequently had a hard time telling the difference between the good robots and the bad. So it was very hard to know who to cheer for during the various fight scenes. We came out of the move fairly positive but over time I just look back and can't possibly tell you a decent plot summary. Suffice it to say Megan Fox did little but look hot - it's amazing someone can run forever in the desert, never get near a bathroom and still have their makeup intact. Shia LeBoeuf didn't have much to do but run around and scream the names of various robots. All in all - Netflix it.

My Sisters Keeper: I knew I could never get Mike to see this one. And I had the advantage/disadvantage of having read the book the movie was based on. It's a weeper - somewhat manipulatively so. Basic story is that a young girl is dying so her parents have another child that they genetically engineer to be the perfect donor. And eventually the engineered daughter rebels and hires a lawyer - a terrific Alec Baldwin - to defend her from her parents. Cameron Diaz does a great job as the mother who is such a control freak that she would willingly force her daughter to donate an organ without ever considering the damage it is causing. The movie does have a very different ending than the book - and they've changed the motivations of the daughter as well so it was a surprise ending for me. All in all a good movie. Bring tissues. I would say Netflix it though - no need to see it on the big screen.

I think I'm all caught up for the month on movie reviews. Back to Marketing.

Movie Review: Bruno

2009-07-28T08:19:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's films. I liked Borat quite a bit -the scene at the rodeo brought back a lot of memories of my time in Dallas where I was a regular attendee at the Mesquite Rodeo. And I love seeing how Americans deal with his outrageous behavior - some as I would like them to and some not so much.

Bruno is a more extreme movie than Borat since it deals with a flamboyant gay character, Bruno, who comes from Austria to be a celebrity in the United States. I will point out - he comes to become a celebrity, not an actor. The movie ranges from the disgusting to the hysterical. My favorite parts are when he adopts a child in Africa, when he joins the military and when he becomes involved with a gay deprogrammer. As Mike said - I didn't know there were level 1 and level 2 deprogrammers - I wonder what the difference is?

Some parts of the movie obviously don't work - there are some things you just don't need to see- I'll leave it at that. But parts were amazing - and set a few stereotypes on their head. A segment where Bruno goes hunting with some "good old boys" could have been very ugly - instead the 4 hunters merely tolerate his bizarre behavior.

As a marketer my favorite scene was the focus group for Bruno's potential interview show. I've sat behind that glass wall and watched people turn six months of work to nothing but for me the focus group was hilarious. And Bruno did what every marketer dreams of doing - getting out of the glass booth to go explain to the focus group exactly why they are wrong.

So, my suggestion is rent Bruno, make sure the kids cannot possibly enter the room, and prepare to laugh and cringe. More reviews tomorrow - July was a very busy month movie wise.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2009-07-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that I am a definite Harry Potter fan. No, I don't dress up as a witch and go to the movies and yes, I once accidentally ended up in the midst of a Harry Potter party at Barnes and Noble - we stopped after a movie for a dessert and got caught up in the insanity. But I did love the books. I vaguely recall Mike steering me through the Honolulu airport after I'd begun one of the books and I didn't look up till I finished and we were back in SFO.

So, did I enjoy the movie - yes I did. I'd really forgotten the plot given that I'd read the book several years ago. This made the movie entertaining and occasionally surprising - how could I have forgotten horcruxes. I'm such a muggle.

I won't summarize the plot since if you're a fan you know it and if you're not it will be rather meaningless. Suffice it to say it's quite entertaining to see Harry and his friends deal with Death Eaters, assorted evil doers and snogging. And yes there is quite a bit of snogging in this movie. Rupert Grint provides outstanding comic relief - and foreshadowing of his career for the next 20 years. Daniel Radcliffe is always excellent as Harry - especially when he is under a luck spell.

I must reserve some special praise of Alan Rickman - what a delight the man is. He makes a single sentence drip with loathing so vividly he really never needs to say more. I shall miss his Snape more than anyone I think once the movies conclude.

My only complaint is that when the movie comes to an end you get that slight I've been left hanging feeling. Somewhat like the end of Empire Strikes Back - you realize everyone is simply waiting for the next movie - as are we all.

As a marketing aside - kudos to the studio for deciding to split the final book into two movies. With a 400 million dollar take in the first five days world wide I think that the last two movies are a guaranteed revenue stream for 2010 and 2011. Given that few of us could sit through a 5 hour movie and there are so many pieces people would object to omitting I can understand it. But 2011 is a long time to wait for closure.

Movie Review: The Ugly Truth

2009-07-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone. I'm woefully behind in all my movie review writing so hopefully this week I can get caught up. I've seen a ton of movies in July. So I'm going last in first out. Tonight Mike and I went to see the Ugly Truth. And we had a good time. Mike was a good sport - be warned guys the theatre is about 80% women. We both thought the movie was very funny. Basic story is simple - uptight tv producer (Katherine Heigl) and rough neck tv commentator (Gerard Butler) meet and fight and well you'll have to watch it to see what happens. He decides to help her get a new boyfriend - her very attractive neighbor - and she does. The movie isn't too long - only 96 minutes - but great fun and perfect for a hot summer night. Could the movie be better - yes - it is fairly shallow. For the Californians - the movie is set in Sacramento and of course Mike was thrilled that our hero attended San Jose State. Gerard Butler is British so his American accent is a bit forced.

By the way - we came home to watch At The Movies - and both commentators said skip it. I think it would be best if At the Movies replaced one of their male reviewers with a woman so we could get a bit of diversity in their reviews. Anyway, if you like a nice romantic comedy - see The Ugly Truth. Beware - the language is a bit racier than usual in these movies but that just adds to the fun.

Catching Up After Vacation

2009-07-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Somehow I always underestimate how long it is going to take to catch up after a vacation. I spent the week before the 4th of July in the Eastern Sierras - hiking in Yosemite, cavorting around Mono Lake and tramping through Bodie (an old ghost town that is now a state park in danger of being closed by the Governator). When I returned I had about 900 emails - I always think there will be more but then I realize when you aren't responding to email you aren't getting the five that always follow the first one.

So last week was spent catching up - running to meetings, making calls, and trying to reboot my brain on all things Marketing. Fortunately I had left myself a giant to do list of all the things that need to get done and this week those items are getting broken down into their components for implementation.

I'm sorry I've been remiss in Blogging but I realized that a vacation couldn't truly be a vacation without cutting all ties to technology. The vacation took place somewhere with no WiFi, no dial up, and no cell phone service. I was able to let my sore shoulders take a break from all the typing and just enjoy the beauty that is the Sierras.

But I promise to catch up and this week I'll get caught up on all my Movie reviews - so be on the lookout for reviews of My Sisters's Keeper, The Proposals, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and from this weekend - Bruno.

Movie Review: The Hangover

2009-06-14T21:35:00.001-07:00

I should preface this review by mentioning that normally I do not like movies that mention or show bodily fluids. However, The Hangover is the exception - this movie is a laugh riot from beginning to end. I'm sure many of you have seen the previews - the basic premise - 4 friends go off to Vegas for a Bachelor Party - after almost everyone has repeated the mantra what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Fast forward and three of the friends wake up in their luxury villa and discover one friend is missing, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and one of the 3 is also missing an incisor. From there they work to find out exactly what took place since none of them remembers a thing.

The movie has great performances by the entire cast - the only ones remotely recognizable is Bradley Cooper from He's Just Not That Into You and Ed Helms from The Office. And of course Mike Tyson. But the humor comes largely from the great story and surprises that await the crew at every turn as they try to find out what happened and find their lost friend. Mike and I laughed like crazy.

Is The Hangover great art - not really. Is it a great way to spend a few hours - absolutely. Big thumbs up.

I do want to note I give a thumbs down in advance for whoever scheduled the trailer for The Final Destination 3 D that preceded the movie. The trailer totally freaked me out - I am not a fan of that kind of movie and between that and the terrifying trailer for the Orphan I was a little jumpy by the time our movie started.

Oh, and The Hangover is definitely a hard R - not for children. And the woman three rows in front of me who brought the screaming two year old should be ashamed of herself - who in their right mind brings a two year old to the movies - but especially one like this.

Marketing in China: Traveling to a New Culture

2009-06-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been engaged in a number of discussions about markting to another culture. I've done quite a bit of that. I spent two years working for a Chinese company and four years for one that was essentially an Indian company. This first story is about my first trip to China.

I went to work for LinkAir in January 2000. In fact I was the second employee in the US. I'd actually gotten my job offer first but the HR/Accounting person had to be hired first so I could get processed in properly. My job was to take this Beijing based company and effectively launch it in both countries. Those are stories for another post. This is about my first business trip over.

So I was hired and spent the first month or so hiring those essentials - a design/collateral firm and a Public Relations firm. The design firm was great - though not the best listeners. One thing we told them was that anything fire related was bad luck in China - their first proposed police of collateral had flames on it and looked like it had been singed. They thought fire was good luck in China. Ack.

My first trip to Beijing was when I had been in my job only about 2 months. It was a long flight - I changed planes in Japan and had a 4 hour layover - I'm not sure Mike ever quite recovered from a long distance call from Tokyo saying I'm bored and I have three more hours - talk to me.
When I finally arrived I had been awake for roughly 24 hours and I was desperate for sleep. Somehow I'd managed to arrive towards the end of the day and my firm sent me greeters - the office manager, my translator and my driver.

To prepare for the trip I had done extensive research - I read 4 books about China, consulted the members of Allexperts.com and did a lot of web research. So when I arrived I was prepared with copious numbers of gifts in my bag for everyone I encountered. I had also learned that Watermelon was a leading national crop. What I was not prepared for was the reluctance of my greeting committee to let me just go to bed. They insisted on taking me to dinner.

Finally I succumbed - it seemed they would never let me go. I was faced with an enormous menu in Chinese though there were some photos. I was in despair - I speak no Chinese and frankly would never even attempt to read it - and so I desperately pointed to one item which I took to be a large sausage . "What's that?" I asked. The translator looked at the item and immediately began an intense discussion with the rest of the group in Chinese. Finally he spoke, "Braised Ass Penis".

I thought I would faint. "Seriously?"

"Yes it is a great delicacy in our culture. Men eat it so they can give their wives many children."

"Never mind".

"No no, it's ok. It's just very expensive - 1000 Yen."

I was even more horrified. What must they think? 1000 Yen was the equivalent of rougly $80 at the time - and more than most people make in a month.

the more I protested the more they insisted but I would not give up. i insisted I just wanted a salad. The waiter suggested Caesar salad. I agreed and we were able to move on. That is until my salad showed up - consisting of soggy lettuce with a large fish on top - the fish was completely intact - scales, fins and eyes. I couldn't help myself - i just had to ask. "What kind of fish is this?"

"Anchovy".

I did my best - between chopsticks and the unscaled fish I was doomed to go hungry - but I remain convinced to this day that I had been offered the Moby Dick of all anchovies - but better that than eating.....

Movie Review: A big thumbs up for UP

2009-06-06T20:03:00.001-07:00

I am a self professed Pixar fan. I love all their movies and have seen them all more than once. Well except for the rat movie but my aversion to rats is one I have no pressing need to overcome.

UP however is one of the most satisfying movie experiences I've had this year. I laughed, I sobbed, I cheered, I clutched my seat - it was wonderful.

The basic story is simple, a lonely old man decides to move his house to Paradise Falls, a remote location in South America, to honor a promse he made to his dear departed wife. He does it by attaching 1000's of helium filled balloons to the house. On the way there he discovers a stowaway and the adventure begins.

The movie is a visual delight - the colors are amazing from the balloons to the giant bird they encounter, named Kevin, and even the house itself. The voices are terrific - gruff Ed Asner, a favorite of mine from the days of Mary Tyler Moore and Lou Grant and the boy who voices the stowaway Russell to the villain voiced by Christopher Plummer. Looks good, sounds good and the movie engages your heart.

I won't spoil the fun, I just think that everyone should run out and see UP. Our theatre did not have 3D (which always gives me a headache so no problem) but if anyone does see it in 3D let me know what it's like.

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

2009-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

Despite the mixed reviews I felt compelled to go see Terminator Salvation this weekend - in part because we had to postpone from last weekend and in part because I'd seen and enjoyed the first three movies and I like robot movies (yes I'll be seeing the new Transformers movie later this summer).

The setting of Terminator Salvation is the remains of California after the Judgement Day foretold in the first two movies and experienced in the third. The human Resistance is battling daily with the robots who are intent on erradicating mankind. John Connor is full grown, about to become a father and a resistance fighter who has also taken to broadcasting on the radio inspirational messages to pockets of resistance fighters around the world. He is in some respects the young spiritual leader - though there is a hardbitten crew of older men that are something of a counsel of resistance leaders from around the world.

The movie starts however with an execution in the 1980's. The prisoner - Marcus - is seen years later, remarkably unchanged, and he becomes involved with Kyle Reese, John Connor's father to be (if you haven't seen the other movies it's way too hard to explain).

So, that's all the plot I will share. The character of Marcus is great - he really is the focal point for the movie and the actor Sam Worthington does an outstanding job. He is truly riveting to watch. You realize this because the scenes with John Connor that don't include Marcus just don't have the same energy. I have never been a Christian Bale fan - I think he's actually a very dull actor - and he was lucky to have Heath Ledger in the last Batman flick. In this movie Christian Bale is largely a symbolic hero, the character of Marcus is the real hero and I predict a long career for Sam Worthington.

So I do suggest seeing Terminator Salvation - but I would see it after you see Star Trek - which is still the best movie of the summer.

I think it is a movie that's great to see on the big screen

Being an "Authentic" Marketer

2009-05-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

While I was in NY at the Media Relations conference I noticed a word being used quite frequently in presentations. That word was Authentic. I heard it so much in fact that I found myself in the airport pondering what being an Authentic marketing person would actually mean.

According to Wikipedia - Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions.

So what does it truly mean to be an authentic PR/marketing person? Dan Rather exhorted us all to be authentic in our actions and speak truth to power. The blogging panel talked about being authentic in what we write. Another speaker encouraged us to be authentic with the media when we deal with them. Yet no one told us why they think we aren't being authentic. What are we if not authentic?

Then the question becomes how does anyone judge authenticity in this day and age. So am I an authentic marketer? At the end of a long day - after meetings, 3 media interviews and putting together a newsletter if I am not an authentic marketer then I am faking it pretty well.

Let me know how you judge authenticity.

Media Relations Summit: The New Newsweek

2009-05-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, while at the Media Relations Summit, I attended a panel on how to pitch to the major news magazines - Time, Newsweek and Businessweek. It was an interesting panel. It rapidly became clear to me that the only news magazine that I would probably get coverage for ABI was Businessweek. This was in large part because they covered us previously and we have a relationship, the other part was because they were interested in covering news related to business and technology - our sector.

I am a longtime reader of Time and Newsweek and have subscriptions to both. I started getting Newsweek several years ago when my friend Kathy got a buy one get a gift subscription free deal from Newsweek and gifted me with it. It's now one of my annual Christmas gifts (my sister gives me Martha Stewart Living and I now have a friend who is giving me People Magazine - great gifts all of them). I started Time last year because they made me a great offer - 1 year for $15 - such a ridiculously good deal I couldn't refuse. And I'm lucky to work in HP Labs where I get to read Businessweek in the library which is just feet from my desk.

During the conference the speaker from Newsweek spent his time, not speaking about how to get stories into Newsweek, but rather how Newsweek has reinvented itself. It has become in large part a think piece type magazine. There will be more essays and reporters views on the news rather than covering the news itself. He spoke about the redesign of the magazine and how it was making the magazine more relevant and readable. The trouble with a magazine of think pieces and essays from my perspective,as the person promoting ABI, is that there isn't much room for coverage of a study done on underrepresented minorities in technology. In the new publication there are about 10 small articles up front - each about a column long that cover the week's news. The rest was all essays - which looked remarkably consistent at exactly a page long with nary a picture for several sections. The one extended article this week was on the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street which was quite good.

I recognize that each magazine must follow its own path but as a reader I'm disappointed in the new Newsweek (I didn't like new Coke either). I know that with the age of the Internet and instant news and 24 hour news networks, that the news magazines have to change to remain relevant and offer an alternate perspective on the news. But I miss the CW which highlighted what was in and out that week, the one page of odd celebrity gossip (always amusing and quirky itself), the short articles on happenings in odd corners of the country - the crime articles always made me go scrambling to the net to read more details since I do love a mystery and I'm fascinated by how crime impacts a community. And as someone who spends a lot of time proofreading - I'm not loving the font. They did preserve Perspectives - the mixture of quotes and cartoons from the weeks news - but the page seems oddly washed out and less readable.

Still I will continue to give them a chance - I have months left on my subscription and a few of the essays were somewhat interesting though I didn't find them as riveting as the more hard news articles that were on the pages just a few weeks ago.

Movie Review: Angels and Demons

2009-05-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day. Mike and I ventured out on Sunday to see Angels and Demons. I had enjoyed the first DaVinci Code movie though I'd felt it left a lot of the book on the table. Angels and Demons did the same only for some reason I didn't find it compelling at all to watch.

The movie concerns a secret cult in the Catholic Church who kidnap the 4 top contenders for the role of new Pope after the old one dies. Tom Hanks character is called in to solve the puzzle of the Illuminati and save the day. There is a great sarcastic line by Stellan Skarsgard when Tom Hanks arrives - Oh good, the symbologist is here. For the rest of the movie you watch Tom Hanks figure things out - thank goodness he's smarter than everyone else in the movie. He moved things along very well - though of course to build suspense he's always a bit late in figuring stuff out by mere seconds. The death scenes are truly horrifying - but I'll leave that to you to see.

So how do I rate this movie? Rent it. The visuals are stunning - Rome is truly beautiful and ancient - but if you have a decent size TV Screen you've got it covered.

Media Relations Conference; The Keynotes

2009-05-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last three days at the Media Relations Summit that was put on by Bulldog Reporter. There's a lot that has taken place in the last few days so I will be doing multiple posts about my time at the event.
This first post is about the two keynotes for Day 1, Dan Rather, Former anchorman of CBS News, and for Day 2, Dan Abrams, from CNBC. And you couldn't have any more different speeches.

Dan Rather, who I remember seeing as a kid when he was a correspondent from Vietnam, was a perfect speaker. He was beautifully prepared - telling two very funny stories that bookended his talk. His talk focused around Speaking Truth to Power and the need for everyone to support a strong and independent media. The media remains an additional check in the system of checks and balances. He spoke of how he discovered that Richard Nixon's White house attempted to pressure William Paley of CBS to stop the investigation of Watergate by CBS. CBS stood firm. Contrast this with the way today's much weaker media, confronted with a punitive FCC failed to followup on things like why we were going to war in Iraq.

Dan Rather spoke for over an hour, graciously answered our questions in a Q&A session and received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Today's keynote was quite different. Dan Abrams spoke about his formation of a new firm, Abrams Research which hires freelance journalists to consult with companies on media strategy. It seems that this is an issue fo great controversy and Mr. Abrams seems to think that everyone in the room was strongly disapproving of this action - and that we considered him some sort of axis of evil - a lawyer, a journalist and gasp - perhaps worst of all -a media strategist. His talk, also an hour, was very up and down in tone. I felt like we were getting some very odd kind of sales pitch. That since other journalists (those not laid off that had full time jobs) were somehow disapproving of people hiring their former peers - people who have lost their jobs in media and needing a job - he had to explain why his firm was great. I can't help but feel he was giving some bad information. Few people in the room were aware of his firm, and far fewer seemed to care about the issues he was raising. We gained little insight from his talk and sadly no inspiration.

I will treasure getting to see Dan Rather. As for Abrams, I'll look forward to seeing him in the pages of Us Magazine at the hair dresser when he is shown out and about with Renee Zellewegger. A better talk might have been how it feels to go from being a reporter chasing the news to being a celebrity consort being endlessly chased by the paparazzi.

Editing Videos

2009-05-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

So, it's been over a week since the end of Women of Vision and the number one email question I get is - where is Padmasree Warrior's keynote video. We were able to post the three videos I created for the event the next day -but the reason we could was that they already existed in finished format.

So once I finished up the general clean up after WOV and pushed a few projects that had been sorely neglected forward, I set about doing video editing. Our great Video firm, Total Media Group, and our producer Megan initially had to take the raw video tape and convert it into a format that I could watch on my computer. Then they sent me the DVD which is 1 hour and 45 minutes in length.

First I had to determine what footage we wanted and how we would use it. For our MC it's good to have footage of just her speaking to use for reference as we write scripts next year and of course to provide to her so she can see how she did. Then each of the speeches need to be edited so they have a clean start and finish. And of course you also need to pull clips - brief bits of speeches that will have impact and resonate if included in a presentation or used as an example.

Now, you may not know this but Youtube can only handle uploads that are 10 minutes and 59 seconds long - so nothing you upload can be longer than that (to be safe I try and stick to 10 minutes 45 seconds max). This was good for most of the speakers but several speeches ran over that time - so once I've made the larger cuts - I always make sure we get cuts that include an entire speech in case someone wants to see it - then I have to go in and find what makes sense in a part 1, part 2, part 3 scenario. When does the speaker pause long enough or when have they completed a full thought or point. You don't want to cut someone in the 4th of 5 items they're listing if you can help it.

And finding clips means listening to many of the speeches over and over to see what stands out as impactful. What got a laugh, applause, etc. What makes sense and doesn't run too long.

I'm pleased to say I finished making all my editing choices this afternoon. The lists have gone back to Total Media Group who need to book a room and an editor and make all the edits, and create the videos. Then we'll load them all on youtube.

We also issued our post event release today - filled with highlights of Women of Vision - you can check it out on the ABI website - www.anitaborg.org.

Movie Review: Star Trek

2009-05-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

All right, I'll admit it. I am a huge fan of the original Star Trek. Yes, people have explained to me about the fake rocks, the bad special effects, the occasional bit of overacting. Doesn't matter. I saw the original Star Trek when I was a kid when it was first running. I even remember the first episode - the crew beamed down to an Eden like planet but the plants were shooting poison needles at people. Thank goodness it got a red shirt first but when it got Spock he was ok. I was hooked. My very first boyfriend was even a Trekkie. When I was home with the flu he brought me my very first token of love - Spock ears. I would wear one while we talked on the phone at night. He'd gotten them at one of the very first conventions back in the 70's. I wish I still had those ears - they'd go for a fortune on Ebay but I think my mother disappeared them (along with my Bobby Sherman poster). Over the years I've probably seen every episode of the original Star Trek ten times. And I never really like the other series though I did like most of the movies - especially IV - the one with the whales.

But this new movie was amazing. It is a thrill ride even before the opening title sequence and it maintains an incredible momentum throughout. The casting of the picture is perfect. The new cast does not spoof the previous generation that played the role but they all completely nail their roles. And though the movie is a thrill a minute - they manage to throw in perfect moments of humor.

My friend, Marina, and I had dinner post movie and talked about why it worked so well. First off - as a standalone movie it works. There is enough exposition that a generation that has not seen the original will be thrilled. And for those who have seen enough episodes of the original to understand and know the original characters - this movie has a layer of inside jokes that just work on all levels.

This movie is really the story of James Tiberius Kirk - from the moment of his birth to his taking over as Captain of the Enterprise. The story is different than the one we know from the series - something happens in the first moments of the movie that changes everything. And that's good - unless you are a purist who expects the movies to perfectly recreate the series.

I really don't want to give too much away so I'll focus on characters. Chris Pine as Kirk is a perfect combination of confidence, command and cocky - he captures Kirk's swagger and his leadership skills beautifully. The new Spock, Zachary Quinto, is a perfect phsyical match though he does not have Leonard Nimoy's skill at keeping his face perfectly still and conveying his feelings with a quirk of an eye brow. McCoy doesn't have much of a role but the evolution of the relationship his character has with Spock was beautifully captured and a comic highlight. Zoe Saldana as Uhura is a delight and there is a fabulous twist that is quite unexpected given what the commercials and previews have shown. Chekhov and Scotty and to some extent Sulu are still minor characters but each shines in the movie.

The real revelation is Eric Bana as the villanous Nero. If I hadn't read somewhere that he was playing that character I never would have recognized him. He is completely unrecognizable and it's not all make up - he just is completely different than in any other movie (and somewhat redeems himself for the terrible version of The Incredible Hulk).

I understand people have been complaining about Winona Ryder as Spock's mother. I didn't think she was great or terrible - it's such a minor role I'm surprised anyone even noticed it.

So I suggest strongly that everyone head to the theatres on this hot and sticky weekend and enjoy the coolest movie of the summer. I'm already planning to head back and see it again in IMAX.

The Week After Women of Vision

2009-05-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

The week after a major event is, for marketing, all about clean up and followup. I spent all day Wednesday working my way through the raw video footage of the event - noting cuts and edits so that we can post clips and the speeches on Youtube. I still have about 3 more hours to go where I look for inspiring clips that we can use for presentations, etc. I also wrote a followup press release that will go out on Monday. And of course we were tracking the media coverage post event. For a fabulous summary check out www.valleyzen.com for their article and photos from the event. If you go down to the bottom you can see the photo of me with the winners at the event.

We also got to do the nitty gritty clean up - unloading the cars, integrating the collateral back into our piles, and of course starting to through out all the drafts of everything. And we did our debrief meetings - identifying what we can improve next year.

All in all a busy week. Things will stabilize a bit more next week then it's off to the Media Relations Conference in NY for a few days.

Two Articles in the Sacramento Bee

2009-05-04T08:51:00.001-07:00

I was thrilled this weekend when the Google Alert I set up to search for Jerri Barrett actually came back with a hit. I was quoted in two articles on job hunting in the Sacramento Bee. Here are the links:

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1828201.html

http://www.sacbee.com/1320/story/1828212.html

What's even more exciting is that this blog was mentioned in one of the articles. So if you read this blog because you saw the article leave a comment - I would love to hear from you.

The articles came about because a reporter had seen a previous interview I did with the Christian Science Monitor on job hunting. We spoke not once, but twice as he developed the story. As I said in the article and on this blog - it pays to keep building your network and being open about issues like job hunting and layoffs.

Enjoy the articles. I'll be writing tomorrow about Women of Vision and how it all went.

Movie Review: Wolverine

2009-05-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I will admit - I love X-Men movies - they are fun and always have a great sense of humor. And I've been looking forward to seeing Wolverine for about a year now. So, the negative reviews that were inundating Google news all this week did little to dampen my enthusiasm for the movie. And I am happy to report - now that I've seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine- my enthusiasm remains undiminished. As the woman said in the bathroom after the movie - it was like a chick flick only with fight scenes.

In the opening of the movie we are introduced to sickly Jimmy Logan, his loving father, and his glowering brother Victor Creed. Things don't start to well for the family and soon we are racing through American history with highlights of the two brothers fighting in every major American War. It soon become clear that Victor has a major personality disorder and enjoyed the fighting, killing and ravaging of women a bit too much and the brothers end up imprisoned, only to be recruited by an evil Army Colonel Stryker. And things go on from there.

So why do we call this a chick movie. Well it's amazing just how frequently Logan has to shed his shirt, and in several scenes that thrilled all the women in the audience all his clothes - though careful to retain the PG-13 rating for the movie. And Hugh Jackman finally has a love interest that does not try to kill him (see the last X-Men movie and his encounter with the Phoenix).

And the other mutants that are added, and in some cases dispatched, during the movie are also quite entertaining. Liev Shrieber as Logan's brother Victor (Sabretooth) is quite riveting. My friend and I were quite entranced with the character of Gambit and are prepared to campaign for an Origins movie for that character, and Ryan Reynolds did a great job as Wade, later to be known as Deadpool (though in the credits Deadpool is played by a different actor so there was a bit of confusion on exactly what took place there.

So if you want a fun summer movie with great action, humor and thrills - go see Wolverine. Two tips - stay through all the credits. After the first set of credits there is a clip. And many people thought that was the piece they were staying for and left. We stayed to the bitter end and were rewarded in the very last moment with a fabulous segment that you must see.

Mingling 101

2009-04-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to do a presentation on networking for June 1st. Fortunately this is a topic I've presented on before and we have a great presentation that Deanna has developed that I can deliver. So no worries there. Then my hostess sent me a question that echos questions I've heard from other people - ok, so I've left my cube and I'm confronted with a room full of strangers, what do I do, how to I start a conversation with a total stranger? Do I try and join a group, exactly how do I do that?

These are all great questions and I'll be doing an extended article on this for the ABI site in the next week or so, with research and references to other sites, etc. But for now I thought I'd share my own personal philosophy of mingling. You see I'm very good at picking up strangers - airports, movie lines, bookstores, etc - if you leave me alone for a few minutes and come back I'll usually be talking to someone. One of my former bosses would always leave me with the piles of luggage while he went off to do calls, when he came back I'd be deep in a conversation with the person next to me as if we were old friends. Yet if he stayed with me nothing would happen. He would ask me why and I'd tell him - when you're here I talk to you. Drove him nuts.

While some people are extremely goal oriented - they have a target list of people to meet and do research on those people and plan what they want to achieve at an event - which by the way is excellent if you are entering an event with a goal, meeting new people for me is more for fun.

So , how is it done? How do I approach mingling at large events? This process assumes I'm alone - I'm very different when I'm in a pack of co-workers, etc. If I'm alone- I always do two things.

1. The first is I look for people who aren't speaking to anyone. The person standing alone looking awkward. My mom gave me a great book year's ago - the story was Everyone's Lonely - and the theory in the story was that if you assume everyone else lonely then you've found the secret to happiness. If you make someone else less lonely you will make yourself happier. So if I see someone alone I smile, make eye contact and then move to step 2.

2. I ask questions. I just go up and introduce myself. Hi, I'm Jerri works great. Next come the questions:

What's your name?
What are you doing here? Are they at this place/event for the first time, or have they been before? If it's the first time then I ask why they came? If not, then why did they come back?
Where are you from? I have a huge advantage here - I've been in 43 of the 50 states and I've traveled abroad - so I can almost always find a link. It's also a big advantage having been from New Jersey - it's amazing how many people come from NJ, have family there, have been there, or loved the Sopranos. My home town was the town Tony Soprano's mother lived in - people love that. So it's good to build a bridge and find something I have in common with the other person.
What do you do and where do you work? Obvious questions but with strangers it's a good ice breaker. If I know the job they do I talk about it or ask questions - oh, I'm in marketing too, what specifically do you do in marketing? If I don't I try to find out more about their job? So, you're in banking - what exactly do you do? Do you enjoy it? How long have you done it?

Once the conversation has gone on for a while I try and see if we have other areas in common:

Are you a movie fan? When I first moved to Lancaster PA my boss decided I needed someone in the company to be my advocate - someone the other employees would respect. Since it was a small town and I was an outsider in many ways, he wanted someone who would help me be accepted. He sent myself and the head of Operations off on a road trip for a day to a Water Company Seminar. In the car the silence had gone on for a while until John turned to me and said - you don't like movies do you? Well I love movies and we talked about them all the way to and from the meeting. And that was it - I was in.
Do you like to travel? Always interesting to hear about people's vacations and trips. I have a list of places people have told me about that I'd still like to see. And if you show you're truly interested they will talk for quite a while.
What are your hobbies? Again it sounds trite but people are really interesting when they talk about what they love to do.

And that's how I mingle. I seldom talk about work related issues - unless I am asked. I never try to sell anyone anything in that first conversation - it's all about relationship building. And I try to never have a personal agenda. I'm not mingling with people because I need a job, a sale, etc. I don't go in expecting anything. What I do look for is interesting conversation.

So what is my advice for people emerging from their cubes and wanting to mingle:

1. Practice - don't go into that first mingling opportunity with an agenda. Look for someone nice and practice introducing yourself and making small talk. And if they aren't interested move on. And if things get awkward - just excuse yourself to get a drink or use the ladies room. And when you come back in move on to someone else.

2. Don't be afraid - remember everyone is lonely and hoping to talk to someone nice and interesting.

3. Be well read - I read about 4 magazines a week religiously - Newsweek, People, Entertainment Weekly, and Time. Monthly I read Fast Company, Interview, W, Martha Stewart, O (Oprah's Magazine), InStyle. I check Google News Once a day to check the headlines. Plus I read about 5 books a week. All that reading provides lots of interesting nuggets for conversation. And if I fall behind on my magazines I read them on the plane and give them away to strangers - a great in flight conversation starter. You'd be amazed how you can make someone's day by offering them a People Magazine on a long boring flight.

4. Be yourself - if you're a quiet person then look for another quiet person to chat with. Don't struggle to be the center of attention.

5. And if you do have a good conversation going on and see another person standing alone invite them to join in with the conversation. Be a person that bridges people together. You can say, Suzie was just telling me about her trip to Puerto Rico, and let her continue. When there is a natural break ask if the new person has been to Puerto Rico and introduce youself to them. And if you are part of a host company do make an effort to introduce people to each other.

I'm always looking for more tips - so what are your best tips on how to mingle?

Key Learnings from the Churchill Club Event

2009-04-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

Last night the Anita Borg Institute was one of three women's organization acting as hosts at an event held by the Churchill Club. The tradeoff was very good - we helped promote the event to our constituency in our newsletter and the Churchill Club mentioned us in their promotions and gave us a table in the lobby for our materials. The most popular item on the table? Our research report - all the copies I brought were immediately picked up. I should have brought a whole box.

The event featured a panel discussion with four women representatives from KPMG, Adobe, McKinsey and Duarte. The panel was facilitated by Ann Hummer Winblatt. I enjoyed their discussion a great deal through I did have reservations when the conversation came to the fact that 3% of the Fortune 500 had women CEO's. 3% is not even close to where that number should be.

I did enjoy the panelists each sharing what they've learned. I'll share their lists with you:

Gerri Martin-Flickinger of Adobe Systems
1. Listen
2. Get in your own head as a leader
3. Do what you'll say you do.

Nancy Duarte, Duarte Inc.
1. Don't believe in lies
2. Learn to tell stories in a compelling ways
3. Find the thing in the world you are best at and focus on that.

Barbara Carbone, KPMG
1. Stretch and take challenges
2. Be a sponge - learn anything and everything from everyone
3. Connect with people and develop lifelong relationships

Janaki Akella, McKinsey & Company
1. Dream Big
2. Be open
3. Aspire to be a valued and unique individual

Working with Your Vendors

2009-04-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

One of the things I've learned in my 20 years of marketing is how important it is to have a close, personal relationship with your vendors. I recently had a conversation with a vendor who told me that I had an old fashioned view of vendor relationships. While so many others view vendors products as commoditized, I maintain that it is just as important to have that human relationship. I am very loyal to good vendors, and I have found over time that they are loyal to me.

Here are some examples. A few years ago my tradeshow company had a dispute with our shipping company. I wasn't paying that much attention to that part of it and when my tradeshow person said he could save us some money with a new shipper I allowed him to switch. Biggest mistake of my life. The new shipper allowed some other exhibitor to put their materials into our shipment, packing carelessly and breaking the stair rail on our two story booth; their driver lied and cut the line at the next tradeshow causing our shipment to be moved to the very end of the line, and he then somehow managed to lose 2 of my very expensive leather chairs. When I found out I was beyond livid. I immediately searched the show for my old shipper, apologized profusely, rehired him on the spot, then hunted down the new shipper and fired him. I also itemized the costs of all the damage he had caused (we had to replace the chairs and stair rail and pay overtime to the booth builders because of his being the last one to the show) and deducted them from the half payment we were making to the "new"shipper for getting us to the show. Because my tradeshow people had always been good to me I forgave them but I forced the two companies to reconcile to the point where they would at least both support me. So I've learned that when you have a great vendor you stick with them - you may save a few dollars by switching but you can get burned on the other end.

Another example is our printer. They have dealt with a great deal of nuttiness on our part - especially last year - we gave them a lot of tight deadlines and they always came through. When other people send me solicitations or suggestions for other vendors they end up deleted - it is worth a penny or two a copy to know that everything will get delivered on time and in perfect condition.

On the flip side - I am also very willing to take care of my vendors - I make sure they get visibility with ads in our programs, invitations to our local events, etc. So many smaller businesses today are struggling I want to be sure that my vendors survive.

One story I've heard about a not good vendor. A friend went on a trip to a Skating event earlier this month. When they arrived they discovered that even though the tour group had prepaid the hotel through their tour coordinator the hotel had their reservations but no record of the prepayments. It turned out that the vendor had disappeared - taking the hotel deposits with her, plus all the prepayments for the next event in January. It served as a reminder to me that good vendors are like gold. Sadly my friend is out several thousand dollars, had to pay for her hotel room twice and can no longer attend an event she's been to every year for the past 15 years. She had the Bernie Madoff of Travel Agents.

So the moral is take care of your good vendors but always keep an eye on what's going on.

Check Out My Guest Blog on Non Profit Conversations

2009-04-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

One of the great ways to increase visibility is to do writing as a guest blogger, guest columnist, etc. It's a great way to gain access to a different audience. I wrote a blog post this week for NonProfit Conversations. The blog post was all about how the Anita Borg Institute launched a new program - Savvy Geek Chix. Enjoy.

Nonprofit Conversation - http://nonprofitconversation.blogspot.com/

The Marketing of Earth Day

2009-04-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

What a great job has been done this year by the media companies for Earth Day. What used to be an event that only the staunchest environmentalists and school children paid attention to is now a global event. Every TV show that can has had an Earth Day Theme. Oprah herself devoted an entire episode to Earth Day, the giant garbage swirl the size of Texas is an image that will stick with me for a long time.

Earth the movie opened today - a must see. We're going to see it this weekend - hopefully. Anything that reminds us that we are not the center of the world, and that increases our appreciation of nature, is a good thing.

And HP had signs up the last two weeks outlining activities at all of its locations for the employees.

For myself, I spent today at home - not using gas, taking a walk to the library, looking carefully on what can be recyled, donated and re-used rather than tossed into the garbage and ending up in a landfill.

So, what did you do for earth day?

The 10 Day Event Countdown

2009-04-20T13:38:00.001-07:00

When doing a program the final 10 days are probably the absolute craziest. That's when your plan either comes together or falls apart. We're in the 10 day countdown to Women of Vision and as Hannibal used to say on the A-Team - I love it when a plan comes together. I can't talk to the other parts of the plan but the Marketing plan has come together beautifully.

The ads are done, the print program is finalized, the proof copy has been slightly tweaked (one ad looked a little dark in the print run), and the printer has 10 full days to get the printing done - piece of cake for 680 24 page programs. This is weeks of work by multiple companies and it is finished.
The videos are in final review. The winner videos look terrific, the soundtrack sounds good and we will make that deadline.
The PR firm has kicked in and are doing the outreach - inviting local and national print, radio, tv news and online media to the event. We already have two media people coming so the hope is more will come.
All the signs are with the designer except for our one last minute item - the seating chart. Signage is usually done last since it is quick to produce and so forgiving when you need to make last minute changes. We actually had all the sign content to the printer on Friday.

So does this mean I get to relax this week? Sadly no, still to be done - the post event press release, finishing the event script and doing the run through, prepping the photographer who'll be doing the shots at the event. But I can say we're in better shape than last year.

Marketing Yourself: The First Steps of a Job Hunt

2009-04-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed earlier this week for an article that will be appearing in the Sacramento Bee soon. In it I talked about how you should help other people find a job. It made me stop and think about advice I would give to someone who needs to find a job. Here are a few items- I'll add to these tips over the next few months:

1. Figure out what you want to do. This sounds easy but you do need to give it some thought. I will admit the first time I was laid off I was really worried and I focused on just get a job. The second time I was a bit more relaxed - I had a good severance and I was a bit calmer. So I focused on answering these questions:

What do I want to do? What am I best at? What gives me the most pleasure at work?
Where do I want to be? Do I want to stay in this area or, since I'm changing jobs, do I want to move somewhere else?
What sort of company am I looking for? Enormous Multinational, small startup, midsize, etc?
What do I not want to do ever again?
How much travel do I want to do?
What do I value most in a company - free dinners, good work/life balance, workout facilities?

Those questions will give you a start. Write all the answers down and really look at them. Then write your resume to appeal to the companies that are the best fit. Don't have a lot of training experience in a marketing resume - unless you want to do both (I learned that lesson). Make sure you are selling yourself in this resume. Then start researching companies.

Hitting 400 in LinkedIn

2009-04-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I realized that I was at 388 connections in LinkedIn. Ever the completionist (and a big fan of numbers ending in zero) I made it my goal to hit 400 in the next week. So how did I go about it? First I went to the LinkedIn contacts section and looked at people that LinkedIn thought I should know. I was glad I did - a number of old friends from graduate school and some of my early jobs had joined LinkedIn and I immediately connected with them. I also realized that I hadn't connected with everyone I had worked with at our recent event -Savvy Geek Chix. So I sent invitations to all of them. And I reached out to people I had connected with on Facebook but not on LinkedIn - hey if they are my Facebook friends then LinkedIn is a logical step.

And all of these worked. Last Thursday I rolled over to 400 connections. So, what does that mean to me? Well first off I love being connected to everyone - periodically I like to scroll through and just drop people notes and greetings. And given these dark economic times it's always good to have a way of keeping track of people - everyone's job status changes so quickly. I feel a little more secure in knowing that people have linked to me, recommended me in some cases and are there for me -just as I am here for them if I can be of any assistance.

Of course now that I'm at 400 and breathing a sigh of relief to have reached that number - my newest invitation to connect has arrived - number 401. So on we go to 500. Cheers.

Saturday in the Park: Speaking at the SWE Picnic

2009-04-12T09:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday started out a long drive - San Jose to Sacramento to be precise. Because I am perpetually worried about being late I left for the three hour drive (there's always traffic everyone says) at about 8:15 - assuming I would arrive in the park at 11:30 - plenty of time to figure out where the picnic I was the featured speaker at was. And the fact that it was Easter weekend was also lurking in the back of my mind - would the whole world have taken a three day weekend - and if yes which three days. From the moment I left my driveway to the time I got to the park the only time I stopped was at the single toll I encountered. I never even hit a red light. So there I was in the park an hour earlier than planned.

McKinley Park in Sacramento is really just lovely, their only flaw is a complete lack of a parking lot. Which on most days was probably not a problem but the fact that the park was hosting a Pancake breakfast, a massive easter egg hunt and about 20 other smaller events did not help. However, after circling the park 4 times I finally figured out that you could only park on one side of the street, changed direction and managed to locate a space not far from the picnic location - the tables near the tennis courts. It was such a pretty day I walked around the park enjoying the fresh air, the sunshine and the people watching. I settled near the tennis courts and reviewed my speakers notes, envisioning how I would be working with the audience and enjoyed the vigorous games of tennis that were taking place. Better than Forest Lawn.

Around 11:30 I called Allison, my contact, to see where exactly the picnic was taking place and settled in our section - Area 1. I had been watching with some consternation the setting up of a large bouncy house with an extremely loud engine/pump thing that was inflating it. I found myself praying that this would not be running the entire picnic. My prayers were not answered- that darned engine ran the entire picnic and straight through my talk - my voice is a wreck today.

Anyway, Allison arrived and we set up what we had available and settled into people watch and wait for everyone and the food to arrive. We were thrilled to literally see the Easter Bunny hopping down the trail towards us - but he was derailed by a group of small children. Definitely a classic moment. More on him later.

The group arrived and we all ate the lovely picnic lunch. I was fed first since I was speaking during dessert. The group I was speaking to was the Sacramento chapter of SWE - Society of Women Engineers. We had about 20 people - including several children, students from area colleges and several professional women. Everyone had a great deal of interest in our topic - The Imposter Syndrome.

The talk went really well. I spoke about the Anita Borg Institute and the Grace Hopper Celebration. Our initial exercise had everyone standing up and sitting down as a read a set of conditions - you had to stand up if you matched the condition - i.e. you have children, you're over 40, you've ever felt that you were unqualified for your role. I think it was a great icebreaker (cheers to Kim McLeod who taught me that icebreaker method) - each time people stood up they looked around to see who was like them - and it drew some big smiles.

I talked for a while about the Imposter Syndrome, what it is, what the "symptoms" are, and ways to overcome it. I was glad everyone was so focused on me, though I was momentarily distracted when I saw the Easter Bunny run by on the trail midway through my talk. Not something you see when you're inside HP speaking. Then we did a breakout session where they broke into groups and discussed ways they would overcome specific situations. The groups did a great deal of talking, then we all came back together and shared our experiences. Each team did a great job presenting and had really well thought out answers.

We did a general Q&A session and then everyone turned to the most important work of eating desserts. Yes, I went off my diet and had an Easter Cupcake. Finally I said farewell and headed home. It was a great group that was very open and shared a lot of their feelings and insights on the concept of the Imposter Syndrome.

I was able to stop by and see Kim and take a break from my journey on the way home. I was exhausted and having dinner with her and relaxing a bit was just what I needed before making that final push to get home. All in all a great day in the Park. Now if I could just have gotten one of the engineers to sabotage the engine of that darned bouncy house.

Making Videos for Women of Vision

2009-04-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

I spent all day Friday and Monday in an editing room working on the videos for our upcoming Women of Vision event. The work is intense but very sporadic. We started by watching rough cuts of each of the videos then going back through them and stopping and questioning almost every point and making edits. It's slow but fascinating work - and gave me time to get some other work done during parts where we waiting for our editor - Patrick - to make the necessary changes. Since I had written the script I knew what the video was going to say but it always amazes me how many different ways you can represent a statement visually.

One of our winners attended Princeton and while there wrote a compiler. So in that brief sentence you end up seeing on screen a shot of Princeton, the princeton logo and our visual representation of a compiler. Maybe 4 seconds on the screen but a good 45 minutes of work easily. And it was examined over and over. Another challenge is how do you represent someone from New Jersey vs someone from the Bay Area in their videos. I grew up in New Jersey and for the life of me I couldn't think of anything that would truly visually represent New Jersey easily - except of course for a New Jersey Tomato that would only make sense to me and not the rest of the audience. And of course how do you know if you are doing an accurate translation of a word (for yet another video) when you only speak one of the three languages you're working with?

So how did we solve those problems and many others? You'll have to come to the event to find out. Or keep an eye on this blog - I'll be posting links to the videos when they are up on Youtube.

Speaking Engagement: The Imposter Syndrome

2009-04-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I am driving up to Sacramento to present on the Imposter Syndrom at a gathering of SWE's Sacramento chapter. While all presentations are a little daunting this one is more so because the persentation will take place at a picnic in the park so I will not have my crutches - the thoughtfully laid out powerpoint slides, charts, graphs, tables or cute cartoons that will illustrate my points. So I am reliant just on the words of my notes on the sheets of paper I'll carry with me.

The material for Saturday is so interesting that it seems to be laying itself out - my research on the topic - how people can believe themselves to be imposters at their jobs - is fascinating. I'm hoping the material I've gathered and the dialogue at the event will combine to make an entertaining and educational hour. Now I just need to find another 4 solid hours this week to nail the whole thing down. A great trainer once told me - for every 1 hour you are presenting spend 8 hours on preparation. I was able to spend 4 solid hours this weekend but I still have a ways to go. So fingers crossed as I prepare for Monday.

Marketing Yourself: What do I want to do when I grow up?

2009-04-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

In writing about Job Hunting and finding a new job I've been doing a lot of research. We did our Savvy Geek Chix program last week and it was a huge success. Of the people in the room, a majority had taken our resume workshop and many were looking for a job - either because they'd been laid off or because they were in fear of being laid off.

So, to continue this series of posts I wanted to break down the job search into its components. The first of these is What do you want to do? When you tell your friends you are out of work and looking for a job they are all scrabbling in their brains trying to decide - what is it she does? My grandmother for years would say to me in the sweetest voice - "what is it you do dear?" even though I'd told her a dozen times or more. My boyfriend's sister-in-law, who's never worked in business, could simply not grasp what I did as a marketing person - she didn't understand the terms press release, collateral, etc. And my darling nephew, at the end of a long day of going about, responded to my statement of ask me anything, said in all sincerity- Aunt Jerri - exactly what is this thing you keep talking about - a trade show?

So if the people closest to me are unaware of what I do how much do my friends, and network really know about what I do, and even more importantly - what I like to do?

After my first layoff from the phone company I went to an outplacement firm. And they put me through a battery of tests to help me determine what I should do. I had become a little muddled in my last job - doing a combination of marketing, training, sales support (going with salespeople and presenting on key products that they weren't able to answer questions about), IT (how to teach sales people not to leave their laptops lying around? Steal them and lock them in your desk - they'll never forget them again). Once the tests were completed I was told I was suited for 4 jobs - Marketing, Training, Minister (of great hilarity to me since I am the epitome of the late Sunday morning sleeper- but something I'll talk about in the future) and Politician. So my personality profile said it - I am a Marketer. But a marketer of what? What did I know? I thought at the time I could only work for a phone company but the counselors showed me that marketing skills are applicable across a wide range of businesses. I interviewed at a variety of companies and got several offers but I decided to go with Telecom at the time. But, as I have learned in the last two years working for a non profit - my skills are very transferable. But I have kept my focus very steadily on Marketing.

So what does this mean for people who are out job hunting? First of all sit down and write out what you like to do - what brings your pleasure. In yellow page advertising one of the key tips is to highlight in ads the things you enjoy doing most that make you the most money. Those are the things you want people to focus on. If you are a programmer but what you love is managing a team - then target that. If you are an accountant but you really enjoy working on grant submissions - then focus on finding a company that specializes in grant submissions. It will be much easier to sell yourself to a company if you believe in the product you are selling - yourself. If you enjoy something that will shine through.

Then create a 30 second - one paragraph simple explanation of what you want to do - i.e. I am a highly skilled marketer with 20 years experience in Public Relations, Branding, Collateral Develpment.... - Tell people that's who you are and what you want to do. You're writing the sales pitch for them to use. So if someone says I really need a marketing person - your friends can say - I know someone who'd be perfect for that. Remember your network has become your salesforce and the product is you.

Movie Review: Duplicity

2009-03-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

I took a mental health day yesterday. I was, quite frankly, wiped out from our Savvy Geek Chix event on Tuesday night. The event was great but doing the Resume Clinic and moderating the panel, all after working a full day - well suffice it to say I was tuckered out. So after lunch with one friend, a little shopping at Michaels for crafty goodies, I headed to the movies with Marina to see Duplicity.

I'm not sure I can even do a summary of the movie and do it any kind of justice without giving away all the intricate plotting. From the commercials you know Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are former spies plotting against (or perhaps with) each other and working for rival companies (or is it the same company)? Suffice it to say that the twists and turns of this movie are what make it really entertaining and engrossing. I will confess that at one key point Marina and I turned to each other simultaneously and said at the exact same time - "I'm confused". Then we both laughed and kept on going. And yes at that moment all I could think is "What????" But if you stick it out all is made clear at the end. And along the way you get an incredibly well acted and entertaining movie. Julia Roberts was good - still the movie star with the mile wide smile though I couldn't help but wonder if she'd somehow had her lips done - they looked a little over inflated and less well defined than they used to. And since they did A LOT of closeups of her you did spend a lot of time seeing her mouth.

Clive Owen on the other hand was a revelation. I've had a passion for all things Clive ever since he first appeared on the screen in Godsford Park. He's a lovely lovely man who only gets better with age. He looked equally good in impeccable suits or jeans or a towel. And he's funny, charming, and gorgeous throughout. People Magazine's review nailed it in one line - Clive Owen is sex on a stick.

So I give this movie a big definitely go see it. And yes, take your significant other - they'll like it too.

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T16:16:00.001-07:00

Ada Lovelace Day is the very definition of a viral happening. No one sent out a mailer or spent any money at all, but women connected around the world by facebook pages, blogs, websites all chose to write today about technical women.

In my 18 months with the Anita Borg Institute I've met many incredible women. Their incredible enthusiasm for their studies, their jobs and technology itself is inspiring. It's very hard to pick just one person to blog about. I would like to recognize Jean Bartik, one of the original ENIAC programmers. I've learned a lot about the ENIAC programmers in the last 18 months, how they were the ones who actually physically programmed the first computer, how when they had the celebatorydinner when the computer was launched all the women were left behind while the men went out to eat, how they have struggled for recognition. Jean impressed me the most when I went to hear her speak at the Computer History Museum. At the private reception I was sitting having a snack, not knowing anyone in the room, and she came and sat down with me and started to chat. She was a delight. And on stage she was a riot - sharing how she went from being raised on a farm to moving to Philadelphia on her own to take on the job as an ENIAC Programmer - back in a time when women just didn't do that.

But most of all Jean inspired me with her statement about herself and one of the other Programmers - we are Work Horses and Finishers - we get the job done. That is how I have always viewed myself - someone who gets the job done. Cheers to Jean. And Cheers to Ada Lovelace Day.

The cure for a fear of public speaking - 250 little old ladies

2009-03-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

I am moderating a panel tonight at our Savvy Geek Chix Event. We'll be discussing strategies for keeping your job, and what to do when you are job hunting. I used to be petrified of public speaking. It would take all my nerve to get everyone at the dinner table in college to clink their glasses so that I could stand up and make a one minute announcement about the next day's flag football game (yes I was team captain). I could lead meetings and group discussions. But put me in front of an audience and I would tense up. I remember rehearsing my thesis presentation (which was presented to basically all the senior science majors and faculty in a large auditorium), and my best friend pointing out to me that I was systematically tugging at my dress skirt. I refrained during the presentation and basically was doing fine during the regular presentation until someone sneezed in the audience. They tell me I jumped about a mile in the air, turned and screamed god bless you, then smiled and went back to presenting. I remember none of it.

Somehow I avoided large auditoriums and audiences for the next 5 years, except for one very memorable presentation to the New York State Telephone Association. My boss told me that it appeared I took one deep breath and read the speech without ever pausing or breathing until I finished. I don't remember it.

Then my boss Bill Hammond, one of my favorite people in the world, decided that part of my objectives was public relations events. I was Regional Marketing Manager for the State of Pennsylvania and based at Enterprise Telephone Company. And so he sent me to do a presentation on understanding your telephone bill to the Sunshine Senior Group in New Holland PA (the name of the group has been changed due to my inability to remember names). He told me how could I be afraid of 15 little old ladies and assured me I'd do fine. I walked in and instead of 15 ladies at a table I was confronted by an enormous room packed full. I quickly counted - 25 tables, each with 10 seats. 250 little old ladies. I was doomed. I had, yes it was the old days, transparencies and my projector which I carefully set up as I was scrutinized closely. I easily topped each of these women by a foot and I think I was the only one in the room who was not wearing a Mennonite cap on my head. To top it off I had an extremely curly perm in those days and my hair was naturally very blond. I was in my very favorite teal suit and pumps - the very picture of the 80's business woman confronting little ladies that had all been farmers wives during the depression -not necessarily my constituency.

I was terrified. I'm not sure what I was afraid of more - fainting or somehow having all these women attack me for my lack of a cap.

I was introduced and got up and began my talk - careful to avoid eye contact. I could hear people in the back talking and I was completely unsure what to do so I just talked faster. I suddenly realized that one of the little tiny ladies in the front row had stood up and was tugging on my jacket. All I could think is "this is it, she's going to throw me out",even though I could have easily picked her up with one hand. I stopped and looked at her. She held out her hand for my microphone. I gave it to her. She turned to the audience and into the microphone she said, "This little girl came all the way from the phone company to tell us about phone bills. And I for one want to hear it. So all you chatterboxes in the back," she paused, "SHUT UP". She turned back to me, handed me the microphone, patted my cheek and said- "You go ahead honey."

Well I just had to laugh. And the audience laughed with me. With that I turned back to the audience and said - I have just a couple of slides but I'm going to forget about them and let me just answer your questions. With that my 15 minute talk turned into an hour long Q&A. The ladies were great and I actually was able to use my slides when answering their questions. It was great.

I'll never forget that little woman. She taught me that an audience won't be in the room unless they want to hear what you are saying. And yes, over the years I've had people walk out on talks - but I don't take offense anymore. And I love it when people raise their hands and ask questions - I prefer my talks to be interactive. So I'm not nervous about tonight. Well not too much. I may give my skirt just a couple of tugs as we get started.

Marketers Week in Review

2009-03-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

I'm all alone in the office - the rest of the team is either on vacation, out at meetings working from home or headed out to start their weekend early. I realized I hadn't posted since early this week and I thought perhaps y'all would be interested in what I worked on this week. Here's my list:

Finished the scripts for our 3 Women of Vision Winner videos and met with my producer. They will do a rough narration and start laying out the footage. In about two weeks I'll be editing videos.
Created an Ad for Women of Vision for the Silicon Valley Biz Journal
Created an Ad for GHC for Diversity Careers
Edited a new datasheet for GHC Academic Underwriters
Wrote and published a press release on GHC Scholarships
Laid out our ABI Newsletter - including editing or writing articles, etc.
Updated our newsletter distribution - we had 63 new people sign up to get it in less than 2 weeks!
Created 3 handouts for Savvy Geek Chix and met with the members of the panel I'm moderating.
Tracked the articles that we published this week
Coordinated two press interviews
Helped my CEO rehearse for her upcoming speaking engagement at HPCC next week
Posted two Fast Company Posts this week
Attended a lot of meetings

So it was a busy week but many of our weeks are like that. I guess you might say its the typical week of a Non Profit Marketing Director. Who is now going home to a weekend of knitting, reading, visiting with friends, hiking and finalizing the newsletter. Cheers.

Marketing Yourself: Your References

2009-03-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things you can do during a job search is have an organized set of references. Companies today are doing even due diligence than ever on their new hires - so here are few tips for your references:

1. Ask people to do references for you on LinkedIn - they are endorsing you for all the world to see and you want that visible since prospective employers are connecting on LinkedIn. Be sure to get references on Linked In from peeers, your manager (past and present), subordinates, customers, colleagues from volunteer organizations, etc. You can also make the decision not to post a reference or ask people to edit them so you are assured of supporting the image you want to convey.
2. When you are walking into a job interview it's good to carry in a nicely designed reference list. Be sure to include their name, their past relationship to you -i.e. My supervisor at Company X, my customer at company Y, their phone number(s) - office and cell, and their email address.
3. Be sure to ask people in advance if they'll agree to be a reference. Be sure to make surethey are comfortable doing so and that they'll make themselves available to do the reference. And include them in your job search - people who know and like your work are more likely to hire you again.
4. Be courteous to your references after the interview - let them know that they will be called, and be sure to send them your current resume and a copy of the job description and why you think you are a good fit for the job. It doesn't hurt to give them speaking points - i.e. remember how I did project y and we increased revenue? Be sure to let them know about that. I had a friend who asked for a reference and for the life of me - ten years later - I couldn't remember a thing that we'd done together. I asked him to tell me what to say and what the job was - nothing. Not my shining moment as a reference.
5. Do not give out your reference's home number. I had someone call me for a reference at 8 am at home on a vacation day - I was not a happy camper.

And if you are the one giving a reference - Only give references to people you believe in. . It is your reputation when you give someone a reference - if you can't say something honestly - don't say it. If you don't know something about someone - don't say they can do it, just say you don't know .

Marketing Yourself: Your Online Collateral - Facebook

2009-03-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

I receive an email three times every day that includes reporters requests for input to stories - anecdotes, expert speakers, has this ever happened to you? And I pitch to them. Lately I've seen a number of queries on the same topic - how does Facebook help you find a job? This is my answer: Facebook on its own won't help you get a job. Facebook will however help you stay connected to your network. And it is via your network that you'll find your next job.

However, what I have been hearing is that Facebook (and your blog) can cost you a job. Here are a few of the stories I've heard. One hiring manager told me that she'd interviewed a very eager candidate - bright, well educated and probably a little too experienced for the job. But she needed the help and she wasn't about to tell someone in this economy that they were over qualified. Until she checked out his Facebook page. And there in his Facebook page where he had been posting all the details of his job search was the line - I've got this job in the bag. I'm just going to use it to get some money and then as soon as I find something else I'm outa here. Suffice it to say he didn't get the job.

Or the woman who was hiring and was able to get a look at her oh so serious candidate's facebook page which was filled with pictures of the candidate drinking, partying and posts about how she was so wasted. Not exactly what you want your potential boss to see. She moved on to the next candidate. And yes, it's true, everyone has fun on the weekends. You just need to take a moment and stop and think about what you are putting online. While we'd all like to think that our potential bosses only know what we tell them - our resume, our interview, our oh so carefully screened references - in fact our online life is pretty open to the universe.

So my suggestion - stop and think before your post whether you would want your potential hiring manager to see this.

Movie Review: Watchmen

2009-03-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend is, for lack of a better word, a fan boy. He has a massive comic book collection, has read numerous graphic novels- appreciating them for both their literary as well as artistic aspects, and he has a copy of Spiderman #1. So over the years he has spoken frequently about Watchmen. And over that time I've garnered the basics of the plot - a collection of superheros who are sociopaths and lunatics band together one final time to confront the apocalypse of nuclear devastation threatened by the Cold War Russians in 1985.

Now my approach to the movie, which I assumed we did have to see, was a little different once I discovered Jeffrey Dean Morgan was in the movie. Yes, I am a Grey's Anatomy fan and I was a fan of his character Denny, who died way back in season 2, but yet has recurred frequently in various ghostly forms. Then I discovered that the first scene in the movie was the death of his character, The Comedian, and I was crushed. But he lived on in flashbacks.

So I approached the move somewhat concerned, though being a long time fan of Lost I know I can handle flashbacks. As we settled in for a long movie - 167 minutes according to the paper, I felt as prepared as I could be without having actually read the book.

I found the movie to be engrossing, confusing, visually dark with some real dazzling moments and starring a very large naked blue man. I enjoyed the movie a lot -more for the fact that it was unexpected at every turn, that the story did not follow any plot I'd seen before, and that the characters were intriguing.

I can't really explain the movie without giving too much away - it really does need to be seen and experienced. I will say that it had some moments of extreme violence - especially with the character Rorshach that had me covering my eyes and cringing. It is also most definitely deserving of its R rating. And if you are a superhero fan it may make you give a few second thoughts to some of the behaviors of your favorite superheros - think X-men run amok. And for Jeffrey Dean Morgan fans - he's in the movie quite a bit - even though he dies in the first five minutes. My only hope is that at some point I get to see him in a movie where he actually survives the whole movie.

Innovation Panel of Experts

2009-03-05T08:45:00.001-08:00

I've been lucky enough in the last week to see not one but two different sessions on Innovation. The first, held here at HP, was a talk by Judy Estrin on her new book, Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy. The second was a panel discussion at the Churchill Club which included Judy Estrin as well as Josephine M. Cheng (IBM), Rick Rashid (Microsoft), Sue Siegel (Mohr Davidow Ventures) and the moderator-Michael Mandel from BusinessWeek.

Both were great talks and really had me thinking about the lack of investment in Innovation and pure basic science in the last 8 years. I remember when I was a biochemist, there were months where we would obsessively write and rewrite grant applications to help fund our lab. And the requirement that we tie our research to a hot topic -since it was the early 80's the first year it was cancer, the second year it was Aids. But once the grants were done there was something about doing pure science that was extremely satisfying - endlessly refining the processes and protocols, becoming better and better at replicating results, and the days where there were actual breakthroughs that were thrilling.

I can't imagine how it has been for scientists in the last 8 years as the last administration literally closed the doors on areas of research, barring them from moving things forward. Hfrustrating for the scientists, and how horrifying that we've delayed finding cures for diseases by 8 years. Having lost both my parents to cancer, my dad when I was just a kid, the thought that some other child might lose a parent because of this 8 year delay is extremely frustrating.

But from these talks it's become clear that Innovation has been thwarted in many directions - not just the biological sciences. I'm enjoying reading Judy's book and last night's session gave me a lot to think about in terms of the need to embrace and promote pure research. And also about the need to find the time to think and be creative is critical to all our futures.

Stitches West: An update from the world of tradeshows

2009-03-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

Annually knitters and purveyors of all things knitting gather from around the country (and even beyond our borders) in the Santa Clara Convention Center for Stitches West. Ok, I'll admit it - some crocheters show up as well. Since I am an avid knitter of scarves and afghans I love to go and see everything they have to offer. Mountains of yarn dazzle the eye - from tiny skeins of beautiful silk bamboo yarn that cost $42 to huge mounds of cotton at $1 per skein - there is something for every knitter. And there is something incredibly satisfying from running your hand over silky soft alpaca, lovely organic cotton and sleek silks. And yes I did shop.

I also took some time out for a foot massage at a friend of our's booth. As Ellen got her back rub I giggled (yes I have ticklish feet) and chatted with the booth staff about the show. The results were surprising - there had been a morning meeting of the vendors and the first two days numbers had been calculated. The show had seen a 10% increase in attendance over 2008 but sales themselves were down 10%. We brainstormed what that meant. Here are our theories:

1. Stitches West is a better value than almost any other event out there for pure entertainment. The tickets were $8, $6 if you had a coupon which almost everyone did. That's $2 less than a movie at the AMC Mercado and it lasted longer. We were there over 4 hours. And the food was less expensive than the Mercado- for another $7 I had a diet coke and a sandwich for lunch - less than a soda and popcorn at the movies. So for a total of $13 I had a full tummy and 4 solid hours of entertainment. Throughout the day there were also demonstrations and if we'd gone on Saturday there would have been a fashion show - all included in the price. And where else do you get to talk to a woman who is knitting with yarn made from cat fur?

2. Knitters just can't resist running their hands over yarn. But people, including myself, were definitely shopping more carefully. All I can say is everything I bought has a target recipient at Christmas time. The yarns were gorgeous but I did refrain from indulging in that $42 skein of bamboo/silk blend though I actually dreamt about it last night. So people may have quelled their urges and stayed on budget.

3. You could see the impact in the difference from last year - several of the aisles that had been full last year were a bit shortened - and the first aisle contained only a single booth - a coat check run by the girl scouts who let you check a bag or a coat for $2 and managed to sell you cookies when you did the pickup. So some vendors may no longer exist or did not want to make the expensive journey to CA for the show.

4. Speaking of the girl scouts - it seems the price of cookies has actually gone down - through boxes that used to be full now only hold 15 cookies for $4 - so the boxes are more affordable but you get less than you used to.

So the lessons learned from this event - keep the quality and entertainment value of your event high and be sure to have some good bargains in your booth.

Marketing Yourself: Your Online Collateral - LinkedIn

2009-02-26T09:28:00.001-08:00

There are currently so many ways to Market yourself online that I decided to address them one at a time. The first, and for people in business the most important, is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a free online service that allows you to build a resume online. Once the resume is built you can begin to connect with everyone you've ever worked with, gone to school with, etc. This is the ultimate networking tool.

Once you begin to connect with people you can see the lists of people they are connected to and continue to expand your network. In my LinkedIn account - which is currently at 366 connections - I am connected to people from both undergrad and grad school and almost every job I've ever had. But LinkedIn is about more than networking, it is a job hunting tool.

Here is a simple example. If I am looking for a job and I see that company has posted a position for a Director of Marketing - I can search my connections to see who I know that either works at that company or who knows someone at that company who can introduce me. When I find someone I can send them my resume and ask them to forward it or I can request an introduction to the person they know. With that often comes the opportunity for my connection to recommend me for the position. It's that simple.

LinkedIn is also expanding its features to include groups - interest groups, ex-company groups, college groups, I'm even in my high school alum group.

Is it worth the time? Absolutely. You can use LinkedIn to promote events, get general questions answered, make connections, keep up with old friends and find jobs.

So what are my suggestions to make LinkedIn work for you:

1. List every job you've ever had in Linked In with the correct company name. You'll get suggestions of others who worked at the company available so you can re-connect with even more of your past networks.

2. Get recommendations. You can have co-workers, customers, bosses (old and new), friends, etc write you recommendations on LinkedIn. I currently have 19. I wasn't sure if it was worth it until a current co-worker told me that when she was checking my references she looked at my LinkedIn references as well. The fact that so many of my references talked about high energy, cheerful, team player and got things done - all helped me get the job.

3. When you meet someone new - Link with them.

4. Spend 10-15 minutes a week scanning the contacts from past companies and sending invites. You don't need to spend days on LinkedIn. Once you do connect try and drop notes to check in on people once in a while.

5. Never write a recommendation for somone you don't recommend. Your reputation becomes tied to the reputations of people you recommend. If you're put in the awkward position of having to do a recommendation because the person is a current co-worker or even a friend that you love but would never want to work with - make the recommendation very specific. Everyone has their strengths - focus on those. For example if someone is a terrible manager but an excellent writer - only talk about their writing. If someone is great at people skills but terrible at delivering on projects - then talk about their ability to connect with people. Never give a strong broad endorsement unless you truly mean it.

6. Do fill out the profile completely. Some people only put their current job on LinkedIn. That's not using the service to its fullest extent.

7. Do help other people get jobs. You never know when you'll be the one out looking.

Marketing Yourself: Your Collateral

2009-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have rebranded many companies during my career. And central to that process are two things - the website and the collateral that you develop. Those are often the primary means of communicating to customers. The web is a topic I'll address in a future post - but your personal collateral is today's topic.

For non marketers the question arises what is collateral? I think of collateral as any leave behind materials. For a business those include datasheets, brochures, case studies, product descriptions, diagrams, photography, presentations, videos, etc. They are a representation of what your company is and tell the story of your product when you are not physically present.

So what is your personal collateral? What represents you to a recruiter, a hiring manager, an HR person, an interviewer? There are several items that can be included - your resume, listings of your publications, your portfolio (though these should never be left behind unless you have copies of everything and are willing to lose it), and your references.

When you develop collateral you need to think about several things. The first is the overall look and feel of the piece - the colors, the fonts, the design style, the length. You should do this with a resume too. You will most likely do your resume submissions on line but you will also want to print out the resume too. It never hurts when you walk into an interview with multiple clean printed copies of the resume - preferably on a nice piece of stationary. It makes it stand out from all the copies mass printed on copier paper.

Make sure the resume is done in a nice readable font. Be sure to make the font size big enough to be seen. Make sure you have a nice balance of white space and dark print (do not put your print in anything but black - you want it to stand out on the page). And be sure that when you print out the resume that it all fits well on the page and that it doesn't look like a solid mass of print. You want to make it easy for people to scan quickly and find the key points. Do use bold - but sparingly - bold is to be used to highlight items. I personally do not like underlining on a page - I find it distracting.

The length for a business resume should be no more than two pages. Yes, yes, I know - but whoever is screening resumes is seldom going to read that third page. All the most important information should be on the first page.

And what is that important information? If you've ever read product literature it is all about features and benefits. What are features and benefits? Features are the things that remain unchanged about a product - it's functions, description (size, speed, capability). Benefits are what that product can do for the user.

Your resume is your product literature - you are the product. You can design your resume by thinking this way - you have a set of skills, experience and expertise, as well as your job history and academic background. This is what you are capable of doing. These must be in the resume. And while everyone wants to make sure you have all the features (see every job description - it is a list of the features they want in the person they hire), it is the benefits that make people select you.

How do you convey benefits in a resume? Those are the bulleted items under each job in your resume that shows how you took the features and made a positive impact on you. If you were buying a toothpaste you would look on that has fluoride - that's a feature. If the toothpaste says it has fluoride and use of the toothpaste has been shown to reduce cavities by 98% - that's the benefit. So people want features but they buy on benefits.

So let's take myself for example - I know how to create collateral, design web pages, develop and implement PR campaigns, and a host of other things. I put all of those at the top of my resume in my skills section - these are the things I know how to do. The check list. If I were a developer I'd write about all the types of systems and code I know how to work with. Then under each job - i.e. Director of Marketing, Anita Borg Institute - I show how I used those skills to positively impact my organization. For example

Implemented PR Campaign to support research study deployment; achieved media coverage in Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and an additional 40 major publications.

The reader of the resume says hey I need someone who can do PR campaigns and I want to be in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Or say they want someone who can create a newsletter:

Edited and published two newsletters monthly and increased circulation of newsletter by 98% in first year.

So yes I met the checklist item with my yes I can do a newsletter but they're saying - wow she increased circulation. And I don't go into the weeds - I don't tell them how I did it - I save that info for the interview.

The same can be done for any job. Think about how your work impacts the product you are working on as well as the company.

Also, remember to highlight what you did on a resume. Women especially like to say we did this or the team did this. Be sure to highlight your individual contributions on your resume and note the impact overall.

Remember your resume is not a laundry list of everything you've ever done. Be sure to make sure you put your strongest results into the resume. And don't be afraid to tweak the resume before you send it in for a specific job. I always read the job description carefully and review my resume to make sure it meets most of the points the hiring firm is looking for. Just keep track of what version you send out.

If you have experience with a specific industry don't be afraid to namedrop. I once got an interview for a voice mail product marketing position. My experience was with voice mail systems and I listed all the manufacturers I had worked with. It turned out they were hiring for someone to deal with three of those manufacturers on my list. It would have been a great fit. And I would have gotten the job if I hadn't asked what had happened to my predecessor. The interviewer told me in graphic detail how she'd become so unhappy and overstressed in the job she'd killed herself. I was horrified and it showed. Especially since his next question was how well did I deal with stress. Ack!

Most importantly - never present something on your resume that you did not do. I can't tell you how many times I've heard interviewers say - great resume but it was clear they did not do the work themselves. As things have become more competitive and hiring restrictions grow tighter you have an increased chance of being interviewed by multiple people who will ask you about everything on your resume.

I'll be writing more about your personal collateral in the coming days. One final note - be sure to have someone proofread your resume who is very good at the language the resume is written in. If you have a friend who's an English major, English professor, super speller - have them read it. There are things spellcheck will not find for you and trust me someone will notice.

Marketing Yourself in Tough Economic Times

2009-02-24T10:31:00.001-08:00

As the economy continues it's downward trend and more and more of my friends are laid off I find myself spending a lot of time - both personally and at work - thinking about how to help people find jobs. I'll be writing a series of posts over the next few weeks about this topic since I'm in the process of putting together materials for the Anita Borg Institute's newest event - Savvy Geek Chix : Weathering the Economic Storm. The event is a combination of networking, a resume clinic and a panel discussion by some very Savvy Geek Chix on what to do while you have a job, how to prepare for a coming layoff and what to do when you are laid off.

I have been through several layoffs and I can tell you - it's never easy. But the most important thing to remember once a layoff happens is that your single most important job after that is to find another job. And that everything you do once the layoff happens is about marketing yourself. Your new job is to market yourself as a product that your potential new employer will hire. You are launching a new start up and you are that startup.

So what's the first thing you do when launching a startup? Create an image, a brand. You need to decide who you are going to be and what you want to do at your next company. Avoid the desire to spray and pray - I'll be anything for anyone who'll hire me. That's one way to guarantee that no one will want you. You are now packaging your expertise as a product to be purchased so think about who you are, what you do, what you are good at and where your expertise is. And be sure to think about what you like to do, what makes you happy. You'll bring real energy to any job that you really enjoy doing.

Next time: Creating your personal collateral

Oscar Sunday

2009-02-23T16:35:00.001-08:00

It's always interesting to read about the strategies around promoting an Oscar nominee. Will anyone forget the year that Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan? Or that one of the biggest movies of all time, The Dark Knight, didn't get nominated for Best Picture; while the Reader - which no one saw did? But none of that matters to me on Oscar night.

I love movies and the Oscars is my Superbowl. I hunker down and hardly move my eyes throughout - feasting on the sight of all the celebrities trying not to look upset when they lose and wondering if anyone is going to just pop right out of their dress (yes you Sarah Jessica Parker).

This year I found myself in an odd position. I had hardly seen any of the nominated movies. Slumdog Millionaire I'd skipped because everyone who would see it had seen it without me and many people weren't that interested. I assumed I'd catch it on Netflix - never thinking that such a tiny underdog of a movie with no celebrities and mostly in Hindi would win. I was wrong. The Reader I skipped because I'd read the book and I'd figured out the secret in the first 20 pages. I spent most of the book wondering how stupid all the characters were for not figuring it out sooner. The Wrestler I was warned off of by my boyfriend since he knows I do not like movies that involve anything sharp coming into contact with people's faces - no staplers, no razors - Ick. And Frost/Nixon just didn't capture my attention - I'd seen the real interviews so seeing them re-enacted was not of interest. I did see Milk and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button - and I rooted for Curious the whole evening.

The overall broadcast was quite fun - though the medley of songs in the middle was just a mess. I'd rather hear a whole song than lots of tiny bits of ones. And while I love John Legend, I would much rather have heard Peter Gabriel sing his nominated song than just hear bits of it mixed in with the other two Best Song nominees. The best part of the broadcast were the actor and actress awards when past winners came out - each to honor one of the nominees. The looks on each nominees face as they were praised were priceless. The look on Anne Hathaways face, Meryl Streep's glow, Robert DeNiro's joke - were all priceless. In this one instance it was just enough to be a nominee.

So I give Hugh Jackman a big thumbs up and I appreciate the Oscars for honoring the whole year in movies - from the highlights of various film genres throughout the evening to the great opening number with Anne Hathaway. And it was nice that for once it was only 3 1/2 hours long as opposed to 5 hours. However my number one question of the evening went unanswered - did Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie ever encounter each other in the ladies room and did Jennifer finally clock Angelina?

CAMINOS Event Honoring Anita Borg Institute

2009-02-20T09:36:00.001-08:00

Last night was a terrific one for the Anita Borg Institute. The Institute, along with the organization Latinas in Computing, were honored by CAMINOS at their 10 anniversary event - Digital Decade for Latinas. We were honored for having played an important role in increasing access to technology for Latinas and minorities over the past 10 years. CAMINOS works in San Francisco's Mission District providing basic to advanced computer literacy and training courses to Latina immigrants. Their work enables these women to find better paying jobs and through their low cost computer service repair shop they make computing more affordable to low-income members of the San Francisco Latino Community.

The event was lovely. I attended along with my co-workers Jody Mahoney, Kim McLeod and BJ Wishinsky and by our CEO, Telle Whitney. Telle also delivered the keynote address. Her keynote address rocked and actually brought tears to my eyes as she shared the words of one of our past Grace Hopper Celebration scholarship winners who spoke about what it meant to her to attend our event.

The highlight of the evening is that we were awarded a Certificate of Honor signed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for our work with technical women. It was big honor.

So, what does all this have to do with marketing you might ask. Quite a bit actually - being asked to attend the event was only the first step in the process. When CAMINOS contacted us I engaged with them in helping support the event. We published two articles they created in our newsletters to help them promote the event. Caroline Simard and I also acted as editors of their report "Latina Immigrants and Technology in San Francisco's Mission District (1999-2009) A Case Study on CAMINOS-Pathways Learning Center. And ultimately - my final role was as speech editor and advisor to Telle as she crafted her keynote address. And now, the day after -I'm writing an article for our newsletter about the event and the great honor we received.

Have a great weekend everybody. Look for my Oscar review on Monday.

Movie Review: The International

2009-02-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

For those who don't know it, I am a huge Clive Owen fan. I'm one of those people who say that you could do a whole movie of just a closeup of him and I'd be happy. The International made me very happy. Not only is it Clive Owens' movie but the whole first minute is just a close-up of Clive Owens. And it gets better from there.

I think The International is the first intelligent thriller of the year. The globe trotting movie has splendid scenery and a great story about a large multinational bank that is working to control the world's supply of small arms, the kind used in 98% of the ongoing skirmishes throughout the globe, and the small group of law enforcement personnel who are working to stop the bank. The bankers are suitably loathsome and cut throat, with their own personal assassin on call.

The movie avoids the usual cliches of the investigator and beautiful woman on the run and in love in amongst all the shootouts. Instead you see Clive Owens as an Interpol agent, and how long has it been since Interpol has been mentioned in a thriller?, and Naomi Watts as a New York District Attorney. The two work well together and care for each other as colleagues but Naomi has a perfectly lovely family at home - this is a woman with work/life balance worked out. They manage to retain their jobs through most of the movie so you get to see several scenes of employee and boss clashing about their work objectives.

The movie has several thrilling scenes - I won't ruin it but I may never go to the Guggenheim Museum again since it seems to have no emergency exits which is not a good thing - and a wonderful chase through the streets of Milan. The violence is very realistic and graphic but that adds to the tension in the movie. It also has a great twisty ending. Here's hoping for the International 2.

The movie is definitely not one to take the kids to. But if you like the Bourne movies only without all the jiggly camera work and confusing abrupt cuts and you are really hating on banks right now - this is the movie for you.

Movie Review: He's Just Not That Into You

2009-02-16T00:42:00.000-08:00

For those who don't know about this movie, it's actually based on an expression that was first used in a Sex and the City episode. Carrie's then boyfriend Berger (my least favorite of any of the men she dated) listened to Carrie and Miranda going through a complicated justification of why a guy had not called Miranda after the first date. Berger's simple solution - he's just not that into you. And so it went from there.

The movie, written by the same Sex and the City writer who coined the phrase and wrote the book, follows the lives of a group of interconnected attractive people living in Baltimore. I chose this as our Valentine's movie date because a romantic comedy seemed the thing and Mike would have run screaming after the first ten minutes of Confessions of a Shopaholic. He refuses to see all movies where a major subplot revolves around shoes.

Overall, I found the movie interesting, it certainly held my attention and got a few chuckles and a few oh no's from me as well. Mike pointed out afterwards that to him the whole movie was just one long incredibly awkward moment. I can see his point - when the women in this movie interact with the men in their lives more often than not it was something painful. At least until the last 20-30 minutes in which everything was wrapped up to a degree.

For me the movie raised some questions - why did Jennifer Aniston seem so surprised that Ben Affleck, a professed skeptic and non believer in marriage, didn't want to marry her? But then I've known many women in the same situation. There is always that hope that maybe he'll change his mind, sometime. And why was Jennifer Connelly so obsessed with her husband's possible smoking when she really needed to be concerned that he was sneaking around behind her back with Scarlett Johanssen. And how did Scarlett Johanssen and Drew Barrymore come to the conclusion that it is ok to go after a married man and try and destroy his marriage? You had to wonder about things like that.

However, I'm not panning this movie - I don't think it was worth $10 each - I would have been a bit more satisfied if it had been a matinee - but I did enjoy watching all the pretty people and the movie does have some funny moments. And while much of it seemed absurd and over exaggerated, much of it rung true for me. I've had too many friendswho have angsted over guys who are just not that into us and dealt with predatory women pursuing the men they were with. So the happy endings, though a bit contrived, did actually make me happy.

Social Media and Non Profits

2009-02-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

I attended a webinar this week on fundraising for non profits through social media -specifically blogs, facebook and twitter. The information was not as useful as I had hoped since the basic message was you should devote time to social media but not too much time but we can't tell you how much time that is. The other advice was to use these tools as a way to build rapport and support from your audience and to engage people.

I was fascinated by the numbers - there are 150 million bloggers and 1 million tweeters. But what was really interesting were the numbers from the mini survey of the attendees - more than half of the non profits on the call were using no social media, many were doing one of the three and only 4% of the call attendees were using all three - blogs, facebook and twitter. The Anita Borg Institute is using all three so we are part of that 4%. Currently we have a twitter account, soon to be adding another for myself to do ABI public relations twitter. It seems that some reporters now refuse to receive any pitches except via twitter. If you can't say it in 140 characters I guess it's not worth saying. But that means it is time to start tweeting PR. We have multiple blogs - one for ABI, one on Fast Company for our CEO and Director of Research and one for GHC bloggers. And for Facebook - we're all over that with pages and event pages and groups, etc.

So what keeps most non profits from investing in social media? That ephemeral thing called ROI - when you are underfunded and your staff is overworked how do you take someone off of helping a hungry child to go and tweet about it? And with the inability to prove the ROI of social media - few facebook fundraisers are truly effective, yet. And the operative room is yet. It takes a good amount of time to build up Facebook pages and blog and twitter followers. And as a member of the ABI team I can tell you it is totally worth it.

Selling The Economic Recovery Package - Make it Personal

2009-02-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

I listened last night with great interest to Barack Obama's first press conference as President. He did a great job. His opening statement was strong but beyond that he was able to take something almost incomprehensible - the current financial economic meltdown and the 800 Billion Dollar recovery plan and make it instantly relatable to everyone. He did it using Elkhart Indiana as his case study. Elkhart has felt the impact of the economic downturn even more than the rest of the country with an unemployment rate of 15% and more bad times on the way. Obama's ability to take a global crisis and bring it down to an understandable level was phenomenal. He was everyone's dream spokesperson - he was clear, concise, honest and impactful. I had tears in my eyes as he told the story of Elkhart.

And when he related that in the last month we lost as many jobs as there are in the entire state of Maine - wow. I could immediately relate to that - I've been to Maine several times - the thought of all those people out of work - it was shocking.

I also admire his ability to stay on message throughout the questioning. Even more exciting - he did actually answer every question - something we haven't seen for about 8 years. Of course there's always the oddball question - the A-Rod question of steroids. And in that he did a nice reversal - taking a small personal story and relating it to a national lesson for children everywhere.

Now is the time for civility and rational thought - lead on Obama.

A Tarnished Idol

2009-02-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've watched with interest the tarnishing of a relatively new American idol this week - Michael Phelps. It is an interesting example of how one slip can have a major ripple effect. I found it interesting that Kellogg's has positioned themselves as no longer being a sponsor did so in the same month Michael Phelps contract with them was expiring anyway. They get to promote their wholesome American values at a cost to no one but Phelps, the contract was expiring anyway. I'm sure the marketing team at Kellogg's was thrilled.

Notice that his other sponsors have not withdrawn - but then their contracts are still in place and I'm sure the a public legal case attempting to terminate a contract would be much more costly than putting their heads down and waiting out the scandal.

Do I think Michael Phelps will recover? Yes. He is one of the great Olympic athletes of our time. And 2012 is coming and I'm sure the US will rally behind him again. He's handling this well with an appropriate amount of public shame and remorse. I'm just sad that all those lovely shiny gold medals are now just tinged with a little tarnish.

Superbowl Ads: Which ones do I remember?

2009-02-02T08:30:00.001-08:00

I wouldn't be a marketing person if I didn't write a blog about the Superbowl commercials from yesterday. I haven't seen or read any of the reviews of the commercials - I understand the news last night was actually offering reviews but Mike was so upset about Pittsburgh's win we ended up watching House Hunters on HGTV to avoid all discussion of the game.

So which commercials did I like? The Clydesdale commercials. I know I know - it's a beer commercial - but I really love the horses. They were my favorite, I especially liked the one where the horse wanted the treat and retrieved the log. The look on the dalmatian's face was classic.

I also loved Pixar's preview for UP. Something to look forward to this summer.

I happened to go to the grocery store yesterday and discovered at the checkout 3D glasses which were required for a commercial at the end of the second quarter. So I brought home a set of 4, even though only two of us were watching, carefully cut and punched them out and had them waiting. Thank goodness they gave us repeated warnings that the commercial was coming. So at last they announced the commercial was starting and Mike and I put on our glasses and watched. Our conclusion - Monsters and Aliens looks so/so - might be good, hard to tell from the commercial - but not much of the commercial was in 3D - though something did pop out at one point. It may have been a case of too much hype - the commercial was inevitably going to be a let down. So those of you without 3D glasses - you didn't miss much.

The new Star Trek movie looks fine though the clips at the end of the commercial were a bit muddled so hard to tell; the new Julia Roberts/Clive Owen is a must see - it looks like a sort of Mr & Mrs Smith type movie - rival spies fall in love - but I want to see it because I honestly think it's the first time I've seen Clive Owen ever smile. Must be worth a bit.

The rest of the commercials were of the forgettable sort. I hope no one spent their last marketing dollar. I noticed the only car companies really advertising were Hyundai and Toyota - no American car companies to be seen. Thank goodness they aren't spending our tax dollars on Superbowl commercials.

Of course my favorite part of the whole event was Bruce Springstein - I'm a Jersey girl and we love our Bruce. Excellent songs until the next to last about Dreams. We were both like what the hell is this? I was demanding Glory Days and thank goodness Bruce heard me and switched into that for his final song. Very cool. And how fun is it to see Steve Van Zandt not playing in the Soprano's but rocking out once again.

So who was the big winner in last night's Superbowl? The Boss of course.

It's always nice to see you - the advantages of a personal touch in marketing

2009-02-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended the 50th Anniversary of the Mount Holyoke College Peninsula Club. In years past I was president of this group and we actually had an array of past (and present) presidents at the event. It was great to see so many friends - and to forge some deeper relationships wtih people I knew only slightly in my early days with the club.

As an added benefit to the afternoon event (and the delicious anniversary cake) Mount Holyoke sent along the new Executive Director of the alumnae association and the President of the Alum Assoc as well. It was an excellent marketing decision by the College to send the two women west.

The new Executive Director, this was her 30th day, was charming and made everyone feel comfortable that the association would be in good hands. The trials of a few years ago when the association seemed to be at war with the College is not something any of us want to see repeated. The rival direct mail letters alone were enough to make many say, I think I'll keep my checkbook closed that year.

The President of the Association did a fabulous job. She was incredibly knowledgeable about every aspect of the college - from the state of the endowment, what's going on with the faculty, how they are addressing students with financial issues and the new dorm (which remains nameless). She answered every question, validated every member for their input and inserted a few blatant and a few subtle pleas for contributions. She reminded everyone how urgent it is for everyone to make their annual donations and pleaded for contributions to the scholarship fund. I have a lot of respect for someone who can ask for money and not make everyone uncomfortable.

The afternoon ended well and I look forward to seeing more of both these women in the future.

Guest Blogging at NonProfit Conversation

2009-01-30T08:47:00.001-08:00

Today's blog is actually on someone else's blog. I did a guest blog for the blog Nonprofit Conversation. So just head over to http://nonprofitconversation.blogspot.com/ and learn how the Anita Borg Institute is using Social Media.

Marketing Disasters and Lessons Learned Pt 1: Never tell a reporter anything you don't want to see in print

2009-01-29T14:58:00.001-08:00

I saw a request today for PR disasters in recent history and that got me thinking about past marketing disasters. We all have them. This first disaster took place while I was riding a shuttle bus in Chicago in 2000. I was attending the old PCS tradeshow and had left my co-worker to go to the hotel to work. My phone rang and through the static I could hear my boss screaming at me in a mixture of chinese and english. I got off the bus at some other hotel to try and get a better signal and then I heard it. Our Chief Scientist had gone to a standards meeting in China and encountered a reporter. The reporter said, I heard your new company is doing well. The Chief Scientist proceeded to tell the reporter in detail the names of all the potential customers we were engaging with and that we had a deal with a major wireless carrier in the US. And the reporter published it. And the screaming began.

My boss called me not to tell me to be prepared in case we were asked about it, but to tell me to call the newspaper and have them print a retraction. I remember the conversation went like this:

Me: So did he actually tell the reporter we have that company as a signed customer?
Boss: Yes he did. But he didn't know the reporter would write about it.
Me: Did the reporter not identify himself? Did he know he was a reporter?
Boss: Yes he did know that. But he didn't know the reporter would write about it.
Me: Was the reporter taking notes while they talked?
Boss: (Background conversation) Yes, he did.
Me: Then there is nothing we can do. The reporter did his job.

And the screaming started again. There was truly nothing that could be done, no trickery was involved, it was just an executive enjoying his moment in the spotlight.

The article published, the customer screamed and walked away from us and life continued. The damage with the customer was done - perhaps if we'd had a deeper relationship or commitment we would have been able to salvage the relationship. I don't doubt that part of it was a language issue but to this day when I work with Executives my first piece of advice is never tell a reporter anything you don't want to see in print.

Pitching in 140 Characters

2009-01-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

I attended a webinar yesterday morning, albeit briefly because yesterday was meeting marathon day at work. The webinar was about social media and public relations. And for the most part it was directed at people who work for companies but manage the relationship with their Public Relations firm. So parts of the webinar were about how you should be measuring the ROI of PR - a topic I'll discuss some other time - and parts were on how you should be making sure that your PR firm is delivering value to you by being Social Media savvy.

Due to our budget restrictions this year our PR firm is completely focused on doing the promotion of our two major events and the release of our three research reports. So all the pitching that takes place in between and media mangagement is mine to do. And I've stepped up those efforts - contacting key media that we've worked with in the past, tracking blog uptakes and contacting bloggers who write about subjects near and dear to our hearts, keeping track of varioius reporters blogs.

But during the Webinar I heard something that gave me real pause. Some reporters no longer read press releases or their email. They want to be pitched in Twitter. If you can't do your pitch in 140 characters they won't pay attention to you.

My first thought was give me a list. Who are these people and what is their twitter address? And then I realized - I now need to not only find out who these people are, I have to follow them on twitter and then somehow convince them to follow me. AND, I have to take my pitches - which I tend to be able to do in a 5 or 6 line email paragraph down to 140 characters. Now this is a challenge. How do you convey not only who you are but what cool thing you want them to write about in 140 characters?

So I spent some time last night trying to figure out how I would introduce the Anita Borg Institute in 140 characters and then how I would explain our compelling content. One of our upcoming research studies is going to be on Millenials in the Technical Workforce. 33 characters. And I haven't even told you what about Millenials. 10 characters. Is there a new shorter way to say Millenials? Youths? 6 characters but not really appropriate. 20 somethings.12 characters - that's worse. Newcomers. 9 characters - saves 1 character. But now they sound like alien beings from another planet. Newcomers in the Technical Workforce. A new movie from the guy who brought you Alien.

So as Social Media pulls us together and makes connecting easier it also creates new challenges.

NonProfit Marketing: Exchanging Cash for Prizes

2009-01-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

As every NPR listener knows, several times a year the station runs a fundraiser. Beloved programs are cut short, you miss chunks of the morning news, Terry Gross doesn't get to say Fresh Air as often as you'd like. I actually enjoy the pledge drive. What creative combination of goodies will KQED offer its listening audience to tempt them to pay in their $12 per month to support the station. And in just two days I've heard several winners that truly have tempted me. Before I go any further know that I do support KQED annually and am the proud owner of a DVD on biking around the Bay Area, would be helpful if I owned a bike, a KQED messenger bag (ordered because I was desperate to find something that my overlarge work laptop would fit into comfortably), a crank emergency radio/flashlight - a lifesaver during last year's 12 hour power outage and best of all a complete DVD set which has every issue of the New Yorker from its founding to 2006. So yes, I'm a marketer who loves NPR and wants to do good - for a price.

So what temptations have been offered this week? On the way home today if I donated I would get coupons for two pies from Whole Foods. Now I'm not sure why these pies are so special except them come from Vermont and have sort of blueberry madness going on in one and three kinds of apples in the other. Not a temptation. There is the mind exercise dvds - 40- 1 hour classes to help train my brain. Somewhat tempting but $30 per month is the required fee and I'm not sure the DVDs wouldn't just sit on my desk waiting for a week when I have all that spare time.

Then there is the one that I just loved. It's a combo gift - all you get delivered to your home is a small tote bag that zips up into a wallet sized item you can carry in your purse. And if you get that bag then 100 lbs of food will be donated in Rwanda by Whole Foods. And how cool is that? I can give cash to help one charity and another charity will also benefit. And to top it all off, if I told them I don't need the tote bag - the money that would have been spent sending me the tote bag would go to the San Francisco Food Bank and it would be enough to buy 180 meals. That's just amazing. I can do a trifecta - do one donation and benefit three charities simultaneously.

So did I give? Not yet. I'm still waiting. KQED tends to escalate the prizes as the drive progresses. What may be on offer on Friday or even next Monday? I can tell you I almost always give on the last day. The endless repetition wears me down and I crack just before the final bell rings.

What would be your idea of the perfect gift item? What would get you to donate?

Movie Marketing: All The Award Shows

2009-01-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

Unless you are completely oblivious to the media you know that we are in that crazy time of the year, award show season. Now is the time as we huddle for warmth in our homes (because we've turned down the heat to conserve energy and our dollars) that we settle in and watch all the beautiful people walk the red carpet and receive their awards.

Of course, it's all about marketing. The stars turn out so they can promote their movie which is either in the theatres now or about to come out on DVD. It's all about making money.

Last night's SAG awards was entertaining since it acknowledged not the films themselves (though people did talk about them) but their casts. Mike and I missed the first hour but thoroughly enjoyed watching the second hour. As huge fans of Mad Men we were thrilled to see it win best cast for a TV series - and we totally agree. Of course after the speech we went into a discussion of exactly how long it was until the next season of Mad Men started and would it be adversely impacted if the show creator left and exactly how old are Elizabeth Moss and Fred Armisen and how could they possibly be engaged? In fact I think we missed the next award because I had to go check IMDB for their birthdates.

So do Award Shows work? Do they get us to go to a movie or watch a TV show, or order a DVD? I'll confess - the results are mixed. Mike still can't figure out how Slumdog Millionaire is doing so well (he's seen it and didn't love it) and I'm thinking since it keeps winning perhaps I do need to go see it so I can be prepared for Oscar night. However, I'm still outraged that Gran Torino and Clint Eastwood have been overlooked - so I'm discounting somewhat the award shows intelligence. Sean Penn winning for Milk was understandable since I had seen it - but since Mike remembers it all vividly, since he lived in the Bay Area at the time, he's not as inclined to see it. I will confess - I'm going to have to add that John Adams Series to my Netflix list - with as many wins as it's had it is probably worth my time.

My first mentor

2009-01-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

One of the things I've struggled with is how to generate a lot of content in a single month. We have a Fast Company Blog that needs to be fed weekly, an ABI Blog that should be fed weekly, a newsletter with 10 articles monthly, plus articles for columns in a variety of publications. So right now I'm implementing themes and this month's theme is Mentoring. Mentors are people who provide you feedback and guidance as you move through your career. Mentors can be long and short term, inside your company and outside, high level or peers. So I've been reflecting on who my mentors have been throughout my career in Marketing and my fondest memory is of my first real mentor.

Her name was Mary Randall. Mary was on vacation when I took my first job out of grad school with the telephone company. She was gone for a whole month which was unheard of to me - but as a 20+ year employee she had the vacation time to do it. When she came back she found me ensconced at her desk since my predecessor steadfastly refused to give up the cube I was supposed to sit in. And while my first boss was a woman known for her yelling and cutting remarks (at least amongst the people unfortunate enough to sit anywhere near her office) Mary was a bastion of calm competence and got me a cube.

So what did Mary, who's job was to manage the white pages and yellow page listings in the phone book teach me about Marketing?

1. To be responsible and make sure the job gets done correctly. Never assume anyone else is going to double and triple check - because often they don't - so it is up to me to make sure that item a and item b are where they are supposed to be. And that is doubly true of vendors - never assume they know what's going on. This is a lesson I'm reminded of whenever I ship something - it is amazing how off track shipments can go.

2. To treat everyone as an equal. I watched a relatively new MBA in marketing talk down to Mary in a meeting one day- and did he ever find out that it was a mistake. She was universally liked and respected and he needed her to get his job done - and since she didn't report to him she made things very difficult simply by being unavailable for his meetings. I finally told him he needed her on his side - in fact you need everyone you can get on your side to make marketing happen. It took a lot of work for him to rebuild that relationship.

3. Work/Life Balance. Mary was the queen of work/life balance. She left each day at 5 p.m. and took a bus home. In the summers she'd drive to Canandaigua Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York, to the campsite where she and her husband parked their RV and kept their boat. Several times I was lucky enough to go along for an evening of cruising the lake in the boat and having a cookout over an open fire. It seemed surreal that she literally got to go on vacation every night. Mary taught me that you need to have that work/life balance so to this day I try to make time for my life no matter how busy I get - even if it's just reading a novel over breakfast or knitting for half an hour before bed.

4. Always do the math. When it came time for Mary to consider retirement she walked me through how she did the math. What did coming to work cost her every day? Once she added up gas, bus fare, work clothes, lunches, coffees, etc she and her husband came to the conclusion that retirement was actually more profitable than working. Years before we'd done a massive financial analysis together and she taught me how to look at the numbers many different ways and with a cynical eye. To this day I look at forecasting differently thanks to Mary.

5. Look for the hidden agenda. It that same financial analysis Mary and I rapidly came to the conclusion that changing yellow page companies would be more costly to our firm than any "new profits" other companies talked to us about could bring. We'd lose money no matter what. We went into the first meeting with our VP loaded with data to explain this. And at the end of our very very thorough presentation he looked us right in the eye and said "wrong answer". And off we skulked. So we started doing some asking around and found out that there were things our CEO wanted that our current company just couldn't do. And even if it cost the company a couple of million we were going to change. And change we did. It was heartwrenching for us and it cost dozens of people their jobs but from that we learned to always try and find a hidden agenda in any executive level project. And to make it happen.

So Mary was my first Mentor and a great one.

Marketing of Hope

2009-01-20T17:31:00.001-08:00

Today is the inauguration of the 44th President and I will admit - I am a fan. Not only of the man but also of his organization. Barack Obama exemplifies every PR person's dream - an executive who stays on message. And the culmination of this was his inaugural address - he was clear, well spoken (unlike 43 who could seldom do a sentence without hesitation - these translated into pauses for emphasis (and applause) with Obama, and highly impactful. Obama didn't sugar coat anything - he told us we're in trouble, he identified the trouble spots and he said we're going to fix them and go back to being the greatest country in the world. In other worlds he gave us hope. And we love him for it.

While the last administration never could seem to tell us the truth about anything, Obama told it to us straight. And while the last administration violated the constitution you got the sense that Barack would lay down his life to defend it.

So did he sell me, yes absolutely. His 2 year campaign has come to both an end and a new beginning. And now we can only hope that he delivers what he sold us and not vaporware.

Finding a Theme

2009-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

One of my challenges as we kick-off 2009 is the need to create a theme for each month of the year. Last year I felt our newsletter may have become a bit too program heavy and didn't include enough articles. We had our Ask Jo column and each month I was struck by the fact that Ask Jo was the number one click through in our newsletter was Ask Jo. I've seen people blog about the column as well. And this year we have not only two newsletters per month but I am also writing a column for Cobol Magazine on behalf of the institute and we have our Fast Company blog plus the ABI Blog as well. So to get our staff more engaged as well as our advisors I need to create a theme around each month - so that I can go to people and say here are our themes and months - can you write about fear for me in October or Role Models in April?

The hardest part is not finding themes but rather having so many themes and not enough months. A good problem to have.

January was National Mentoring Month so that became our theme. And it's been great - we have multiple Fast Company blog posts on the subject, a newsletter article, the column is done and our ask Jo will include it as well.

Next months' theme - stay tuned.

Marketing Literacy: The Santa Clara Reads Campaign and 2009 Book of the Year

2009-01-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

First off, I'm not sure this is a positive review of the Santa Clara Reads campaign. The only way I found out about it is another member of my book group brought it to my attention. Given that I do most of my newspaper reading on line I tend to see mostly headlines these days, and if something isn't in the top headlines on the Mercury News or Google News sites I may miss it. I was incredibly impressed last night though when I attended a free event at the Heritage Theatre in Campbell CA to see a talk by Brian Copeland, author of the book Not a Genuine Black Man. What a revelation. Brian Copeland now has an avid fan who is ready to read his book, see his play and stream his radio program and, if he does any comedy shows I'll try and go to those as well.

Not a Genuine Black Man is Brian's story of how when he was 8 his mother moved him from Oakland to the suburb San Leandro - a 99.99% white town that had a secret but active conspiracy taking place in the 70's to keep the minorities out of town. Brian shared his thoughts on his life, his writing, his career and politics in a delightful one hour conversation with a Mercury News columnist and won the audience over as fans. He also stayed to sign books after the reading since his arrival had been delayed. His signed book now holds a place of honor in my pile of to be read books and I'm thinking of getting copies for a few people in my family to enjoy.

I am very grateful that my friend invited me to this event, but I worry how I, as an avid reader and marketer, had failed to see any promotion of this event. What am I not reading that caused me to miss this? I use my local library once a week and hadn't seen anything on it. They have my email address but I never saw it. It wasn't in my quarterly newsletter from either Friends of the Library group that I belong to.

So, here's a note to the supporters of literacy here in Santa Clara - reach out to the readers more aggressively. Of course the fact that librarians no longer have to check out books at the library, replaced in that function by scanners, may play a part. They've lost that opportunity to impact what readers are doing because they can no longer say hey did you know about our Santa Clara Reads program? I used to love the librarian I knew in Rochester NY who would scan my pile of books and then tell me other authors to check out.

Who knows, but I'll do my part by recommending everyone I know check out Brian Copelands book, Not a Genuine Black Man.

Cross Marketing: How Oprah Does It

2009-01-13T10:02:00.001-08:00

Over the holidays I took a big pile of magazines with me to read on the plane. One of them was the January edition of Oprah Magazine, the one where she announced to the world she gained weight. I dismissed her PR onslaught before the holidays- how is it possible to be doing press that you gained weight. First of all 200 is not that huge, talk to women who are 250, 300 and then you're talking big. And second of all, she's so rich it is impossible to feel sorry for her. And then I read the magazine and it turned out she had gained in part due to a thyroid condition that took way too long to diagnose and I became intrigued.

Then I returned to discover all last week that Oprah was making this the Best Life Year and I watched. Yes, I watched all five hours - and it blew my mind. Oprah tied it all together - she did PR, print media, TV shows, webcasts, a website, and yes even a book - and it all works. I'm very impressed - not only is this cross marketing carried to its ultimate conclusion but she's having an impact. Last week Oprah took us through five life areas - weight, health, spirituality, finances and sex and gave people step by step lists of how to improve all of these items. Then this week she did a followup episode yesterday which highlighted the reaction and followed up on each of the days - she got a former Biggest Loser winner who had regained 100 lbs - it was so saddening but yet he talked about how it happens and what to do. She had one of the ministers talk about the reaction to his remarks on being gay is a blessing from god. She interviewed a viewer who took the financial advice from Suzie Orman and saved $675 per month on her mortgage and what she's doing with the money she saved. And she had a couple that implemented one of the sex suggestions - much to the glee of the entire audience - and it revitalized their marriage.

So, I'm impressed. And Oprah was even able to show impact both qualitatively and quantitatively - something marketers often struggle with. Anecdotally she has the testimonials from people who listened and spoke on her show. Quantitatively she showed that the free download of Suzie Orman's new book on the Oprah website - has been downloaded - 1,200,000 times - how amazing is that. It will rocket the book on the bestseller list (possibly - not sure how it counts those) and has given Suzie Orman massive visibility. Will people buy the book? Who knows with all those free downloads but she's now positioned as the guru of finances even more than she was before. And she has received increased goodwill by being able to help people in these dire financial times.

Oprah has webcasts every night this week - which people have to register for - thus giving her a massive worldwide database to use for future events and actions. Hers will probably rival Barack's soon.

In this day and age when television viewing becomes increasingly fragmented Oprah has hit a vein. I would not be surprised to see her ratings surge, her magazine subscriptions and sales surge and the sales of the books she's promoting on her programs soar.

And yes, even though I can be a little cynical on the Best Life spiritual stuff - I did take notes on a few of the programs last week and I'm implementing some of the suggestions from the shows. My favorites are the three from Suzie Orman - Have a day where you spend no money, have a week where you don't use your credit card, and have a month where you don't eat out. I'm on day 3 of don't use your credit card and I've done two no spend days so far. So far so good.

Ok, so I'm fickle - my new favorite movie of 2008 - Gran Torino

2009-01-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

I know, I know - less than two weeks ago I was raving about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and how great Brad Pitt was. Well I've changed my mind. Mike and I went off yesterday to see Gran Torino - and we both loved it. This in itself is a rarity when you consider that he refuses to see musicals because they're unrealistic and I've now seen Mamma Mia four times,and own both the DVD and the CD. But we did love it. And on a lot of different levels.

The movie opens at the funeral of Walt Kowalski's beloved wife. The pain on Clint Eastwood's face, the rage he feels at the death of his wife and the apparent disrespect of his grandchildren is palpable and breathtaking. Even a shot as siimple as the family lined up in the pew, with Walt putting several feet between himself and his closely clustered sons and daughters in law, tells you how isolated and angry this man has become through this loss. As estranged as he is from his family, Walt has also become estranged from his neighborhood, one of the few remaining old timers on a street of Hmong immigrants and their American born children. And then the trouble starts.

A gang is harassing both the neighbor's son and Walt himself. The son is relatively defenseless but not Walt. He still has his guns from Korea and he knows how to use them. Through one simple act Walt becomes a hero to the Hmong people and to his neighbors who take him under their wing and make him family.

I won't ruin it by saying anymore - everything above is fairly apparent in the TV commercials I saw for this movie. What makes it so great is Clint Eastwood and his face. That is a face that has lived. In an era where movie stars have botoxed every expression off their face (see Nicole Kidman) or distorted themselves with unnecessary plastic surgury (see Meg Ryan if you can bear to look for more than a few secords), Clint Eastwood's face is the most expressive I've seen. He rages, he threatens and on rare occasions he smiles - and it is just mesmerizing. All this is enhanced by a career spanning 50 years - all those times he said go ahead make my day and do you feel lucky are there in the back of your mind. Walt is not someone you screw around with, and everyone knows it.

Now I will warn, his character is a bigot - though one scene does explain that it is a form of masculinity to spout bigoted crap. In fact at one point all I could think is that he is the most loveable bigot since Archie Bunker - the bigot with a heart of gold.

So, I loved this movie. It also spoke to me, I think, because growing up my grandparents lived in the same sort of blue collar neighborhood in Orange New Jersey. Like Walt's neighborhood it gradually changed and devolved into a much more dangerous place with gangs and drug dealers on the corner. I haven't been back to that neighborhood in over 20 years but I got the feeling that I was seeing that old neighborhood while I was watching this movie.

As a footnote - I watched the Golden Globes last night and was horrified to see that Gran Torino was not nominated in any of the major categories. That Clint was excluded and pretty boy Leondardo DiCaprio was nominated was horrifying to me. I'm hoping that much like Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino runs over some of these pretty boys and makes it all the way to the Oscar.

My review: See it, take all your friends to see it.

PR Reps - Observations from the Fringe

2009-01-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

While most people watch political scandals unfold with disgust and disbelief, when I talk to some friends who do PR our conversation often turns to what we would do. Take the case of the Governor of Illinois. Why we revile the man and his purported actions we just have to wonder about the poor PR flack who has to sit day after day in briefings attempting to advise someone like this. You often imagine the conversations go something like this:

GOV: Well I'm going to appoint Burris today. Who are they to tell me what to do. They can't stop me.

PR REP: Sir, I'm not sure now is the time to make an appointment. It could cause some problems.

GOV: I don't see any problems.

PR REP: Well sir, I'm sure that people will wonder if he paid you for the appointment. Perhaps it would be best to say just to be sure that no one thinks there's anything shady about the appointment that you have someone else do it.

GOV: But it's my job, I don't see any reason why someone would think he paid.

PR REP: The tapes sire, the ones the Feds have. Those might cause problems.

GOV: No, no, you're wrong.

PR REP: (Eyes rolling to heaven and mentally updating resume). Yes sir.

PR Reps do the best they can with a person they represent, advising more rehearsal time, practice Q&A's, begging them to think before they speak. But ultimately it is always the client's decision in the end what they will say.

In my job I find it much easier since I work on a team where everyone wants things to go off flawlessly. And most of the time they do. So yes, I do like being a PR rep. And I do pity the PR reps of the rich and infamous. Especially the poor soul who is running after Lindsay Lohan begging her not to get behind the wheel and to please for the love of god put on underwear.