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.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Stitches West: An update from the world of tradeshows
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.
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.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Marketing Yourself: Your Online Collateral - LinkedIn
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Marketing Yourself: Your Collateral
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
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.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Marketing Yourself in Tough Economic Times
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
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
Monday, February 23, 2009
Oscar Sunday
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?
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?
Friday, February 20, 2009
CAMINOS Event Honoring Anita Borg Institute
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.
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.
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