Three out of four marketing and PR workshops for IAPD IPRA went well: lots of space, time and room for conversation. When I saw the room for my Social Media Sampler presentation, I got a bit concerned. Fifteen minutes before I was set to start, it was already almost full. When the crowd started spilling out of the room, I offered to record my presentation for playback.

While the audience here is parks and recreations agencies, much of the information …

Next week, I’m honored to present four programs at the IAPD/IPRA [Illinois Association of Park Districts - Illinois Park and Recreation Association conference]. Thanks so much to Jessica Alexenko of the Lisle Park District for booking me to speak at two workshops and two breakout sessions. We started talking about the conference almost a year ago and just last week I met several people at two different events who told me how much fun I would have at the …

Leave it to Chris Brogan to write what I’ve been thinking about. In his post, Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes, Chris walks you through a process for listening to conversations online. You need to do this. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time to tune into online conversations – using Chris’ system.

And, you need to do something else: talk to people. In person – about what’s important to them and how you and your organization connect with …

It sounds strange, but sometimes I forget that I’m a photographer. A photographer who is published, sells images and truly loves making pictures.

Giving strategic marketing advice, crafting news releases and coaching clients is different than being the one capturing images, but it’s how I usually position myself and my Chicago area strategic marketing and public relations company.

Yesterday afternoon I sent an email RSVP to a fund-raising event manager with this line:

“Let me know if you’d like me to …

Today is Blog Action Day. Almost 9,600 bloggers with over 10 million readers will take over the Internet to talk about one topic: poverty.

Blog Action Day 2007’s topic? The environment – last year I wrote about why you need environmental PR.

Blog Action Day 2008’s site lists all the posts about poverty. 

I’ll be honest: writing about the environment was easier for me. Poverty is a complex topic that touches many tangents, including hunger, housing and overall quality of life. I …

The gist of the call that got me into a part-time faculty position at the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence went something like this . . .

The assigned instructor moved out of state. In three weeks, class starts. There is no set curriculum. You need to come up with 16 hours of teaching material for nonprofits that want to learn about marketing research, strategy and execution. Four people recommended you. Can you do it?

My response: uh . . . …

Welcome to July! Where will your adventures take you this month?

Going on vacation, to the fireworks, to a parade, to the beach, to a conference?

Will I see you at BlogHer ’08 in San Francisco? Check out the list of BlogHer ’08 attendees.

I had so much fun volunteering as live blogger and microphone wrangler at BlogHer ’07 here in Chicago, I decided to take the trip to San Francisco to be part of BlogHer ’08.

Can’t make it to …

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