Clark Lane

Client Holiday Promos

2010-12-16T14:27:00.002-05:00

We've had a lot of fun with our client Vindicia this week!

To help spread a little holiday cheer, we've worked with the company to partner with several of its top clients -- including Mind Candy and Curse -- to offer specific promotions to their services through Twitter.

Follow @Vindicia from now until Christmas Eve and join in on the fun!

The Future of Advertising

2010-11-17T11:28:00.002-05:00

A great article in Fast Company today examines the Future of Advertising and asks whether today’s creative revolution will ultimately leave the industry behind. Is too much lost on the Internet’s road to everywhere, or will its first real reinvention since the 60s make the industry stronger than ever before?

Admist the digital doom and gloom and fear of the unknown, from Facebook to Foursquare, many interviewed believe that these technological disruptions inherently offer up many new and lucrative opportunities. A pitch beyond expensive TV buys and 30-second spots includes YouTube, Groupon and Twitter and marketers who can spread their message for free.

Much like the news and music industries before it, advertising is reexamining its place in the world and redfining what it means to meet the needs of a 21st century CEO or CMO.

What do you think? Join the conversation at http://advertwitter.fastcompany.com/.

Boston Pride

2010-11-17T09:03:00.003-05:00

I'm not a native New Englander. I purposefully chose to settle here after going to college in the area, and have grown to love just about everything (OK, fighting the traffic on 128 every day ain't so fun) about living here. I take a lot of pride in being a Bostonian and New Englander.

So I was particularly proud yesterday morning to be in attendance at the WBZ Business Breakfast with the CEO and founder of CHEN PR client Boston-Power Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud. Christina joined Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman, Life is Good CEO (that's Chief Executive *Optimist*) Bert Jacobs and EnerNoc President and Co-Founder David Brewster on a panel to discuss how and why their businesses have succeeded in Massachusetts, and what other Mass.-based businesses can learn from them.

It was refreshing to hear words like "optimism," "opportunity," and "idealism" used frequently by all four panelists. Of course I'm biased but I was particularly struck by Christina's comments because not only is she, like myself, not a native New Englander, she's not a native American. So when she talked eloquently and passionately about her decision to become a U.S. citizen, and to settle her family and locate her company in Boston (the importance of this decision to her is of course even reflected in the company name) -- well, let's just say I was feeling that Boston pride!

A Grand Evening for CHEN PR Clients

2010-11-04T10:31:00.001-04:00

The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Annual Awards ceremony was held last night. Four of CHEN PR’s clients were finalists, including Acme Packet (CEO of the Year and Company of the Year); Boston-Power (Deal of the Year and CEO of the Year); Digital Lumens (Product of the Year); and SpaceClaim (CEO of the Year).

Acme Packet won Company of the Year for Publicly Held Companies and Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud as CEO of the Year for Privately Held Companies. Christina and Andy Ory (CEO and President of Acme Packet) were gracious and compelling in their acceptance of the awards.

The event was very well attended, offering a great opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and meet new ones. MassTLC created their own version of American Idol with attendees voting on the product of the year (Aurora won).

The evening reinforced the notion that sometimes it is a very good thing to step outside the day to day and have a relaxing, fun outing with clients and friends.

It takes all kinds

2010-11-04T10:10:00.004-04:00

One of the fun parts of the agency model is that you get to work with all types and sizes of companies. Working with larger, publicly traded clients definitely has its perks and advantages, as does helping companies who are at that threshold grow into those companies. Earlier this week I was reminded of the fun that comes from helping hot emerging companies stake their fair share of PR.

Our agency has been working with online billing platform provider Vindicia, out of Belmont, CA, for coming up on three years now. It’s been very rewarding to work alongside this team as they build an ever-expanding, successful business focusing on providing a solution to digital merchants -- such as Symantec, Activision Blizzard, Intuit, and Atari/Cryptic -- that employ a recurring payment commerce model.

On Monday Vindicia announced it has received $20M in additional funding to enable it to continue to expand to meet demand for its solution. (The news was covered by TechCrunch and VentureBeat, and picked up in the New York Times, New York Times DealBook and The Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch blog, among other outlets.)

It was a noteworthy milestone for Vindicia, and it’s fun to take a moment and reflect on all the work we’ve done together leading up to this milestone. And the best part is – the ride ain’t over yet…

Keep Pitching! and other Lessons Learned from Assignment Editors

2010-11-01T11:48:00.007-04:00

Recently Kyle, Bryan and I represented CHEN at a Publicity Club of New England event where we learned what resonates with and how best to approach pitching broadcast media. “Securing TV Coverage in a Major Market,” moderated by Fred Kocher, an ex-ABC anchor and news director, featured managers and editors from local television stations providing insights on how to make news stand out in a competitive market.

During a question-and-answer forum, Jack Auresto, planning manager at FOX 25; Lauren Bettencourt, managing editor at Local News Service (WBZ and FOX25); Linda Olsen, news assignment editor at NECN; and Joe Roche, news assignment manager at WCVB; discussed what public relations professionals can do to effectively secure media interest and coverage. One helpful tip that the speakers offered was to ensure a unique and interesting subject line. The panelists noted that they spend a huge chunk of their time wading through hundreds of daily emails and though many may contain terrific story angles, subject lines that just read “Press Release” won’t garner the attention – and perhaps the coverage – they deserve.

Some other themes that were touched upon were: keeping emails succinct, but content rich – i.e. contact, location, date/time and brief summary; editors maintain and rely on a database of expert sources; continuing to pitch – even if you’ve never gotten a hit (“you really never know when we might need your news!” said one of the speakers); and building a relationship/establishing name recognition is key. The ultimate message that the panelists conveyed was that they really do appreciate and depend upon PR, but they are often barraged with so much information that they can’t possibly respond to every pitch.

So PR professionals, keep pitching, ensure that the editors have your expert sources and their areas of expertise on file and don’t forget to make those subject lines compelling!

Special thank you to the Pub Club for organizing an informative and fun evening.

Mixin' and Minglin' for Mass Cleantech

2010-09-29T16:39:00.004-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out for last night’s cleantech-student mixer at Tommy Dolyle’s! What would have been just another wet September Tuesday was a great night spent on all things working and learning in Boston’s cleantech world.

In his column for the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman offers an answer to a question on the minds of many, including cleantech execs and students alike: “What is America’s core competency and strategic advantage and how do we nurture it?” His answer: “It is our ability to attract, develop and unleash creative talent. That means men and women who invent, build and sell more goods and services that make people’s lives more productive, healthy, comfortable, secure and entertained than any other country.“

The energy last night was abuzz with men and women hungry to do just that – and it was refreshing.

Special thanks to Digital Lumens, Jon Karlen at Flybridge, the Globe’s Scott Kirsner and Jessica Townsend of Olin College for their thoughtful panel discussion. All in all it was the kind of mixing and mingling that left us feeling good and looking forward to the next one.

Videos coming soon!

A "CHEN Slam" at the MassTLC Finalists Event

2010-09-16T10:27:00.005-04:00

Great stuff last night at the Mass Technology Leadership Council's (MassTLC) Award Finalists Reception. Four CHEN clients were named finalists, two in multiple categories, making for a "CHEN Slam" and a lot of proud CHENers.

Congratulations to everyone nominated, and especially to the finalists! We're all looking forward to the awards gala in November, it should be a great night.

For those scoring at home, here's the full list:

--Acme Packet in the "Public Company of the Year" category
--Acme Packet CEO Andy Ory in the "Public Company CEO of the Year" category
--Boston-Power in the "Deal of the Year" category
--Boston-Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud in the "Private Company CEO of the Year" category
--Digital Lumens in the "Product of the Year" category
--SpaceClaim CEO Chris Randles in the "Private Company CEO of the Year" category

CHEN Client Digital Lumens a WEF Tech Pioneer!

2010-09-01T10:42:00.004-04:00

Huge congrats to our client Digital Lumens for being named a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum!

Digital Lumens joins a long list of game-changing technology companies that have received the award including two CHEN clients Boston-Power (2010) and Phase Forward (2009) and 23andMe, Google, Kayak.com, Mozilla, Pay Pal, Sandisk and Twitter.

Selected from more than 300 nominations, the company was recognized for its industry-first LED-based Intelligent Lighting System which reduces its industrial customers’ energy spend by up to 90 percent.

Congrats again to the Digital Lumens team -- it's an honor well-deserved.

The Smart Grid Meets the Electic Vehicle

2010-06-19T11:17:00.007-04:00

Two topics with no shortage of buzz were paired together on Thursday morning at the Massachusetts Smart Grid Innovators Collaborative’s (MASGIC) second annual conference, held to discuss the Transition to Electric Vehicles. A packed room, which needed extra chairs brought in, listened to presentations from a range of technologists, regulators and thought-leaders all dedicated to making the smart grid a reality.

The topic for the morning focused around the challenges and opportunities that the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) will bring to the grid – and how the grid and EVs are tied together in so many ways. Some interesting conversations were had about the importance of safe, reliable energy storage solutions in both EVs, and also to be implemented throughout the grid; the need for consumer utility incentives to encourage off-peak EV charging; and perhaps most interesting was the discussion around the impending reality of EVs in the driveways of Massachusetts residents.

With pre-orders of the Nissan Leaf filled and the car expected to be available this fall – thanks in part to an agreement signed by the Commonwealth and Nissan – there will be EVs charging on the grid in Mass. by the end of this year. It’s a great step in the right direction towards reducing our nation’s reliance on foreign oil and increasing energy efficiency, but it also means that regulators and businesses need to continue to collaborate now in order to ensure the progress continues. Solutions like helping lower the cost of EVs through tax credits and loan guarantees, upgrading and standardizing transformers and building codes to allow for maximized EV charging potential, and investing in smart meters and charging infrastructure will all help promote the adoption of grid-enabled vehicles.

Discussions like those had on Thursday play an important part in our movement towards a more sustainable future and I’m looking forward to the next conversation and the progress made as a result. A special nod to our friends at Boston-Power, and in particular Dr. John Warner – Boston-Power’s director of large format batteries – for his interesting perspective as a battery developer in the second panel on Thursday morning.

CHEN PR Clients Contribute to Successful Xconomy XSITE 2010 event

2010-06-18T11:22:00.005-04:00

At CHEN PR we’ve learned to look forward to Xconomy events, and yesterday’s XSITE 2010 event (attended and blogged on today by my colleague Juli Greenwood as well) was no exception.

I was there to hear the CEOs of two CHEN PR clients present (see photos): Chris Randles, President and CEO of SpaceClaim, and Tom Pincince, President and CEO of Digital Lumens.

Chris was part of a panel entitled “Designing the Next Economy,” moderated by Wade Roush and comprising executives from the area’s many 3D design-oriented companies. As was Xconomy’s intention, the panel did a nice job of underscoring Boston as a center of innovation in this fascinating market.

Tom presented as part of the XSITE Xpo at the end of the day where a dozen executives in 3 different sectors presented their diverse companies’ business plan and value proposition. Those of us in PR and marketing talk a lot about the need to give an “elevator pitch.” Often we’re speaking metaphorically but in the case of this event Tom performed admirably in delivering a literal, 3-minute elevator pitch.

Yesterday’s event followed an enjoyable MIT Enterprise Forum event held to thank the organization’s many volunteers. Our agency has been involved with this group for years so there were lots of friendly and familiar faces. Congratulations to Trish Fleming and the entire team at the forum for another successful year of informing and engaging activities.

Inspiration Runneth Over at XSITE 2010

2010-06-18T08:36:00.003-04:00

Kudos to Xconomy for pulling together such a compelling day of talks at yesterday's XSITE Summit on Innovation.

One of the most inspiring sessions of the morning came from X Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis. Perhaps best known for its first $10M aerospace contest, X Prize is committed to fostering innovation through competition.

Since its first space prize, they’ve branched out to cover other key areas like energy, education/development and life sciences. And in September they’ll award the next $10M to the team that creates the most efficient car.

Thanks again to the folks at Xconomy and to Babson and Olin College for hosting. I wish every day was as awe-inspiring.

Tweet Up with Sam Whitmore and Great Friends

2010-06-09T09:00:00.006-04:00

Last evening was a perfect night to bring together colleagues and friends to reconnect with each other and to spend time with Sam Whitmore while he was on the east coast. The venue, one of CHEN PR's favorite haunts Joe Sent Me in Waltham. Weather made being outside a pleasure and we are fortunate to have terrific colleagues across the media, clients, former clients and analysts who know how to have fun. Several people re-found former co-workers they hadn’t seen in many years. Hey, Facebook in the flesh!

To mark the occasion and capture the moment, we shot a quick little video taste below, and one lucky attendee won a Flip Cam!

We’ll be doing this again soon, so hope you all can join us next time.

Meet Up and Flip Out with Us

2010-06-02T14:14:00.004-04:00

Meet Up And Flip Out With CHEN PR and SWMS!

Sam Whitmore's in town and we hope you'll join us in treating him to some local hospitality.

When: Tuesday, June 8, 6:00 to 8:00ish

Where: Joe Sent Me, 849 Main Street, Waltham

We'll pop for some drinks and munchies -- and one lucky attendee will walk away with a new Flip camcorder.

Kindly RSVP (mrozanski@chenpr.com) by Monday, June 7, so we can get a handle on the numbers -- and we hope to see you there!

Start Smart, Start Tonight

2010-05-25T11:18:00.003-04:00

We're with Guy Kawasaki: "If you can’t explain your positioning in less than 30 seconds, you either have a crappy practice or you need to perfect your positioning statement."

Our very own Barb Ewen will lead a talk tonight on the art of positioning as part of MITEF's Start Smart Workshop series -- a ten-week series of workshops that covers the nuts and bolts of the entrepreneurial process and runs through July 13.

For more information about MITEF and the Start Smart series, visit http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/startsmartcat.html.

DMScott Says: "Lose Control of Your Marketing!"

2010-05-16T11:01:00.003-04:00

David Meerman Scott kicked off his session at the Simmons Leadership Conference on April 30 with a story from his wildly popular e-book, The New Rules of Viral Marketing. When Cindy Gordon, VP of new media and marketing partnerships at Universal Orlando Resorts launched the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" attraction, she didn't spend millions on ad and PR campaigns. Instead, she briefed 7 bloggers - but they were the right 7 people. They were icons in the the Potter fan base, and they in turn spread the word. Gordon estimates that within 24 hours of telling 7 people, 350 million people had heard of the new attraction.

Scott then shifted gears to ask the audience a series of questions, including this one:

In the last 12 months, privately or professionally, when researching a product or professional service:

Has anyone answered a direct mail piece? 3% of room
Has anyone gone to the print yellow pages? 12%
Used a print publication? 42%
Google - everybody!
Tapped your private network for an opinion? 80%
Have you watched a video online? nearly everybody

To sum up the changes in marketing, Scott shared this quote from that authoritative thinker, Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned."

Another example of changing the way we market: Every hotel website around the world is exactly the same. Why? Because hotels focus on the product (the pillows, the shrimp!), but they don't focus on the buyer personae. Think about the different hotel customers - the independent business traveller, the corporate travel manager for a large company (one person making decisions for hundreds), the event planners, etc. It would be so much more effective if they tailored the site for different buyer personae.

Don't market your products; market to your buyers! Scott used the example of Hubspot (full disclosure - he serves on the board), which has developed names for its typical buyers.

"Nobody cares about your products (except you). They care about themselves and their problems," Scott said.

Here's another novel idea. Scott speaks in front of 50,000 people per year. While he's doing his presentations, his laptop lid is up of course. So he's selling ads on the lid of his PC; it's covered with stickers! Century21 took him up on that.

Scott's encouraging us to think different (nod to Apple for this ungrammatical gift to the English language) and to move beyond the conventional marketing tools we grew up with. We can earn attention by publishing an e-book, a webinar, a blog, a great website, an ad on a laptop lid!

In response to a question about the dangers of blogging if you're in a regulated industry like financial services, Scott said: "That's a fear-driven myth. 'I work for a pharma company; we can't communicate that way.' They're really saying: 'I'm scared to do this.' There's no regulation that prevents you from talking with your customers. You do it all the time!"

Go to a blog called "Running a Hospital." It's by Paul Levy, who runs Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He says whatever he wants. (Of course, Levy is saying a little more than he'd probably prefer to right now about his relationship with a staffer, but he has even blogged about that.)

Another question: Do you charge for your e-books? His e-book on viral marketing has been downloaded (for free) a million times. But that drives interest in his print books, such as the bestseller, World Wide Rave.

Real-Time Marketing

Scott observed that in marketing and PR and most businesses, we have an MBA-style planning process. We plan for stuff that's really far in the future. What the Web is allowing us to do, is to work RIGHT NOW! Suppose your biggest competitor just went bankrupt? What if your CEO was just arrested? What if the U.S. Government announced that your product was suddenly tax free.

Social media is a key tool and real-time marketing is now.

Scott relayed the example of an Air Force captain who responded to a Drudge Report story citing a $1.4M door at a San Antonio Air Force Base. At first blush, it sounded like an example of excess government spending. It turns out this was the door that protects a B1 bomber that's worth millions. The captain saw the Drudge story, posted a photo on his blog of the massive, complex door, along with a story on the AF website. Because of his real-time response, he killed the story. This played out over an hour. (Scott has written pretty extensively about the Air Force's use of social media.)

Then we have the entertaining example of the hysterical "United Breaks Guitars" video series, posted by musician Dave Carroll. Carroll took a flight on United Airlines, and watched, in horror, from his seat on the plane as baggage staffers threw his guitar onto the baggage cart. Surprise - his Taylor guitar was broken when he claimed it. After a year of trying to get United to pay for it, with no luck, Carroll posted his video on YouTube. It's so sharable; on the first day it got picked up by about 15 bloggers, and then eventually by the mainstream media, Scott explained.

In another example of real-time marketing, Bob Taylor (of Taylor Guitars) quickly did a (dead serious) YouTube video of travel tips for packing and traveling with your guitar.

What should United have done? Scott noted that United's legal team likely recommended no response. But what if United's head of baggage handling had done a video on what has to happen to get baggage from point A to B? How about a suitcase-cam? United needn't have said "We were wrong."

The incident has definitely boosted Carroll's career. He's been asked to do songs for other artists. He's getting more bookings. He's making money on cases. He's speaking at customer service conferences!

Other great examples of innovative marketing:

TechWise TV from Cisco - Information you can use from Geeks you can trust.

Girls Fight Back - Founded by Erin Weed, a personal safety and self-defense expert. Weed teaches girls and women how to protect themselves. Her main marketing technique - She asks girls to put away their mobile phones at the beginning of a session. At the end she asks them to take them out to take pix and videos of girls defending themselves, practicing moves. And then those pix get posted on Facebook. That's invaluable, because that's where her audience lives. She has trained 500,000 girls to defend themselves.

CWS - Complete Washroom Solutions - A German company wanted to get out the word on its rotating toilet seat covers (the kind you see in airports). This memorable commercial certainly does the job, as only the Europeans can!

Simmons: Ambassador Barshefsky, Tina Brown discuss US-China Trade Relations

2010-05-04T14:35:00.002-04:00

In a panel discussion with Tina Brown that was a delightful mix of candor and wisdom, Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky shared her insights on the global perception of the U.S. at the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston last Friday.

Go4IT--the license plate on a passing automobile--was the sign that Barshefsky was waiting for when considering the role of the U.S. Trade Representative.

During the second Clinton Administration, she served as the nation's chief trade negotiator, principal trade policymaker, and member of the Cabinet. Ambassador Barshefsky ushered in a new era of alliance-building through global economic agreements, most notably the historic market-opening negotiation with China on its entry into the World Trade Organization.

Her background and legal expertise in international relations and trade law have made her a moving force in bilateral U.S.-China relations. She believes that going back to the basics and investing in the core fundamentals of innovation, R&D and education are critical for the U.S. to regain its global position of power.

More open immigration laws and an easier path to naturalization are other areas that Barshefsky believes the U.S. needs to address to keep from losing its competitive edge. While the recession and the financial overhaul have crippled the economy, Barshefsky believes that these are bumps along the way and the competitive spirit and the resilience of the nation will help chart the course for the U.S. to become a leader once again.

In her current practice as a senior international partner at WilmerHale, she advises several Fortune 100 and other multinational corporations on their trade and investment activities in China, Europe, and the U.S. Ambassador Barshefsky also serves on the boards of the American Express Company, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Intel Corporation, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sheryl WuDunn (Half the Sky) Keynoted at Simmons Leadership Conference

2010-05-03T11:38:00.004-04:00

Being sold at age 12 by your own mother into a brothel; experiencing child birth at 14 years of age having been left out in the cold for the hyenas; and having a goat in Africa pay for a college education in Connecticut – these were some of the visceral images highlighted by Sheryl WuDunn as she described female oppression as the largest moral challenge facing the 21st century in her opening speech at the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston last week.

Award-winning author of Half The Sky, WuDunn provided insight into some of the problems associated with gender inequity around the globe today. Educators, business leaders and economists are rallying around the importance of bringing women into the workforce to enable sustainable growth. One of the examples WuDunn shared was Bill Gates' answer to a question about whether he believes Saudi Arabia has the potential to be one of the top 10 nations in the world. Gates stared out at his audience, two-thirds of whom were men and one-third burkha-clad women separated by a physical barricade, and said, "No country in the world, Saudi Arabia included, can aim to be one of the top nations in the world if they consistently refuse to use half their resources--women."

"Empowering women through education provides the highest return on investment in developing economies," said WuDunn as she repeatedly talked about education being the single most effective enabler of economic growth.

"Women have the capacity to compound the return on investment made in education," says WuDunn as she cited studies that have examined not just the investments made in education in the developing world, but also the spending patterns. These patterns indicate that the impact earned can be more than doubled when even one percent of the spending on non-education related expenses are funneled back into education.

While we all empathize with the plight of the unfortunate, WuDunn noted that few take action to truly provide help and support. WuDunn urged that we can all make a difference--not just monetarily but also by traveling to these regions, learning through some advancements already under way, and creating a movement by channeling groups of friends, co-workers and families in coming up with solutions to address these issues.

WuDunn's call to action ended with a powerful statement, "With great fortune, comes great responsibility. For those of us fortunate enough to be here, it's important to remember, we have won the lottery of life. It's our duty now to give back a little of what we have won."

Visit http://www.halftheskymovement.org/ to learn more.

Let there be brighter and more energy-efficient light

2010-03-16T08:38:00.002-04:00

This morning, lighting energy efficiencies took a dramatic step forward with the unveiling of Digital Lumens, another MA-based clean tech innovator. The energy costs and consumption numbers are pretty staggering when evaluating what is required to light large facilities, such as warehouses. Lights pretty much illuminate every area, whether it is occupied or not at annual costs of around $1 per square foot (and warehouses are typically 250,000 square feet or larger).

Digital Lumens by combining LED-based fixtures formed into a lighting network with system-wide intelligence and controls will drive costs and consumption down by 90%. This technological advance is great news for energy conservation and the bottom line of many large enterprises.

This is just the beginning. Imagine tying a facility’s own Smart Light Grid eventually to a metropolitan Light Grid for better energy management. Digital Lumens makes it possible to totally control where light is directed and when it needs to be on or off based on occupation. Innovation directed at a very real business and clean-tech issue is bound to be a winner.

Join us for Help a PR PRO Out Lunch Event this Friday!

2010-02-17T13:56:00.002-05:00

We're hosting a "Help a PR PRO Out" event here at CHEN PR's building this coming Friday for HAPPO job seekers and potential employers. Doug Haslam is spearheading the event and we welcome the opportunity to share pizza and discussion for any who wish to attend (limit of 50).

Just click on the link and register. Hope to see you there!

http://happoboston.eventbrite.com/

Simmons: Angela Bassett, Tina Brown, Mia Farrow, Sheryl WuDunn

2010-02-10T11:25:00.010-05:00

Just when you think they can't top last year's agenda, headlined by Diane Keaton, Simmons puts together another jaw-dropping line-up of luminaries. The school's 31st annual Leadership Conference will be held this year on Friday, April 30 at the Seaport World Trade Center Boston.

We're honored to be working with Simmons for the third year to promote this prestigious event. Here's the Globe coverage from today.

In addition to the outstanding women cited above, other notable speakers include:

Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky – senior partner at WilmerHale, formerly the nation's chief trade negotiator
Dr. Stacy Blake-Beard – associate professor at Simmons School of Management and senior faculty affiliate at its Center for Gender in Organizations
Warren Brown – founder/owner of the CakeLove baking empire and host of the Food Network's Sugar Rush show
Eileen McDargh – internationally renowned expert on organizational culture change and successful author
Dr. Teresa Nelson – professor of entrepreneurship at the Simmons School of Management and director of its entrepreneurship program
Ranjini Poddar – co-founder and president of Artech Information Systems, a global IT consulting firm employing 2600 professionals
Roxana Saberi – Iranian-American journalist who was imprisoned in Iran for five months in early 2009
Terry Savage – Emmy Award-winning commentator on personal finance and frequent guest on CNN, CNBC, PBS, and NBC
Marie Savard, MD – medical contributor to ABC News and one of the country's most trusted voices on women's health and wellness
David Meerman Scott – social media expert and author of the new hit book, World Wide Rave, as well as the bestselling The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Irina Simmons – senior vice president and treasurer of high-tech giant EMC Corporation

The early registration ends on March 5, so hit the site now for tickets.

Simmons has gotten some great accolades in recent months. In the Fall, the School of Management (SOM) was ranked #1 in the nation for "Greatest Opportunities for Women" by Princeton Review. SOM also was named "One of the Top 20 Socially Responsible MBA Programs in the World" by the Aspen Institute.

Bands Battle, Everyone Wins at Xconomy's Battle of the Tech Bands

2010-02-09T16:50:00.007-05:00

A rockin’ good time was had by all at this year’s Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 3 held at the Middle East in Cambridge. Whether you were a fan of electronic hip-hop, country-rock-soul, heavy metal or something in between, the face off between East coast and West coast left little to be desired as Boston bands attempted to defend their hometown honor against Seattle rivals.

The clash of guitars, drums, and tech minds led to loud noise and the winner of the third Battle of the Tech Bands, The Dirty Truckers, Boston’s own “gritty country rock band.” The Dirty Truckers, who were the 2009 audience favorite, won by a narrow margin of 182 votes to the 180 votes of electronica hipsters, Deadbeat Darling.

To kick off the party a little bit early, CHEN PR hosted an event before the Battle of the Bands at ZuZu, the restaurant upstairs at the Middle East. We were joined by clients and friends to socialize, drink and of course eat some of the great food. We had a great time and more than 60 people showed up—many of which joined us for the show afterward. Check out the pictures!

This Xconomy event was not only a fun time for those of us in local tech circles; it also helped generate some much-needed financial support for the Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston. This year’s show raised $1,100 for each organization

Commonwealth and Nissan commit to zero-emission vehicle

2010-02-09T16:33:00.014-05:00

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Nissan entered into an agreement this afternoon to advance zero-emission mobility throughout Mass. by promoting the development of an electric-vehicle charging network, as well as the necessary legislation to allow for adoption of such a network. The agreement was signed today at the Museum of Science, which hosted the event and featured the Nissan Leaf, the all-electric vehicle that hits the road this December. It was a promising sign for Massachusetts which, as Energy and Environment Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles mentioned, is competing hard for the top spot among environmentally responsible states in the country.

On top of the cool t-shirts Nissan was handing out, it was great to see some local companies get props for the work they're doing to advance electric transportation - including CHEN PR client and lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power, who got a nice shout out from Secretary Bowles.

The car, as you can see, looks pretty sharp and I wouldn't be surprised to see them zigging and zagging across the state's highways by early next year.

Measuring Social Media

2010-02-02T17:12:00.002-05:00

An interesting discussion was held this morning through the MassTLC on Measuring Social Media campaigns, led by K.D. Paine. Social media as we all know and experience daily has had an enormous impact on how companies communicate with their customers, future employees, prospects and competitors. Vehicles such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to name a few are an integral part of strategies to move from “eyeballs to engagement.”

Companies are effectively using social media for everything from fundraising to recruitment (Sodexo saved $300,000 on recruiting costs using Twitter) to measuring customer satisfaction. Measuring the success of a social media campaign depends of course on what a company is trying to accomplish, or what problem they are trying to solve. Katie shared her experience with setting up Key Performance Indicators and then tracking results through a combination of Web tools and human involvement (surveys, calls, etc.).

Reaching customers, prospects, friends, colleagues is moving faster and more immediate than ever. Consider:

Years to Reach 50 million Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.

Fasten your seat belt, it’s only going to accelerate.

Note: Katie has kindly sent along a link to her slides, which you'll find here.

Xconomy: Battle of the Bands is Back!

2010-01-12T11:55:00.004-05:00

The Battle of the Bands has come to offer a welcome respite for the winter blahs. For the last few years, Xconomy has pulled together this fun event at the venerable Middle East in Cambridge, and the tech community has responded with enthusiasm. Everyone heads in to huddle from the cold, reconnect with other techies and share some brews.

This year's event has a twist - the event will pit Seattle bands against Boston bands. Privately, colleagues - who would only agree to comment off the record - have expressed concerns about this matchup. While Boston has a vibrant music scene, Seattle's record of successful bands speaks for itself. Brows are furrowing.

February 4th will tell the tale. We'll see you there.

"If we have no peace...

2009-12-24T08:49:00.002-05:00

it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

~ Mother Teresa

Wishing you and yours a restful and reflective holiday season.

Your friends at CHEN PR

Dick McGlinchey - Mentor and Friend

2009-12-06T19:42:00.003-05:00

On Friday, I learned that Dick McGlinchey had passed away earlier in the week. Dick had been battling a progressive neurological disease, Multiple System Atrophy, but he died suddenly from a heart attack.

Earlier this year, I read a profile of NBC news anchor Brian Williams. Williams observed that few of us can point to a single individual to whom we’d attribute our success, but Williams could. In his case, Tom Brokaw had plucked the young Williams from a rather obscure news job at CBS to bring him to NBC. Brokaw served as Williams mentor and advocate, guiding him to his future success in the news business.

I remember thinking at the time that Dick McGlinchey had played that same role in my life.

Like so many people, I got to know Dick at one of the early local software companies, McCormack & Dodge, but I didn’t actually work for him there. After M&D, I went to work at a smaller software company, DMS, which was led by the dynamic duo of Bob Weiler and John Landry. When DMS got acquired by Cullinet, I wasn’t sure I wanted to work for the much larger company. I called Dick for advice. He changed the course of my career when he said, “Why don’t you come work for me instead?”

And so, I joined McGlinchey & Paul when there were a total of six employees, including Dick and his talented partner Lois Paul. I had no background in PR, but Dick believed in me, and taught me to believe in myself.

Dick was the right mentor for me at a point in my life when I was mature enough for the lessons. I blossomed under his management style. If he had faith in you, he had a tendency to toss you into the deep end of the pool. I learned so much from that approach, becoming more confident in myself and in my ability to think on my feet.

I’d been on the job for just a few weeks when he turned to me in the middle of some heavy, strategic discussion with a VP of marketing and asked, “Barb, what do you think?”

Bear in mind that I barely understood the client’s technology at that stage, and I’m sure that I didn’t fully grasp the subtleties of the discussion. After my blood pressure shot through the roof, I found myself saying something moderately substantive and they nodded in agreement.

Dick’s question at that point in the meeting was brilliant on two fronts. It showed the client that Dick cared about my opinion, and it set me up as a credible contributor. And it was a shot in the arm for me – I knew that Dick wouldn’t have asked me if he didn’t feel I’d make a good showing.

Then there was the time that a client (an EVP), with whom I’d always had a good relationship, became unpleasant to deal with. He was testy and cranky and downright rude on a few occasions. I complained to Dick, who said, “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to call him out on his bad behavior. Tell him he’s being a jerk and you don’t deserve it. Tell him you want to meet for breakfast or lunch and talk it out, so that you can have a better working relationship in the future.”

Dick could have easily called the client and sorted this out for me, but instead, he gave me the tools to fix the problem myself. I can recall being so nervous when I called the irritable client, but I stuck with the plan, and we met for breakfast one morning. His company was going through a tough patch – they weren’t making their sales goal for the quarter – and he was under a ton of pressure. He apologized for taking his stress out on me, and we had a really lovely and constructive relationship ever after.

And that’s just the serious side of Dick’s workstyle. No one was a better storyteller or more fun to travel with than Dick. Nothing was more fun than a company Dairy Joy excursion with Dick on a fine summer day.

The phrase “joie de vivre” was made for Dick. He grasped the joy in life, and he helped the rest of us remember to stop and smell the roses. He was an invaluable mentor and friend. I’m so grateful and lucky that I had the opportunity to know him.

~~~~~~~~~
Here is another tribute to Dick by Alison Moore.

Drinks are on us!

2009-11-11T15:32:00.002-05:00

Join us tonight at the 8th Mass Innovation Nights product launch party and networking event. Doors open at 6:00 at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation at 154 Moody St.

After-party starts at 8:30 at Biagio's Plush Lounge, 123 Moody St. The first 50 drinks are on us!

Here's who's launching:

Conversion Associates
Implementation Factory
Lime Design
Magic Toob
Risk-wise Investor
Teenlife
Textaurant
Think Flood
Utest
V.i. Labs

Get Smart on Marketing

2009-11-10T11:06:00.003-05:00

Last night we hosted an MIT Enterprise Forum Get Smart program on marketing. Anita Brearton, Managing Director and Boston Forum Leader of Golden Seeds, provided a terrific overview of marketing in a B2B start-up environment. For emerging companies, marketing is often not a top priority when, as Anita pointed out, it should be considered as early as the company inception.

We had a lively discussion among a group that included the CEO of an established company and quite a few early stage entrepreneurs. Topics ranged from developing logos and company names to messaging, media programs, online advertising and social media.

Anita was formerly a CHEN PR client and prior a colleague of ours at Bay Networks. Golden Seeds identifies and invests in women-led ventures and provides women entrepreneurs with strategic business advice and the tools they need for growth.

A banner week for CHEN PR client Phase Forward

2009-11-09T08:46:00.007-05:00

What a week last week was for CHEN PR client Phase Forward.

Phase Forward provides software solutions that help pharmaceutical, medical device and other companies automate the clinical trials at the heart of their new drug/therapy/device development processes. Many of these companies convened in Boston last week for Phase Forward’s 8^th annual user conference. The tone was set with a moving conference-opening keynote by John F. Crowley.

Mr. Crowley shared his intertwined personal and professional journey guided by his and his wife’s efforts to develop drug therapies for the Pompe disease with which both of his children, Megan and Patrick, were diagnosed in 1998. Mr. Crowley reminded his listeners of the toxicity of self pity even in the most challenging of circumstances, the importance of humility and the critical role of innovation in helping improve people’s lives. Mr. and Mrs. Crowley, Megan and Patrick are an inspiring family and are a reminder that outside of the biotechnology labs, real people’s lives are being positively impacted by the work of this industry. Harrison Ford is producing and starring in a film, called Extraordinary Measures, based on the Crowleys’ journey to be released in January of 2010 – sure to be riveting.

Two days of informative presentations followed, including a wide variety of Phase Forward customers sharing case studies with their peers about how they have implemented the company’s solutions to bring greater efficiencies to their clinical trials.

The week was capped by the news at a dinner event Thursday evening that Phase Forward had been named Private Sector Company of the Year by the Mass Technology Leadership Council. Accepting the award for the company was chairman and CEO Bob Weiler (pictured in the photo with fellow executives Mike Davies, Martin Young and Russ Campanello). It was a very nice moment we were proud to share with those in attendance representing Phase Forward. Our sincere congratulations to the entire Phase Forward team on this very well-deserved recognition.

Room to Read Boston - This Thursday - Don't Miss It!

2009-11-02T22:41:00.002-05:00

I'm just back from our prep meeting in anticipation of our November 5th event, where Room to Read Founder John Wood will be joining us. In case you've somehow missed my past blogs on this topic, Room to Read was founded in 2000, and is focused on creating educational opportunities for kids in the developing world.

I've had the pleasure of seeing John Wood speak on a few occasions now, and he's one of the top three speakers I've ever seen in action. John is a three-time speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative, a five-time winner of Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award and the only non-Asian to be honored with TIME Magazine’s Asian Heroes Award.

So come join us on Thursday evening, when we'll be hosting a fundraiser at the Harvard Club. We've got a really stellar auction lineup, including:

-A private flight to Nantucket piloted by a former TOPGUN instructor for a day of golf, for two
New England Patriots game day package – four tickets with an on-field pass
- A jersey signed by New England Patriot Wes Welker
Two Red Sox box seat tickets for a 2010 Yankees game (I know - it’s a painful subject at the moment.)
- A Good Will Hunting movie poster signed by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Robin Williams and Minnie Driver
- A week’s stay at a private home in Burgundy, France
- A week’s stay on Nantucket
- Stays at private homes on Cape Cod
- A vintage JFK campaign hat, circa 1960
- Signed Red Sox photos and gear
- A beer tasting at Harpoon Brewery, for 80 people
- A one-year membership to Boston Ski & Sports Club
- Original photography and artwork
- Gift certificates from area restaurants, salons, yoga studios and florists

Tickets are available online until end of day Wednesday, November 4.

A Night of Firsts and What Did You Just Call Me?

2009-10-16T12:53:00.016-04:00

Wednesday night was a red letter day for me, and a fun one for CHEN PR. Chris Carleton and I attended our first Mass Innovation Night at the very cool Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation and had the distinct pleasure of buying everyone a drink at Biagio afterward.

It’s a fun and interesting venue for many people to get a first look at some local innovations – with huge thanks to the event founders Bobbie Carlton, Carlton PR & Marketing, and Dan Englander, High Rock Media. The MassInno site has a great recap with video, which also includes some great links to other recaps of the night.

Another first was that the MassInno folks introduced a new feature, the “Expert’s Corner.” When I first heard of it, I thought what a great idea. They set aside a corner of the venue for one-on-one conversations with a group of volunteer experts on a range of topics of interest to both exhibiting entrepreneurs and hopefully soon-to-be exhibiting entrepreneurs. The experts included Accounting, Law, Entrepreneurism, Funding, and PR/Strategic Comms.

Then I thought, cool, wonder who the generous, brave and hardy soul was who they got on the PR front. Yeeaaaa, THAT’s where the last first of the night emerged…

As you’ll see from the pic (taken and Tweeted by Chris Carleton) someone failed to look behind the curtain and decided that I would be the PR Wizard du jour. Chris got the easier role -- chatting up the presenting companies, checking out their products and hanging out with the other Mass Inno-ites.

All kidding aside, it was a really great night with a lot of energy and active discussion. And while I may not feel worthy to wear an Expert badge, I got an extra opportunity to chat with some very interesting people, making some very interesting things in the areas of enterprise software and social networking, and whom I hope to see rocking the Massachusetts, US and ultimately global innovation scene soon. Until next time…

The Idealists’ Turn

2009-10-15T17:02:00.004-04:00

Up until the relatively recent clean tech boom, I’d heard little day-to-day, rank-and-file talk of "doing good" in the 15 years of my professional career in high tech. For sure the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been around for a while, and lots of companies have CSR statements and programs. And of course there were a lot of people and companies in fact doing good.

But among the people and companies where I spent my time that sort of goal or vision just didn’t come up much in day-to-day professional contexts. (One notable exception is my former client Lotus Development (now a division of IBM of course), who in my experience always did an impressive job of making its philanthropic commitments a central and pervasive part of its business).

So it is that I find the sort of talk I heard at the Boston-Area Sustainability Group meeting last night so refreshing and inspiring. Co-founded by a former Bay Networks colleague of mine, Rich Goode, and Glen Grant, the group aims to bring together like-minded individuals across all sorts of professional disciplines and companies for informal presentations and networking.

Last night Tom Permatteo, founder of a very cool company called izzitgreen.com -- a blog that helps consumers make environmentally motivated purchase decisions -- and Glen Grant, founder of environmental IT consultancy G2 Technology, presented to the group. Their presentations and the informal discussion among all the attendees before and after the presentations were replete with references to doing good, environmental responsibility and global accountability. The general consensus in the room was that entrepreneurial/business success and environmental responsibility, far from being mutually exclusive, are complementary.

It is in my judgment a very positive evolution that this kind of talk is now commonplace in the technology industry. Big props to Rich and Glen for co-founding the group -- it was energizing to be among so many idealists and I’m already looking forward to the next meeting.

MIT Enterprise Forum and the Art of Positioning

2009-10-07T16:34:00.006-04:00

If you're a PR professional, thinking in terms of positioning and messaging is second nature, but you're probably not very comfortable with molecular mayhem. And if you're a PhD chemist, you're likely more at home in the world of stoichiometric equations than with elevator pitches and mission statements.

Our worlds collided last night at a session on "The Art of Positioning," part of the MIT Enterprise Forum's Start Smart series. Start Smart is a nine-week workshop (a mini-MBA program) designed for new and early stage entrepreneurs looking to delve into each phase of getting a new venture going. This particular Fall series is tailored for medical device entrepreneurs. Different experts present the workshops each week, and last night I teamed up with Kara Della Vecchia of KDV Communications to do the positioning workshop. We blended a dash of Guy Kawasaki and a touch of Geoffrey Moore to present our own take on the fastest path to positioning. Kara presented a case study on her client Starion Instruments, whose CEO (Kirt Kirtland) graciously called in from an airport to field some questions. The variety of presenters seemed to keep the students engaged, and we hope we helped them a bit on their path to commercializing their devices.

Whenever I meet with area entrepreneurs, I'm always impressed with the diversity of business concepts that are percolating out there. We had a gentleman with a device to address COPD, a fellow with a biodegradable staple for surgeries and a PhD physicist with a filtering technology with medical applications, to name just a few.

Thanks to Pete McDonald of Silicon Valley Bank for hosting and facilitating last night's session.

You can check out upcoming MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge sessions here.

Saturday in the (Ball)Park

2009-10-02T12:56:00.011-04:00

With a nod to that quintessential Chicago tune, the CHEN gang gathered on the last September Saturday at Watertown's Filippello Park. While there wasn't “a man selling ice cream,” there were certainly people “really smiling” and it wasn't solely due to the glorious Fall day we all enjoyed.

Filippello is home to the Association of Blind Citizens Boston Renegades. The Team plays Beep Baseball, an adaptive version of baseball for blind and visually impaired individuals. “Beep Ball,” as it is known, is one of several programs operated by the ABC, a nonprofit organization which enhances the social, political, and economic well-being for all people who are blind or visually impaired.

As you can imagine, affording these athletes opportunities to compete in tournaments sanctioned by the National Beep Baseball Association - the sport’s governing body - requires a great deal of financial support. Additionally, a busy 2009 tournament schedule, which included travel to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Stockton, California requires tremendous dedication and commitment not only from players, but also from numerous volunteer coaches. And I've been fortunate to be an assistant coach with the Renegades for the better part of seven years.

During this time, CHEN has been incredibly supportive of my involvement - and patient and understanding with respect to my work schedule. Tournaments typically require the Renegades to travel on multiple Summer Fridays, and participate in a full week of competition at the end of July/beginning of August.

Notably, last year CHEN made a generous donation for the opportunity to play against the Renegades. And on September 26, the CHENers once again donned blindfolds in the spirit of charity and competition - OK let’s be honest, mostly charity.

There were “people reaching” to field the ball and “people laughing” at our attempts to hit and run to the (correct) bases. And though CHEN didn't win, suffice it to say, we all had a blast.

So if we've piqued your interest in learning more about beep ball, please read the Wall Street Journal piece by CHEN friend Ben Worthen, who reported from the NBBA World Series. Also, be sure to click on the video, which captures Ben hitting off Renegades’ battery mates Ron Cochran and Rob Weissman.

And on a related note, I’m also involved with the Vision 5K, a run and walk benefiting several local organizations - including the Carroll Center for the Blind, which employs several members of the Renegades - that, like the ABC, offer programs for the blind and visually impaired. In addition to having fun, the Vision 5K is designed to educate participants that with the proper tools and assistance, the blind and visually impaired can be just as successful in all facets of life as their sighted peers.

“Can you dig it?” After an afternoon with the Renegades, yes, we can.

What's Up with China and PR?

2009-09-25T14:33:00.008-04:00

If you're like us, you're hearing more every day about the increasingly important role Asia generally -- and China specifically -- is playing for companies of all stripes, sizes and markets.

And also if you're like us, you're hearing from fellow PR pros, client execs and others that trying to get -- and keep -- a handle on the rapidly morphing landscape of media outlets, onlines and bloggers is vexing. And we agree.

One way we stay abreast is through our Asian PR partner -- Techworks Asia. On the ground in Beijing and Hong Kong, and working the region generally, Claire Walker and her team have been managing PR programs there since long before it got white-hot like it is today. We've teamed with them quite successfully for clients ranging from Fairchild Semi to Boston-Power.

We have the great treat of having Claire and her colleague, Karrie Lee, visiting us next week. Part of that time will be spent getting an update on dynamics in the region and how they are or will likely affect companies doing business there.

And what PR execs should know about how best to leverage the opportunities and avoid the missteps.

We figured we'd share the wealth. So, we've invited some of our friends to join in that informal, interactive conversation. We're hosting it next Wednesday, September 30, from 8:30 - 10 a.m.

We've maxed out the conference room in CHEN PR's office space, so we're meeting in the Padanaram Conference Room, Building C, here in our office complex to accommodate folks. That gives us the ability to add a few more friends.

So, if you'd like to participate, drop us a note (ccarleton@chenpr.com) and we'll count you in!

After all, the more insightful people comparing notes on such an important topic the better, right?

WebInno and Bootstrapping PR

2009-09-21T13:33:00.006-04:00

The Web Innovators Group events are always fun and eye opening. If you still need affirmation that innovation is alive and kickin' in the greater Boston area, stop by the Cambridge Royal Sonesta on Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m.

Chef David Beisel has whipped up another interesting menu featuring the following companies as main dishes:

Book of Odds - When we're watching the Sox, we often marvel at how Remy and Orsillo have all those arcane stats at their fingertips. It sounds like this new website will come in handy, answering questions like, "What are the odds that a major league team will hit four homers in a single game?
Epernicus - Looks like LinkedIn - for scientists!
BatchBlue Software (BatchBook) - CRM for small business. Looks useful.

This meeting also features a a special breakout session at 8 p.m. -- "An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Bootstrapping PR.” Mike Troiano will host a discussion with a media panel including Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Wade Roush from Xconomy, Peter Kafka from AllThingsD, and Bob Brown of Network World.

You can check out the side dishes at the WebInno site.

Enjoyable Meeting with PR Peers

2009-09-17T09:41:00.001-04:00

Having the opportunity to meet with one’s peers and discuss challenges and opportunities in the PR industry is always interesting and a pleasure to reconnect. Earlier this week I attended a meeting hosted by the Council of Public Relations Firms that included representatives of consumer and technology firms. The commonality and agreement among us was very evident. We’re all seeing “signs of life” in the economy, some beginning to hire again (including CHEN PR), but all also still dealing with the realities of the recession in terms of expectations paired with budgets.

We spent a fair amount of time discussing social and digital media challenges and opportunities. CHEN PR is seeing the impact for all of our clients, regardless of industry. As an example, we announced our client SpaceClaim’s support of Windows multi-touch with a very clever video, created by SpaceClaim. On YouTube, the video now has over 20,000 hits, and has led to broad coverage, spontaneous response and interest from non-engineering media including, the NY Times, CNET, Wired, Gizmodo and Popular Science.

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet?

2009-08-03T13:19:00.007-04:00

I am admittedly a little slow when it comes to social media. I only recently jumped aboard the Twitter bandwagon, I switched from MySpace to Facebook a lot later than I should have, and I don’t have a personal blog or web site. But once I got onboard the social media train, I was hooked.

As a novice in the public relations field, I have quickly become aware of the numerous social media outlets in cyberspace and their usefulness. There are sites that profile an individual to the rest of the community, such as Facebook, Friendfeed, and LinkedIn. You want a bio – just google someone’s name and chances are, one of these sites will pop up. These sites are not just for networking in young communities, many of my friends have groaned about their parents joining Facebook. This popularity only emphasizes the utility and popularity of social media tools.

Other social media outlets allow for recipients to receive updates on current news, events, and general musings, such as Twitter, podcasts, and blogs/micro-blogging. Only problem with visiting sites such as Twitter and personal blogs – anyone can say anything. If anyone can blog and tweet about anything they desire, will journalistic integrity be a thing of the past? Which sites can we really trust?

Despite the aforementioned issues of reliance, in this day in age, social media seems to be the logical next step. In an economy where newspapers and magazines are closing, social media is a cheap way to quickly and easily disseminate information. Companies who are hurting for staff members can breathe a sigh of relief with this cheap way of receiving and distributing information. People are turning to online news sites instead of newspapers; they are reading books on Kindle instead of visiting their local bookseller. Many even attribute Obama's win and attraction to the youth to the use of social media in his campaign. If that’s where the people are headed, we should follow them, like it or not. If anything, it’s become an easier way to gauge one’s target audience for branding purposes. In a culture where we have become used to instant gratification through online participation and advanced technology, it seems only natural that the media should follow this same trend.

In a 2008 Journalists Use of Search Survey by TopRank, 91% reported using standard search engines to perform activities such as research companies, past media coverage and subject matter experts. 64% reported using social networks, 55% use blogs and 50% use Wikis as social media tools. Over half of the population utilizes social media – if that’s not a reason to create a blog or a Twitter profile, I’m not sure what is. Now to address the real question – what should my blog be about??

Any tips on useful social media sites (besides the aforementioned sites.) I'm still learning!

Charlayne Hunter-Gault - "Women are the Poorest of the Poor"

2009-07-24T11:40:00.002-04:00

It’s been more than two months since I saw Charlayne Hunter-Gault speak at the Simmons Leadership Conference, but her grace, wisdom and strength still stick in my mind.

She’s had an illustrious career to date, currently serving as a foreign correspondent for NPR. Previously, she was chief national correspondent for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS from 1983 to 1997. She was the first African-American reporter for The New Yorker in 1963, and reported for the New York Times for more than ten years. She received the New York Times Publisher Award, two Emmy's, a Peabody, the Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and multiple honorary degrees.

I missed a few minutes of her speech, but I walked in just in time to hear her story of growing up in a small rural town in Georgia, attending a segregated elementary school. They got the hand-me-down books from the white schools.

Once a year, everybody in the community came together for a fundraiser for “this poor little black school,” as she described it. The child of the family who raised the most money was the school king or queen for a day.

“So the money was counted, and I heard my name called. I just couldn’t believe it. I got a Bulova watch and this little diamond tiara,” Hunter-Gault explained. “So the next day, I went to school in my bobby socks and loafers, and my little diamond tiara. I was just so proud.”

Hunter-Gault said she internalized this lesson of pride in oneself and in one’s community.

“So when I walked through those crowds at the University of Georgia, and they were yelling ‘Kill the niggers,’ I thought of that little diamond tiara,” she said. When there was a mob outside her dorm, throwing bricks, she thought of her grandmother, who’d taught her bible verses in the summers. “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.”

She eventually got suspended, “for her safety.” This tactic had worked at another school, because then the student criticized the school and she was expelled.

But Hunter-Gault somehow endured the climate at the university, and in 1962 became the first African-American woman to graduate from the school.

Hunter-Gault's remarks then fast-forwarded to modern-day South Africa where the “born frees” registered to vote this year in record numbers. (Born frees are citizens who were born in the post-apartheid era.) Two women ran the election process; 17 million people voted in a near-flawless election. Fifty-five percent of the voters were women.

“I look to the women of Africa to bring the second wind of change to our world, the first being the era of post colonialism,” said Hunter-Gault. “If we save the women of Africa, we can save Africa. They say that if you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”

But even as women are making advances in some areas, it is not translating to success in others. “In South Africa, a woman is raped every 26 seconds. In Darfur, women are raped as they go out to gather wood to cook food for their children.

"I am committed to giving you some good news too. There is more to Africa than the four D’s – death, disease, disaster, despair. That’s why I wrote New News out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance."

The number one problem in Africa is poverty, explained Hunter-Gault. “Women are the poorest of the poor."

Why should we care? "Ghana and Angola have tremendous oil reserves. And terrorism feeds off poverty," she noted.

“So beyond caring on humanitarian grounds, and I know that many of you do, we should care out of our own national interest,” Hunter-Gault closed.

We Say Good Night to Walter Cronkite

2009-07-21T09:32:00.027-04:00

Along with the rainy and generally bad weather plaguing the nation recently, we have experienced quite a few deaths of famous personalities over the prior months. Musings of this current gloominess aside, we reflect on the life of Walter Cronkite, who was recently added to the list of passings in the entertainment world.

The TV journalist, who is perhaps best known for anchoring the first man on the moon, as well as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, passed away on July 21 at age 92 of cerebrovascular disease. I was at my mother's house when we heard the news. As a flower child of the 1960's, she experienced firsthand the contributions that Cronkite made to journalism and was visibly affected by the news of his death. As a young woman in my twenties, I was not fortunate enough to experience Cronkite's work. What I do know, after watching numerous specials and tributes to Cronkite this past weekend, is that he reported on some of the most important events in our country's history: the Kennedy era, Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Watergate, Apollo 11.

Watching several clips of Cronkite's reports, I get chills just thinking of the world-altering events he guided our nation through. He interviewed President Kennedy, whose legacy I never experienced, but imagine it to be like that of our current leader, President Obama. He brought the news of America's first man on the moon, gathering huddled crowds around black and white screens. He was involved in the Beatles' first television debut on the CBS Evening News, which later went on to become one of the most famous bands in history. And he did it with an accuracy and integrity that journalists today still strive for. He not only reported the news, but showed vunerability and emotion while he did it, relating him to the rest of America. He choked up while reporting Kennedy's assassination, news that had the rest of the nation in tears. It is said that no one in broadcast news will ever compare to Walter Cronkite. I only wish that I had been able to directly witness what he brought to American media. I guess that's just the way it is ...

To view clips of Cronkite's work, visit CBS News for complete video coverage.

Want to Design a Superhero Exoskeleton? There's an App for That!

2009-07-21T08:41:00.005-04:00

Today, Concord, MA based SpaceClaim announced that their customers will soon be able to design using a Windows Touch enabled version of their 3D direct modeling software. What was once only a pipe dream plastered on the big screen during sci-fi (or SyFy?) blockbusters is now right around the corner thanks to the touch capabilities of the soon to be released Windows 7 software and a slew of amazing multi-touch screens from a wide variety of hardware providers.

You may be thinking to yourself that you have been using touch screens for years as you played a solitaire arcade at a restaurant or a digital jukebox at a bar. What sets this software and hardware apart, however, is the ability to use multiple inputs to control your digital content. Whereas computers that allow you to swipe around images and music with one finger have been around for a while now, this new generation will allow you to use all five fingers, and even a stylus for additional accuracy, to perform more complex and potentially useful tasks (very similar to iPhone technology). Now instead of simply flipping through a digital photo album or pointing at an Ace of Spades, you can use a multi-touch screen to assemble and analyze complex 3D geometry, and of course circle lady bugs and play Guitar Hero.

What makes SpaceClaim's product special, in light of the previous two examples of somewhat fluffy, albeit fun, uses of multi-touch, is that SpaceClaim is one of the only developers currently looking to utilize multi-touch for serious, enterprise software. When users get their hands on SpaceClaim's multi-touch software they are going to have every ounce of design and analysis power that can be found in the currently available product. The multi-touch interface will allow for more streamlined design as well as more intuitive, and dare I say "fun", collaborative interaction with fellow engineers and/or clients. Using their fingers to navigate and the stylus for precision, people will be able to explore 3D direct modeling in new and exciting ways as SpaceClaim paves the way for the future of developers on the Windows Touch platform.

And now for the kicker, see below SpaceClaim co-founder Blake Courter's groove-infused multi-touch design demo to see exaclty what I'm talking about:

“One of These Innovations is Not Like The Other”...or is it?

2009-07-16T10:57:00.017-04:00

Last night, David Beisel gave us yet another very successful WebInno event. Huge crowd, lots of energy, and each company improving even on the innovations seen at the last WebInno (more on that in a sec).

As I perused the companies involved, the old Sesame Street matching game ran through my head. Overall, the common thread running through most of the companies seemed to be connecting all the aspects of what I’ll call, the “me network.” They addressed increasing the effectiveness of pretty much all aspects of how you interact with the online world, and how it interacts with you – From entertainment and learning, to news consumption, to social network interactions, all the way to the marketing of smartphone apps and restaurants based on your preferences. That is, all but one.

From the minute I saw this company on the agenda, I said, huh? The Tor Project, is an 8 year old, “anonymity network.” You may have heard of them as a popular tool for Iranian protesters to circumvent government controls during the election. But in talking to them, they’re starting to build out partnerships with Google, eBay, browser vendors, security companies and others to enable “safe modes” that protect your information. So it does make sense that to really keep the me network about “me”, is the ability to control how much of me, is out there.

An interesting opposite bookend to anonymity, is having people branded with actual barcodes, from CaptureCode…

Actually, I just let it hang there for dramatic effect. Far from ominous, CaptureCode is actually doing something pretty cool. Whereas a previous WebInno attendee allowed restaurants to send you deals/promotions, CaptureCode gives you a personal barcode on your smartphone or a plastic card that when scanned helps restaurants put you in a loyalty/rewards programs. And one of my favorite restaurants, Not Your Average Joe’s is already testing it. Well shave my head and sign me up. ;o)

Thanks again to the WebInno sponsors and crew for another great event. And make sure to check out all the other cool companies that were there:

Planet Cazmo -- Music-oriented virtual world for tweens and teens
Thunder Thimble -- social sentiment tracking and interaction platform
BuySellAds -- “Anti-Advertising Network” for SMBs to better target their ad buys
Shareaholic -- Browser add-on for one-click social sharing
Muzzylane -- Immersive 3D gaming environment platform for developers
Localytics -- smartphone application analytics platform
Fluent Mobile -- First mobile newspaper for iPhones
The Tor Project -- The world’s largest anonymity network
CaptureCode -- Your own personal barcode for restaurant rewards/loyalty programs

Phase Forward Rings Opening Bell

2009-07-14T17:19:00.005-04:00

Huge congrats to Phase Forward! The company marked its fifth anniversary on NASDAQ today by ringing the opening bell.

Here's to the next five, and the next five...

Simmons Leadership Conference - Team Building

2009-06-02T12:20:00.003-04:00

One of the sessions I missed at the conference a few weeks back was by Alison Levine, who is the founder and president of Daredevil Strategies. Levine was team captain for the first American Women's Everest Expedition, and has climbed Mount McKinley and other storied summits. Levine is a former Goldman Sachs exec, and shares leadership lessons from her work and adventure experiences with business audiences.

Happily Liz O'Donnell has summarized the Simmons session here for The Glass Hammer.

For more on Levine, check out this San Francisco Chronicle article from last year.

Memorial Service for the WSJ's John Wilke

2009-05-27T12:31:00.003-04:00

I recently posted on John Wilke's tragic passing.

A gathering will will be held this Saturday, May 30, to celebrate his life and career. The service will be a music-filled fundraiser with all proceeds contributed to the education of John and Nancy’s two children, Robin and Jackson. It will take place at the American Legion Hall Post #8, 224 D Street S.E., in Washington, D.C.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m. There will be a cash bar and a requested minimum donation of $50 per person. Limited edition Wilke T-shirts can be purchased for $50.

Additional information on the event and the college fund can be found here.

My thanks to the Gorkana Alert for the notification.

Crittenton Women's Union Honors Barbara Lynch with Amelia Earhart Award

2009-05-15T11:54:00.005-04:00

Barbara Lynch is a James Beard award-winning chef and one very funny woman.

When she stepped to the microphone this past Wednesday to receive the Crittenton Women's Union's Amelia Earhart award at a luncheon attended by hundreds, the first words out of her mouth were: "I just have to adjust my bra strap."

That pretty much sums up the level of pretension that one can expect from this incredible food artist and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of Boston’s, and the country’s, leading chefs and restaurateurs.

Each year, the Crittenton Women's Union (CWU) honors a woman who has exhibited pioneering spirit with the Amelia Earhart Award. Lynch certainly fits the criteria, as do many of the clients of the CWU. The organization helps low-income and at-risk women and families get out of poverty and into lives of personal and economic independence.

Before the award presentation to Lynch, one of the CWU's clients, Helene Gaudette, spoke movingly of her journey towards independence, with the critical assistance she's received from the CWU. Gaudette found herself divorced at age 23, with two kids to support. She planned to become an interior designer, but with help from the CWU's career and financial planning specialists, she learned that the average entry-level salary for an interior designer in Boston is $37,000. Budgeting exercises showed that she needed $65,000 to support her family. She's now enrolled in a radiology program at Roxbury Community college so that she can move into a better-paying field. She brought many of us to tears with her pledge to support her kids so that they do not want, and so that they grow up with a strong role model of a woman who's self-sufficient and in control of her own destiny.

Following the opening speakers, local radio and TV personality Ron Della Chiesa introduced an excerpt from a short documentary on Lynch. This award-winning film, Amuse Bouche, A Chef's Tale, is described as "a female, real-life 'Good Will Hunting,'" and outlines how Lynch overcame poverty, depression, violence and social stigma to rise through the ranks and establish herself in a male-dominated business with a 60% failure rate.

Following the film snippet, Lynch came to the microphone, waving the crowd -- which had risen to give her a standing ovation -- to sit down.

Lynch relayed her life story and lessons with humility and irreverance. She grew up in housing projects in the South End in a family with seven kids. (Her Dad died when he was just 32.) She noted that she was brought up understanding that everyone is equal - a philosophy that would inform her generosity to the community down the road. She's noted for her heartfelt philanthropy.

She was not a good student, and she worked for a time as a bookie in high school. (She confessed that she did not always place the bets!) But she had a home economics teacher "who saw something in me that I did not see in myself." She developed a love of cooking, at the age of 13, got her first kitchen job cooking at a local rectory. (At age 14, she found Julia Child's number in Cambridge and called her on a whim. To her shock, Child answered the phone, "so I hung up!")

She eventually talked her way into a job as a cook's assistant on a cruise boat doing dinner cruises to Martha's Vineyard. When she approached the owner, he said, "We don't need anymore servers," and she explained she was looking to cook. He asked her where she had cooked, "so I told that guy everything. Thank God he didn't ask for a reference." When the owner asked her if she'd made a certain dish, she invariably replied, "Oh yes," even if she'd never heard of it.

Two days before the cruise was to depart, the chef resigned. Lynch told the owner she wanted the job, and he took a chance on her. She took 25 cookbooks out of the library, stayed up all night, and learned how to cut up beef. "Heck, I learned how to order beef!"

She was on her way. During her early twenties, Barbara worked under some of Boston’s great chefs, including Todd English, first at Michaela’s, then at Olives and later Figs. After working with Todd for several years, Barbara traveled to Italy where she learned about the cuisine firsthand from local women. She returned to Boston and became the executive chef at Galleria Italiana, bringing national acclaim to the tiny trattoria when she captured Food & Wine’s “Ten Best New Chefs in America” award in 1996.

At that point, she knew she wanted her own restaurant, so she signed the lease for No. 9 Park, the day before she got married. Travel & Leisure proclaimed No.9 Park one of the “Top 50 Restaurants in America” in 2003. For two consecutive years, No.9 Park was named “Best Restaurant, General Excellence” by Boston Magazine and Gourmet included it as one of “America’s Top 50 Restaurants” in 2006. She now owns eight restaurants, with a ninth in the works. In fall 2009, Houghton Mifflin will publish her first cookbook.

Lynch noted that in reflecting on Amelia, she asked herself, "What inspires me? What still drives me?" Here are a few answers to those questions, along with some hard-won wisdom:

"If you want something, you can talk yourself out of being scared."
She describes working together with a team as creating a big mural. "Someone's working on a foot over there, someone's working on the head over here, but it all comes together."
"Companies have soul. They need nurturing."
"We need to look at risks in a different way. Sometimes, the adventure is worthwhile in itself."
"I believe in the mission of CWU - helping women to believe in themselves."

This marked the 25th annual Amelia Earhart Award Luncheon to benefit The Crittenton Women’s Union. The CWU was created in 2006 through the merger of two historic Boston organizations, the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union and Crittenton. Both were trailblazing organizations serving women and families since the late 1800s; they merged to create a stronger organization capable of achieving things that neither organization could do alone.

What's Next in Tech - June 25

2009-05-08T11:41:00.005-04:00

Cool events are popping up all over.

On the evening of June 25th, Scott Kirsner will moderate: "What's Next in Tech - Exploring the Growth Opportunities of 2009 and Beyond." You can register here.

This event aims to explore up-and-coming technologies that are expected to create future business and job opportunities. Discussion areas include mobile software, videogames, robotics, social media, clean tech and other fast-growing sectors.

Details: June 25, 6-8:30 p.m at Boston University's School of Management auditorium

Speakers will include:

- Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

- Mike Dornbrook, COO, Harmonix Music Systems (makers of "Rock Band")

- Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot Corp. and founder of The Droid Works

- Brian Halligan, social media expert and CEO of HubSpot

- Tim Healy, CEO of EnerNOC

- Ellen Rubin, Founder & VP/Product of CloudSwitch

- Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital

- John Simon, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners

The event is hosted by Future Forward Events in association with The Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC) and Boston University School of Management. The Twitter/blog hash tag for the event is #whatsnext09.

Xconomy Launches XSITE

2009-05-07T13:56:00.004-04:00

We knew that XSITE was being incubated, but now it's been officially launched. Xconomy announced the event today, billing it as the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

From the site:

This full-day conference will celebrate New England innovation and showcase the panorama of transformative efforts underway in the region in such fields as energy, life sciences, robotics, cloud and mobile computing, and transportation-at universities, startups, and large corporations.

Xconomy has partnered with Boston University's Office of Technology Development for XSITE. The conference will be held on June 24, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can register here.

Here's the lineup of heavy hitters:

Keynote -- Juan Enriquez, Founder, Chairman, CEO, Biotechonomy

Other notable speakers:
.
Phil Sharp, Institute Professor, MIT, Co-founder, Biogen, Nobel Prize winner
John Abele, Co-founder, Boston Scientific
Yet-Ming Chiang, Professor of Ceramics, MIT, Co-founder A123Systems
Jeff Nick, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, EMC
Mohamad Ali, Massachusetts Senior State Executive, IBM
John Maraganore, CEO, Alnylam
Reed Sturtevant, Managing Director, Microsoft Startup Labs
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, CEO, Boston Power
Tillman Gerngross, Co-founder, GlycoFi, Co-founder and CEO, Adimab, Professor of Engineering, Dartmouth
Mick Mountz, CEO and Founder, Kiva Systems
Carl Dietrich, CEO, Terrafugia
James Carey, Co-founder and Principal Scientist, SiOnyx
Maria Rupnick, Co-Founder, Zafgen, Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Thomas Hughes, CEO, Zafgen
Noubar Afeyan, Managing Partner and CEO, Flagship Ventures
Jeffrey Ives, CEO, Satori Pharmaceuticals
Brian Shin, CEO, Visible Measures
Bill Taylor, Co-founder, Fast Company

John Wilke - The Definition of a Gentleman

2009-05-04T13:14:00.004-04:00

I haven't spoken with Wall Street Journal reporter John Wilke in years, yet the news of his death moved me to tears.

Journalists are not always kind to PR people. Mr. Wilke was always a perfect gentleman in every interaction I had with him on behalf of clients. I haven't worked with him since his move to Washington, but I'll always remember how he coached me through a story on a Boston-area public company more than a dozen years ago. He listened, peppered me with polite questions, and then said, "Here's what I'd need to make this a great story."

We delivered what he asked for, and he wrote a wonderful story. That experience was one of the most instructive and memorable of my career.

John Wilke was a fine journalist and a good man.

Simmons Leadership Conference - We Can Change the World...

2009-05-03T18:51:00.011-04:00

...one teddy bear hug at at time." Maxine Clark

"Retailing is entertainment, and the store is a stage. When the customer has fun, they spend money."
Stanley Goodman, former chairman of the May Company

Maxine Clark, CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop, opened the Simmons School of Management Leadership Conference yesterday with a high goosebump quotient.

There's a reason why Clark and her company have won of string of awards for innovation and leadership. She talks the talk eloquently, but she also walks the walk.

It's hard to not love a leader who has built a company on phrases like, "It's not just about building revenue, it's about building empires of character and value." And she's so genuine that you know it's totally sincere. She's not posturing.

Through its foundation, Build-a-Bear has donated more than $20 million to various kids' nonprofits. The company also has launched wonderful campaigns such as its Huggable Heroes, which is in its sixth year. This project recognizes kids who volunteer their time in a broad range of community service projects - in underserved schools, hospitals, nursing homes and disadvantaged neighborhoods. The nomination process (which is now closed) will culminate in the selection of ten noteworthy young people from the U.S. and two from Canada. Each will receive a prize worth $10,000 ($7,500 in scholarship funds and $2,500 from the Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation to be donated to the charity of their choice).

Clark has had a long career in retailing, starting out at May and Company. In her third week on the job, she heard the chairman, Stanley Goodman, speak (see above) and she knew she'd found her professional calling. She held a series of increasingly successful positions, culminating in CEO of Payless Shoes. For a long time, she loved the job so much she felt she should be paying her employer, but eventually, she felt she was earning that paycheck. At that point, she knew it was time to leave.

She had a light bulb moment when shopping with a 10-year-old friend. It was 12 years ago, at the height of the Beanie Baby craze, and her young friend said, "These are so easy; we could make these."

Build-a-Bear started with one store in St. Louis (still the headquarters) and now has 400 stores worldwide, having sold 75 million bears to date ($470 million in revenues). The company is the tenth largest toy retailer in the U.S.

Clark set out to build a business with a heart. That sounds like a catchphrase, but in this case, she meant it literally. When kids build a bear in one of her stores, they get to pick out a heart for the bear when stuffing it. During the "heart ceremony," kids make a wish on the heart, and the wish stays with the bear for the rest of its life. You can touch the heart to your left or right elbow to make the bear left or right handed. Touch the bear to your head, and it will be smarter than the average bear.

It's little wonder that one of Clark's favorite lines is this one from Lauren Bacall: "Imagination is the highest kite you can fly."

It's tough to capture Clark in a short post, so I'll let Clark's words speak for her:

"What it takes to engage and retain a customer hasn't changed. It's still entertainment."
"It's one of my strengths - I know what I don't know. Some people may think that's a weakness, but it's a strength."
"A business is about passion, legacy, imagination, creation."
"We're about creating an environment so that great things can happen."
"When people have fun at their job, they work harder."
"It takes a village to raise a bear."
"If you're true to who you are and what you believe, that will endure."

Words to live by.

Simmons Leadership Conference - This Saturday

2009-04-28T04:12:00.004-04:00

Last year, we attended this marvelous event for the first time. It was a memorable day, leaving us contemplating the unusual life of anthropologist Louise Leakey and the miraculous survival of Gloria Estefan.

The conference is built on a carefully crafted agenda that blends a bit of entertainment with a lot of education. It's a day of girl power, inspiration and best of all - recharging the professional batteries.

This year's lineup will not disappoint. The headliner is the legendary Diane Keaton. Much-honored business executive Maxine Clark, CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop, is the opening keynote. Last year, Clark was named one of The 25 Most Influential People in Retailing by Chain Store Age. In 2008, her company sold more than $470 million bears and gave away thousands more to charity.

We're also looking forward to hearing Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who is currently reporting for NPR from South Africa. She served as chief national correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and earlier had an award-winning stint at the New York Times.

Other legendary journalists presenting and moderating at the conference include NPR's Michel Martin and CNBC's Sharon Epperson.

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, is another bright light on the agenda. Beyond her work serving her country, she's been a vocal human rights advocate for years. She is the founder of The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

A business ethics panel, "Return on Integriy: The New Bottom Line," promises to be fascinating. It features three whistleblowers: Lynn Brewer and Cindy Olson from Enron and Cynthia Cooper from Worldcom.

Celebrating its 30th year, the conference is the preeminent women's leadership forum in the country and annually attracts a global audience of business and professional women.

You can still register here.

A Rant - in 30 min or less

2009-04-17T10:08:00.006-04:00

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben’s words ring loudly in my ears today as I watch the video of a Domino’s executive reading a statement about how horrified the company is about the “prank” committed by two idiots and the tweets heard round the business world. The New York Times reported brand damage…I feel like the whole issue is borne of brain damage.

“The independent owner of that store is reeling from the damage that this is caused and it’s not a surprise that this has caused a lot of damage to our brand.”

I am not going to write a long treatise condemning or defending the social discussion around business brand issues. I’m sure this rant adds to a long list of conversations had by others with experiences and expertise in this area. But maybe you haven’t seen, remember the fury of the Motrin Moms? Surveys done later found that most (gasp) MOMs weren’t offended by the ads. 45% liked the video and 15% didn't like it. 8%, said it negatively affected their feelings of the brand, 32% said it made them like the brand MORE.

Businesses NEED to be a part of the social discussion, but they don’t deserve to be BULLIED by it. Dominos responded well, and had to. There will likely be no long term band damage, and in fact they may ultimately benefit from their response to this event. But I guess it just continues to baffle me why these things are given so much weight in the public discourse.

As many have learned all too painfully and personally in the social world online, your actions have ramifications in the “real world” on yourself and others. To steal a page from the mom’s handbook – treat people as you would want to be treated, or even better, if your best friend wants to jump off a bridge, does that mean you will too? Social media is about facilitating discussion and conversation – which may lead to valid criticism and action, but we have to be careful of rapid overreaction, condemnation and crucifixion.

We love to ridicule celebrities and sports figures that use their visibility to air their politics or personal issues as if they are of a higher authority. Well guess what. As Twitter prepares to get a big red O sticker today, we all have been given that megaphone to some degree. It comes with some assembly required, but the one critical piece we need – is a filter. Decide what you want to be, understand the power you wield, and use it responsibly.

My point? I dunno. I guess with an unprecedented ability to inform and affect change, why can’t the new social reality work harder to avoid the bad things about the old one?

Mobile Innovation on the Move in New England

2009-04-08T14:31:00.000-04:00

Did you know that in New England alone there are more than 200 mobile technology companies? Last year, various companies included in this figure received more than $500 million in funding from VCs. These are just a few of the stats used to kick off yesterday’s Xconomy Forum, “The Future of Mobile Innovation in New England.”

While Massachusetts is well-known for being a high tech hot spot, I didn’t realize how much ground the area is gaining in the region. During one of the three panels presented at the event, CEOs from local mobile companies such as vlingo, MocoSpace, Skyhook Wireless, and Enterprise Mobile discussed the current mobile technology climate. These execs noted that there has recently been a shift in mobile technology specifically to the U.S. as well as London. Mobile technology is becoming the norm more and more each day as consumers rely on its ever-changing and evolving technology.

In conjunction with these technologies various smart phones were discussed including the iPhone, which now has more than 30,000 applications available. Having not bought a smart phone yet, this was just astounding to me. I had no idea that there was such a vast array of capabilities currently available!

Along these lines, a unique aspect of the event included a handful of “mobile bursts” which featured 2-minute demos from various local mobile companies including Bitstream, Pongr, uLocate, Jumptap and VMware. These really showcased the technology and definitely piqued the audience’s interest.

Overall, this was both an informative and interesting Xconomy event! …And you may soon see me with the next version of the iPhone…

Nicole Wong is My Hero

2009-04-01T15:20:00.004-04:00

The news that Nicole Wong volunteered to be laid off from the Boston Globe to save the job of a reporter who has greater needs to stay in Boston is so touching that it bears repeating. Such an act of generosity and kindness warrants a virtual pat on the back.

In her own words, from this blog post, she says:

I've volunteered to be laid off from the Boston Globe in order to save the job of a reporter who has less seniority than me and who has greater needs to stay in the Boston area due to family commitments and other obligations.

Wong has written for the Globe, the Merc and the Washington Post. She's been recognized as one of the Top 30 business reporters under age 30 by TFJR Group’s NewsBios and the Outstanding Emerging Journalist of the Year Award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California Chapter.

May the good karma bank serve her well. She just made an impressive deposit!

Attention Entrepreneurs: Start Smart with the MIT Enterprise Forum

2009-03-19T12:22:00.005-04:00

The MIT Enterprise Forum puts on some great programs, and they're a great value. Take the Start Smart series, which kicks off next Tuesday March 24th. This series consists of eight sessions (one per week) detailing the major steps involved in launching a successful startup -- all for the low, low price of $525. You couldn't touch a comparable college-level course for that amount of money.

Topics include positioning, pitching, recruiting, raising capital, bootstrapping, partnering and rainmaking. It's an MBA in a nutshell. There are some super presenters, including Doug Levin, who founded Black Duck Software; Lotus veteran Sue Balzano; Steve Zamierowski from Deloitte & Touche and Chad Joshi of Vegawatt (the guys who are turning restaurants' waste vegetable oil into electricity).

The event is hosted at my favorite law firm (because it's our law firm) - Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton.

Talking About the Global Battery Opportunity

2009-03-18T13:07:00.007-04:00

Last night I and other CHENers attended the MIT Enterprise Forum, Innovation Series event, which was a room-packed panel discussion on the state of energy storage, with a focus on battery technologies for automotive and consumer devices. The impressive panel included representatives from Lilliputian Systems, Honda Strategic Venturing, Battelle Ventures and Argonne National Laboratory.

Peter Rothstein of Flagship Ventures kicked off the discussion with an overview of the market opportunities, challenges and drivers. Batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells are all hot beds of innovation in solving energy storage issues. The numbers presented were very compelling:

*The global battery market alone is anticipated to grow to $50 billion, serving portables, micro power, consumer electronics devices and transportation.
*The Lithium-ion segment of the battery market represents a nine to ten billion dollar market, not including the transportation sector.
*Investments in battery technology are growing significantly, with the dominant new technology being Lithium-ion – figures show investments grew from $3.7 billion in 2004 to $6.8 billion in 2007.

New England is a region leading the country in innovation for energy storing devices. CHEN PR client Boston-Power is a leader in developing next-generation, Lithium-ion batteries and recently announced that HP has begun shipping an Enviro Series laptop battery based on Boston-Power’s Sonata technology.

Issues in developing and perfecting battery technology include safety, calendar life, cycle life, recharge time and cost – the cost being a major issue for hybrid cars. Additionally, the panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities to manufacture these new technologies. Today there are no U.S. manufacturers of new battery solutions – primarily being produced in China – but the opportunity to bring that capability onshore are tremendous. The U.S. government has $2 billion in grants available as part of the Stimulus package to develop this capability. The issues in moving battery technologies to mainstream manufacturing include scale, cost and reliability. Analogies were made to the semiconductor industry in its earlier days of manufacturing in volume.

The message at the end of the evening was clear. Energy storage, and in particular battery technology, is an enormous opportunity for the U.S. and specifically for New England. As one panelist remarked “we are never going to go back, the electrification of vehicles will happen and the U.S. government is very serious about bringing these energy efficient devices to reality.”

The next Innovation Series also looks to be a winner, Cloud Computing to be held on April 15.

Always Look On the Bright Side of Innovation…

2009-03-11T12:20:00.008-04:00

With all due apologies and credit to Monty Python, last night’s WebInno conference had me whistling that infectious tune from the end of Life of Brian – and for good reason. In the shadow of life seeming “jolly rotten, there’s something [we’ve] forgotten,” and that’s innovation is what drives us in both good times and bad. There was positive energy in a very full two rooms, a lot of active discussion and some pretty cool innovations, the vast majority of which were targeted at making life easier (and in some cases cheaper) for all of us – consumers, businesses, shoppers, parents and even golfers. They’re fixing, as Eric Idle croons in the song, the things that “make you swear and curse.”

I also took the opportunity to pose a couple of questions of two great execs of side dish companies, asking first what keeps them excited and confident that now is the right time for innovation, and secondly, why they chose Boston to make that innovation happen (see Xconomy and Innovation Economy for more on this discussion.)I’ve embedded their answers in the videos below. But without further ado, here’s a snapshot of what last night’s lineup had to offer:

Adroit Interactive – improving campaign performance and reducing costs through dynamic ads
BravoCart – as one exec described it, “drag and drop ecommerce”
LilGrams – extremely easy platform to consolidate and share baby/kid memories (i.e. make sense of the thousands of pics and vids on my hard drive and across WAY too many sites)
CoachesTown – Customized and secure portals (and automatic communication mechanisms) for youth sports teams and leagues
JitterGram – instant mobile coupons and promotions for dinners, lift tickets, stores, resorts, etc.
JotNot – Turn your mobile phone into a document (as well as whiteboard) digitizer
mCaddie – One-stop destination for courses, instructors, tournaments and leagues to make the golf experience easier and more successful
PickupZone – Tap a network of local businesses as your personal package delivery location so it’s never left unattended on your doorstep again
Wiggio – Group collaboration for everyone

A special thanks goes out to Abe Gurjal, co-founder of JotNot and Tim Blasko of CoachesTown for taking the time to chat with me about what they’re doing and their outlook on the environment in which they’re doing it. As I’m about to start coaching my soon to be 8 year old’s baseball team, Tim’s product is just what the doctor ordered. And my wife will likely be calling Abe soon, since I now even have more of an urge to get an iPhone. Thanks guys and best of luck in what I’m sure will be a successful year for both of you.

And now for something completely different…video interviews!

Thank you Michael Mandel (and MassTLC)

2009-02-26T15:19:00.006-05:00

At the MassTLC Annual Meeting held yesterday BusinessWeek chief economist Michael Mandel delivered the best “why we’re in this mess and what we need to do to get out it” talk I’ve heard. The sobering charts and statistics made sense even to an economics 101-needing girl like me.

In short, we borrowed big and off-shored everything and we didn’t create enough new stuff. And we did so during a decade – The Internet Decade, 1997-2007 – of big promises and little return. To matters worse, wages for everybody without advanced degrees saw just a 1.6% cumulative increase (enter excess borrowing) and we bet the farm on housing.

The good news is that Michael believes investments in education and healthcare will sustain us for a while – and that energy investments, though longer term, will ultimately help put us back on track, and maybe once again on top. The road from innovation to economic stimulant has a longer gestation period than we all think, he said, so we need to hang in there and keep the faith, which thankfully is FREE.

Paul Gillin Says Online Matters More than Print

2009-02-09T12:58:00.002-05:00

We've all been there. Your clients' news gets picked up online, but the print edition of the outlet fails to run it. In olden times, clients were unhappy, but these days, it happens much less frequently. My how times have changed.

Paul Gillin explains why in a post today. He mentions an experience with his blog, the mordantly named Newspaper Death Watch, which was mentioned in three media outlets: Jeff Jarvis’s BuzzMachine blog, the lead paragraph of a major feature in The New Yorker and a short opinion piece in the Economist. Gillin goes on to assess the relative impact on his blog traffic and concludes:

Not long ago, online publishers were frequently called upon to defend the value of a mention on their properties. Public relations professionals told me that Web coverage was nice, but their clients really valued a mention in a prominent print publication. I would submit that this scenario has now been reversed. With companies increasingly using the Web for promotion, lead generation, sales and customer support, a link from a prominent website is of far greater value than a print article in a prominent print or broadcast outlet. And as a younger generation of business and consumer readers gathers more of its information online, that value will only accelerate.

Geeks with Guitars

2009-02-03T15:00:00.008-05:00

In my experience, most tech networking events have included a lot of business card passing, a few awkward conversations, one person commenting on the “legs” of the red wine and the voice of Chris Martin playing softly through overhead speakers. If you substitute the business card passing and conversation with yelling and nodding while pretending to hear the person next to you; change the wine to Bud Light cans; and exchange Coldplay for live rock music, you’d get Xconomy’s networking event, the “Battle of the Bands 2.”

Five bands represented New England-based tech companies and were competing at the Middle East in Cambridge for the grand prize of $1,050 in free studio recording time and engineering help. Voting was done via text and in true nerd style; patrons were able to IM live messages, which were posted on projector screens throughout the event. The Dirty Truckers – which included CHEN PR client, Sophos – were obviously our favorite, and ended up being the big winners of the night!

Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the company. It may have even been the cans. At any rate, Xconomy put on a great show and gave us a refreshing twist on the average networking event. We all had a great time (even our non-CHEN PR friends, Nikki and Joe made an appearance) and at the end of the night, when we were the only people left and the bouncer came over to ask our group if we were staying because we worked there, I’m not going to lie. I almost said yes.

Social Media PR: Market Innovation or Market Correction?

2009-01-27T15:40:00.013-05:00

I’ve been meaning to put this question and associated thoughts to a screen for some time now, but something always seems to take precedence.

As I read the Twitter streams and blogs of PR, press and other experts about what works, what doesn’t and what is the essence of social media, I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic. I’ve done tech PR for the better part of 17 years at this point, and in my activities with social media – both for clients and for myself – I have often wondered if in PR industry terms, it is a mystical power or lost art?

“Social business” expert, Jennifer Leggio in particular penned a relatively recent post based on a panel conversation about what social media has done for, and to, the PR industry. She also wrote an earlier piece on the area in which I have lived much of my professional career – enterprise IT. These are great pieces which served to support my belief that one of the best things social media is doing for the PR industry is forcing many to actually get back to public RELATIONS. It is also hopefully driving the end of public carpet bombing that was the result of an industry that used technology as an excuse to be lazy and undisciplined.

When I started in PR, relationships where critical, and the social media tool of the day was the phone. Sure there was voicemail and (gasp) fax machines, but to sell a reporter on a story or a piece of news required you to have a real, live, bi-directional conversation – and build a relationship based on continuous value add. That forced you to understand not only your client’s product, but made you understand their business and the larger context in which it operated. You understood competitors and you had to anticipate direct questions, because you couldn’t hide behind an email.

I won’t bore you with a “I had to walk both ways to school uphill and get up from the couch to change the channel”-style history lesson, but suffice to say that an initial run through an editorial calendar back then took about 8-10 hours.

But with technology came disintermediation. Thousands of emails could be sent at once, press release pitches gave a cliff notes version of what many thought was relevant – FOR EVERYONE, not for the one. Sure, good firms still taught people how to do it right, but one look at all the bad pitch blogs show how far things had fallen in some cases – no targeting, no understanding, no conversation.

Social media in my experience at its best is another outlet for creative energies, and a place that enables a different class of necessary conversation. And whether on my own Facebook page or Twitter stream, or in counseling my clients around theirs, almost every interaction I have benefits my business and my clients. Apart from direct pitching or communicating issues for my clients, my own interactions continue to challenge me in the way I think. They make me think differently, think individually, and have more focused conversations than I have before – and in some cases likely wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Jennifer is a great resource for understanding the value of social media, especially for those in B2B tech sectors, and I’d recommend for those who are not following her, you do so immediately. She’s on Twitter as @mediaphyter. As the risk of paraphrasing, she also cautions against the herd mentality that many PR people trying to understand social media are taking, which is being too quick to ask tactical questions about “how” to use certain tools, instead of first trying to understand why those tools are or aren’t appropriate in support of a client’s business objectives.

Interestingly, right around the time that Jennifer posted her blog entries, the legendary Guy Kawasaki posted a blog on how to build a Twitter network. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in that blog because of the cynical, methodical, “perception is reality” approach it seems to advocate. Is that the essence of social media? I hope not.

Finally, Jennifer makes the great point that social media is a platform on which PR people can step up as business consultants. I’d echo that sentiment wholeheartedly, and expand on that to say that social media should be an extension of PR’s role as business consultants. When we opened CHEN PR’s doors 12 years ago, we defined a business model based not just on being a communicator for our clients, but also on being a strategic colleague, a confidant and in some cases even an extra conscience. It’s a model that has served us extremely well through good times and bad, and one that I see in greater demand today and moving forward. Social media isn’t the ultimate tool to fix everything, it’s the place to start a discussion – between two people, or 2 million, that can drive a business in the right direction.

For those interested, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook or on Twitter @kidko92

Chris Brogan: Master Mavennector

2009-01-01T11:27:00.007-05:00

It's little wonder that Paul Gillin cites Chris Brogan as the best new face in social media in his post on the Best of '08. Chris is not exactly a new face in social media - he's a social media pioneer who pulled way ahead of the pack last year. As Paul notes, he became "...one of the world's top bloggers last year thanks to his prodigious output." He's got a whopping 16,400 subscribers to his blog.

But it's not just volume that's put Chris on top - it's his thoughtful, useful, insightful posts. He's either a Connector or Maven in Tipping-Point-speak - perhaps a Master Mavennector - in the best possible sense. If you need to connect with someone with a specialized skillset in social media, Chris is the man to call. If you want fresh thinking about the social media landscape, Chris's blog is a must-read.

Take this January 1st post on setting annual goals (so action-oriented and millenial!) versus New Year's resolutions (so '90s). Chris says:

Basically, I come up with 3 or so keywords that tie to goals and work from that. In 2006, my three words were “Ask. Do. Share.” Everything I did, I tried to filter through the mindset of asking people for help, or asking if I could help them.

I've pondered this approach over the last few days and decided to give the approach a test drive this year. Ta da!

My Three Goals in Keywords for 2009

Focus -- I work hard, but I am easily distracted. I am the quintissential multitasker, a student of continuous partial attention. Why just watch TV when I could be reading email as well? Or better yet -- doing email, watching TV on closed caption and talking on the phone. Heaven!! The problem with this lifestyle is that I start many projects and finish some, but in my manic multitasking, projects often take longer than they should, or I commit the time management sin of picking the easy projects first. And so it be resolved - I shall truly focus on tasks this year, and actually try to get them done one at at time.

Community -- We can lead rather isolated lives these days - married to our PCs and B-berries, tapping away, making virtual connections but not real ones. But whether it's been through my professional work at CHEN, raising funds for Room to Read, attending political events or business networking events -- I'm reminded of how kindness and helpfulness and support come full circle. I want to continue to build my various connections and tribes this year, contributing good juju to the karma chain.

Kids -- Most of my work outside CHEN focuses on helping kids get a better deal in life. It's easy to sweat the small stuff in life. So while I'm improving my focus, I need to ask myself more often if I'm meeting my goal of spending at least some energy each week to meet goal #3.

And Chris - I'll report back next year on how I'm doing! Thanks for the inspiration.

As an aside, in case you somehow missed it, Chris was in the middle of a blogostorm at the end of last year, when he wrote about accepting $500 from Kmart to tackle one of their stores and then write about the experience. (He took his two little ones - a review squad of three for the price of one!) BusinessWeek recaps the ensuing ethical teethgnashing here.

"Everyday Heroes" Red Cross Event Rings in Holiday Season

2008-12-12T14:56:00.003-05:00

Last week, we started the season in style with our fourth annual Red Cross fundraiser, "Everyday Heroes: Celebrating the American Red Cross." Our enthusiastic co-sponsor is Network World.

Every year, this evening gives us a chance to mingle with our friends in the business, while doing something a little different than the usual holiday party. All told, we've raised $40,000 for the Red Cross at these events.

The American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay supports 1 million people in 36 cities and towns with an array of invaluable programs. Last year alone, the American Red Cross distributed 23,489 bags of groceries to families in need and responded to 46 disasters, fires, floods and gas leaks, aiding 266 children and adults with lodging, food, clothing, medicine and mental health counseling. One can guess that the need will be greater this year.

Chris O'Brien (pictured here), a Boston-based singer/songwriter, providing an entertaining bright spot in our evening. Our silent auction, which featured sports memorabilia and those Fenway seats I blogged about earlier, got the competitive juices going among attendees.

If you missed this year's event, we hope to see you next year. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a restorative holiday season.

For more party pix, check out Meghan Locke's Flickr stream.

World Economic Forum Names Phase Forward Tech Pioneer

2008-12-04T12:42:00.002-05:00

It's pretty cool to open an email and learn that one of your clients has been selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for 2009. This year, our client Phase Forward got the nod, as one of only 34 companies selected from 320 applicants worldwide. Yowza.

This means that Chairman and CEO Bob Weiler will be heading to Davos at the end of January for the prestigious annual gathering of political and business leaders.

The other Boston area companies who made the cut are Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and video platform pioneer Brightcove.

Being recognized by the World Economic Forum is an honor in a class all its own, because the organization is "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas." WEF describes the Tech Pioneers as innovators of the highest caliber, whose technologies will have a deep impact on business and society.

Here's our release and a video interview with Bob, which is also located on the World Economic Forum website.

Warmest congrats to the team at Phase Forward.

Xconomy's Battle of the Tech Bands, Take Two

2008-12-01T17:27:00.000-05:00

Last January, several of us CHENers, along with a couple of adventurous clients, checked out Xconomy's first Battle of the Tech Bands. That was the first time I'd set foot in the Middle East in more years than I care to count, and I had a good time. (I really need to get out more.)

Xconomy reports that close to 350 people gathered last year to hear six local groups, so they're going to stick with a winning formula. The event again will be hosted at the Middle East in Central Square, Cambridge, on January 22. This year, half of all ticket proceeds from the event will go to benefit local charities.

To be eligible, at least one member of the band must have a day job at a New England-area technology or life sciences company or a venture-capital or private-equity firm that invests in technology. Check this for the nitty gritty details. The deadline for entries is Friday December 12.

Prizes go to the Audience Favorite and Most Innovative bands.

Meanwhile, Xconomy recently announced that it has closed the first tranche of its second round. CommonAngels re-upped from round one and LaunchCapital, a small early-stage fund, also participated. Individual angels rounded out the round.

Xconomy is on a roll. In June, Xconomy Seattle launched, followed by Xconomy San Diego in October. According to Xconomy, these were "key steps in fulfilling our mission of providing hyperlocal coverage of the innovation communities in key technology and life sciences clusters."

Video Game Gold: From Trend to Mainstay

2008-11-19T15:12:00.005-05:00

At Mass TLC's recent event entitled "Video Game Gold: The Prosperous Gaming Industry In Massachusetts," a panel comprised of the minds behind hits like Rock Band, Lord Of The Rings Online and GSN's online gaming arm assembled to encourage and inform any and all who might be interested in the state of Massachusetts' gaming landscape.

While the conversation jumped around from subscription vs ad based business models to the need for more original intellectual property in the gaming world, two points stuck out as particularly noteworthy.

The first originated from a statement made by Harmonix VP of Biz Dev Florian Hunziker who claimed that the video game industry was "counter-recessional." Reason being that if people are putting a halt on spending, there is a good chance that the first thing to go would be activities outside of the house (eating out, vacations, shopping) forcing people to entertain themselves at home. Clearly video games fit this bill. Following this statement, the four panelists who hailed from game development companies (Turbine, Harmonix, 38 Studios and Worldwinner) all pointed to the fact that amidst economic tragedy, they were still hiring and they were still growing revenue.

While Hunziker was quick to mention that despite this growth and ability to continue hiring, big gaming stocks (EA, Activision etc...) were seeing significant drops in value, indicating that perhaps the pain from the recession was simply over the next horizon for these companies. Regardless, as the news can't find enough room to report on all the layoffs occurring across the country, it was certainly encouraging to see these publishers communally celebrating their successes and the successes of the industry on the whole.

Secondly, and on a slightly more philisophical note, there was the exciting discussion that sparked from Hunziker's story regarding the origins of the Rock Band game. Hunziker explained that Harmonix has been working in the music simulation genre for years, many of which were unfruitful financially prior to the outrageous success of titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. He explained that the company was comprised almost entirely of musicians when it was in its infancy, first planting the seeds that would eventually grow into their current mega hit. They worked with a goal in mind that, at the time, seemed somewhat ridiculous: they wanted to create a game that brought people together, in a room, experiencing something that, without this game, they might never have the opportunity to experience. Knowing that being in a band and performing provides a feeling like no other, and also well aware that not everybody can play an instrument, and even fewer people get to play in a band, Harmonix wanted to create a game that would not only simulate this experience, but maybe even inspire people to give the real thing a try. In fact, a recent study by instrument retailer juggernaut Guitar Center supports this notion saying that 67% of Guitar Hero/Rock Band gamers want real instruments.

It is very doubtful that the sales of actual guitars and drums have risen at the same astronomical pace as the sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but there is no doubt that this communal sentiment has played an integral part in the rise in popularity. It was not long ago that gaming was considered escapist and anti-social, an activity relegated to dark basements and desolate living rooms, but with innovation from companies like Harmonix, and of course with the aid of the internet, this notion has been completely flipped on its head. Gaming now spans the population. A stat given by the moderator said that 97% of teenagers play video games on a regular basis. What percentage of them will stop gaming as technology only improves? What does this say about the future of the industry? Bright indeed. Hunziker shared an anecdotal story as well about a 70 year old woman he met on the T who told him how much she loved playing Rock Band. If games can speak to such a wide range of people, then it is a medium of art and entertainment that must be taken seriously and considered as a key aspect of our culture's future.

Not only that, but maybe creating games such as Rock Band, or Wii Fit, or Dance Dance Revolution might encourage people to give the real world activities they depict a try. It could be argued that instead, this is giving people an easier, less enriching alternative to forming a band, learning an instrument, exercising outside or joining a dance team, but playing these games with friends is certainly better than not engaging in the activities at all and the aforementioned study supports the fact that people are making the jump from digital to real in sizable numbers.

Guitar Center executive VP and chief marketing officer Norman Hajjar is quoted saying "Most video games sell fantasy, but Guitar Hero and Rock Band are selling a dream that can be realized. These games plant an achievable goal in the heart of the player and that, in turn, drives our business." Clearly this is not limited to music games and is something to be considered. (How this translates to violent video games and their real life impact is a whole different discussion).

When you boil it down, is playing video games, especially in the communal arenas that are now available, really more anti-social than going to the movies, shopping or going out to dinner? One could argue that multi-player gaming actually allows for more social benefits as the people you play with are often all working towards a common goal (not so different from team sports) and the internet allows for gamers to reach out to people that they could have never had contact with in a normal, social setting (people in other countries, age groups, occupations). And with more family friendly games popping up all the time, it is now common for families to actively unite in front of the TV much like they would over the dinner table.

As time progresses and more and more people buy into the video game world, it stands to reason that the stigmas attached to it will slowly fall to the wayside and it will become a mainstay in our culture.

All in all, the event was a great success and the wonderful people from Mass TLC were very intentional in letting everybody know that this was the first in what will be a series of video game industry focused events. If the quality of discussion and impressive turnout for the debut event are any indication, this will be a great series for a long time to come.

Own a Piece of Red Sox History - Fenway Seats for Sale!

2008-11-17T22:25:00.003-05:00

In 2005, we all initially were paralyzed by the images of Katrina. As the shock subsided, we asked what we could do to help. Like so many companies across the country, we wanted to translate our good intentions into productive action.

And so, we started planning our first fundraiser for the American Red Cross. Luckily for us, Network World stepped up to co-sponsor. And now, we're working together on our fourth annual event.

We hope you'll be able to join us for our December 3rd soiree at the Doubletree Suites in Waltham, from 6-9 p.m.

A highlight of the event each year is our silent auction, and it just keeps getting better. This year's belles of the ball are bound to be two pairs of seats directly from Fenway Park. These seats were removed as part of the annual remodeling and are coming from the dugout, field box, loge box and roof box seats. Just think of what they've witnessed: from Yaz to Ortiz and everything in between. And two World Series.

Other fun auction items include:

a signed Red Sox jersey from three-time World Series winner Curt Schilling
tickets to Celtics and Red Sox games
a private dinner for six prepared in the buyer's home by a locally renowned chef
fine wines
gift certificates to some great restaurants

We're also thrilled to have Boston-based singer/songwriter Chris O'Brien on board to entertain us. With musical influences such as David Gray, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Dar Williams, O'Brien has appeared at numerous influential folk festivals and won coveted awards such as WUMB's New Artist of the Year, played as part of a benefit for ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and was chosen from a pool of nearly 1,000 contestants to appear on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion as part of its People in Their Twenties talent contest.

Whether it's a natural disaster, a fire or flood, we take it for granted that the Red Cross will always be there. Come help us ensure that's always the case.

What a(n) (E-)Waste!

2008-11-12T12:50:00.012-05:00

At the risk of sounding old school – or perhaps just old – 60 Minutes has been one of my favorite television programs for years. Celebrating its 40th anniversary in September, the venerable CBS News magazine is the most successful broadcast in television history.

And this week’s edition – once again – demonstrates why.

Correspondent Scott Pelley presented a brilliant, yet disquieting expose titled, “The Wasteland.” The story follows the “e-waste” journey, which originates in the United States to a destination Mr. Pelley refers to as “a sort of Chernobyl of electronic waste” – the town of Guiyu, China.

Kudos to InformationWeek Editor At Large David Berlind, who blogged about the investigative report Monday. Helping make my job much easier, and thus, this post significantly shorter, he provides an excellent synopsis, including a bulleted list of notable excerpts – particularly the health and human atrocities occurring in southern China…

...a town in China where you can't breathe the air or drink the water, a town where the blood of the children is laced with lead.
With the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world and pregnancies that are six times more likely to end in miscarriage...
The recyclers are peasant farmers who couldn't make a living on the land. Destitute, they've come by the thousands to get $8 a day.

...as well as some striking e-waste statistics:

it is the fastest-growing component of the municipal waste stream worldwide.
...we throw out about 130,000 computers every day in the United States.
...over 100 million cell phones are thrown out annually.

Unquestionably, Pelley’s piece was a sobering commentary on American consumerism. Especially with the holidays approaching, it makes you pause and ask: “Do I really need that [fill in the name of the latest/greatest high-tech gadget], or can I make do with what I have just a little longer?”

And I agree with Berlind, who noted that the story should win an award for investigative journalism. For me, it seemed to truly capture the essence of the think globally, act locally credo.

If you haven’t viewed the segment yet, it’s definitely worth watching, which is the reason the video is embedded here. The transcript can also be read here.

Room to Read Boston - Join us November 12 at Elephant Walk!

2008-10-26T09:13:00.002-04:00

Elephant Walk has long been a favorite restaurant, with its exotic blend of Cambodian and French cuisine. Imagine my delight that the chefs at Elephant Walk not only agreed to host our Room to Read fundraiser on November 12th (7-9 p.m.), but two of them will be presenting on Cambodia and its cuisine. (This event kicks off a modest campaign by the Boston Chapter to build 10 libraries -- "reading rooms" -- in Cambodia, at a cost of approximately $40,000.)

We're very honored to have Elephant Walk's founding chef, Longteine de Monteiro, (above) speak that evening. She's had a remarkable life, having been born into an upper class Cambodian family and married to a prominent diplomat, and then been forced to flee the country in 1975, with the rise of the Khmer Rouge. Her family settled for several years in France, where Madame de Monteiro ("Nyep" to her friends) opened her first restaurant to keep the family afloat. She had no previous business experience and no formal training as a chef.

In the early 90s, the family moved to the States, which had long been their objective. Elephant Walk was born, and the restaurant was hailed by Esquire Magazine as one of America's Best New Restaurants in 1992, calling Nyep’s food “absolutely delicious and enlightening.”

We'll also hear from Gérard Lopez, who is the charismatic chef/owner of the Cambridge location. He was born in Capestang, a small town in the south of France. He learned Spanish dishes from his father, a native of Madrid, and Algerian food from his mother, a French woman raised in North Africa. According to the website, "He brings to his kitchen the passion of a Spaniard, the sensibilities of a Frenchman and an international palate." (Yum.) According to his colleagues at the restaurant, he's a much-beloved live wire.

We're also honored to have Stephanie Scott and Yashvinee Narechania joing us for the evening from Room to Read headquarters in San Francisco.

If these wonderful speakers aren't enough to get you out the door, perhaps our silent auction items will tempt you. We'll be offering the following and more:

Tickets to a Red Sox/Yankees game (date TBD)
Dinner gift certificates to Elephant Walk
Cooking classes at Elephant Walk
Accommodations for a weekend in Provincetown
Wine tasking with Stonehenge Winery
Tickets to the ICA and Children's Museum
Photo sitting for a family portrait
Dinner for two at Grill 23
Accommodations for a weekend at Naswa Resort, Laonica, NH

Buy your tickets in advance for $25 at this link; $30 at the door.

Marshmallows, Metatomix and MassTLC

2008-10-24T16:05:00.000-04:00

It remains a deadlock between my top two moments from last night's MassTLC award ceremony - lobbing a marshmallow at Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor or watching Metatomix VP of marketing Jon Pilkington accept his CXO of the Year award.

The marshmallow toss was an impromptu part of Taylor's - the night's emcee - opening remarks. An usually rowdy crowd took things one step past the deferred gratification analogy and sent a barrage of the tasty treats up on stage to end the night.

This was really just icing on the cake as we'd already gotten to see our friend and client at Metatomix take home top honors as the year's best CXO. Once the hardware made its way to table 15, our contingent of CHENers and the team from Metatomix enjoyed the rest of night basking in Jon's glory and sharing some laughs. Congrats to Jon and Metatomix for a well-deserved win.

The Boston Globe's next chapter

2008-10-23T16:49:00.000-04:00

We hear so much these days about conventional newspapers losing marketshare to new and social media that one might expect the journalists at the former are simply sitting back and accepting their inevitable fate. So it is refreshing to encounter a conventional newspaper journalist who is energetic and enthusiastic about the role her profession and employer will continue to play in giving readers news worth reading.

The reporter to whom I refer is Boston Globe Business Editor Shirley Leung. At a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) event in Boston last night, Leung met with a room filled with Boston area PR professionals representing healthcare, technology, financial services and other Boston-area businesses. If the Boston Globe should wave the white flag, accept its demise, and hand news-reporting responsibility over to new and social media, nobody seems to have informed Leung. She articulately and energetically charmed her listeners as she described the way she believes the imminent changes to the paper and her section will better serve readers.

There’s no question new and social media offers exciting opportunities for readers to get their news in new and different ways. But Leung's obvious professionalism and commitment to journalistic excellence serve as a reminder that traditional media too will have its place in The New News Order. It seems clear that the days of conventional newspapers as choke holders on the news are behind us. But in my opinion papers like the Globe will continue to play an important, if different and less monopolistic, role in providing readers with the news they need. As a Boston area PR professional rooting for the Globe, it gives me confidence to know Leung is at the helm of the business section.

Where will you be Friday night? Come to Social Media for Social Change!

2008-10-09T10:38:00.004-04:00

A limited amount of tickets have just been released for the Social Media for Social Change event in Boston tomorrow night (10/10).

All proceeds from the event support Jane Doe Inc., an amazing organization that supports victims of abuse. Personal disclaimer: I am a former intern for Jane Doe Inc. and served on their teen advisory board, so I have seen their mission in action.

Social Media for Social change is founded on the idea that social media has untapped possibilities to be used for greater good. Something powerful that could help nonprofit organizations — organizations that struggle to keep their bottom line alive — get the support and recognition they need to help the families and individuals that depend on their efforts. We want to use the tools that are helping businesses and companies grow to do something more than make a buck… we want them to make a difference.

Join with us in starting a movement that will bring individuals, startups, companies, corporations and the causes we value together to change the lives of those who need it most.

I hope to see you there!

2008-10-08T10:29:00.001-04:00

Hectic day, takes toll
Coffee and friends, make day whole
Empty cup, soothed soul

Quite some time ago, I did a piece on stunt marketing. For some reason, it generates a lot of Google love for our blog when you search on the term.

Here's a stunt from Green Mountain Coffee that makes me smile.

Green Mountain ran a contest for customers, who submitted haikus, which "had to be about how coffee makes a difference, either in the world or in an individual's day," according to GMC. The 14 winning haikus will be featured on the company's eco-friendly paper cups from now until the end of the year. (The sheer poetry above was a winner.)

According to a company press release, the cups won a 2007 Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Most paper cups are lined with petroleum products to make them watertight, but the GMC cups use a bio-plastic made from plants and other renewable resources.

For those of us whose English classes were a few years back, a haiku is a poem of 17 syllables on three lines - five on the first line, seven on the second, five on the third.

More favorites from the winner's circle below. And thanks to Chris Reidy for flagging this story in the Globe, a welcome light spot in the gloomy news.

Stop and go, brake, gas
Raise to lips, careful sips, bliss
Drive on, coffee fueled

The thought of coffee
Releases the daily grind
And helps me unwind

MTLC Gets SaaSy

2008-10-02T13:10:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday, I attended “Software as a Service: Transitioning from On-Premise to On-Demand,” an MTLC event. CEO Ed Mallen of TimeTrade Systems, a CHEN client, was on the panel. TimeTrade’s newest product, TimeDriver – an on-demand personal appointment scheduling solution – is a purely SaaS model so Ed was an obvious addition to an impressive panel. As CHEN PR has several SaaS clients including Authoria and IBM Information Protection Services, the event was right in our wheelhouse.

Dave Mitchell, IBM’s program director for SaaS, began by sharing some eye opening statistics to an audience filled with CEOs, directors and presidents of companies looking to transition their existing business models into SaaS-based businesses. Mitchell noted that according to IDC, the SaaS business, which can also be called a “cloud enabled service” (there’s that “cloud” term again!), will grow to $17B by 2012. Based on this statistic alone, it’s no wonder there are panels like this one offering suggestions to business owners on not only how to make the transition but what companies can expect during this time.

A lively discussion was held on how to identify if a business should transition to SaaS and the expected benefits of such a transition including faster time-to-market, predictable revenue streams and lower costs. Additionally, the panel shared the cultural, operational, organization and economic changes that a move to SaaS will have on the company and its employees.

Especially in the current economic business cycle, it’s clear why more companies are interested in acquiring new applications through a SaaS model and in offering their own products on-demand.

Two CHEN PR Clients Snag Wall Street Journal Innovation Awards

2008-10-01T13:08:00.002-04:00

Kudos to two CHEN PR clients – Phase Forward and Palo Alto Networks – for earning 2008 Technology Innovation Awards from the Wall Street Journal. It's quite an accomplishment, given that the Journal received more than 700 entries, and recognized just 32 organizations across 16 categories.

A CHEN client since 2006, Phase Forward brings technology to the pharmaceutical industry, helping its customers automate global clinical trials (a $50B per year market) and shed inefficient paper-based methods – yes, paper – and as a result deliver better, safer drugs to market. The Wall Street Journal award honors its industry-changing work with GlaxoSmithKline in the Health-Care IT category. Several public companies serve this market, but only Phase Forward has posted 16 consecutive quarters of revenue growth since its 2004 IPO and counts 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical firms as customers. This award is just the most recent in a long string of accolades including the Boston Business Journal naming safety group President Chan Russell a 2008 Champion in Healthcare.

Next-gen firewall provider and CHEN client since 2007, Palo Alto took the runner-up spot in the hotly contested Network Security category (a shout out to our Waltham, MA-based neighbor Veracode for taking the trophy for its on-demand application testing solution.)

With a rock star team that includes father of the firewall, Founder and CTO Nir Zuk, President and CEO Lane Bess and VP of Marketing Steve Mullaney, Palo Alto is redefining its category – populated by behemoths like Cisco, Juniper and Check Point – by bringing much-needed application visibility and control to one of the biggest-dollar sectors in network security. The nod from the WSJ adds to Palo Alto’s recognition, which includes earning the Grand Prize Winner at Interop in May.

All that and they're pretty funny, too -- check them out on YouTube, but only if your firewall allows.

Congrats!

…and on his farm he had some CHEN, Ee i ee i o

2008-09-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

Before last week, when I heard the phrases “topping off” and “transplanting” the first two things that came to mind were beer and surgery – hopefully never uttered in the same sentence. I certainly didn’t think about brussel sprouts and spinach plants, but for better or worse, I do now.

With the help of Boston Cares, an organization that works with private companies to engage employees in community service, CHEN teamed up with Waltham Fields Community Farm to volunteer our services.

Set in our very own work-community – unbeknownst to us corporate dwellers – Waltham Community Farms Outreach promotes local agriculture through growing and distribution practices that are socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable.

Swapping laptops and pumps for pruning sheers and gardening gloves, we forged ahead into unfamiliar territory. Thanks to our patient and kind farmhand, Jonathan, who put up with our endless questions/comments, including our favorite quote of the day, “You mean we just take the tops off the brussel sprouts and throw them on the floor?!,” we learned the reasons behind the tasks we were assigned to complete as well as how fruitful our efforts would be to the families receiving the food.

Note: In case you’re curious, brussel sprouts need to be topped off so they will grow width wise allowing the nutrients provided by the sun to be evenly distributed, and the spinach plants we “transplanted” will now grow into full size plants (hopefully).

All in all it was a successful day and I know I speak for everyone who participated when I say that we’d happily volunteer again… once the weather warms up a bit!

Tech @ the Movies - September 25th

2008-09-21T12:20:00.001-04:00

If you enjoy that daily guilty read from the Globe, the Names column, you know that movies in Mass. have become big business, what with all the tax incentives we've thrown the way of Tinsel Town. I don't profess to know whether the ROI is worth all those tax breaks, but it sure creates a fun energy and buzz around town that was missing before.

So it looks like it could be fun to check out "Tech @ the Movies," a session offered by Mass TLC this coming Thursday the 25th.

Scott Kirsner, who is moderating, has long penned (or should I say keyed?) the CinemaTech blog, focused on digital cinema and other technologies that are changing movie-making. He's got a new book coming out, Inventing the Movies, which presents the technological history of Hollywood. The book highlights the development of Technicolor by Mass. entrepreneurs, as well as Avid's Oscar-winning contributions. It looks like a fun lineup:

Jeff Kleiser, CEO, Synthespian Studios; Visual Effects Artist on "Fantastic Four," "X-Men: The Last Stand," and "Tron"
Jim Flynn, Founder, CEO, EZTakes and iArthouse
Katherine Hays, CEO, GenArts
Patrick McLean, Director of Product Marketing, Avid Technology
Dave Waller, Founder, Brickyard VFX

You can register here at EventBrite.

WebInno19 - September 15 – Give Back, Get Back

2008-09-12T08:06:00.002-04:00

It’s that time of the year again. Time for the Web Innovators Group to light up Cambridge with local innovation. Same Dark Knight time (doors open 6:30 p.m., presos start at 7:00 p.m.) and same Dark Knight location (Royal Sonesta, Cambridge).

As always there will be a great lineup of main and side dishes. The main dishes (5 minute demos) look to be an interesting group that I’m going to categorize as Give Back/Get Back:

Givvy - a complete solution to enable people to plan, research and execute their charitable giving -- Give to charity, Get piece of mind

Brring - a free ad supported ringback service that allows you to personalize your ringback tone for friends -- Give entertainment and gift ideas, Get $$$

Pixily - a secure online service that makes all your paper and digital documents available – and fully searchable -- from anywhere. Give back to the environment, Get back time, space and $$$

Following these presentations is the always fun "side dish" demonstrator that give a 30-second overview of their product or service to the audience. During the networking portion of the evening, they're camped out at tables around the periphery of the room.

For a rundown of the side dishes, visit David Beisel's blog post here. Understanding that it’s not a “breaking news” environment, I still plan to Twitter from the event. If you’re interested, follow me here.

See you there.

From eBay to the Moon – they walk among us

2008-08-27T11:16:00.001-04:00

Aliens? No. Lazy people – and not me on a football Sunday (Warning to my wife: 9/7 opens the regular season).

Ok, maybe lazy is too harsh based on how hard we all work, but the reality is that people continue to overlook the basic steps to keep data secure.

And with nearly 200M personal records lost globally in just the last two years (Attrition.org), somebody might want to get on that. The two most recent examples are circulating today:

1) Graham Cluley of Sophos (full disclosure, a CHEN client) today blogged on a Wired post about a piece of malware that made it all the way to the International Space Station – via NASA. And they admit it's not the first one to boldly go where few have gone before.

2) A (fortunately) good citizen alerted authorities to the fact that a computer he bought on eBay for $64 included highly sensitive personal information of more than 1M customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland, American Express and NatWest. Seems an archiving company employee had sold the PC on his own without erasing the data.

And from a purely business standpoint, recent Sophos research found 81% of business computers lacking the most basic protections such as updated antivirus, patches or desktop firewalls -- some intentionally disabled by users. So with all the gloom and doom about how advanced and stealthy attacks have become, and all not being what it seems on the Web, try this. Look over the cube wall or the conference room chair next to you. If you see really big ears and a trunk...you may have found the most obvious security threat in the room…

Increase Your Karma – Help a Reporter Out!

2008-08-25T17:00:00.002-04:00

Have you helped a reporter out today?

Help a Reporter Out, HARO for short, is a free service created by Geek Factory CEO and “Hot Blogger” Peter Shankman.

Founded on the premise “everyone is an expert at something,” HARO allows reporters to send queries to an e-mail list of over 2,000 (and growing) potential sources, for free. E-mails are sent three times daily to HARO members. The e-mails usually begin with a witty intro by Peter and then queries from reporters, divided into easy to skim sections: Urgent, Business and Finance, Health/Fitness, General, Lifestyle and Entertainment, Technology and Travel.

Peter has just one rule for sources that join the list: stick to the query and don’t send reporters off-topic pitches. It’s a fairly easy rule to follow, but Peter has had to pull some from the list for breaking it.

HARO has gathered such a strong following of both reporters and sources that it’s beginning to make waves for its for-profit rival, Profnet. Evidence of this rivalry appeared in Peter’s introduction to the July 28 evening HARO e-mail, “Tonight's HARO is dedicated to an unnamed exec in PR Newswire's San Jose office, who emailed all of last week's HARO reporters and asked them to switch to Profnet to send out their queries. Well... I guess that's one way of doing it. I just kinda assumed that every reporter on HARO knew about Profnet, and chose to post their queries either on HARO alone, or both Profnet and HARO. I always thought it was about getting the reporter their leads in the best way possible, but heck, I'm up for the Pepsi Challenge! That would be fun! Which one provides better sources... I smell a Pay-Per-View event!!”

Check it out.

Reporters can sign up here. Sources can sign up here.

TimeDriver – Appointment Scheduling Solved

2008-08-22T16:47:00.001-04:00

Full Disclosure: One of my clients, TimeTrade, created the product I’m about to endorse. I believe it will be a very useful tool, so I’m sharing it with you.

Do you have to schedule one-on-one appointments for your job? Get tired of back and forth e-mail trails and/or phone tag required for each appointment?

TimeDriver may be the solution to your problem.

TimeDriver is a free appointment invitation system. By embedding a "schedule now" button in email messages and on Web pages, you can drive more appointments with fewer hassles.

Check out the video review from David Strom of Web Informant, below.

TimeDriver general beta will go live on 8/25.

Robin Young Interviews Room to Read's John Wood

2008-08-21T13:32:00.000-04:00

Ah...PR nirvana: the intersection of one of my favorite radio personalities (Robin Young from WBUR's Here and Now) and one of my favorite social entrepreneurs, John Wood, CEO of Room to Read. (You can read more about John here and here.)

I confess to being a WBUR junkie. On non-work days, I can easily listen to WBUR 10 hours a day as I roam about the house, run errands or putter in the garden. We staff the phones a few times a year when they're doing a fundraiser, so I've toured the station, and met a few of the folks who work there. Suffice it to say I could do one of those testimonials about why it's the most intelligent programming going.

So when I learned that John Wood would be in Boston in June, I started on a quest to secure interest with one of Robin Young's producers, having had luck with her show, "Here and Now," in the past. One of the nice reporters on the news side led me to a different producer this time, and I summed up John's compelling story, which more or less sells itself.

It's so fascinating to watch Robin conduct an interview, asking just the right follow-on questions to draw out her subject. And what is it about her voice? It's got the velvet of an aged cabernet, with just a bit of pepper at the right moments. (I asked my husband how he'd describe Robin Young's voice and he said: "At the risk of getting myself in trouble, it's sexy.") In a Boston Magazine article on "The 61 Best Things about Boston," the writer sums her up as "one of Boston's savviest and most likable journalists."

So imagine that perfect combination of this stellar interviewer with one of the most notable social entrepreneurs of our generation. Or better yet, don't imagine it - just listen here.

Forrester Awards - Get Your Social Networking Game On

2008-08-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

The Forrester Groundswell Awards will once again recognize excellence in accomplishing business goals with social applications. You can check out last year's winners here.

Winners will be chosen across seven categories that Forrester sees as essential in using social technologies to interact with customers:

Listening
Talking
Energizing
Supporting
Embracing
Managing;
Social Impact

Winners will be honored at Forrester's Consumer Forum in Dallas, Oct. 28-29. The deadline for entries is Sept. 9. For more information, visit the website.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, BUT WHAT ABOUT PLASTICS?

2008-08-04T09:26:00.005-04:00

Is it possible to create materials just as strong as plastics, but that are also biodegradable? This is the great garbage question – and all this time I thought it was who’s going to take it out! Who knew? Daniel H. Wilson, host of The History Channel’s new show The Works. During the show’s first episode, which aired July 24, Daniel dissects this question as part of a larger episode on the inner workings of Garbage.

Based on the concept that everyday life is actually made up of incredibly complex systems, The Works explores the history and intricacies behind a variety of topics usually taken for granted because of their seamless integration into our lives. Think steel, powertools, sneakers, and beer (well, maybe not beer).

Having just seen WALL-E – Pixar’s animated movie about a trash-compacting robot mistakenly left behind after mankind has abandoned Earth due to the amount of garbage that’s accumulated – you can imagine my simultaneous intrigue and trepidation about watching this particular episode. (Especially upon learning that many of the plush, green parks we enjoy are actually former landfills). The most astonishing fact of all, however, is that the world’s largest pile of trash is floating in the Pacific Ocean.

Labeled the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this region covers an area over twice the size of Texas and contains over 100 million tons of free flowing trash, 90 percent of which is plastic. But, fear not, companies like our very own client, Novomer (one of the companies profiled in this episode), have currently found ways to turn pollution into biodegradable plastic.

Novomer is a materials company pioneering a family of high-performance, biodegradable plastics, polymers and other chemicals from renewable substances.

The company’s catalyst technology enables the production of polymers and plastics from renewable feedstocks, and the team envisions a day when they’ll be able to siphon carbon dioxide from smoke stacks to make commercial volumes of durable plastics that are able to decompose.

In the wake of such inventive green technology companies like Novomer are producing, I choose to remain hopeful about the state of our garbage-filled planet. But, if all else fails, I’m sure I could find some joy in cruising around on reclining chairs in space.

On the case of data transparency…or is it in the casing?

2008-07-31T08:14:00.002-04:00

I wanted to just highlight some interesting discussions of late around user data, advertising and transparency.

First is a great article last week with Om Malik’s take on FaceBook Connect and then Saul Hansell yesterday on Google’s blog around the customization of search results.

As I think Saul points out well, transparency is a good thing, but understand that you may not like what you see when you learn how the sausage is made.

Convenience has its price, can you handle the truth...and how far do you trust others to handle it for you?(Cue stunned look Tom Cruise and Demi Moore's faces).

Kawasaki on Pitching the WSJ

2008-07-30T08:23:00.000-04:00

Kawasaki imparts this sage advice based on a recent experience pitching the Journal:

To tell you the truth, there are two more lessons that I learned--or, more accurately, relearned. First, "if you don't ask, you don't get." Second, "sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart."

In a recent post, "15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading," WSJ reporter Wendy Bounds mentioned Guy's primary blog, but he was angling for a mention of alltop.com, his aggregation site, which corrals all of the top news by categories, such as venture capital, startups, environment, etc.

Check out his blog post for an approach that goes beyond the basics, resulting in a Bounds blog post focused on Alltop.

For more reasons why Alltop rocks, see this post from ReadWriteWeb.

WebInno18 - July 15 - Be There or You're So 1.0

2008-07-02T12:46:00.004-04:00

After a brief hiatus, The Web Innovators Group will be back and bustling with its 18th event, slated for July 15th. Same time (doors open 6:30 p.m., presos start at 7:00 p.m.) and same location (Royal Sonesta, Cambridge).

Here's the lineup of main dishes (the coveted 5 minute demos):

Totspot - Adam Katz - A place for parents to publish a page about their kids and share with family and friends. According to the website, it's part online babybook, parent journal, and social network.

WebNotes - Ryan Damico - A tool to help you create and manage online annotations. (Sorry - I can't get the link to work.)

Zeer - Michael Putnam - A grocery product community that provides product information and buying advice.

Following these presentations, the "side dish" demonstrators give a 30-second overview of their product or service to the audience. During the networking portion of the evening, they'll be showcasing their products at tables around the periphery of the room.

For a rundown of the side dishes, visit David Beisel's blog post here.

Social Media for the Enterprise

2008-06-19T15:20:00.005-04:00

“What are your favorite buzzwords?,” asked moderator Todd Van Hoosear. “Twitter,” Mike Volpe responded. “Podcast,” replied Parna Sarkar. “Tweople,” said John Cass, leading most of the audience to ask for an explanation. (It’s people who twitter.)

This is just a taste of the dialogue at a Social Media Club event. The group prides itself on its interactive format. Events begin with a half hour of networking. The panel lasts about an hour, and is followed by 30-45 minutes of break-out sessions, where you have the opportunity to meet in a smaller group with the panelist of your choice.

Last Thursday’s panel, where the conversation above occurred, focused on Social Media in the Enterprise. The panelists included Mike Volpe, vice president of marketing for HubSpot, Parna Sarkar, senior director of corporate communications for Invention Machine, John Cass, online community manager for Forrester Research, and Michele Glorie, senior director of corporate communications for Kronos.

Glorie offered the words of wisdom that a company needs to be experimental to succeed in social media, since ROI can be hard to demonstrate immediately . Sarkar said that she was able to show success by having European sales tell her customers were finding information about her company, before officially launching in Europe. Volpe stressed: “Marketing is no longer predictable so you need to adapt or get out.”

The panelists touched on the importance of training company staff on what to expect with social media, and including legal from the first steps on. Said Cass, “Involve legal early and they may surprise you.” Volpe added that involving legal in writing policy can keep it from getting overwhelming.

The final question asked of the panel was, “What is your favorite social media tool?” Linked In seemed to be the favorite, especially their Question and Answers section.

To learn more, click here to listen to an audio recording of the event.

Buzz Marketing Tips Plus Pew on Going Straight to the Source

2008-06-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

At least once a week, I find myself reading Guy Kawasaki's blog and saying, ummm, that's a really interesting post.

Kawasaki recently interviewed Dave Balter, who founded Boston-based BzzAgent in 2002, which has by now buzzed for dozens of Fortune 500 companies. He's also the co-founder of The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, which promotes "best practices" in the field and strives to protect consumers and the industry with strong ethical guidelines.

Here's an excerpt from the interview, which you can read in full here.

Question: What are the components of an effective word-of-mouth marketing program?

Answer: The most important thing is that companies tap into consumer advocacy without destroying what makes it so powerful: trust. Effective programs should ensure participants are:

Unpaid. Cash messes with our opinions!
Unscripted. People should say what they really feel, no matter how good or how bad.
Open. If someone is involved in an organized word of mouth program, the people they talk to should be aware of that.

A simple test is to ask yourself: would I feel ok if my eighty-year old grandma knew about this program? That will help guide you.

--------------

In other news of note, BusinessWeek recaps another useful study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Adults are no longer content to read compressed news reports on political campaigns. According to the study:

...nearly 30 percent of adults have used the Internet to read or watch unfiltered campaign material -- footage of debates, position papers, announcements and transcripts of speeches.

"They want to see the full-blown campaign event. They want to read the speech from beginning to end," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew group. "It's a push back from the sound-bite culture."

Google Inc.'s YouTube and other video sites have become more popular. Thirty-five percent of adults have watched a political video online during the primary season, compared with 13 percent during the entire 2004 presidential race.

Dr. Jones is in…and he’s got the ideal cure for the daily grind

2008-05-29T16:46:00.002-04:00

The CHEN team took a much needed break on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, cutting out early to see the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – bright and early at the 11am performance.

It afforded us the opportunity to kick off what we refer to as our “Summer Friday” season to get out in the sun (still a relatively rare sight lately), get out of work early for the holiday weekend, and enjoy a departure from reality on a roller coaster ride that takes many of us back with great memories of childhood.

As you’ve probably seen, the movie has already become the #2 all time opener with north of $300M as of Tuesday. The critics have been mixed, though leaning toward positive. And fans have been all over the map.

But if you’re looking for an in-depth review of the movie’s strengths and weaknesses, you won’t find it here. Why? Because that’s not what Indiana Jones is about, at least not for this die hard fan. In a time of movie excess – excessive horror, violence, or in some cases WAY too much reality – Indiana Jones is about fun, imagination and a wild ride that never takes itself too seriously.

I will simply lay out – as education for the uninitiated, and as a reminder for those who may have forgotten what it means to enjoy a movie, not analyze it – the essential elements to this franchise that in my opinion make it great, and you can decide for yourself if you agree. And if you don’t, I’ll respect your opinion and promptly forget it as I prepare to enjoy the movie again and again and again…

Rules for enjoying an Indiana Jones movie:

There will be a supernatural element – Ark of the Covenant, Sankara Stone, Holy Grail, Area 51 and Crystal Skulls, it’s all good
There will be fantastic – and fantastical – chase scenes, built as much for fun and humor as they are for excitement
There will be massive leaps of faith, not to mention leaps over natural formations, from mountains, to waterfalls to caverns
And if you’re in it for the fun, there will be a smile on your face at the end…

There's plenty of trailers, but here's an early one that gives a good sense of all the movies and got me excited for this one:

CHEN Friend Honored by New England Patriots with 2008 Community MVP Award

2008-05-28T14:31:00.000-04:00

As a Boston Celtics multiple-game ticket holder a few years ago, I was introduced to Heroes Among Us, a community outreach program which honors individuals who have made an overwhelming impact on the lives of others. Honorees are recognized during each home game for their “unique commitment and humanitarian spirit, and for the exceptional and lasting contributions to the community.” Rising above the confluence of blaring rock n’ roll, fans posturing for jumbotron face time, and people positioning themselves in order to be the lucky recipient of a t-shirt during stoppages of play, I believe that this was, and still is, one of the truly excellent community outreach programs.

In fact, I always wanted to nominate one of my good friends, Rob Weissman, for consideration. But as it somehow always does, life – and admittedly, my own procrastination – got in the way. (Isn’t there an adage about good intentions and a road leading somewhere?)

For several years, Rob has been the head coach of a team called the Boston Renegades. Governed by the Association of Blind Citizens, and making its home in Watertown, the team plays beep baseball – “beep ball” for short – an adaptive form of baseball for blind and visually impaired athletes.

Players range in age from their early twenties to early fifties, and participate in a competitive league called the National Beep Baseball Association (NBBA). The season runs during the spring and summer, with the lion’s share of practices and all NBBA tournament games occupying the months of May, June and July.

Rob will readily admit – without resorting to hyperbole – that being head coach is a year-round, (second) full-time job. Developing practice plans and drills, helping with fundraising, writing letters for players’ grant applications, creating and updating the team web site, communicating with the NBBA and other teams around tournaments, coordinating travel, creating scouting reports, fielding calls from players, and writing weekly team update emails are among his many duties.

Though he will often deflect praise citing the dedication of a deep assistant coaching staff – which includes and extends well beyond me – Rob is the driving force behind the team. And yesterday, he was recognized for it.

During a luncheon and ceremony inside Gillette Stadium, the New England Patriots feted their 2008 Community MVPs. Part of the team’s Charitable Foundation, the program honored 21 volunteers from all six New England states – including Rob – who “demonstrate leadership, dedication and a commitment to bettering the community in which they live.”

Presented by the Kraft family, all honorees were awarded football-shaped wooden trophies and grants for their respective non-profit organizations. And each earned a welcome handshake and thank you from Pro Football Hall of Fame Linebacker Andre Tippett.

Other notable – and equally deserving – recipients included: Evan Heller, an impressive 14-year-old who has volunteered with the Attleboro Special Olympics team “Heller’s Angels” since he was nine; Jill Hrubes who has spearheaded events and programs to raise awareness of, and funds for, the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center; 73-year-old Anthony Hayter, who despite being diagnosed with lung cancer last year, has continued to volunteer as the head coach of the Tidal Waves swim team at the Boys & Girls Club of East Providence; and grand prize winner Cheryl Opper, the founder and executive director of School on Wheels of Massachusetts, the only Massachusetts organization to provide tutoring and academic support exclusively for homeless children.

As a sports fan, it’s refreshing to see professional franchises acknowledge these and other community members for their philanthropic endeavors. And I was honored to see a friend earn well-deserved (and long overdue) recognition.

The DNA of Entrepreneurship: Lessons Learned Across the Generations

2008-05-22T14:46:00.002-04:00

We work with the MIT Enterprise Forum, so we attend a lot of their events. One of my favorites is the end-of-the-school-year event, which always features seasoned entrepreneurs, sharing their wisdom with attendees.

This year's event has a twist: It features a father/daughter team and a father/son team from the Hatsopoulos and Schmergel families, respectively. Doug Banks, editor of Mass High Tech, will moderate the session.

Since my husband used to work at Thermo Electron, now ThermoFisher Scientific, I was very familiar with the story of George Hatsopoulos, the legendary and highly respected founder of Thermo. Dr. Hatsopoulos provided his distinguished leadership at Thermo as chairman and CEO from the time of its inception in 1956 until his retirement from those positions in 1999. Under his direction, Thermo Electron innovated and acquired its way to become a powerhouse in multiple markets, and a multi-billion dollar pillar of the local economy.

I've also had the pleasure of hearing his highly articulate daughter, Marina Hatsopoulos, speak at the Nantucket Conference a few years back. She is best known as the founding CEO of Z Corporation, leading it from 1994 to its sale in 2005 for multiples of revenue. The company is a leader in 3D printing. These days, she's a director at GSI Group and Tea Forte. (Haven't we all bought their tea -- in their fancy little silk tea bags - like French lingerie for tea -- as gifts at one time or another?)

I was less familiar with the Schmergel family, but that's only because I was late to the life sciences party around here. Gabriel Schmergel is known as a biotech trailblazer, having led biopharma pioneer, Genetics Institute, Inc. from 1981 until its acquisition by Wyeth in 1996. He holds an honorary doctorate of engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Schmergel's son Greg is president and CEO of Nantero, a red-hot nanotech company using carbon nanotubes for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices. The company has raised $31.5M in funding to date. The younger Schmergel is a serial entrepreneur, with hot Web properties like About Inc. and ExpertCentral in his pedigree.

Even if the rest of us feel like underachievers by the end of the night, this promises to be an evening of good business and management lessons. And who knows? Maybe the parents among us will get some tips on guiding our progeny to prosperous, fulfilling careers.

The BBJ's Green Biz Summit

2008-05-21T12:44:00.001-04:00

It's common knowledge that a warm, delicious breakfast makes 7:30 on a Friday morning a little more bearable. This understanding was displayed to perfection last week at the Seaport Hotel for the Boston Business Journal's first ever Green Business Summit.

A room full of green entrepreneurs, investors and local business-folk gathered to eat cheese soufflé, and more importantly, to discuss the ways in which Boston businesses and business people can make changes to how we impact our environment.

The room listened intently to a keynote by local greentech guru Jim Gordon, President of Cape Wind, and two panels filled with innovative thinkers in the world of green business.

I've heard Mr. Gordon speak twice now, the first time at the MIT Enterprise Forum's Power, Drugs and Money conference in February, and he remains one of my favorite local voices. It's so obvious that Jim cares deeply not only for his company, but also for the benefits his company’s technology will undoubtedly provide to the Commonwealth.

Following the keynote, the panel discussions covered a number of issues relating to building, maintaining and expanding businesses - and doing so while keeping a keen eye on environmental impact. Some very simple ideas like riding a bike to work were followed by some more intensive ideas like cutting total energy consumption at major corporations like Millipore and Raytheon.

Joining the second panel of the morning was CHEN client and friend Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, CEO of Boston-Power. Christina provided the voice of the entrepreneur on her panel, adding insight to topics like global environmental issues (Boston-Power has manufacturing facilities in China and Taiwan) and local environmental innovation (Christina chose Boston as the home for her company because of its vast resources in business, academia and investment).

The fact that the Summit sold out in short order was a pretty good sign that the Boston business community is concerned with environmental issues like those discussed on Friday. I think it’s safe to say everyone left with some “green” challenges to incorporate into both their business and personal lives.

Phase Forward Shares in Beantown Bliss

2008-05-19T14:03:00.000-04:00

Maybe it’s something in the Boston water. No sooner had a weekend ended in which the Sox swept the Brew Crew to get back on track, and the Celtics clinched a regional championship berth in an exciting game seven, than Phase Forward opened the work week singled out in a Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) as a top stock pick in the software sector.

The company is on quite a roll lately – its Clinical Trials Signal Detection (CTSD) safety product just won a Best Practices award with GSK at the recent Bio-IT World Life Sciences Conference and Expo in Boston. With this and other success large in the rear view mirror, Phase Forward carries strong momentum into one of its industry’s most important events, the Drug Information Association (DIA) annual meeting, also here in Boston June 22-26.

We congratulate our friends and clients at Phase Forward for contributing to Boston’s winning ways!

MIT $100K Competition Winner: Diagnostics-for-All

2008-05-16T10:06:00.002-04:00

The winning team: Krishna Yeshwant, Roozbeh Ghaffari, Hayat Sindi, Carol Waghorne, Jon Puz, and Gilbert Tang. Photo was supplied by MIT to the Boston Globe. Photo credit: Jeremy Gilbert

Yesterday's Globe brought us the news that a heartwarming non-profit won this year's MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. This generation of young entrepreneurs determined to do good warms my jaded, clogged arteries. Here's the Xconomy take as well.

According to the Globe, Diagnostics-For-All (DFA) seeks to deliver affordable point-of-care diagnostic solutions to the global medical community; based on patent-pending technology developed in chemist George Whitesides’ laboratory at Harvard, DFA’s offering will serve as a platform for simple, portable, low-cost, and easy-to-dispose diagnostic tools for developing countries. According to a press release: Field clinicians have applauded DFA for its efforts to date in developing rapid and accurate diagnostic tools for liver, kidney, and metabolic diseases.

This marks the second big win for the fledgling organization, which took home the top prize in the social enterprise track of the Harvard Business School annual Business Plan Contest in late April. That award came with a $10,000 check.

For the first time ever at the MIT $100K competition, the audience got to pick a winner. That $10,000 prize went to Covalent Solar, whose product uses an MIT-invented solar concentrator photovoltaic technology, based on the redirection of light using dyes, which is simpler and less expensive than existing methods.

Hot ICE

2008-05-13T11:58:00.000-04:00

One reason we enjoy our work with MIT: we find their enthusiasm for innovation infectious. That enthusiasm was very much on display at an event yesterday, the MIT Enterprise Forum’s ICE (Ignite Clean Energy) competition.

Capping the day’s events was a captivating keynote address by Chelsea Sexton, executive director of Plugin America. With an intriguingly varied background that includes a lead role in the sleeper 2006 documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car,” as well as firsthand work on GM’s EV1 electric vehicle program, Sexton offers a unique perspective on the clean tech boom.

Of the thoughtful observations Sexton shared, one that jumped out at me was the importance of knowing and understanding the electric vehicle target consumer audience. To illustrate the point, Sexton debunked the conventional wisdom that environmental advocates comprise the preponderance of electric car early adopters. In fact, technology enthusiasts are driving adoption. Even if we try to rise above stereotypes, one quickly senses the substantially different approach called for in marketing electric cars to environmental advocates on the one hand, and technology enthusiasts on the other. “Know your target audience” must be, in my experience, one of the most seemingly obvious yet frequently overlooked business maxims.

Congratulations to the event’s winners (link to a Mass High Tech article on the winners) and to the MIT Enterprise Forum for another event that keeps our own entrepreneurial fires stoked!

Simmons School of Management Leadership Conference: Diligence, Timing and a Little Bit of Bubbly

2008-05-12T16:50:00.001-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending the Simmons SOM Leadership Conference last weekend where I sat in the audience listening to Mireille Guiliano, former president and CEO of Clicquot, Inc. (creators of my absolute favorite champagne, Veuve Clicquot). She is also the author of French Women Don’t Get Fat and French Women for All Seasons and has appeared on Oprah, The Early Show, The Today Show and Dateline.

I expected to hear Guiliano speak to us about how she focused on her goals at an early age and how she became a diligent businesswoman. I was waiting to hear, “When I was 8 years old, I read my first novel and I discovered my path…”

As extraordinary as it is to hear stories about men and women becoming young millionaires, as a woman with only a month left in her 20s, these stories of retiring at 35 just give me major anxiety.

To my surprise, Guiliano began by telling us that when she was 30, being an author hadn’t even crossed her mind. She was actually a public relations account executive (who knew?) and at one point in her life, she gave up a great job because she fell in love. She told us how she questioned many of her decisions, but in the end she realized that you just can’t plan for everything. Most of the time, you have no other choice but to trust yourself. Life just happens.

Of course, Guiliano didn’t just sit back and expect “fate” to do all of her work. She is an extremely intelligent, business-savvy woman who rolled up her sleeves and created her own success. At the same time, what I found most admirable about her is that she followed her intuition, allowed herself to take chances, looked for and eventually found equilibrium in life and above all, she maintained a sense of humor.

One important message repeated throughout her speech was advice given by her mother; a question she asks herself before big decisions need to be made: What’s the worst thing that could happen? To my surprise, when I have asked myself this question during moments of uncertainty, the response is just as Guiliano said it would be – consistently and unexpectedly minor.

Of course, at some point, we all question the path we’ve taken. We wonder if we’ve made the right choices in our careers, our relationships, our commitments. We stress about our finances and our appearance. We panic that we might be wasting precious moments doing what we’re doing when we’re really just wasting time thinking about wasting time.

Guiliano’s keynote was a pleasant surprise – solid recommendations from a successful woman, advising us to seize the right opportunities, but also reminding us that timing does matter and success will vary from person to person.

In the meantime, it’s best to work hard, remain patient and have a sense of humor... What’s the worst thing that could happen?

DEMO Get Together in Boston

2008-05-07T12:20:00.000-04:00

Several of us from CHEN attended the DEMO party in Boston last night, which was a reunion of former and prospective presenters and DEMO attendees. The common thread was we were all enthusiastic supporters of Chris Shipley and the DEMO events.

It was great to see Chris, who has a travel schedule that would exhaust even the most veteran campaigner. She said she'd met with quite a few interesting New England companies for DEMO Fall. Her take on the next event is to strengthen the focus on solutions that will represent mainstream answers to immediate business issues and opportunities. Chris certainly always has a very real and strong perspective on what the market needs as Executive Producer of the DEMO events (globally) and the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Guidewire Group.

CHEN PR client TimeTrade Systems was the first presenter on stage at DEMO in January of this year and several of the senior team joined us at the party.

DEMO continues to be the premier event to launch companies and products.

Are We Major Players or Getting Played?

2008-05-06T14:07:00.000-04:00

When Harold Burson, founding chairman of Burson-Marsteller, was asked, “If you were starting over, would you start Burson-Marsteller again?,” he jokingly replied, “No, I’d start Goldman Sachs.” All kidding aside, it begs the question – as we’re hurled into the new media tail spin, are we major players or are we being crowded out by major players?

2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the master of science in public relations degree program in the Boston University College of Communication (COM) -- the world's oldest public relations degree program. To honor this milestone, the College hosted leading minds in public relations at the Boston University Photonics Center on April 23, for a provocative discussion examining past practices and exploring the true state of public relations today.

Hosted by Professor T. Barton Carter, the panel featured renowned COM alumnae, Harold Burson, founding chairman, Burson-Marsteller; Carol Cone, chairman and founder, Cone Communications, Inc.; Paul M. Rand, president and CEO, Zócalo Group; and Dr. Otto Lerbinger, professor emeritus of Public Relations, Boston University College of Communications.

Burson provided a positive outlook on the progression and future of public relations when asked how things have changed in the field, but cautioned that there is “greater recognition than there is talent to fill those needs.”

“PR as a function will prevail; the problem is there may now be people who do not bear the PR title doing its functions.”

Rand agreed, noting that these are “challenging and confusing times for public relations” as the divide between traditional and new media channels widens.

Lerbinger, who taught public relations at Boston University for 50 years before recently retiring, reinforced his belief in public relations as a social science whose theories must continue to be practiced and applied in order for the field to develop and prosper. Ever the enthusiast, Lerbinger maintained that “communication specialists need to learn more about management, economics, and globalization and how to incorporate [those factors] into PR.”

Cone, a former student of Lerbinger, discussed the development of the social contract and social responsibility, which she defines “as an integrated business strategy, supported by policies, practices and communication that deliver social, environmental and economic value to the company and its stakeholders.” The fact that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is now a household term is proof enough that Cone’s brainchild is here to stay.

In the wake of all the changes and new media developments, the public relations field is forced to continually re-evaluate its position in the market. The medium for how we deliver messages will continue to change, but as long as there is a message to be delivered there will be public relations. After all, as Burson so prudently pointed out, “the Internet delivers messages, it does not speak for you.”