Phew! This time of year is always wild and wooly. Holidays, shopping, end of year activities, next year's planning, and preparing for winter all take a toll. Still, I like to leave a little time for the fun stuff.
Last night I was able to do something that I truly enjoy - I got to give a little back to the community that helped me grow and that taught me the ropes. Last night I spoke to the monthly meeting of the Mohawk Valley Ad Club. It was over twenty years ago that Indium's then VP of Marketing asked me to tag along to an Ad Club meeting. I was wide-eyed and in awe of the local legends that I was now rubbing shoulders with. These people, and this community, helped make me what I am today (don't hold that against them ;) ).
The club asked me to share some of my blogging experiences and advice. Of course, I brought in most of my extended team and we all played a part in the presentation. One of the cool things that we did was to create and post a blog, live without a net, during the presentation (goal: to demystify that part of the process). I learned this tool while attending a Toby Bloomberg -led AMA seminar a couple of years ago. Very powerful. I pulled a PC-savvy but blog-ignorant audience member out of the crowd and talked him through the steps. We snapped a photo of the 40 audience members and stuck that into the first posting. You can see the MV Ad Club's first communal blog posting here.
This crowd is fun, smart, and very curious. There were a lot of laughs, many great questions, and we all learned a few things. I was very happy to give a little back to a group that has given me so much.