Well, we finally hired two people for my old position. One of them started this week (later nicknamed Dizzney) so I've been doing lots of training. The guy we hired doesn't have the technical (read: nerd) base that I do but he seems to have really good people skills and is catching on to stuff pretty quickly. I am very optimistic about turning the program over to him.
We have another guy starting in March that I will be training to take over another chunk of my old job. Turning the rest of this stuff over will be a huge relief since I have lots to do with my new position. I have been approached about speaking at a conference in Chicago in September. I get the feeling that my boss thinks it would be a very good idea for me to do that, which means that I have a lot to learn if I want to be able to speak confidently to a crowd of experienced marketeers. Public speaking scares me.
Wifey is doing well. We are hoping to get an ultrasound pretty soon so we can see if the baby comes with accessories.
I think this is the most boring blog post that I have ever written. The fact that you made it this far is astounding. Or maybe sad. I wanted to write something cool but I didn't have any interesting news so I tried to fudge it by talking about stuff that's going on at my job. That was probably more boring than just admitting that I didn't have anything cool to say. Maybe next post I'll try talking about the weather.
Why doesn't someone suggest something cool for me to post about so this blog doesn't continue to go downhill?
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
February 22, 2007
January 25, 2007
Goodbye Sin City
So....Las Vegas just made my list of top million things to experience before you die. That's right, coming in right under the Trunk Tour of Rural Iran, is Las Vegas Nevada at #999,999!I wanted to stay in SF until Sunday but when I called Bally's Hotel, the conference location, they said that I couldn't check in on Saturday or Sunday. I would have to stay at a different hotel. However, if I wanted to check in on Friday I could stay the whole time. I don't know what greedy moron penned that into law but I hope they get some bad unagi.
So, I flew to Vegas, checked in on Friday, and spent a very bored few days waiting for the conference to start. I have no interest in gambling. Some of the shows looked interesting but at $70 a pop I wasn't willing to sign up for any. Oh, and one of the ones that sounded interesting when I heard the name actually turned out to be some sort of topless vampire fantasy erotica. I got a things-to-do book from a cab driver and saw a picture from the show that made it pretty clear it wasn't what I was looking for. So, I wandered around the strip for awhile, watched people gamble themselves into poverty, and ended up back in my room with little to do but work and read a book. The wildest thing I did was go out for some sushi.
Oh, and in case your thinking that I'm pushing my expense sheet...sushi in Vegas, and San Fran for that matter, costs about the same thing as a decent burger entree at another restaurant. Regardless of where you go, your meal will be about $15, which is what a filling meal of sushi cost. I would have rather had a steak but the cheapest steak I found was $38. The only place on the strip that offered cheap eating was a single McDonalds and it was a 30 minute walk from the hotel. I'm pretty careful with my expense budget but I'm not walking an hour every time I want to eat. Taking a cab would defeat the purpose of eating cheap in the first place so...sushi it was.Let me mention here that Bally's is not the place to stay if you go to Vegas. My room was large but had the furnishings of a Detroit Motel 6. Everything was bolted down, including the stupid alarm clock, and was completely immobile. Trust me, I tried to turn the TV to a logical angle for viewing and gave up after heaving all my weight against the nightstand in an attempt to get it to budge. Nothing worth watching was on anyway. I was tempted to destroy the alarm clock just out of spite. After all, at $250 a night through the weekend it couldn't be hard to replace that $10 piece of junk. The bed was junk too. It's not that I mind bad lodging, I just don't like how much they charged my company for the garbage they had to offer.
The conference signup was held Sunday morning (of course, since the Devil obviously runs the city) but Sunday afternoon was the first actual event, a mini-exhibition hall with a few booths and then a networking party. They put an interesting twist on the networking party...providing a stage with a bunch of instruments. Since there was an open bar, it wasn't long before an informal karaoke got rolling and that was fun to watch. The guy who organized it is a brilliant pianist and sort of carried the other volunteers. I was impressed by how much it came together, actually. I have tried to play on several occasions with a single, other musician and failed to make anything worth listening to.
Monday was the official conference first day. I went through the regular networking, seminars, etc. After the day's events were over I went out to an "Asian Fusion" restaurant called Tao with Chops, Chewy and some other folks from Host. I ordered the absolute cheapest entree on the menu, $25. Host ended up covering it so I was glad I had tried to eat as cheap as I could. Later Monday night they held a sponsored networking party at the Wynn. The room was a very large horseshoe shape with doors around the middle that opened out to an outdoor lagoon. The lagoon was fed by a 40 foot, 3-tier waterfall with the sponsoring companies logos projected onto the water. They also had lots of ice sculptures around the room. I caught back up with Chops and Chewy and spent the evening with them. Chops just had a baby boy so we had something in common to talk about. I got to my room at about 2:30(AM) but didn't really get tired until near 4. There is something about Las Vegas that totally turns your body clock upside down. Probably the thing I mentioned before about the whole city being run by the Devil.
Tuesday was more of the same, I was up by 9, hit seminars all through the day and then I met up with Wally, a guy I met in San Fran. He works in affiliate marketing for a well-known retail giant. We went out to dinner with a coworker of his at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay hotel. They were great company, lots of fun to talk to. We walked around the strip and took some pictures. Finally I headed back up to my 10th floor, anti-vandal Bally's special at almost 3:00. Oh, and Wally said that his room was a suite with a fridge and he was paying the same thing. My room didn't even have a coffee pot. Thanks a lot Bally's.Wednesday, to my great relief, I flew home before it rained brimstone. I was worried about that. Both conferences had a lot of valuable info and I met some great people. But, by Wednesday morning, I was prepared to strangle the next person who said "Monitize," "Leverage," or "Return on Investment."
January 19, 2007
Leaving California
This morning was the sort of morning that makes business trips worthwhile, both personally and for the company. I actually got a chance to experience a little bit of SF and see a few sights. I was up by 8:00 and got my gear all crammed back in the suitcase. Canadita (another nickname), the client I was planning to brunch with, TM'd me to meet her at 2. That was too late for me because my flight leaves at 3:50. I messaged her back that it would have to be earlier if she still wanted to meet and then checked out of the hotel and left my bags with the bellhop. It was wandering time!I called Canadita, who was also checking out, and we met up outside the hotel around 10. I wasn't sure what she wanted to discuss because our meeting the day before had been hurried and amidst a chaos of people moving between seminars. She suggested that we just wander around toward the waterfront until we found a fun place to eat. That is totally my style so we set off down random streets.
Canadita, so named for her petite stature and geolocation, was a very
interesting person. She is dating an older Russian man and she managed a pretty solid impersonation of his accent, which was funny. She had a slight Canadian accent (aboot and "zed") which reminded me MrBermuda. We strolled at random, detouring to see interesting buildigs, and ended up at pier 1(?). I have included photos of some landmarks we passed on the way.She bought lunch at a gourmet little mexican restaurant on the water and we discussed some biz ops that should work well for both of us. It is much warmer here but still chilly, especially on the water, so we picked up some coffee at a pier 1 shop. It has an indoor marketplace where you can purchase things like fresh bread, dried mushrooms (the legal kind), coffee and other fresh products. I exp
ected prices to be ridiculous but our lunch was about $6 each and the coffee was the same price as Hometown. On the way back we stopped at some little street artist stands. Canadita bought a souvenier and a gift for her boyfriend. I got a neat little artsy thing for Kristy and chatted with the vendors. I shot a picture of a guy who was making jewelry on the street with Canadita. He turned a soup spoon and piece of a soup can into a pretty impressive hair thing. I thought it was made of silver until he explained how he made it. The street goods they were selling weren't the trite, plastic tourist junk that you find everywhere else. They had
hand-turned wooden bowls, jewelry, opera masks, paintings and coins carved into medallions.Seeing the city was a blast. San Francisco is a much friendlier city than New York and many others that I have been to. People on the street will meet your eyes, nod or even say hello occasionally. There are a lot of homeless and they are fairly agressive. I feel sorry for these people but I don't support their lifestyle. I do usually give a few bucks to folks who are performing in some way. The cabs and shuttles are slightly less psychotic and the horn is left alone a lot more than other cities. Canadita was good company, easy to talk to, interesting and personal but professional. She had good business ideas and is obviously a capable marketing manager. Since she is not from SF, she was not jaded by the city and was as excited as I was to take pictures and dart around to get a closer look at random things. It was nice to be able to do business and still be able to see the city.
I caught a shuttle to the airport and am waiting for the plane. I will post this later as the wireless at the airport is ridiculous.
*posted when I arrived in Vegas
San Francisco Conference
Ahhh, San Fran is almost over. I fly out tomorrow. For those who don't know, I flew to San Fran on Wed for a conference regarding work. Actually this one was kinda strange because I'm transitioning out of the position I'm currently in but I had already signed up to attend some conferences so here I am. This is my second conference in SF, I was here at the same time last year. Below is a synopsis of my trip.
First of all, what is a conference? Well, it's a place where you go to meet people in your industry, learn about the latest trends, etc, and for many...drink heavily. So....like college. Building brain cells and killing brain cells all at once. I prefer to focus on the building and forgo the killing as much as possible in any city filled with smog and people.
I spent the evening before the conference sewing the zipper back to the corner of my suitcase since the airline trashed it last time. Fishing line and carpet thread. It ain't pretty but it's darn sturdy.
My flight to San Fran was two pieces. First a small prop plane to take me to the main connecting airport and then the direct flight to SFO. The connecting flight was an hour late so I sat in the airport lounge, drank coffee, and shot the breeze with a local police officer. I was informed by the airport that I would miss my connecting flight so they booked me on a flight later in the PM. They neglected to mention that the flight stopped in Vegas. However, I was in a great mood, was very nice to the flight attendent at the big airport once I arrived, and got a free first-class upgrade. More legroom is good when your over 6'.
The first, twin prop, flight was as usual. That means that it felt like we were going to fall out of the sky, which is exactly why I ride it. The jet flight (airbus 320A) was uneventful except during the layover in Vegas I got bored and went up to the cockpit. The second-in-command was cool and let me hang out in the cockpit, sit in the pilot's seat, and chat until the pilot arrived (I don't think there supposed to do that anymore but, hey, that's why I'm in marketing). When the pilot arrived, he said "Someone took my job! You'll give it back when you find out what it pays." He was a great guy too, expressed apologies that I was stuck on a non-nonstop flight, and chatted for 15 until it was time for the attendents to board passengers. I went back to my seat and relaxed until we landed at SFO. It was nice to see that you can have fun and talk to fellow Americans on an air plane. Maybe the terrorists haven't won. Anyway, not a bad experience considering I was scheduled to land in SF at 11 AM and touched down at 2:44 PM. Oh, and my luggage arrived in once piece!
After a short shuttle ride and a shower in my temporary digs, I left in search of sushi. Good sushi is never far away in SF and I enjoyed some spicy tuna rolls and beef curry at a local Japanese establishment. The noodles in the beef curry were very slick and I was only provided a very deep spoon and a pair of chopsticks. I had to hand-load every noodel into the spoon and then carefully slurp it out, which was frustrating considering that the only food I had eaten all day was a crappy cheese pizza from an airport fast food joint. Either way, the food was good and I was well satisfied.
I adventured around the hotel a bit, as is my tradition in any unknown place. I visited an art gallery that featured some original work by Dali and Picasso, which was interesting, and read a book of blog posts from the front lines in Iraq at a local Borders (war is an excellent way to put the rest of life into perspective). On the way back I watched a street drummer who was apparently in a recent Will Smith movie called Pursuit of Happiness. He had a picture of himself with Will Smith, from a news article, taped to the front of his little setup. He was drumming on water-cooler bottles, pans, buckets and other things and was extremely talented. I watched and chatted with a young couple from FL that had just moved to SF, tipped the street drummer and left to go do my job.
I met with two of our top clients and then caught up with my account rep ("LilPun") from the company hosting the conference ("Host"). Let me interject here that I am leaving this position and am VERY SAD to not be working with my account rep. She is awesome, very capable, and a lot of fun to work with. They visited the hometown recently for an account review and she stopped by our pad and met wifey. This conference has been bittersweet because it's my last hurrah with many of my friends at our partner company.
We went to a local Irish joint to chat for a bit with some clients and finished the evening at Lori's Diner, the local version of something like the waffle house. After a giant burger, at approximately 1AM, I was very ready for the giant bed and abundance of pillows that Hotel Nikko had waiting. My room is nice, the bed is huge and there was a 30-40" plasma screen TV on the wall (which I haven't even turned on). I actually liked my room at the Fairmont, last year, a little better. Mostly because the bathroom had, like, three rooms of it's own and two king size beds. It was huge. I think they screwed up but I wasn't about to complain.
I was up, ironing the suit, at about 8:00, got registered and hit up the welcome presentation. I had to break the news that I'm leaving affiliate marketing to many of my close partners, which was tough. Working with people that speak your language, day in and day out, builds a certain rapport that is hard to abandon. I will miss many people in the affiliate world.
Lunch was a great salad with artichoke hearts and feta cheese, followed by chicken breast with asparagus and rice and a delicious chocolate cheescake thing. "Host" really knows how to do a conference right. More seminars, etc and the education part of the conference was over. I lost the suit in a hurry, in favor of some more comfy duds.
The evening of the event always means a nice networking party. This was no exception. A beautiful view of SF from giant windows on the 25 floor and wonderful food. I must've eaten about 10 california rolls and some cheesy tortillini (spelling?). The food is good but always too rich to eat much. I chatted with LilPun and one of the guys from Wal-Mart who turned out to be super cool. We decided that when we're in Vegas (another conference) we definitely need to go shoot some automatic weapons together(there's a place in Vegas that lets you do that...watch for that in a future post if it works out). Then we decided to head to a little Irish joint (different one) for conversation, since the networking party ended at 8-ish.
Probably 20 people ended up at Lefty O'tools for chatting and bad piano music. they had a sort of all-you-can-eat prime rib bar but I was too full of rich food and slightly ill (remember that I just recovered from the flu and have been stuffing myself with raw fish). I talked with LilPun, Wal-mart and some other folks from Host and agreed to meet some clients tomorrow for brunch or lunch(because I probably won't be outta bed until at least 10). I finally retired at near 2AM and here I am, writing this blog. (PS: The timestamps on these posts are not accurate).
Anyway, for those who've never been, that's a one-day conference in a nutshell. I suggest you enjoy it vicariously. In real life it's a lot of work, names to remember, knowledge and other info to absorb, and very little sleep. There is usually a constant stream of drinking and it's funny to be the guy ordering water at an open bar. Actually, its not that odd to be drinking water or soda since not everyone in the world likes getting plowed.
In many ways, the time you spend talking with people after the conference is more important than anything else that happens. The relationship that forms from casual chat can be more powerful than any official business negotiation. I have close partnerships and friendships that were formed by such chats. Obviously, I also really enjoy learning about people through conversation. So far I chatted with a police officer (intentionally I promise), some pilots and flight attendants, a couple on the SF street, a few bums, lots of conference attendees and most important of all, my lovely wifey by phone.
Well, it's very late. I hope you found my somewhat-long account of my experience interesting. If you didn't, hey, I didn't make you read it. You're the one slacking off at work to read this. I already worked 20 hours today. A giant, pillow laden bed awaits. I might post a picture of my room if I get around to it.
Things I like about SF:
First of all, what is a conference? Well, it's a place where you go to meet people in your industry, learn about the latest trends, etc, and for many...drink heavily. So....like college. Building brain cells and killing brain cells all at once. I prefer to focus on the building and forgo the killing as much as possible in any city filled with smog and people.
I spent the evening before the conference sewing the zipper back to the corner of my suitcase since the airline trashed it last time. Fishing line and carpet thread. It ain't pretty but it's darn sturdy.
My flight to San Fran was two pieces. First a small prop plane to take me to the main connecting airport and then the direct flight to SFO. The connecting flight was an hour late so I sat in the airport lounge, drank coffee, and shot the breeze with a local police officer. I was informed by the airport that I would miss my connecting flight so they booked me on a flight later in the PM. They neglected to mention that the flight stopped in Vegas. However, I was in a great mood, was very nice to the flight attendent at the big airport once I arrived, and got a free first-class upgrade. More legroom is good when your over 6'.
The first, twin prop, flight was as usual. That means that it felt like we were going to fall out of the sky, which is exactly why I ride it. The jet flight (airbus 320A) was uneventful except during the layover in Vegas I got bored and went up to the cockpit. The second-in-command was cool and let me hang out in the cockpit, sit in the pilot's seat, and chat until the pilot arrived (I don't think there supposed to do that anymore but, hey, that's why I'm in marketing). When the pilot arrived, he said "Someone took my job! You'll give it back when you find out what it pays." He was a great guy too, expressed apologies that I was stuck on a non-nonstop flight, and chatted for 15 until it was time for the attendents to board passengers. I went back to my seat and relaxed until we landed at SFO. It was nice to see that you can have fun and talk to fellow Americans on an air plane. Maybe the terrorists haven't won. Anyway, not a bad experience considering I was scheduled to land in SF at 11 AM and touched down at 2:44 PM. Oh, and my luggage arrived in once piece!
After a short shuttle ride and a shower in my temporary digs, I left in search of sushi. Good sushi is never far away in SF and I enjoyed some spicy tuna rolls and beef curry at a local Japanese establishment. The noodles in the beef curry were very slick and I was only provided a very deep spoon and a pair of chopsticks. I had to hand-load every noodel into the spoon and then carefully slurp it out, which was frustrating considering that the only food I had eaten all day was a crappy cheese pizza from an airport fast food joint. Either way, the food was good and I was well satisfied.
I adventured around the hotel a bit, as is my tradition in any unknown place. I visited an art gallery that featured some original work by Dali and Picasso, which was interesting, and read a book of blog posts from the front lines in Iraq at a local Borders (war is an excellent way to put the rest of life into perspective). On the way back I watched a street drummer who was apparently in a recent Will Smith movie called Pursuit of Happiness. He had a picture of himself with Will Smith, from a news article, taped to the front of his little setup. He was drumming on water-cooler bottles, pans, buckets and other things and was extremely talented. I watched and chatted with a young couple from FL that had just moved to SF, tipped the street drummer and left to go do my job.
I met with two of our top clients and then caught up with my account rep ("LilPun") from the company hosting the conference ("Host"). Let me interject here that I am leaving this position and am VERY SAD to not be working with my account rep. She is awesome, very capable, and a lot of fun to work with. They visited the hometown recently for an account review and she stopped by our pad and met wifey. This conference has been bittersweet because it's my last hurrah with many of my friends at our partner company.
We went to a local Irish joint to chat for a bit with some clients and finished the evening at Lori's Diner, the local version of something like the waffle house. After a giant burger, at approximately 1AM, I was very ready for the giant bed and abundance of pillows that Hotel Nikko had waiting. My room is nice, the bed is huge and there was a 30-40" plasma screen TV on the wall (which I haven't even turned on). I actually liked my room at the Fairmont, last year, a little better. Mostly because the bathroom had, like, three rooms of it's own and two king size beds. It was huge. I think they screwed up but I wasn't about to complain.
I was up, ironing the suit, at about 8:00, got registered and hit up the welcome presentation. I had to break the news that I'm leaving affiliate marketing to many of my close partners, which was tough. Working with people that speak your language, day in and day out, builds a certain rapport that is hard to abandon. I will miss many people in the affiliate world.
Lunch was a great salad with artichoke hearts and feta cheese, followed by chicken breast with asparagus and rice and a delicious chocolate cheescake thing. "Host" really knows how to do a conference right. More seminars, etc and the education part of the conference was over. I lost the suit in a hurry, in favor of some more comfy duds.
The evening of the event always means a nice networking party. This was no exception. A beautiful view of SF from giant windows on the 25 floor and wonderful food. I must've eaten about 10 california rolls and some cheesy tortillini (spelling?). The food is good but always too rich to eat much. I chatted with LilPun and one of the guys from Wal-Mart who turned out to be super cool. We decided that when we're in Vegas (another conference) we definitely need to go shoot some automatic weapons together(there's a place in Vegas that lets you do that...watch for that in a future post if it works out). Then we decided to head to a little Irish joint (different one) for conversation, since the networking party ended at 8-ish.
Probably 20 people ended up at Lefty O'tools for chatting and bad piano music. they had a sort of all-you-can-eat prime rib bar but I was too full of rich food and slightly ill (remember that I just recovered from the flu and have been stuffing myself with raw fish). I talked with LilPun, Wal-mart and some other folks from Host and agreed to meet some clients tomorrow for brunch or lunch(because I probably won't be outta bed until at least 10). I finally retired at near 2AM and here I am, writing this blog. (PS: The timestamps on these posts are not accurate).
Anyway, for those who've never been, that's a one-day conference in a nutshell. I suggest you enjoy it vicariously. In real life it's a lot of work, names to remember, knowledge and other info to absorb, and very little sleep. There is usually a constant stream of drinking and it's funny to be the guy ordering water at an open bar. Actually, its not that odd to be drinking water or soda since not everyone in the world likes getting plowed.
In many ways, the time you spend talking with people after the conference is more important than anything else that happens. The relationship that forms from casual chat can be more powerful than any official business negotiation. I have close partnerships and friendships that were formed by such chats. Obviously, I also really enjoy learning about people through conversation. So far I chatted with a police officer (intentionally I promise), some pilots and flight attendants, a couple on the SF street, a few bums, lots of conference attendees and most important of all, my lovely wifey by phone.
Well, it's very late. I hope you found my somewhat-long account of my experience interesting. If you didn't, hey, I didn't make you read it. You're the one slacking off at work to read this. I already worked 20 hours today. A giant, pillow laden bed awaits. I might post a picture of my room if I get around to it.
Things I like about SF:
- Very cool architecture and streets. Everything is at a ridiculous angle!
- Cities in general are always beautiful at night
- The smell of the city when you step out of the hotel.
- People on the west coast are generally more relaxed and friendly
- The climate is great. 14 degrees where I left, 50 degrees when I landed. People think I'm crazy for not wearing a coat!
- The trolleys are neat
- I wouldn't want to live here, it's just too big. Other than that my two experiences here in SF have been pleasant.
January 2, 2007
Do you want my job?
Happy New Year everyone. To my surprise, I got three comments on my last post. This is interesting to me because I only told one person that I had even started this blog. Unfortunately for you, now that we've outed our most exciting piece of news, the majority of future posts will be exhaustive and dull.
One thing that I didn't mention in the last post was that I got promoted at work. This seems insignificant when I'm at home and thinking about the changes coming to our homelife. But the significance comes crashing back home when I arrive at work.
Beginning February 1st I will be managing the email marketing for Sierra Trading Post. I currently manage something called Affiliate Marketing for Sierra. Between now and February 1st I will be hiring and training someone for my position, training another person we hired, learning the ropes on the new position, and going to conferences in San Fran and Las Vegas. Needless to say, I'm pretty anxious to find some eligible candidates for my current position.
If anyone knows someone who's web-savvy (this means you at least know some HTML), driven and wants to learn a whole bunch of stuff in not a whole bunch of time, let me know. Marketing experience is a plus. Wait, isn't my sister in marketing?
One thing that I didn't mention in the last post was that I got promoted at work. This seems insignificant when I'm at home and thinking about the changes coming to our homelife. But the significance comes crashing back home when I arrive at work.
Beginning February 1st I will be managing the email marketing for Sierra Trading Post. I currently manage something called Affiliate Marketing for Sierra. Between now and February 1st I will be hiring and training someone for my position, training another person we hired, learning the ropes on the new position, and going to conferences in San Fran and Las Vegas. Needless to say, I'm pretty anxious to find some eligible candidates for my current position.
If anyone knows someone who's web-savvy (this means you at least know some HTML), driven and wants to learn a whole bunch of stuff in not a whole bunch of time, let me know. Marketing experience is a plus. Wait, isn't my sister in marketing?
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