The New Imperialism
Over the last few years, I've seen a huge trend in quitting ones job and traveling around the world. This was first fueled by the economic crisis. We all heard not so woful tales about bankers being laid off only to use their presumably hefty severance checks to travel the world and find themselves. Next came the photographer, writer or website designer, inspired by Chris Guillebeau to hack their credit card airline miles and consider a laptop with wifi connection their office. Those of us stuck in our windowless offices could momentarily live vicariously through travel blogs with the occasional pang of envy hitting us, as new photos appeared on our Facebook feed. We clicked through photos of our friends or even an engaging stranger as they bussed their way through Asia - brave enough to navigate a language barrier and foreign country for the promise of deliciously inexpensive food and the experience of local culture. In between our slight jealousy - we learned something. They opened our eyes to how other people lived. We silently thanked them for being ambassadors, making the world just a little bit smaller.But after the major landmarks were visited, and famous, Asian street food consumed, there was a new frontier to be had. Enter our current day. In favor of reflective blog posts, used as an alternative to a travel journal - we have the more immediate - Instagram. In place of self-reflection, we have the outward attention grabbing hashtag. And with it, a move to newer journeys - venturing into Africa. A stunning, envy-inducing vacation within a vacation at a Travel & Leisure-worthy resort smack in the middle of a war-torn, third world country. Gone are the photos of local culture and attempting to experience the world that 99% of a country's population experiences. Instead, we have Americans from a first world country, wealthy even for American standards - taking advantage of their power and status in a country where few have any. What is fueling this new behavior? Is it narcissism? The impulse to self-promote? The last decade has shown an increase in the desire for experiences over the accumulation of stuff. Is this the Berkin bag of experiences?
Whatever it is - with great power comes great responsibility.
My Earth-Shattering Revelation About Tinder
I recently went on my first two Tinder dates - two different guys but oddly enough, both had the same name and were the same age. I was hesitant to try Tinder because I had heard it's "Grinder for straight people," i.e. just a hook up app. But a few months ago, I ran into someone who adamantly told me it had evolved into a regular dating app and he had met his girlfriend through it. I set up my profile and and selected the right pictures, then started swiping. And swiping. And swiping. And then discovered that in this very new world of Tinder, there are TINDER MEMES! I said TINDER MEMES! About every thirty swipes or so (don't judge me), one comes across a guy hugging a tiger. This is a thing. This thing has its own Tumblr. I don't even know where to begin. If I were an anthropologist, I'd say this is a very thinly veiled attempt to convey their masculinity and wealth in one single picture. I mean - I don't think they let you hug the tigers at the Bronx Zoo.
The funny thing about this supposedly revolutionary new dating tool is that in place of algorithms, witty profiles and the appeal of specific dating destinations, the process for choosing a match is actually more akin to real life. When you're at a crowded bar, you can't scan the room looking for someone whose wit catches your eye. Or find any clues regarding your compatibility other than subtle non-verbal cues related to someone's appearance.
Like real life, it has even become common practice on Tinder to acknowledge that you're attracted to someone but do absolutely nothing about it. Long-time users may have over 1,000 matches but have only spoken to a handful. It's like an unexpected flirtation on the subway with someone that ends the minute they get off at their stop. Perhaps it's the fear that the real life romantic version of them won't live up to what we've quickly allowed ourselves to imagine.
So how did my dates go? Well - on the first date, completely at a loss over what to say - I opened with,
"This is my first Tinder date. I thought it was a hookup app but someone told me that now it's a regular dating app."
I'm not one for subtleties. There was a long pause as my date searched for a tactful response. I fully expected him to respond by telling me it was a hookup app, and then promptly end the date. But instead the date proceeded in a way that tells me that there are still varying expectations of what it's for. It didn't go anywhere. The second date was not a match either but at least I discovered two new wine bars.
I've never had much luck meeting and dating guy I've met at bars and don't know women who have but perhaps Tinder is the equivalent of going bar hopping to find romance. We shall see...
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
What will surprise EXACTLY NO ONE who knows me - is that I managed to find an adorably charming French cafe about a week after moving into my Upper East Side neighborhood. Like Brooklyn's Smith Canteen, which I had the pleasure of frequenting during my brief, but lovely stay in Carroll Gardens, Le Moulin a Cafe is also directly across the street from a French school. I often arrive just in time to stand behind a gaggle of parents who've just dropped their children off at Lycee Francais, energetically speaking to one another in French and somehow eating their daily croissants despite remaining thin. For exactly ten minutes a few times a week, I can pretend I'm living in Paris. Furthering this pleasant illusion - I've convinced one of the baristas to speak to me only in French - which seems like the exact opposite of what one should do before having their coffee. There is much stuttering on my part.The baristo, on the other hand, while not knowing French, knows something even better - my order. With a kind smile, he ceremoniously pours my side of soy milk into an espresso shot glass along with my coffee, a seemingly small luxury to arm me with an inevitably crowded subway ride and long day. The other day, I surprised him by switching up my order - a switch up made in an attempt to save money in 2014. How could he have known?
I'm working on an essay contest around how brands should behave in the digital age. Sunday night, I had one of those moments that artists strategists dream of - or maybe dread. It involved waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep with ideas running through my head. I finally had to write them out in the dark on a scrap piece of paper - which were fortunately legible the next morning.
I digress.
In 2012, JWT predicted that a top ten trend in 2013 would be predictive personalization - the idea that brands would be able to predict what you're interested in buying based off of the data they have on you. But what if this is not a new concept at all? What if digital is simply a stand in for those everyday client / customer experiences? Instead of a charming baristo with a vague British accent to know your order, recommendations for products based on our preferences can easily be served up through digital. In fact, if this interaction took place in a small village a century ago, a store clerk might have even heard through the grapevine that I declared to save money in 2014 and might have offered a less expensive product. Back to our digital age - what if brands could link in with Mint or a finance-management APi, offering you products within your budget and even encouraging you to stick to the budget.
We've finally entered a future where brands can build relationships with their customers using the data collected through daily digital and in-person interactions, arming their employees to treat us like friends and serving us appropriate products. Ironically, this revolutionary new digital capability is feat that has been second nature to humans through their existence.
Cheers!
Tech Disrupt 3.0
The longer I work in mobile, the more I see evidence that technology has disrupted every aspect of our lives. There is nothing we do that hasn't touched technology from the moment we wake up to the alarm on our iPhones to the moment we go to bed, scrolling through our Instagram feed one last time before we close our eyes. In fact, Mary Meeker's famous yearly tech trends presentation predicts that 2014 will be the year of wearable computing. So we've gone beyond social media and even mobile. But as someone working at the convergence of technology and advertising in New York City, it's easy for me to taught that this is the year of mobile, wearable computing, Google Glass, or any number of exciting technologies. The real question is, what happens when businesses finally embrace these behavioral changes instead of ignoring them? And what happens to those that don't?
A few weeks ago, I decided to check out the Warby Parker store in Nolita after finally getting a new eye glass prescription (yay health insurance!). I had heard of the startup but had become friends with the owner, Paul of my previous frames supplier at Caserta (go there!) and genuinely liked our customer / owner relationships. But as I casually tried on a few pairs, my eyes lit up with excitement. How could I resist $95 frames including the lenses, a good $200 dollar difference in price from any regular frames store? In fact, the ease of the purchase and price changed my entire outlook on eyeglasses. Perhaps they no longer had to be a critical decision to labor over for days, knowing they'd be a year-long fashion statement. I could now match my frames to my mood, or my outfit! Shortly after purchasing a pair, I dipped into a chain frame store just to compare. Rows of frames by well-known designers lined the shelves with designer prices. The store clerks seemed engaged in their own conversation instead of helping me so I quickly left. I vowed to replace the lenses on my old frames from Caserta because I enjoy shooting the shit with the owner and because they're great frames.
Following my trip to Warby, I decided that once and for all, I was going to purchase a Nike Fuel band. Earlier that week, I had posed the question through my Instagram feed - Nike Fuel Band or FitBit Flex. I had done extensive research online and was told that it was mostly a toss up, but that the Flex was more accurate. But what would motivate me? Accuracy or friendly competition? The answer, according to my Instagram community, was the friendly competition of the Nike Fuel Band. I've been wearing it ever since but truth be told, haven't given up my old FitBit.
So it's clear that regardless of your business, it's going to be disrupted by technology. So how can companies adapt? Here are two quick tips from my journey but more are sure to follow.
1. If your business is "analogue," make it the best analogue experience you can possibly create. Ensure that your customer service is top notch and genuine as well as your product. A quick glance at Caserta's Yelp review shows that nothing can disrupt the efficacy of a quality product and customer service. And their customers are spreading the word, coincidentally, through technology.
2. Your brand is not a product category but an experience. Extend it through digital products that enrich people's lives.
New York Tech Meetup "March" Re-Cap
The New York Tech Meetup "March" event tops my list of best NYTM's. The technology and new products were both groundbreaking and more importantly, incredibly useful.
First on the stage was Watch It. It was the first in a long list of "why didn't I think of that?" Watch It aggregates available movies across multiple platforms so you can easily find a movie you want to watch either online, DVD, in the theaters, etc. You can make a queue, share it with your friends, and get alerts when a movie becomes available. Simple yet brilliant.
Yapp took the stage next. I think Yapp marks an important milestone in our digital behaviors and needs. Yapp allows users to easily make a mobile app. Currently in beta, they demonstrated how to make an app for an event - which I'm sure all us nerdy tech folks will want to use to impress our other nerdy tech friends. So does that mean we will go from everyone having their own website to everyone having their own app? Special shout out to the preggers demoer who cracked us up with her Vegas wedding app suggestion. It's always nice to see female presenters onstage especially when they're developing startups outside of fashion.
For those of you trying to juggle your various social media presences (isn't that all of us?!), there's Engagio, a platform that allows you to see all your social media comments and interactions in one place.
Float schedule looks like a useful tool for agencies, studios, digital project managers - or anyone else who has to manage the schedules of various client projects. The act of producing projects is often under appreciated. I consider myself a dreamer or incrementalist according to Scott Belsky's Making Ideas Happen so any tools to help me be more of a "doer" is very much appreciated.
And another special shout-out - this time to my former hometown classmate Andy Tider who presented his Hack of the Month with Ben Fisher called Pool Party. I'm not 100% sure what it does because I was distracted by him throwing beach balls at the audience. Oh - and the hysterically awesome "please be patient" commentary while the program pulls data. Pool Party connects with LinkedIn's APi to help you make better use of a particular group's members - so when you sign in, it connects to LinkedIn, then one of the groups you belong to. From there, you can easily pull out UX Designers, Interaction, Product, Rails, etc. to better connect with. And as if I can't give enough props - another special shout out for getting the URL: JumpInThePool.com.
It would seem as if a shower of beach balls would be a tough act to follow but UnRoll.me did it with ease. UnRoll.me could be the most useful thing since ... email. UnRoll.me is a very simple email add-on that allows you to easily unsubscribe to unwanted emails, receive the subscriptions you like in one convenient email and here's where this service can become the next Groupon: get recommendations on newsletters you may actually want to read. It's in beta so sign up and be sure to tell your friends, or work on making your newsletter more interesting and engaging so it doesn't end up "unrolled."
When Kapitall took the stage, it became apparent that the hits would keep coming. French accents, online gaming and stocks! OH MY! Kapitall aims to make investing in stocks understandable and engaging to the masses by creating a game around researching and trading stocks. I'd tell you more but I just signed up and want to go play! Sign up now because trades are only $5 up until March 31st. The potential for educating people about stock trading is groundbreaking. I'll let you ponder that while I introduce the final presenter.
Last but certainly not least, the seasoned Anthony Caselena from Squarespace took the stage with an introduction to their revised portfolio and website publishing platform. There were collective oohs and ahs as we watched Anthony create a photographer's portfolio under a minute. And cringes as we silently cursed ourselves for renewing our Wordpress hosting sites. And curses from web designers who realized they have some serious competition.
So the common theme with all of these, and why I think they're going to be successful, is that they were all incredibly useful. More importantly their use can easily be explained.
Be sure to sign up for the next NYTM on March 27th. If you haven't attended yet, you're missing out. A trick to getting the ticket before they sell out is to make sure your payment is correctly linked before they go on sale. Also, they sell like hotcakes so set your alarm and be on your computer when they sell. If you can't get a ticket, people often resell theirs closer to the date when they realize they have a conflict and can't make it so don't "unroll" your NYTM message board.
Interview With Farrah Bostic: Advertising Women 2.0
Farrah Bostic is a Group Planning Director at Digitas whose insightful blog Pretty Little Head covers everything from brands to innovation and creativity. In addition to digital innovation, she's passionate about elevating women's status in the advertising and technology industries.The tech world is full of exciting new and innovative mobile and web products. How relevant is the tech world to planning?
The tech world is hugely influential to the best & brightest in planning in New York. For one thing, start-ups took over our bars (Sweet & Vicious and Tom & Jerry's)! For another, the industry is transforming in favor of digital, social and mobile experiences, and the thought leaders in our field (planners) need nerds to play with who really deeply understand these technologies and concepts. Those who actively experiment with them and build businesses out of them are our best partners for this kind of thinking. The tech world is shaping how people behave and interact, and offers a myriad of ways for us to develop better knowledge about these behaviors and interactions, so we can then develop better understanding of how it affects our clients' brands and businesses.
So many of the major companies that dominate our world like Apple, Foursquare, Twitter, etc. were created by a team of men. What are some examples of great products or websites created by a team of women?
There are so many unsung female heroes in digital! The one most often thought of is, of course, Catarina Fake, who co-founded both Flickr and Hunch. Emily Hickey, co-founder of Hashable, helped drive the pivot from a finance site to a networking app that was one of the many favorites at SXSW this year. Dina Kaplan cofounded Blip.tv, which is an awesome, newly-relaunched online channel for original video content created for the web. I'm watching about three new series there these days, now that all the network shows are in the off season. Birchbox is a terrific business started by women with a female technical co-founder. A lot of people talk about fashion sites like Fashism and advice sites like HonestlyNow, or food sites like Foodspotting; but I think there are some great female-founded businesses like Slideshare and Layar that are lauded as businesses that transcend the more 'obvious' female businesses.
And there's hope for people in the ad biz! Cindy Gallop (ex-BBH) has created two businesses online: Ifwerantheworld.com, a site that helps transform intention into action through small steps, and creates a social profile based on what you do rather than what you say; and Makelovenotporn.com, a site that is helping change the conversation between men and women about sex, and is promoting female friendly pornography. Ale Lariu's work with SheSays.com is a fantastic example of a now ex-ad-woman building a business online that leverages her expertise in advertising and her advocacy for women in the business.
Above all of this, there are the advocates and change agents: two of my favorite ladies, Rachel Sklar and Emily Gannett at ChangeTheRatio - promoting women in startups; and the amazing Shaherose Charania and Angie Chang at Women 2.0 & Founder Labs who are actively incubating women founders.
I'm already inspired! You've recently started listing women in the advertising and tech world who have broken through the glass ceiling and are an inspiration to us all. Aside from their success, what other characteristics do these women have in common?
They're all doing ground-breaking work, driving business results, inventing new technology... and not getting nearly enough credit or attention for it. The main reason for starting the list was to recognize these women in a way that obviated the constant conversations about how hard it is to find women to speak at conferences or judge awards programs. As I've compiled this list, I've been amazed at the generosity of the people who've contributed great women to it, and shocked at how reluctant those same, equally accomplished women are, to nominate themselves. These women work hard and smart and creatively, and then they forget to or avoid taking some of the credit. I think it's that nice, smart, creative people who make things, tend to be generous with their effort and their praise. For women, this generosity of spirit can seem to conflict with credit-taking. So I've been happy to be the one giving that credit.
There are so many different women's networking organizations in New York. Which ones have you found to be particularly helpful?
Change The Ratio has been a life-changer for me - I went to one event and everything changed. I made amazing friends, I was inspired to start the list on my own blog, and it's continued to fuel my desire to express my own entrepreneurial spirit. Women 2.0 was the next group I encountered, because of some things I wrote after getting involved in Change The Ratio - and they are amazing: vibrant, growing, making change for women, fostering real businesses. But I think the tech scene is much more democratic than the VC dollars and TCDisrupt speaker lists would indicate: a lot of the best, most productive networking I've done here has been through Digital DUMBO (female co-founder!) and through StartUp Weekend. I encourage more women to attend - you meet those nice, smart, creative people who make things, and it's incredibly inspiring.
I often find myself full of ideas, wanting to create something but need a partner to keep me on track. Can you recommend an organization that can help me find a future business partner.
Women 2.0 and Founder Labs! 5 weeks from nothing to a business - it's an amazing process, with fantastic mentors and a great track record. Despite the name, they seek balance in the founder teams they assemble - 50/50 female/male, 50/50 business/tech. It's awesome how they pull that diversity together. Tech Stars is also an excellent program with committed mentors and founders. But I also wouldn't discount StartUp Weekend - you meet a variety of people on the Friday, some who are committed and driven, some who are curious and dabbling. But by Sunday, everyone is serious about making something and transforming that something into a business.
Keeping up with email, blogging and contacts can be an all-consuming process. What tools do you use that have helped you juggle all these tasks?
I'm a bit of a mess when it comes to all of this, but I have a few tools I love. At home I use Sparrow as my mail client, but I'm only just getting used to it; the labeling options allow me to keep track of things relatively easily - but on the go, gmail is my savior. It's very good at knowing what actually is urgent to me, and the ability to star items helped keep this email, for example, on my radar. But the truth is I do most of my communicating on a one-to-one basis in Twitter - through @-replies and direct messaging I can carry on a lot of conversations... Of course,this isn't appropriate for everyone, or everything, but it does keep the ideas pithy. :)
Blogging is tough - I probably didn't blog for about six months, until my boyfriend wrote a piece of middleware for me that allows me to favorite items in Twitter, and it goes through those favorites, scrapes the links, and deposits those linked sites/articles into ReadItLater, which I then go back to on my iPad. I also use Evernote at conferences and as a place to save quotations or scraps of the articles I've read. I always have something to write about, now.
Contacts... my iPhone holds everything, and increasingly I'm using Hashable and Twitter to capture contact information. When it comes to the list, however, we're building a CMS for that - I hope we'll finish it by the middle of July.
Was there a particular moment in your career or piece of advice that inspired you to get to where you are today?
I've had a few, I think. My dad was a network consultant in the early '90s and installed the network at Wieden + Kennedy; he told me that this was the kind of environment I should work in. When I was in college at University of Oregon, I took a copywriting class; the instructor, Ann Maxwell, did a mid-term check-in and told me that while I said I wanted to go into account management, I was a talented writer and should pursue a creative career instead. She had Clios and gold pencils in her office, so I decided to believe her. The next was when I was struggling to find work in an agency after the startup I worked in began to falter and sacked me; the head of the Apple account at Chiat/Day, Sean Hardwick, said that I belonged in an agency like that, and that while he didn't have the *right* job for me, he had a job, and that he was going to offer it because he didn't want to get in the way of my dream. Who says things like that??
It was at Chiat that I saw what planning was really all about, day to day, and made the transition to that role. A planner I worked with there, Elena Hale, told me that planning was about making advertising effective, and I really warmed to the power of that idea. And then Robin Hafitz, my mentor and friend, hired me to be a brand strategist; I could see myself in her, and I suppose she might have seen a bit of herself in me. She's been an amazing advocate.
Rachel Sklar inspired me to make the list - with her energy and generosity and advocacy for women. Cindy Gallop told me that an idea I had was too big to be 'just an app' and that it could really improve people's lives, which really energized me but also raised the bar for my own goals. And the London-based agency, Made by Many, who I met through my great friend and champion, and entrepreneur, Noah Brier, has inspired me to think about innovation and strategy and digital/mobile/social experiences through the lens of the Lean Startup.
I think our lives are a series of these kinds of moments. For every one of them, I've also been told something negative - that I'm commitment-phobic, that I 'can write, but not think', that I can give up if I want to, that I should just get a job in sales, that I should've taken the bar (I went to law school), that I'm cynical, that I push too hard or work too independently or give up too fast. The trick, I think, is to keep people around you who you trust to be honest, who love you because of and despite your faults, to love them and trust them back, and to seek what you really want. And if you don't know what you really want, knowing what you really DON'T want is useful, too.
"Dating" 3.0
Picture this. A new app comes out that's all the rage - at least if you're a nerd in the advertising/ tech community. We'll call this app "Color." Naturally, you try it out because you're curious. It takes you a good five minutes to realize this app can either attract stalkers, be used for dating or potentially expose you to some saucy material while you're sitting at work. A few pictures and comments later you realize you have a few admirers ... digital admirers that is. In fact, they're fighting each other for your attention and the chivalry that you've never seen in person suddenly comes out in their comments. A day later, one digital admirer outwits all the rest and you reveal a tidbit that shows your identity. Five minutes later, you get a Facebook request. As the old saying goes, curiosity usually gets the best of you - so you accept.In the weeks that follow, you have a series of back and forth Facebook messages with the intention of actually meeting in the flesh. Despite working for the same company, you haven't crossed paths. A slow response rate and abbreviated messages indicate that maybe he's not that interested. Okay.. you think. It's not like we've ever even met. You browse through a dating site wondering if you actually have time to date and spot an old message you sent to a dating profile weeks prior. It's him ... weird ... But he never responded. Hmm. A few days later there's no response to your message and you think whatever it was, it's over. But wait. He has just requested you on FourSquare.
Finally.. a moment you were completely unprepared for. It's a crazy day at work and you're running around, stressed and frazzled. And who do you run into - him of course. You can hear in his hello that he is pleasantly surprised. After one more round of Facebook messages, there's radio silence. A few weeks later, he has changed his relationship profile to "In A Relationship" which to my understanding, women have to practically withhold sex to get their boyfriends to do that or be dating for an extended period of time. So you wonder... is this what has become of "dating" in 2011? Dare I say dating 3.0? And you tell yourself that maybe next time, maybe you'll control your curiosity and not fall down the web 3.0 rabbit hole.
Word On The Street... Is That This Is For Real
Yeah, so apparently this Word Lens App is for real.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs&w=640&h=390]
NY Tech Meetup 2011 Kick-Off
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the first NY Tech Meetup of 2011. The meeting lacked the energy and consistency of some past meetups, probably because everyone and their mom is sick, but there were a few standouts. Munchly brought excitement into the room with their demo, an iPhone app that allows sport goers to order food from concession stands straight from their phone so you can have the best of both worlds - your Shake Shack fix without missing half the game. The app looked well designed and their presentation style rocked. When in doubt, offer audience members a free beer. Naturally these guys are smart because they went to my high school. Shout out to Jersey!Firefly is an app that finds your Twitter friends in the real world, making face-to-face contact more feasible. Personally, I think there should be a monthly - meet a Twitter follower in person - day. While having a digital life is enriching, nothing beats human contact. So now there's an app to aggregate check-ins from location based services and yet, last summer, I still ended up explaining foursquare to people on a regular basis - even those under 40! Hmmm. Technology is like our economy - the early adapters are getting more adapty while the main stream consumers have so many choices that they're just getting confused or rejecting various technologies all together. I digress.
AdStruc Marketplace topped the list as one of the most practical services demoed. Although as I walked to the after party with a fellow advertising "executive" we debated whether or not out of home ad space was one of the few industries that was still strongly based on relationships between media buyers and sales agents. Regardless, I still think AdStruc will solve a current need in the media business. And I have to give a special shout out to the presenter's ping pong skills. I played him in ping pong two years ago at an industry party. Ah ping pong. The great connector. Wait.. It was a party where the sales guys were treating their customers. Hmm - ad exec guy does have a point.
Finally, the guys from VYou may have gotten their idea for VYou from the Old Spice YouTube campaign. I can see this being used by celebrities talking to their fans, companies explaining their products, and individuals showcasing their skills and personality. You can embed the service onto a site, generating interesting content. And if you don't have anything good to say, everyone likes a good nose picking video right? Thanks Kevin Smith.
Finally, Scott Heiferman came on to talk about why the tech world in New York is so exciting. To paraphrase in my own words, it's not about making money for money's sake a la the financial industry, it's about adding value to people's lives. Move over finance. The New York tech world is here to stay and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty damn sexy.
Women in Tech-Media - NY Internet Week
Just got back from the Women in Tech-Media featuring:
Jennifer Hyman - CEO of Rent the Runway, a site to rent designer clothing that was founded in 2008 and has already been featured in the NY Times, has funding from venture capitalists, and a steady following.
Dorothy McGivney - previously worked at Google for 6 years and recently quit to start her own site Jauntsetter, a travel site and e-newsletter for New Yorkers. I just signed up! Hey roommie - you'll like this one!
Jordan Reid - founder of the lifestyle site RamshackleGlam as recently as March of this year and now a contributor to Cosmo, Time Out NY, TheGloss.com, etc. and a correspondent for BetterTV as well as appearing on other lifestyle programs. I've posted about her before. She has an inspiring story of finding success where her non-linear journey took her from Hollywood to a soulless NYC law firm to blogging for Nonsociety.com and then finally starting her own site.
Tammy Tibbetts - created She's the First, a global campaign that promotes the importance of educating girls in the developing world. Oh, and she graduated from the College of New Jersey (Go Jersey!) and is only 24 years old. Holy cow. All while maintaining a full time job.
And finally, the panel was moderated by Neha Chauhan who moderated the last Women in Social Media panel in February. She currently works as an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan, is a Harvard Grad, developed My Social Impact and has another startup venture coming up soon so stay tuned.
I found the panel especially inspiring because they were all under 30 (I believe) and the general consensus was that doing their own thing was well worth the struggles of starting their own business. And they all seemed genuinely nice! I was particularly impressed with Jennifer Hyman, a Harvard MBA grad who spoke about literally changing people's buying habits through Rent the Runway. In the future, my closet might not be filled with cheap, low quality throwaways or filled at all. Instead, I'll be able to present the "brand" of myself that I want and rent designer goods for various occasions. Someday she hopes that people will rent seasonal items rather than buying them. In theory, this could open up many activities that were far from affordable to most - like skiing. And that's just the beginning. Jennifer believes that the future of eCommerce will be a more curated experiences instead of the current model which is to go to a site that has every selection imaginable. As someone who finds online shopping too time consuming, I agree with her predictions.
The panelists also gave some great general advice about building your business and blogging. Jordan's advice for gaining a larger audience is to comment on sites you like, offer to guest blog on other sites, and she mentioned that the blogging community is very supportive, so get out there and make friends. She also stressed that as a blogger, you're selling both yourself and your opinions so honesty, integrity and showing the absolute best of yourself every day is key. And don't be afraid to ask people for help especially if you're going at your venture alone.
Dorothy recommends Founders at Work, a book about various startups and how they went about launching their business. She also found Meet Up to be a great resource for networking and strongly recommends starting your own Meet Up if you can't find a group that shares your specific interest.
And finally, despite going to Harvard Business School, Jennifer and her partner decided to forgo creating a formal business plan and instead winged the process. They learned and listened to people along the way. She recommends never turning down a meeting with someone because you never know what advice they will offer or what type of connections they will give. Jennifer explained that you build your reputation by the respect you give others when you listen to them and are open to their suggestions. I thought that was some powerful advice.
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| Dorothy, Jordan, Jennifer, & Tammy |
New York Tech Meet Up Recap
And here it goes. Once again, I spent the last few days running from meeting to meeting, event to event and still don't have time for the gym. Go figure. But another lesson on branding and customer service done right; I finally received my fancy scale from Gilt. Over a month ago, right after I got Thomas, my scale broke. Thomas sat on it for lengthy periods of time while he was hiding under my bed. At the same time, Gilt listed a fancy scale that calculates your body fat percentage. I know. Why would I want to know that? In any case, I ordered it, not realizing it would take 5 weeks for delivery! But through email, was able to re-route it to my apartment and received it just in time to learn... drum roll please... that I weigh exactly the same I did 4-5 weeks ago. Victory.
Okay. I digress.
My first rookie mistake was that I had a fake name on my Meet Up name tag - "MissMoll" my internet "handle," not realizing we'd get pre-made name tags. #Fail. Secondly, I was never able to sell my 2nd ticket but the event was well worth the extra $10. The FIT auditorium was PACKED. Highlights and commentary: The mid 40's crowd talks about Generation Y as being tech savvy and they complain they're entitled and don't pay their dues. Sounds like they're threatened. NO. Actually, the Xers and Baby-Boomers should really be worried about the kids just graduating college. They're the tech savvy ones. Wait. No.
A sixth grader confidently presented how he created his gaming software to a room full of 500+ tech savvy New Yorkers. Yeah. I know.
That's where this world of technology is going. So a recent college grad introduced the next generation of Facebook meets Match meets Chatroulette. Not entirely unique but I'm sure there's a need for it because the college kids want their own thing and let's face it, both my parents are on Facebook. Randomdorm.com and Goodcrush.com. See a larger list of new ventures on NYTM.org along with videos of their demos. I was particularly impressed with Bit.ly's presentation of their latest website re-design. I can't imagine why you'd want to use any other website shortner. With bit.ly you can track your users by demographic, have a record of how many hits your link gets and a whole host of other features. It even goes through their system so you can be assured a bit.ly link isn't connected to a virus, etc.
And finally, we get to stickybits.com. This, I believe, is the real winner. You download an App that scans bar codes. You receive a physical packet of stickies with bar codes on the stickies (the size of a business card) and you can attach digital content to the bar code. So in theory, you can attach this bar code to the back of your resume (with a unique code) and attach a link to your website, upload your resume, etc. Your recipient can scan the bar code and access the information instead of going home and inputting the link to your website on his computer. So holy crap. You have an instant connection between the physical and digital worlds. Just imagine the implications for advertisers. Or think about how they can track the effectiveness of "guerrilla marketing," billboards, magazine ads, you name it. I think their biggest hurdle is getting people to understand how to use the service and distributing the stickers. Even Foursquare, with over a 1/2 million users, is something you have to get in the habit of using - checking in when you get to a location. And the motivation comes from essentially the social network equivalent of a pat on the back.
So that's my social media, marketing, advertising prediction of what will take off in May 2010 - or at least has a shot of revolutionizing how advertisers and consumers interact. What are your thoughts? Oh and P.S. Naturally I met some very cool people, got to hang out with a cool new friend who's sooo going places, and ran into someone I went to high school with! Just a typical, amazing, post break-up, post Birthday/laid off, full of inspiration- type of evening.
Tech City - NYC
Have you read the cover story to the latest New York Magazine - Tweet Tweet Boom Boom by Doree Shafrir? What perfect, inspiring timing. It examines a major shift in New York culture. The focus and trust in financial institutions has nearly disappeared. Even those companies left standing after the crash are being scrutinized for their selfish, fraudulent behavior - finally. Intelligent college graduates are flocking to other fields, enriching our lives instead of riching their wallets. And marketing has shifted from a bottom up mentality, where the consumer has control over the brand and the product must live up to the brand. I've embraced social media for it's foundation of trust and bottom up mentality, reflected in the quote below.
"While consumerism is at the core of the business model for many of these start-ups, that’s only part of the point. The entrepreneurs behind them have a sense that the city belongs to the rising generation, not some Wall Street guy or old-media geezer or other antiquated gatekeeper. In a way that can, at times, seem overly idealistic, even naïve, they believe in a sort of golden rule of Internet behavior, one that chooses trust over suspicion, optimism over skepticism, hope over doubt. And for the time being, hope seems to be winning."
There's a shift happening - fast. Join the party or stand awkwardly on the sidelines.
"Go to a party for an “old” media company, and there can often seem to be a cloud of doom hanging over the proceedings. It can seem like half the guests have been laid off and the other half fear they still could be. The talk is of cutbacks and making do with less and paradigm shifts whose conclusions are, inevitably, the death of the industry."
“Madison Avenue ain’t gonna be the heart of New York anymore. Wall Street’s not going to be the heart of New York anymore. Media’s not going to be the heart of New York anymore,” he says. “New York is actually really hot. We’re inventing the shit that the world is using! This is a first.
The above is especially interesting considering the big agencies, owned by huge holding companies are all on Madison Avenue. While the more nimble, newer, digital agencies are all around the city - mostly in Soho or, most recently, in Hell's Kitchen far West. If your ready to jump in and have a thing for techies, stop by the Black Door on West 26th, hit up SPiN on 23rd, booze at Scratchers on East 5th or Destination Bar on Avenue A and 13th. Join Foursquare and learn what geographical social-networking means. See you on the flip side..
This Doesn't Surprise Me At All
What's In A Name?
Perhaps this is the reason why Apple's stock is down since yesterday and way down from about 3 weeks ago.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFNQE_TzQNI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=425&h=344]