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The Portland Creative Community took some bold steps with its launch of the Portland Ad Federation Rosey Awards website themed “Nothing Says I’m Better than you Like a Rosey.”  The messaging has an East Coast directness to it that takes many Portlanders by surprise in a city that fosters friendliness to strangers, foes, and friends.  However, I think it’s the perfect time for Portland to step up and talk with confidence about its creative talent here.  Yes, we’ve recently been discovered by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and other publications as the destination for hipsters (employed and unemployed) to hang out.  But, we aren’t getting much positive press for having the second highest unemployment in the country.  Now is the right time to shout from the roof-tops that Portland creative agencies do kick-ass work! Kudos to Anthill Marketing for the concept, design, and messaging in the site and entire Roseys this year!

2009 PAF Rosey Awards site

I’m not so sure this site would work in most other industries as it is definitely edgy, controversial, and provocative, but I think it’s a shot in the arm that Portland needs.  The true test is to see if agencies from other cities take notice.  Then, an interesting dialog will begin.

You’ll start to see this campaign promoted more on Twitter (I love the “Rosey Smack Feed” section of the ‘Win Tix’ part of the site), Facebook, and other blogs in the upcoming months.  I’ve got to sign off from this blog post to think of some good Smack Talk myself - submit your own here >>

My two fellow eROI NYC folks, Chris Masagatani and Kavita Makadia, joined me in attending the June 1 Ignite NYC event just a block from Chris’s apartment in Midtown. I had been to an Ignite event in Washington DC which was pretty good, but a little stiff and serious, so my expectations were moderate before going to the event. At this NYC event, I was blown away by how creative, funny, and polished each of the 5-minute presentations were. I highly highly recommend you watch the video below of the brilliantly funny Baratunde Shares of The Onion.

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Some guys will just have more talent than I will ever have.  This guy is absolutely amazing.  It has nothing to do with online marketing but everything to do with inspiration.  It keeps getting better throughout the video.  Write your comment in haiku if you feel inspired.

We, at eROI, have been working the last year on creating a new generation of Event Registration Software, eROI Event, with an enhanced user experience. We are currently in the Beta Launch Phase with a limited feature set, but we are excited to get this early-release version of the product out in front of our clients and the tech community in Portland. Our goal is to gather real user feedback as we continue to develop and enhance the product. We are offering a freemium version of the product for free events, but should a user prefer to hold paid events, we can enable the Payment Gateway feature for a minimal monthly fee of $50.00.

Novel concept, but I actually used our eROI Event tool to create an event for our Employee Disco Party on June 26th (if you are one of the 2 friends that employees can invite, then you too can join in the fun). I thought some screen shots of the back-end admin area would help you see why we are excited about this beta release (even though the feature set is slightly limited for the next 1-2 months until we get feedback from all of you that want to signup for a FREE account for free events (to use for RSVPs to dinner parties, seminars, BBQs, industry networking events, business meetings, etc.)

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I got a lot of comments on my look (see below) where I sported the 70’s stache for a solid 2 days.  Most of you cringed in pain just looking at me with my stache.  But some of you liked it, like a yearning for the days of Saturday Night Fever.  So, your task is to comment below with a haiku on how you feel about 70’s style in today’s age.

Haiku Monday is back like a hurricaine, like a Super Bowl ad that had you laughing and crying in the same 30-second spot.  I was in the backcountry skiing at Mt. Hood this past Saturday and my skiing buddy informed me that he just made the switch from his Blackberry (avid evangelist for 9+ years) to an iPhone a month ago.  Here’s a very technical guy who travels domestically and internationally a whole lot and has a love affair with Blackberry - he survives on his mobile device.  If he made the switch to an iPhone and several others in my office have made the switch, then what’s going to happen to RIM (Blackberry manufacturer).  Well, they’ve got the most powerful man on Earth publicly admitting his addiction to his Blackberry and most lawmakers haven’t switched.  The best thing to do to settle this debate is begin a haiku dialogue.  So, let it begin:

I still love email
on my Blackberry, but the
web + apps on iPhone are crazy sexy

The above haiku did not follow the haiku rules, I apologize.  Don’t use that as an example for your own haiku, but you must express yourself in the comments below.

I have an admission to make - last night, I had a shocking thing happen. I momentarily lapsed into non-optimistic thoughts. It had nothing to do with politics or business. It had to do entirely with an Act of God.

In Portland, we’ve had huge windstorms. During dinner at a friend’s house, a massive tree branch came crashing through my Prius back window. I love nature, but this time, my love affair was tainted for a night and the next morning.

So, after having seriously f@*#ked up dreams all night, I went for a long run in the morning and began processing my thoughts.  Before, my run I glanced at the NY Times front page article titled “Poll Finds Faith in Obama, Mixed with Patience.” In many of my blog posts, I’ve talked about 2009 being the year of optimism and it has been an optimistic year until the bloody tree limb incident last night. But, I knew I could mentally power thru these dreaded pessimistic thoughts.

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Time to write your haiku about your thoughts and emotions towards the New Year. Join the conversation (and yes, I cheated on my syllable count below - I had to much to say - sorry):

Fear no more my friends
For 2009 is the year of optimism
Life is all perspective

Now, it’s your turn.  Write your haiku in the comment box below.

…time to put a penny in the old man’s hat.  Sorry - inside joke among friends here.

But, back to the point at hand here.  KillROI is mixing it up with some Christmas dignitaries in my house. It’s getting a little out of control here as this guy really gets around - hanging with some Nutcracker royalty, then he makes his way onto the Christmas Tree hanging with Big Bird, and now, he’s chilling with our angel - don’t get any ideas.  I’ve been a bad boy with missing a couple Haiku Mondays recently, so let’s get our groove on with haikus about KillROI. Comment with a passion below.

Yellow Warrior
Why do they call you KillROI
When you just spread love

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Many many cocktail conversations with friends this 4-day holiday weekend and the general tone of them was very upbeat, while still being quite realistic.  My favorite conversation was when a neighborhood friend and I were talking about how fear breeds fear and the media, the blogosphere, and everyone’s psyche is consumed by fear.  Towards the end of the conversation, we completed the following phrase after a long pause with the same exact word “fear is so………..Bush.”  This blog post isn’t intended to be negative or political.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

I’m experimenting here, but I’m deeming December as the month of optimism.  Many will call it naive. Others may say it is a pipe dream. But, I think that it will produce positive results, reduce stress + anxiety, and make it a far better month all around.  It’s not going to be easy to take this stance - the stock market rose 17% over the past 5 business days, and media is refusing to write about anything that doesn’t focus on “disaster”, “crisis”, or “depression.”  F*** it - I’m going with optimism - join me - it’s the good side of life.

BTW - today is Haiku Monday, so write about some December optimistic memories, experiences, or themes.

I believe, believe
in optimism optimism
Life is better that way

Last week was a real rollercoaster. Projects that should have signed off the week before, then Mon, then Tues, then Wed, finally signed off on Thurs and Friday - phew.  We’re on a roll now at eROI and this week is going to be all about optimism. We’re going to jam away on all the work we have in the door and create some new opportunities as well.  It’s only a 3 day week, but a good 3 days.

Optimism runs deep
Behold, we’re launching a
New site - it’s awesome

Let the haikus flourish like Jack Black in KungFu Panda.

I regularly give speeches on the importance of blogging.  It is one of the core pieces of our grassroots marketing effort, personalizes our brand, engages a 2-way dialogue, helps search engine optimization of all eROI sites and blogs, seeds some press that we get, and indirectly generates some leads through all of this.

That being said, there are weeks like the past one where it is really challenging to make blogging a priority as a CEO. Over the past 2 months, I’ve gotten a lot more engaged in the company and am actually working a bit harder (60 hour weeks vs. 50 hours before).  My focus has shifted more towards Sales, Speaking Engagements, and Product Development (and I’ve kept the same high level of commitment towards interacting w/ employees).

I am not making excuses (actually, that’s exactly what I’m doing), but that’s why I haven’t blogged in 8 days. My biggest reflection of this poor blogging discipline is that I missed Haiku Monday (by 5 hours at is now 5am on Tuesday). After a brief, private flogging, I now forgive myself for this major faux-pas.  Let the haikus roll like water in a rocky stream:

I had my daughters
To myself this weekend and
We laughed and danced.

Tom Szaky lit
Up the stage at eROI - telling
Huge successes of Worm Poop

We’re going to have a theme to today’s Haiku Monday - November Rain.

In Oregon, rain
Can mean fluffy mountain snow;
I pray for more snow.

Please share your haiku today.

A vote tomorrow
will make a huge difference,
big change will happen

Please share your comments below. It’s the only way to start your week.  BTW - huge thanks to eROI employees who wrote birthday haikus to me on my card for this weekend.  Yes, this is my first blog post as a much wiser and more distinguished (laughable) 34 year old.

This blog post = simple.
Intent = you have more value to add than me. You are the master - show us the way with your wise haiku. I saw KungFu Panda in the movie theater w/ my girls this weekend, I have found peace, and am inspired to read your haikus.

Have faith eROIdays peops
I would not could not forget
haiku tradition

What has begun can
not end. Like energy, it
cannot die or be destroyed.

Please add your Monday Haiku in the comments below.  Even if it’s after Monday this week, you can still contribute.  thx.