eROI Days Email Agency

The PDC (Portland Development Commission) put together this video featuring business folks from Laika, Ziba, Columbia Sportswear, Oregon Iron Works, Vestas, Wieden+Kennedy and eROI. If you dig Portland and the surrounding area, check out the video below.

As I was biking in to work this morning along Waterfront Park (Willamette River and Mt. Hood views), I caught up with a colleague of mine who works at the PDC and we rode the rest of the way into work together.  It was one of those “Portland moments” where it would be unexpected anywhere else for a couple business guys who haven’t seen each other in 3 months connect on a morning commute into work.  Portland, like Amsterdam, has a biking culture, and with the right gear, it’s refreshing to bike rain or shine (although SUN is so so much better).  Here is the NY Times article my Dad (who lives in Washington DC) sent me as I arrived at my desk this morning:

“A LOT of good cyclists come out of Portland just because you can ride year-round,” said Bruce Rogers, an athletic-shoe designer visiting from his home in Hailey, Idaho. “I love coming back because I love the biking, no matter what time of year it is. More than fitness, it’s a fun outlet. As long as you have decent rainwear you can ride in any weather.”

Careering through streets on a bicycle in Portland, Ore., this time of year can be an easy weekend adventure that mixes showers, sunbursts, cafes and a robust bicycle culture. And equipped with a sturdy rain jacket, booties, fenders and a bike map (a waterproof version that folds to the size of a credit card is handy), visitors can enjoy the city the way locals do.

Check out the rest of the New York Times article here »

We just had our Software Association of Oregon (SAO) Membership Committee meeting on Friday (full disclosure: I am on the Board of SAO so I’m a bit biased in favor of the organization). I have to admit, I’m pretty fired up about an important cause we are undertaking. With the help of staffer Bryce Yonker, Vidoop’s Scott Kveton, and ViaWest’s Jim Linkous, we have some serious firepower to get out into the software community in many places where SAO is not (and we know that there are a lot of those places).

Our cause is to engage with software freelancers, engineers, tech entrepreneurs, interactive freelancers, bloggers, mobile app enthusiasts, anyone related to the tech industry in Oregon and let them know that SAO finally has something pretty valuable besides great networking and events - SAO is one of the only associations that now offers Healthcare coverage to single employee companies or organizations - yes, freelancers can finally get affordable medical coverage thru SAO (thanks to Regence Bluecross Blueshield for getting flexible with us to make this happen).  When SAO President Harvey Matthews mentioned a year ago that SAO was looking into having this unique health coverage come to fruition at a Bar Camp, he got a standing ovation.  Let’s hope that kind of goodwill is still there in the software community in today’s economy.  To learn more about the healthcare plan, go to SAO’s site >>.

Here are a few of the events we’ll see you (thanks Scott Kveton for heading the charge on this) - source for these events and more is http://calagator.org:
** Lunch 2.0 - AboutUs
** Ignite Portland 5 - 2/19
* RecentChangesCamp - 2/20 - 2/22
** Lunch 2.0 - OpenSourcery
** Innotech - 4/22 - 4/23
** BarCamp Portland - 5/1 - 5/3
* Webvisions - 5/21 - 5/22
** Open Source Bridge (the OSCON replacement) - 6/17 - 6/19

Also: we will try to make some of the Beer & Blog events that happen every Friday, 4-6pm, at the Green Dragon.

Oregon has been recognized for its leadership in the green, sustainable world, but rarely is it recognized for its state economy on a national level. This Wall Street Journal article does an excellent job portraying Oregon’s surge in employment and flexibility to layoffs from big tech companies with hiring from smaller companies like Kryptiq, Jive Software, Vidoop, and eROI.

Check out the article: Oregon Finds a Counterweight in Software

By JUSTIN SCHECK
June 9, 2008; Page A3

PORTLAND, Ore. — Hardware-manufacturing layoffs in the Northwest’s tech industry echo cutbacks that hammered it early this decade, but this time the blow has been absorbed by the scores of software and online-services companies that have sprouted in the past few years.

Old-line tech manufacturing is retrenching because of global outsourcing and fierce competition — the same factors that shuttered Northwest chip and computer factories starting around 2001. Then, laid-off technology workers in states such as Oregon had few other tech-job options. This time, there is a parallel tech sector, including many small start-ups, to take on some of those skilled workers.

See the full article on wsj.com >>

Businesses Must Support Their Local Community or they will suffer (PR backlash, customer and vendor pressure). Local is the new Organic, but for businesses, not just consumers. There is such truth to the expression - the more you give, the more you get. It applies to giving of your time and money to charity causes and even non-profit professional associations. On the surface, it appears to be a major expense and unproductive distraction to give a significant amount of executive time, employee resources, and company money to local charities like Friends of the Children, Start Making a Reader Today, Zenger Farm, or the Boys and Girls Club. The same logic applies to professional organizations like Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, Starve Ups, Portland Advertising Federation, Software Association of Oregon, American Marketing Association, and a handful of others. Examples of companies who focus on giving back to their communities (click on each company name to go directly to their community involvement webpage) include Kettle Foods, Jive Software, and eROI.

However, it is flawed logic to look at giving back to the community as an expense. Here’s why:

• Gain awareness to large groups of prospective clients. Customer acquisition costs are much lower when a business and its customer have a shared connection and shared values.
• Community involvement creates a halo effect of positive association to an altruistic organization with shared values.
• Employee involvement in non-profit organizations deepens the emotional connection and loyalty between the employee and the company.
• Employee recruiting is a whole lot easier with greater local awareness and the positive association with your business doing the right thing (especially in the younger generation of recent college grads).
• Serving on non-profit committees and Board of Directors gives you access to some of the smartest local business execs that can give valuable entrepreneurial business advice you can’t get anywhere else.
• Public relations and marketing is a lot easier locally when people are genuinely routing for you.
• Finally, doing the right thing for your community is the whole point of being in business in the first place.

If you don’t run a company built on a socially-conscious business model, the least you can do is get involved in your community and I guarantee you will have a huge return on investment for that effort.

Well we are very excited to end up 15th in the top 100 companies in the State of Oregon for Fastest Growing. I can only say thank you to all of the companies and people that have believed in us and honored us by allowing us to be their emarketing partners.

And of course a big hats off to the whole eROI team for the amount of work, drive and love they bring to the table each and every day (and many late nights).

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Ending the week on a high note and excited to crack the Top 10 next year for this award category. Who know what else might be on the horizon for us and our clients.

Thanks to everyone and come to the party July 20th at the eROI offices if you are in Portland, Oregon. We can celebrate together then. Until then… back to great ideas, great work, great partners/clients and the best team.

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You know Web 2.0 is mainstream when Colbert starts doing his schtick on Wikipedia. But will our great state of Oregon ever truly be mainstream?

Sam is a designer at eROI. He really likes ponies. Since he was a boy, he always dreamed of riding a tiny, shaggy pony. On a client trip to the Oregon Coast, he got his chance. He sent this photo to me in an email today. We are so proud of you Sam.

Alright, so I’m originally from the East Coast where Yankee / Dixie conversation seems as fresh today as 140 years ago (maybe not quite that fresh, but you get my point). Even though I’ve lived in Portland, Oregon for the past 10 years, I’m originally from Maryland, one of 3 neutral states in the country during Civil War times. I got an email from a co-worker with the Yankee / Dixie quiz and to my surprise, I found I was slightly more Dixie. I’ve been a called a Yankee my whole adult life and now I find out I’m a Yankee. My indentity is so confused. See which side of the fence you fall:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html

Just as my lawn goes dormant for a few months, I always feel like Scott’s does as well. I can never remember getting emails from them from November to February but then maybe that is because I can’t step foot on the lawn at that time of year here in the Pacific NW.

But I was happy to get this one. Like Puxatawny Phil seeing his shadow, this one tells me only 4 more months till it stops raining in Oregon. Well at least until we can garuntee dry days for a few months.

One thing I wanted to point out in this was the use of a survey. I love surveys and we know that people like to vote. But the problem is that I got this in the new MSN LiveMail and it kills all surveys and even from opening a new window for this survey, which is odd. So lesson for today, it rains in Oregon, Scotts takes a break from the lawn just like my dog, and surveys should have links in them if you want people to be able to participate.

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