I met Tom Szaky, barely 25 years old at the time, and a pure, scrappy, entrepreneur’s entrepreneur, at the 2007 Inc. 500 conference in Chicago. He spoke before keynote President Clinton and was clearly the more engaging speaker of the two (a pretty tough feat considering how dynamic Clinton used to be). Tom, born in Hungary, grew up in Canada, and dropped out of Princeton to start “The Coolest Startup in America” called Terracycle where every product and its packaging is made out of garbage. His story is fascinating and the lessons business leaders and public policy-makers can learn from his success are significant. The irony for Portland, one of the greenest cities on Earth, is that most business leaders and policy folks had never heard of him and were quite doubtful that some young kid would be any good as a keynote speaker at the wildly successful Greenlight Greater Portland annual event - thankfully, Tom proved them wrong with an excellent presentation of how to win by innovating and by being greener, better, AND cheaper. I don’t have his presentation electronically, so until I get it, you’ll have to settle for the YouTube video on his Good Morning America and Oprah appearances six weeks prior.
It’s first Thursday in the Rose City and that means shops opened late, free drinks, lots of hipsters and UNKL showing at Compound Gallery! UNKL started right here in Portland with the creativity of Derek Welch and Jason Bacon.
The duo partnered with eROI to create our very own KillROI who has been everywhere from San Francisco to Chi Town!
Alcoa presents (sorry, that’s the beginning of a TV commercial of “The Catch” in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it’s now back on the prize - bragging rights to the Third Annual PAF Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark. If you want to take a look at videos from prior year’s Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008. It’s going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we’re going to bring our “A” Game. Check it (this is PAF’s main event email and all the info is below):
BATTLE OF THE BANDS
DATE:
Wednesday June 17, 2009
TIME:
6:00 pm
PLACE:
Someday Lounge
224 NW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR
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.
KillROI has been a busy robot, checking out the scenes that Portland has to offer. Thanks to Nancy’s creative use of her camera and for sending us the hilarious photos, we are able to share those adventures with you. Here is what Nancy had to say about KillROI’s adventures:
We’ve had a lot of fun touring around Old Town Chinatown, KillROI’s home (and mine).
From a First Thursday event at ANKA Gallery, to the Steel Bridge and the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, KillROI took it all in stride.
On a tour of the Central Library’s eco-roof, KillROI proved to have no fear of heights, and on a snowshoe trek to Mt. Hood’s Trillium Lake, KillROI conquered a mountain of snow.
My personal favorite is the “where’s waldo” version–the hood of an art car. Where next? Only the Shadow knows . . . .
Thanks again Nancy and we look forward to what lies ahead for our good friend KillROI!
Ever since we moved into the Technology & Arts Building on 505 NW Couch Street, we’ve loved it - it’s in the heart of Oldtown / Chinatown and 1 block from downtown. It has the coolest, hipest retail (Compound), favorite indie coffee place in town (Backspace), best Steak & Cheese sandwiches (Ford’s Cafe), killer drinks and ambience (Someday Lounge), and coming soon - the first and only upscale business lunch spot in the entire neighborhood (Davis Street Tavern).
However, this blog post isn’t about all the killer stuff currently in our building. It’s about the development happening across the street in the full city block parking lot that’s about to become the hotspot in town for upscale grocery shopping (Japanese + Chinese), retail, farmer’s market, and all kinds of other goodness. Check out this recent Portland Tribune article talking all about it!
It’s not totally a done deal, but it’s looking good. Ain’t life grand.
The skeptic in me says “I’ve never heard of this entity before,” “seems fishy,” “never heard of the award before,” “why did they send it to sales@ - a spam-related email.”
But the optimist in me thinks maybe there is 5% validity to this award.
Should I be a skeptic or think it’s real. Please comment below to tell me your thoughts.
Alright, so I’m incredibly biased towards local success stories in the Portland software community. I think it’s relevant to share an amazing story / article in Forbes on Jive Software’s meteoric growth in the web 2.0 collaboration space taking on behomeths Microsoft and Lotus.
Higher Office
by Claire Cain Miller
Upstart Jive Software aims to change the way people work by bringing social networking to the office. It’s up against some firm called Microsoft.
Jive Software chief executive David Hersh has a lofty goal: a world where office work is so fulfilling, inspiring and free of trivialities that parodies like Dilbert and The Office cease to exist.
There are loftier goals–ending genocide, famine, cancer–but Hersh’s is a good fight, and you can make a lot of money helping companies get themselves out of those endless e-mail chains and pointless meetings of office work. Jive’s software uses the Web to do that.
“People live in e-mail and documents no one else can see. We’re changing the way companies work,” says Hersh.
If you are wanting email marketing or interactive agency best practices, you’re not going to get it in this blog post. As a former prankster in high school and father of two daughters who will be in high school in a decade, I love coming across articles like this school just a couple miles from my house:
“PORTLAND, Ore. - Administrators at Lincoln High School are trying to find out who sent a hoax letter to parents about this Saturday’s senior prom.
The letter is printed on what appears to be Portland Public Schools letterhead and it says students will likely be drinking, doing drugs, and having sex on prom night.
The letter goes on to encourage parents to open their homes for parties so kids don’t drink and drive and even provides instructions on how much alcohol to provide.
District officials say they did not send the letter and that it is an elaborate hoax.
In addition to finding out who wrote and sent the letters, the district wants to know how the pranksters gained access to addresses of parents and guardians of Lincoln students.”
Thank you thank you, Jonathan Brinckman. You did a great job talking about how “something very different is going on in Portland, where a cluster of software firms have set up shop in and around Old Town:
Two crucial factors are driving the trend: Software companies — particularly those focusing on social networking, online advertising and finance — are thriving. And a hip office in a central location can be a competitive edge in attracting top-notch staff.”
Portland, OR - In a move that both shocked and surprised the city of Portland, eROI left the urban grid. After 12 months of negotiations, remodeling and settling into their new building in Old Town Portland, they just picked up and moved to a field of solar powered yurts just east of their world HDQs along the Willamette River.” Read the full story on eROI’s other blog: The Email Wars
I know my employees aren’t going to like this level of transparency, but I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with myself for NOT heavily promoting this non-profit workshop that we created from scratch for the benefit of The Boys and Girls Club of Portland. We had a lower than expected turnout at both workshops the past 2 weeks, but on the bright side, we learned some critical take-aways that could make this program a big success this summer or fall when we try it one more time.
Here’s the concept behind the Communication Breakdown Workshop:
The acceleration of technology innovation like Web 2.0 and other online tools is having an adverse effect on family dynamics. Kids and their parents have always struggled to communicate, but these days, they don’t even speak the same language - (IM’ing, hanging out on social networking sites for kids 8-13 years old like Microsoft LiveSpaces, Yahoo! Kids, Disney, and Millsberry). Parents want a way to communicate, connect, and bond with their kids, but still protect them from the predators that they fear in “online communities.” The workshop is a lot like an online scavenger hunt with cool discoveries of safe music-making sites and blog posts on LiveSpaces.
What we learned:
1. Promote it heavily in email, web, search, in-kind media partners, and on-site at The Boys and Girls Club.
2. Don’t schedule the workshop during Spring Break - bad idea.
3. Instead of having a wide age range like 8-13 years old, keep it to 11-13 year olds and their parents or 14-16 year olds. A four year age difference is like light years for kids at that age.
4. FREE pizza will always be the best on-site marketing ever.
5. Try a test run for this workshop at an organization like Friends of the Children where mentors are a huge part of the equation.
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.
When Does One Permission Overwrite The Other - In the world of multichannel and location opt in and opt out how do you keep your lists in sync? Can you?
Let me put some scenarios on the table to give you some real world examples of challenges I have been facing in some recent work with a retailer.
1. Your customer opts in from your [...]
Here is a great example of making your transactional email more than just a notification. When done right, transactional email can be a great branding opportunity.
Check out this awesome shipping confirmation email from Cd Baby below (click to enlarge).
