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Author Archives: Jeremy Toeman

Getting Under the Radar

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In my roles at both Mediabolic and Sling Media I gained a lot of exposure to speaking at conference, and had chances to join numerous industry visionaries on a variety of panels.  I’ve talked about the Digital Home to audiences as small as 20, and demoed a pre-production Slingbox to hundreds of engineers (well, until someone on stage with me accidentally broke it, but I covered for that).  I’ve always enjoyed public speaking, especially when it’s with a group of peers with interesting things to discuss and debate. 

But it’s not nearly as interesting if the panelists have too much of a “sell my company” agenda, or the moderators aren’t actively moderating – and I’ve sat through hours of both.  In two weeks, I’m going to participate in the Under the Radar: Entertainment and Media conference in Mountain View, CA.  Click here to register for the event. I’m particularly excited about this event because I once presented at an IBD (now Dealmaker Media) event for Mediabolic, and last year did the Momentum event for Sling.  Nice to keep it ‘all in the family’ like that, eh?

For those of you using feed readers, here’s a quick list of the presenting companies (as of the time of writing):

Adap.tv | Bunchball | ChaCha | CrazyEgg | Criteo | Cruxy | Doppelganger | Flowplay | Fora.tv | Hothead Games | iLike | Kaneva |  Kongregate | Meez | MOG | mPire | Multiverse | Pluggd | PolarRose |  PowerReviews | ReverbNation | ScanScout | SplashCast | Splice | ThisNext | Ustream.TV | Vidmeter | Visible Measures | Wize | XLNTAds | YuMe Networks | Zattoo

And the list of judges/presenters:

C’mon, that’s a pretty outstanding list of companies and individuals.  If you work in the digital media, convergence, “digital home” or any other related space, you need to come!  All the cool kids’ll be there!

If you don’t come, we’ll be talking about you, and trust me – it won’t be pretty.

(mini) Canon SD850is review

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canon sd850is first pix (1) - happy JTJust finished replacing my stolen hardware with the brand-spankin new Canon SD850is.  I had actually purchased the SD800is last week, but just before breaking the 15-day-return seal from Best Buy, I did a little homework to discover the 850 was showing up “mid-June”.  And with my typical “must-have-it-now” obsessive nature, I started calling CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, and the local Wolf Camera every day until last night.

It’s a 8-megapixel point-and-shoot camera with 4x optical zoom, facial recognition, and image stabilization technologies.  In other words, it’s pretty much the top point-and-shoot camera on the market right now, and while I’m rarely one to get “the best”, I love the Canon SD line (ever since the SD100 I had, which was, also, stolen), and I figured I might as well pick up the latest & greatest since insurance is covering it anyway.  Not to mention the fact that it is the technical replacement for the SD700is I used to have (the SD800is is technically a separate line, as it features a wideangle lens instead).

canon sd850is first pix (2) - front viewSo far, the picture quality looks great, and like my old 700, it’s a very fast, very easy to use camera.  The speed in this case matters, as the total time from pushing power until taking a picture is under 2 seconds, and in continuous mode it seems to get up to about 4-5 shots per second.  Not like my first-gen Kodak digital camera, with 3+ seconds bootup plus a good second or two just to click and shoot. 

Eight megapixels is a grand amount for me, I can do all sorts of wonderful cropping and whatnot and still have printable photos.  Like the 700is, this unit also has 4x zoom, and again, I’m very impressed with the quality.  This is probably the point in the review where die-hard digital camera aficionados are rolling their eyes, so if that’s you, head on over to DPreview.com for a much more technical, in-depth overview.

canon sd850is first pix (6) - menu optionsAlso new to the 850 is a lot more options in the menus.  First up, the vestigial “Send-to-printer” button is now programmable – I set it to go straight into movie mode.  Next, there’s a lot of categorization, basic editing, and red-eye features built-into the unit – I haven’t tried them all out yet, but it seems like it’s fairly powerful, yet in Canon-style, not too complicated to use.

Last but not least is the continued inclusion of a viewfinder, which is really handy on very bright days.  I don’t mind sacrificing a little screen real estate for it.  I do really like the facial recognition technology.  If you haven’t seen it in action, it puts little white boxes around every face it “sees” and uses them for autofocus.  Very cool.  More of my pix are on flickr. So, to summarize:

canon sd850is first pix (6) - menu optionsPros

  • Lots of features AND…
  • Easy to use
  • 8 megapixels
  • 4x optical zoom
  • Fast shutter speed

Cons

  • Pricey
  • One of the larger point-and-shoot cameras

canon sd850is first pix (7) - 4xzoomIf you have $399 to shell out, I definitely recommend the SD850is.  If you want to save a little, pick up a 700 or 800 (although I’d avoid the 750, 900 or 1000 – terrible naming system) – you can still find them in plenty of spots (all links are to Amazon product pages).

Safari on Win… Yawn.

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Seen Techmeme recently?  If not, it’s been Applerific for 48 hours now, and only barely about the iPhone!  Jobs announced Safari for Windows.  My favorite quote so far comes from a commentor (gasp):

i suspect it’ll be bundled with itunes by default, set itself as the default browser, set quicktime as the default media player, and set your homepage to the mac store with an imac already in your shopping basket.

One day later, it’s hackable.  Does that really surprise anyone?  My hunch is its equally hackable on OSX, but thats not quite as newsworthy, is it?

I’m sure there’s some big long uber-strategy here, but I don’t see it.  IE is not-so-great.  Firefox is fine. Opera is fine.  Do we need another browser?  Especially the oh-so-mediocre Safari. Is this a “foot-in-the-door” strategy? Sure doesn’t seem that way.

Where’s iPhoto for Windows?  Now THAT would be interesting, especially considering there’s no dominant photo app on the PC platform.

I’m 2 weeks into my Vista experience, and it’s clear to me that there’s plenty of opportunity for Apple to continue to outshine MS these days.  I’m not even close to making the leap personally, although my “right-click outage” (it stopped working until I rebooted) was pretty darn frustrating.  But bringing over the browser certainly doesn’t seem like the most obvious way in.

Must-read: A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing

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I use the phrase “must-read” on something when I feel it has such a quantity of interesting content that it shouldn’t be marginalized by summary.  Brian Solis’ post today on “the future of communications” falls into this category.  I don’t agree with everything – but that’s okay, I don’t have to (I’d be a little scared if I ever 100% agreed with anyone’s manifesto on anything!). 

More importantly, it stimulated my thinking, and anyone in the business of online marketing should give it a glance.  Maybe you’ll learn something.  Maybe you’ll be inspired.  Maybe you’ll disagree completely.  No matter what, you won’t waste your time. 

Good job Brian.

Seven Very Effective DIY Viral Marketing Activities

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One of my philosophies on being a consultant is I should be absolutely comfortable sharing information with current or prospective clients.  In my early meetings with potential clients I typically go straight into making suggestions as to how the companies can best leverage social media, communities, “the blogosphere”, and other so-dubbed “viral” marketing activities. 

I know this is an atypical practice, as many consultants believe it’s important to hold every tactic close to your chest.   In my opinion, if I can’t add more value over the coming months than I did in the first hour, there probably isn’t much point in hiring me.  In that spirit, here are a few “DIY” viral marketing activities any company can easily incorporate into their strategies.

  1. Have a half-decent product!
    This is actually the most important item on the list.  You can’t spread word-of-mouth on a bad product (although you can do so with a gimmicky one, but that’s a different matter altogether).  If you are having trouble accepting this, just look to the movie industry for literally hundreds of examples.  For an easy one, think back to last summer’s Snakes on a Plane – it had huge buzz prior to opening, the word was a-spreading and everything looked rosy until one critical moment: audiences saw the movie, which was terrible (I got 23 minutes into it on Moviebeam before stopping).  So much for the buzz.  The counter-example, by the way, was Borat, which had mild buzz prior to opening, however was funny enough to get audiences recommending it to friends.       

    One of the reasons we have a “product polish” team in my consultancy is specifically to help companies with mediocre products transform them into better ones.  It’s much more fun to create marketing activites for a quality product than a subpar one, and I personally make a practice of not taking clients whose products I don’t feel can capture their customers’ hearts and minds.

  2. List your product on Wikipedia and other sites.
    Before you go out and spend a ton of money on Google AdWords and SEO consultants, take a few minutes (yes, minutes) to make sure you’ve listed your product wherever you can. Any open directory, any technology/product/service database, etc.  Look up your competitors’ products, make sure you are in every place they are.   Also, be sure to put up posts or articles that aren’t overwhelmingly biased as these’ll get edited out by the community quite quickly.  It’s free, it’s fast, and it helps contribute to the groundswell of sources your customers may be using to find products like yours.
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  3. Have a blog, post thoughtful articles, and link link link.
    Jason Calacanis once wrote a blog post titled “blog or die” – it’s not specifically on target with my point here, but it’s a good read nonetheless.  Customer behaviors are changing unbelievably fast, and brand loyalty today only seems to exist for a certain company that uses more white lexan plastic than the rest of the world combined.  Consumers are showing increasing interests in company’s personalities, services, and behaviors – and, of course, pricing policies.  Companies that look to the future are seeking ways to engage directly with their customers, and one ridiculously simple way to do this is to write a blog.  It doesn’t have to be updated daily, or even weekly, but it also can’t be as sparse as a quarterly dollop of chatter.  Also, when it comes to company blogs, quality is much more important than quantity.  Finally, the blog should link out.  A lot.  Linking to other bloggers helps show them how you are actively engaging in the conversation.  My rule of thumb on linking is this: any article I read that helped me form an opinion on a topic deserves a link from me when I blog about that topic.  As a corollary, don’t overlink or link just because you want attention – you won’t win brownie points through insincerity.
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  4. Start a dedicated community and engage your customers.
    This is usually on the top of the list of my ‘freebies’ – there is no more effective online tool that I know of to support word-of-mouth marketing than an online community. This can be a fairly vague and nebulous area for some, so to be clear: at a minimum, it’s a discussion forum on your Web site (phpBB is free), or at the other end of the spectrum you can outsource the community technology and even the moderation services to a company.  At Sling Media, for example, I worked with Chicago-based Capable Networks to set up slingcommunity.com.  They were responsible for all the technology and moderating (both of which can be massive infrastructure requirements, so don’t downplay their importance!), and we were responsible for engaging with our users.  As a result, our customers got the opportunity to directly interact with us, provide feedback, and praise or complain about the products.  While it wasn’t rosy at all times, having the presence helped (and still helps) us be on top of whatever issues were important to the customer base, and helped current and prospective customers get a better feel for what type of company we built.
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  5. Enable tinkering.
    While I am strictly not a believer in “if you build it, they will come” marketing philosophies, I do believe “if you let them hack, they will market your product for you.”  Amongst the dozens of reasons why Friendster lost the initial round of the social networking wins, one was they were more uptight about their product than Cameron Frye.  No ‘fake’ personalities. No API. No nothing!  And then there’s MySpace, possibly the ugliest combination of Web pages since Geocities enabled the blink and marquee tags.  But MySpace was more interesting to individuals because you could uglify it so much.  You can build widgets. You can build badges.  You can make themes.  It’s extremely extensible.  Take a look at Facebook’s recent moves – all about extending their platform.  Give people the opportunity to make your product/service their own, and it will signficantly contribute to your word-of-mouth potential.
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  6. Create and live by an open & honest communications policy.
    This one is a little trickier for most companies.  First up, keep your spin to a minimum.  No, you don’t have to bare the company’s soul to the world, but admitting mistakes wins a lot more praise than making up implausible stories.  Consumers are much smarter than most marketeers give them credit for, and they can sniff out a lie mid-sentence.  When you consider the power of discussions and the individual’s ability to create noise, the less opportunity you have for dumb scandals, the better.  As an example, at Sling Media I implemented a strict policy that no employee was to add comments about the Slingbox on any blog or review site (such as CNET or Amazon) without disclosing their employment status.  Why?  Well, look at the Amazon page for the Slingbox Classic – it’s averaging 4.5 stars from 176 reviewers (at the time of writing).  If the company can honestly state that none of them are employee-fed, then they gain a heck of a lot more trust than if there’s suspicion about shills.  Again, if you have a good product, there’s no need to artificially pump it up – trust your customers to do this for you, they will. 
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  7. Improve upon your product.
    1.0 is never perfect, so don’t stop there.  For a consumer electronics device, I recommend software updates at a minimum of 3 times per year.  Fix bugs, improve your UI, add features – do whatever you need to strive to make your product the absolute best in category.  This shows your customers you are supporting them in the long-term, which increases their loyalty to you, which increases the chance they’ll praise and recommend your product to their peers.  This is especially effective if done in conjunction with your community, as it shows them you are paying attention.  There’s nothing more frustrating than buying into some product or service, and getting the feeling they only care about new customers.  Give a little something back to your existing ones, and it’ll go a long way.

So there you have it, seven easy things any company can do to inexpensively help get the word out.  You’ve probably noticed that none of these fall into the classic “outreach” marketing programs – but that’s part of what makes them so effective. I’m sure some people will find these obvious, but I hope others will find value in them.  If you have any other tips like these, please leave comments – would love to hear them.

NHL cross-checks MLB with Sling deal

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Important Disclosure: I was born in Montreal, Canada, home of the greatest NHL team of all time as well as the baseball team “that got away” – and yes, I’m bitter.

Sling Media and the NHL just announced (although my friend Om seems to have gotten a bit of an earlier scoop than old JT) that they are working together to enable NHL content within the forthcoming Clip+Sling technology (more from SlingCommunity, refresher details here, beta signup here – don’t know if they are still taking, but it can’t hurt to sign up!).  Now if this were any decade prior to the 90s, I would probably insert nice gloating comments about how much I would use this to show my Habs trouncing their opponents, but, uhm, they, er, kinda, sorta missed the playoffs this year. 

Now granted, NHL’s TV licensing business isn’t quite the same as MLB’s.  Furthermore, this deal isn’t about to change the bottom line for the organization during the 2007-08 season.  But that’s not the point: it’s that they are working with Sling to see what the future holds, not working against them to see how lovely the fresh air was back in the 1970s.  MLB can’t act like the music industry when it comes to Internet distribution, they must make deals with tech companies, experiment, and look to increased revenue through innovation, not lawsuits (refresher on this one here).

While Bettman’s antics over the past 15 years haven’t done much to bring the NHL out of 4th place when it comes to professional sports in the US, he’s certainly enabled his organization to test the waters when it comes to new technology.  It’s not quite enough to excuse him for moving teams to North Carolina and Florida (two of em, in fact), but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

Disclosure: I’m a former Sling Media employee, but I think the hockey/Canadian disclosure was more important.

Technology is losing its memorabilia

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I’m writing this post while watching an episode of Modern Marvels (History Channel) about 70s tech.  The episode recalls Pong, Speak and Spell, Polaroid cameras, microwaves, LED watches, and other technology nostalgia.  It’s one of those shows that any geek over 30 years old can watch and recall a much simpler era of consumer tech. 

Back in the 70s (and 80s and even 90s to a much lesser degree), consumer technology was its own Wild West.  Computers had numerous operating systems, there were more than 3 consoles on the market, and any innovation was looked upon with wonder. There were no “sure things” and virtually no rules.  It was chaos.  It was also fun.

Part of the fun was the inherent challenge in making technology work.  There was very little software you could just go buy.  You had to put a little of your own energy into the process, even if it just meant typing Load “*”,8,1.  Now after a week of using Vista, I might make the argument that you have to put a lot of time into making it work properly, but that’s a different type of technology chaos.

I think the old challenges of technology contributed to the fond memories many of us have.  Sure I complained about losing a few weeks’ worth of work due to my recent burglary, but it doesn’t compare to the crushing blow of losing the video game I wrote in BASIC on my C64, and saved on a cassette tape!  That was the first moment in which I almost threw a computer out the window – and most certainly not the last.  Fundamentally, it was so much more of an adventure.

Consumer technology today is so spoon-fed.  Sure, there’s some bugginess, and sure, not everything works out of the box – my new Vaio came with the wrong video driver – how pathetic is that?  Sure I have fond memories of some late 90s technology, specifically:

  • my 14 hour TiVo
  • my 16MB Rio MP3 player
  • my 1MP Kodak digital camera
  • my first-gen Toshiba Tecra laptop
  • my first Startac
  • Netscape 1.0 (the browser, not whatever it is now)

But for the most part, it seems like the West is tamed.  I don’t envision people looking back on technology of the 00’s as fondly.  “Wasn’t the RAZR cool?” doesn’t have a big ring to it.  “I sure miss my old Comcast DVR” will probably never be uttered out loud. 

I could be wrong, but I feel like the energy it took to get your old Kaypro working with your Hayes 300 baud modem to connect to some local BBS where you can see the latest in ASCII art is the kind of challenge that doesn’t quite get equalled by using Yahoo Pipes to connect a real-time map with a list of local Dairy Queens so you can launch BlizzardFindr. Which is, of course, a service I’d totally use, just so we’re all clear on that point.

Networks blame DVRs for their bad lineups

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Twice this week I’ve found gems over at the Hollywood Reporter!  Here’s a few excerpts from the latest:

Nielsen Media Research said Thursday that the impact of digital video recorders is a leading cause of why television viewing dropped precipitously this year.

Many of the top shows — from ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” to Fox’s “American Idol” to CBS’ “CSI” — saw their ratings drop in the spring.

I have a personal beef against industries that jump to point their woes on technology (newspapers, have you met MLB? you have a lot in common, I’m sure you’ll be good friends).   It’s just too easy a scapegoat, and there’s not an easy way to defend the tech side.  It’s actually nearly impossible.

For example, I’ll make the opposite claim of Nielsen – I’ll claim that the slip in viewership is due to quality (and maybe a bit of the ol buyshifting – hey, I can plug my own work, can’t I?).  Now I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but over the course of 06/07, the quality of TV went from what seemed like an awesome lineup into a big old snoozefest.  I think it’s just too many years of investigating crime scenes, grizzly murders, and serial killers; too many years of mediocre singers trying to get their 15 minutes; I suggest that audiences are getting tired of it.

But, just like Nielsen, I can’t prove it.  I don’t even have hard data like them, but I know enough about the “technology” in use to accept that they can’t prove it either.  The music industry is suffering as well, but frankly they’ve spent the better part of 10 years making as many wrong decisions as possible.  And they blamed the tech the whole way down the slide.  My advice to the TV folks: look inward for problems before being so quick to point fingers outwards.

How I got back in business (with a new PC) in under 2 hours

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Last night I did my laptop research, narrowed down to:

  • Thinkpad T61 or X60
  • Mac
  • Vaio VGN-SZ460N

However tempted I was (and I was) to go Mac, I realized I just don’t have the energy to learn something new right now.  Maybe as a 2nd computer to have some fun with, but not as my primary. 

I went with the Vaio over the Thinkpad because:

  • 13″ screen and less than 4 pounds.
  • Already have Vaio docking station, extra battery, extra power charger.
  • Thinkpad T61 is big and heavy, X60 is too small.
  • Vaio has superior displays.
  • I really liked my last one, had none of the problems I hear others complaining about, figured I’d try it again.
  • I could walk into the Sony Style store and be done with it in minutes.

Came preinstalled with Vista Business (read this post for my feelings on the Vista Edition nonsense), which seems to mean “no solitaire” as far as I can tell.  It’s still amazing that Sony can’t even touch Apple when it comes to OOBE (out of box experience, pronounced ooh-bee) – during the first-time setup I sat watching it try to figure out the “right” display settings to use.  How come this isn’t pre-configured?  Sony knows the settings…  silly.

Next two hours spent:

  • Downloading backup documents off my Drobo (3 weeks since last backup – not too irresponsible I guess)
  • Downloading backup photos (also from Drobo, although I have a more recent photo backup on my Maxtor NAS at home)
  • Getting online with office network 
  • Activating Office 2007
  • Twittering something 
  • Uninstalling miscellaneous Sony crapware (by the way, does anyone know why Visual C++ and SQL server are pre-installed?  do I need them for Vista??)
  • Downloading Plaxo toolbar for Outlook – all contacts/calendar restored
  • Activating Outlook email – downloaded past 10 days email from server backup
  • Installing AIM (classic, not Triton) and MSN Messenger
  • Customizing Vista power and other settings

Overall experience was pretty good.  I have no real complaints about Vista other than it is a lot clunkier than it should be – what I mean is there’s no good reason for the clunkiness.  Also, I think this new Vaio has an ever better screen than my last one, but I might be dramatizing it a bit.  I don’t quite understand the inclusion of Cingular/AT&T Edge networking for $59/mo (compared to Verizon/Sprint EVDO Rev-A for $50/$20 respectively), couldn’t they have at least upgraded to HSDPA? 

What did I learn from this?

  • Thankfully I backup frequently, although clearly not often nor thoroughly enough.  My real data loss was the past 2 weeks of docs I’ve created and hadn’t shared, as well as tons of emails.  I really relied on the combo of Outlook and Google Desktop Search as my mechanisms for archiving & finding stuff.  I should’ve backed up my Outlook PST file and I think GDS should include an offline backup feature as well.
  • Using offline email and Plaxo is mandatory – I restored my entire contact and calendar database in minutes, and it was free.  Granted, if your company has Exchange server or you use Gmail, this is likely unnecessary, but there was nothing else that can replicate this experience.
  • Thieves suck, renters insurance rules.  I use Allstate, and they are moving fast and super-helpful to get me rolling again.

Burglarized Office!

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Went out to have a coffee (read: beer) with a couple of office-mates today. 

Returned to my office, found my laptop, tablet PC, and digital camera were all stolen.

There were other people in the office at the time.

Watched the building’s security video, the thief left the building 1 minute before I returned.

Cops are skeptical about finding it.

This sucks.

The only saving grace is I had just backed up all my photos yesterday, and most of my other files about 2 weeks ago.

Cops said not to even bother calling pawn shops looking for it, as it’s likely being sold for about $100 to some “organization” that sends them overseas.

Did I mention this sucks?

Will probably get a new one tomorrow (any recommendations? please comment if so) – thanks to my Plaxo and my Drobo, I should be back up and running within 48 hours.

Sucks.

Still trying to understand iPhone market

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According to Bloomberg…

AT&T Inc. Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson said expectations are “too low” for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which his phone company will start selling next month.

I’ll admit that from all reports the iPhone is going to be one impressive piece of hardware (albeit with some design flaws).  But when it comes to understanding it’s market appeal, I look at it the same way I look at a robot that transforms into a building: I don’t get it.

Here’s who won’t buy it (remember, it’s a $499/599 phone, with a locked AT&T plan):

  • “Business People” – they need their crackberries and their Treos for their mobile email.  The iPhone doesn’t have fast (enough) Internet access, doesn’t sync with Outlook, and really isn’t designed as a business device.  So with the exception of the wealthy segment who will buy it as a status item, I’m ruling out this market.
  • “High school kids” – can’t afford it (again, without rich parents).  Further, the lack of a 10-key keypad makes it difficult to send SMS messages while in class (teens do more texting than adults really imagine), since you need to look at the screen to do any kind of entry.
  • “College kids” – really can’t afford it, same problem as with high school kids.
  • “900,000 of the people on this list” – sure, people want to be on the “tell me when it’s here list” but how many of them will actually pull the trigger?  Not so many is my hunch.  I’ve been informally sampling friends, colleagues, family, people I’m interviewing for jobs, etc.  Sure, everybody’s interested, but there’s another common trends: even those who say they want one don’t seem to want the first generation phone.  It’s gonna be buggy, and even bigtime Apple fans recall the somewhat unimpressive gen-1 iPod.

So who’s left?

  • “Trendy/hipster folks with lots of money to burn” – yup, they’re ALL going to buy it.  But there aren’t 10,000,000 of them. 

Do I believe Apple has a chance to be a big player in this space? Yes.  Over time.  But in my opinion, 2008 is going to be a learning year for the company as they move quickly into production on gen-2.  My predictions for that unit:

  • Removable battery
  • 10-key or force-feedback touchscreen
  • Faster Internet access

I will admit, back in 1997 I was one fellow who didn’t envision PDAs ever needing color screens, so uhh… oops!  Let’s see if I get this one right – we’ll check back in 18 or so months to see if I have egg on my face. 

See you at Lunch two point oh today

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In case you missed it on my guest blog post, NETGEAR is hosting a “Lunch 2.0” event today.  I’m heading down there in my new used car (thank you AutoTrader.com), though on 2.0 hours of sleep (thank you baby), so if I babble incoherently, I apologize in advance.  If you haven’t signed up, details are here (there are some pre-reqs, so read up before you just drive on down!), and I hope to see you there.  I know the company is excited to meet a lot of “new tech folks” and show off the latest networking equipment.  They’ll also be touring the new & improved (as opposed to old & inferior) Digital Lifestyle Room, and giving away an extreme network makeover to some lucky winner.

ps – if you can’t make it today, don’t forget to mark down June 28th in your calendar for the upcoming Under the Radar (one point oh) event, where I’m participating as a judge (no wig).  If your company fits the profile and wants in, shoot me an email – no guarantees on results, but I will pass the information along to the right people.  I’ll blog more about this event soon!