Life-in-Progress

Life is more than a day job.

Archive for March, 2009

Californians, New Yorkers and Texans

Posted by admin Posted on Mar - 31 - 2009

There is a strange phenomenon that Californians, New Yorkers and Texans have in common with each other that they rarely have in common with people from most other parts of the country: a sort of territorial, geo-centric affiliation. New Yorkers are routinely criticized by everyone else as being arrogant and thinking that New York is  [ Read More ]

Strength, Courage and Wisdom

Posted by admin Posted on Mar - 30 - 2009

It’s probably a weird thing for a vocal atheist to quote, but there is something about the famous prayer that has been resonating with me more and more lately. Well, maybe not the “God” part of it, but the recognition part. Grant me strength to accept the things that I can’t change, the courage to  [ Read More ]

A year ago, Austin-based Convio launched a company blog: Connection Cafe. Unlike so many other company blogs, Convio decided to take a slightly different approach with the hope of gaining slightly different results. While many organizations opt for a CEO blog — particularly companies with in-demand CEO’s, like Convio’s Gene Austin — or a blog  [ Read More ]

My First Visit to California in Over a Year

Posted by admin Posted on Mar - 27 - 2009

The hardest thing about leaving JetBlue last year was giving up the travel benefits that helped ease the difficulty of living 3,000 miles away from my family and so many of my friends. One of the things I’ve realized lately is that, even though I am really loving being in Austin, I have been horrendously  [ Read More ]

A Conversation with Penelope Trunk

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 20 - 2009

Author, blogger and serial entrepreneur Penelope Trunk sat down with me at SXSW to discuss life as an entrepreneur, building a startup outside of the tech corridor, and what an organization’s technology choices say to potential employees. Penelope is currently building her third business, the Brazen Careerist. In addition to trying to connect Employers with  [ Read More ]

Highlights from SXSW 2009

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 17 - 2009

Highlights and lessons from my first time at SXSW Interactive.

Amazon, Google & Microsoft Discuss Cloud Computing at SXSW

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 17 - 2009

Representatives from Google, Microsoft and Amazon gathered for a panel at SXSW to discuss the value, the future and the changes in cloud computing.

Categories: Lessons & Epiphanies

Blogging from SXSW – Monday

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 16 - 2009

Today seems to be the opposite of my previous two days. After deliberately taking everyone’s advice on taking a ‘go with the flow’ approach to the SXSW experience, somehow today has proven crazy-ass busy. 10:30 panel: Beyond Aggregation This was a great panel where we got to hear wonderful speakers, including blogger Louis Gray, discuss  [ Read More ]

Blogging from SXSW – Sunday

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 15 - 2009

Well, today is day #2 and it’s been quite the interesting ride so far. It’s hard to be substantive at a public computer (no laptop – don’t ask!) while standing on sore feet between sessions, but this is a random brain dump of some different things I’ll be circling back to in more detail over  [ Read More ]

Categories: Lessons & Epiphanies

Matt Cutts from the Google Webspam Team announced the launch of Google’s Friend Connect API during his keynote speech this morning at PubCon South in Austin. The official announcement will be posted by Google later this morning, but Matt took took the opportunity to share the good news with the PubCon crowd during his remarks.  [ Read More ]

Categories: Lessons & Epiphanies

While normally the idea of a “fireside chat” in Austin, Texas would be a little warm, today’s unusually chilly weather brought all new appeal to the idea. So, in honor of the rainy weather and the keynote title, Chris Brogan obliged by pulling up a fireplace video on his laptop, and placing it on the  [ Read More ]

Three Questions to Ask (& Answer!) Before Starting a Customer Blog

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 05 - 2009

In a recent conversation with a friend, we were discussing corporate blogging efforts to engage existing customers. After reading Joshua-Michele Ross‘ post recently, on the Wells Fargo/Wachovia merger blog, I was excited to see yet one more company prepare to engage customers in this forum. That is, until we started talking in more detail. It  [ Read More ]