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| | 06/23/2004
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| | Scoop
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| | Briefly noted: SuperComm, Dome, DePaul, Open Space Technology and more, by Ron May
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| | Briefly noted: SuperComm, Dome, DePaul, Open Space Technology and more, by Ron May
* I told you so. Don't talk to me about Jack Ryan. I warned you about him, and it is clearly not likely that he will last the week. This is not a moral judgement. It is a political judgement. The Republican Party will not risk going down in flames over this guy. But his party habits have been detailed in this report going back for years. Just go to the TMR archives and look up Jack Ryan and Veritel. He hung out for some serious partying with Chris Tomes and as they say, birds of a feather... Not only did I write about this years ago, I wrote about it BEFORE the Republican primary again. And I also wrote about Blair Hull going back to last August, long before he was on the radar of the general public.
I talked to a person whom you all know and who used to work at Veritel, and we have to be careful about guilt by association, but Mr. Chris Tomes was into some pretty weird stuff and the women in the office used to talk about it. If were a political reporter in Chicago, I would want to track down some people who know first hand what went on.
I got a call from Charlie Maclravy (I know, a vowel or two is missing here) who is a reporter with ABC-7 News about 2pm on Tuesday afternoon. Charlie works under Chuck Goudie who was flying back from L. A. Tuesday and was expected to be in town by Tuesday night. They would like to track down info. on the Tomes brothers as well. Naturally, I referred them to a few people. We'll see how this develops, but my bet is that before they get the stories on Ryan, he will have pulled out.
That press conference last night was a PR disaster and from a communications point of view, they did everything wrong, or so say the communications professionals I have talked to today.
Congratulations, Jack. You have succeeded in making your marriage a lead story on Wednesday's TV program "Celebrity Justice" You're all over the local news and now you're on "CJ." How does that help your son?
My prediction is that Ryan will withdraw before next week.
* I went with Brad Spirrison down to SuperComm late yesterday afternoon. By the time I rented the scooter (and there is no way for me to walk the huge distances) which is a lifesaver and got my press pass, it was almost 4:30pm, so I was able to do a quick one over.
By the way, the scooter company was nice enough to charge me just for one day since I am going back today (hey, that saves $40).
As I was scouting around in the north room, I saw Jeff Gilbert walking hurriedly. I followed him as he made his way to the booth for Meta Switch out of San Francisco which was rather crowded. All the booths around it were pretty empty at that time.
The general consensus seemed to be that the show has a lot of energy and the attendance is good. I could see for myself a fairly heavy flow of traffic. I ran into Gordon Reichard of Westell who is a VP of Marketing there and he was full of excitement about the show. He can be reached at greic@westell.com and 630-375-4890. (By the way, Jerry Upton from IEEE who heads up the 802.20 standards working group said last week in his talk to the CSA Wireless Roundtable at the offices of mVerify that a high level person from Westell is helping out the Koreans in their 802.20 efforts. Also, I found the mVerify booth, but they were all gone at the time --- they are in the mobility pavilion in the south room on the west end.)
I noticed that there were a lot of after hours parties. Samsung had one at their pavilion with a guitarist and a nice food spread; Cisco the same; and a national DSL organization called DSL Home had a party that I hung out at as well.
One guy I talked to said that the hot thing is video over the phone and voice over DSL (so VoIP and video over the phone.) There are many players in this market: Thompson, I3Micro, Pace, Amino, Priatel (spelling?) and more.
Referring to voice over DSL, another guy standing there told me about video over the phone, said: "I think the cable companies are posing a threat by offering voice over cable infrastructure and is becoming a threat to the telco industry and the telco industry is answering by also putting voice over DSL services on DSL. It's a defensive strategy. They can put VoIP on their DSL connections."
An Italian journalist named Gabriele Marzocchi told me that he was excited by "the SIP protocol, the availability of unified services --- voice and messaging. Some provide the terminal and software that will enable these services. Samsung, for example, is providing the terminal. And there are lot of companies involved with software that will enable these services, in particular Pulvercomm is a company in the U. S. that is driving the standardization of SIP."
Another gentleman from Italy, Vincenzo Gulla, told me that his company, Aethra, works in video conferencing equipment over ADSL. He showed me a demo in which showed a patient in Italy being monitored here for all of this vitals.
"Voice over IP, video over IP are the two hot things," one industry analyst named Michael Greeson told me as he chowed down some of the shrimps at the DSL Home party. "The difference between ADSL and SDSL is that the speed down is not the same as the speed up in ADSL. Synchronous DSL or SDSL is more expensive because both sides are the same," he explained to the neophyte ignoramus May.
"In the digital home space," he said, "keep your eyes on the service providers, especially the larger ones that have the budgets to be a little more innovative, mostly watch Comcast, HDTV, you're seeing a lot more personal video recorders that is like a Tivo enabled set top, and then they are also getting into voice, so cable companies are stepping into voice."
He explained that he gets hired by IBM, Microsoft, HP, and he does conceptual testing of new products and services and will interpret those results and help guide their marketing. He also gets interviewed by Reuters, the New York Times and many other prominent publications. Michael can be reached at greeson@tdgresearch.com or 214-477-9723.
One guy at that party covers tech for The National Journal and I told him that Arryx and NanoInk may be two winners in the Chicago high tech market. It did not escape his attention that they are not IT companies.
* My info. is that today's Trib. is reporting a foreclosure at Dome Communications, and the desks and other furniture and the phones and all other physical assets as well as the brand name are for sale for $350K. What is not in the Trib. article is that a few weeks ago Hill & Knowlton had signed a letter of intent to buy Dome and that was reported in the trade press (my sources tell me) and it is still, as of today, on the Dome site. So, the news is that Hill & Knowlton must have pulled out on their deal. It's funny that the Trib. did not spot that. This is a case of "everything must go and it is still in its watermarked boxes." I think the firm representing the creditors is Howard Samuels. As I am sending this out at 12:40pm on Wednesday, I have not heard back from Doug Dome after two calls to him this morning.
* As you know, there is a steady drumbeat of accumulated trivia information that I gather everyday which is really not idle gossip but is part of a larger fabric of social issues. I firmly believe that understanding the world starts with observing the everyday things and behaviors around us --- more often than not they are telling us something much more significant than we may realize. So this article is almost entirely based on information which comes from "random" encounters: TV programs, conversations, interactions of various kinds that in most cases don't tie directly to formal tech community meetings. Can you believe that what I present today is less than half of what I have written? E-gads! Too much info. This will continue on a slow news day with topics like shareholder oppression and whether there should be a "control premium" in an involuntary takeover.
There is no particular reason for the order here, except some items relate to others so I have tried to keep a logical flow.
1. I found out Monday that last August (2003) DePaul University had a 300 student deficit in number of acceptances for their MBA program. They were hit partially because The University of Chicago and Kellogg lowered their admission standards to fill their class quotas for the entering class. This is common practice, I am finding out. The top schools have a quota to meet and if their yields are not what they expect (the percentage of accepted students who actually matriculate), they do things like go to the "wait list" and also they give late acceptance notices. So, a top student for DePaul might be "wait listed" at the University of Chicago, and when that acceptance comes through, even if late, that student is highly likely to jump at it.
DePaul straddled through to January when the numbers were up, my source tells me.
I also found out that at the undergraduate level in the business school at DePaul in finance the median grade is a 60 and the professors are forced to grade on the curve. Why so low? Three possible reasons: 1. About a third of the students speak English as a second language and their TOEFL scores are too low; 2. many of the undergrads work and go to school at the same time, which cuts into their study time; and 3. a fair number of DePaul students come from wealthy families and the parents are paying for the education, but the students are not highly motivated. This reminds me of the reputation that Northwestern had years ago, but probably not today.
I also heard that professors who are trying to get tenure dare not be tough graders since they are judged partially on the student reviews of their teaching and those reviews tend to be higher when the grades are higher. This pattern has been well documented in the educational journals. A non-tenured professor may give a majority of "A"s and I also heard that at U. of C. anything below a "B" is uncommon.
2. I ran into Saskia Sidenfaden who worked for Karen Andre Monday evening at the corner of Broadway and Briar about 6:20pm. She left Karen Andre some time ago she told me, and she said it was on good terms. She also told me that she is returning to Southern California where she is from and she also said that she would not answer any questions and would not give me an e-mail address where people can reach her.
3. I also heard a rather disturbing story Monday about what happened to Dan Romanoff, formerly of Romanoff Hesser Communications. Dan left town, went to California, and now my information is that the California stint lasted only a short time and he came back. I have no current contact information on him, but I do want to give him a chance to give his side of this story, so if anyone knows how to reach Dan, let me know. I have heard that he was back in Chicago staying with a friend in Eugenie Terrace and I also heard he was doing graduate work at Kellogg. I did find out that there were philosophical differences between Amy Hesser and Dan Romanoff which may have contributed to their break-up. Now I am hearing that Romanoff was a friend of Dever's which puts the whole story in a more believable light.
4. I heard that Southwest Michigan First which is a governmental organization not unlike the ITECs here has several programs which assist companies in the incubator there. One thing they do is teach the start-ups how to use Quick Books. And another thing they do is provide training on sales and marketing. They have hired a consultant to provide that help. I have also heard that at SWMF, they prep companies before they present their business plans.
5. By the way, Tom Churchwell laid that issue to rest for the last time on Thursday night when he told me flat out that he does not want the companies to be prepped before they present at the Monday Morning Meeting. The purpose of the MMM is to prep the companies, Tom said. So, that ends the discussion. The Coalition is more careful about what it says because they have to justify their existence to the SBA, but Churchwell is not so constrained. Incidentally, the Coalition has taken over the whole enterprise --- an enterprise started by Tom Churchwell ten years ago. The papers handed out at the ARCH/Coalition Monday Morning Meeting about the three presenters have only the Illinois Coalition logo on them, and Arch Development Partners has been relegated to the small print. Funny how things work in this town. The guy who starts the meeting ten years ago and who runs it and who is responsible for much of the loyal attendance is just written out of existence with the stroke of a pen --- so to speak. It is true that in the first sentence in the small print, Arch Development Partners is mentioned as a partner of the Illinois Coalition, but we all know that people respond the pictures they see and what they see is all Coalition.
One has to wonder, why can't the Coalition share the credit on this as opposed to hogging it since this was not their initiative in the first place? This is just my opinion based on how the materials and the meetings are presented. Tom Thornton, this is the kind of behavior that got you into trouble with DCCA years ago, taking credit for things you did not come up with, and this represents a form of arrogance that I had hoped would have abated by now. The literature they hand out and the notices always start off with the Coalition and then mention Arch Development Partners. Why not try doing the reverse?
And the final incidental comment: Churchwell did make it clear to me that he would not invest in Radar One when we talked about it at the TiE panel on innovation. This goes back to his concerns about market pull versus tech push and his belief that it is premature to say that this technology will sell. Recall that Radar One is a firm that provides two products: one is a pole that helps prevent collisions at stop lights, if I understood it correctly, and the other is what they call an e-scan antenna that will be installed in cars and is a collision avoidance system, the key benefit being that it is at a fairly low cost.
6. Speaking of Tom Thornton, it has been a long time since I have said much about him, but there has been an accumulation of comments coming my way about Thornton. After I taped a TV program on May 28th which will air in July on CAN-TV (I will let you know when) with Bruce Montgomery, and Bruce has always struck me as a very reasonable person, he made a comment to me about Thornton and the lack of follow-through on a variety of initiatives. The biggest thing I hear about Tom is that he has a bad habit of telling people in face-to-face meetings what they want to hear, and then there is no follow-up. People have complained directly to John Maxson about this and many have observed it over the years. By the way, Tom, I saw Eve at the Melrose about a month ago.
7. I got a call from a woman who attended the TiE panel on innovation and she wanted to offer a dissenting opinion about the evening. She gave me a detailed commentary and critique which, if nothing else, was interesting to hear. She thought it was boring and noted that a lot of people left early. She also said that there were no women on the panel which bothered her. "Are women not creative too?," she asked rhetorically. And she pointed out that most of the comments could be summed up with the famous saying from Thomas Alva Edison that invention is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. She felt that the meeting could have been geared more to asking better questions about creativity and innovation, and that it should have drilled down more on the issue of how creativity works. She also said that the meeting was not really out of the ordinary as Churchwell said it would be. I took issue with her on that point because I felt that Churchwell did engage the audience. Then she mentioned a fellow I have never heard of named Harrison Owen and concept called Open Space Technology --- or is that the name of a book? I googled it. Harrison Owen has taken on a cult like status with what seems to be a popular movement that has been around for about fifteen years now. It is called Open Space Technology and here is a link to a site that explains it somewhat and refers one to other sources: http://www.openspaceworld.org/english/openspace.html
Here is a link to another site that lists books on the subject:
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/openspace/oslinks.html
I also notice from this site that one of the leaders of the movement is based in Chicago, a fellow named Michael Herman. There appears to be an international flavor to this movement. Also, one book title caught my eye: "A Brief History of Everything," by Ken Wilber.
To finish up on my conversation with the woman who attended TiE, she also said that CrossRoads at St. Pat's Church uses the concept of Open Space Technology in their meetings and she mentioned something called the Organizational Development Network.
If the meeting were set up along the lines of Open Space Technology, it would have empowered the participants more, she said. An example of the way that might have worked is: different groups would gather in different corners of the room to discuss topics picked by the audience, and people could circulate. An example might be: what can the schools do to encourage creativity?
One more thing: Gerald Haman, the woman I talked to felt that you were a bit condescending. I did not pick up on that, and to be frank, I really did not know what she was driving at in the comment about your condescension, but it might just be that you presented creativity in a rather formulaic way.
As far as the issue of women on the panel at TiE is concerned, I have noticed that historically, they don't have many women front and center at their meetings. Of course, Anjali runs it and her friend at Gartner Carton is also a woman of Indian ancestry. As much as Adarsh Arora says that it is not an Indian organization, but is really an entrepreneurial organization, it still has certain cultural linkages to India, as it should, and I think that women are often not as far out front in Indian society as they are in post-1970s feminist America. But as far as attendance is concerned, there are a fair number of women at TiE meetings and there were a number of women participating in the meeting Thursday night. Although come to think of it, most of the women participating in the Q&A were not Indian.
One final comment from the woman that called me: she did like Kris Hammond and was surprised to learn that he is 47 years old since he looks much younger. I asked her if she was interested in him. She did not say anything which lead me to think that the answer just might be "yes."
I find the concept of Open Space Technology and the work of Harrison Owen worth looking into more, but I have to disagree overall with the person who called. I thought it was a good meeting and did stimulate discussion and thought which is all one can expect at the best of times at one of these meetings.
One last observation: TMR's three top headline stories last Friday were the sale of Installshield; Prith Banajeree going to UIC and Kapil Chaudhary going to the CEC. All three involve people who came from India.
8. Small world story. You may recall that I recommended a magazine over a month ago called "The Week" which synopsizes the work of many other publications in one 40 page weekly magazine. It is a hard copy publication and can also be found at www.theweekmagazine.com. It is an informative and breezy read. Well, Sunday night I happened to be watching "Topic A" on CNBC with Tina Brown and in their "Hot picks" segment, Brown herself recommended "The Week."
I called my mother to tell her this since it was my mother who suggested I read the magazine when I saw her in April.
I was surprised to find out that indirectly Tina Brown had recommended the magazine to my mother. And, of course, neither my mother nor I know Tina Brown.
Here's the connection: My mother got the subscription to the magazine from Joan Watson, an old family friend from when we lived in Columbia, Missouri back in the 1960s. (My mother is one of those people who stays in touch with most people she has ever had as friends, sometimes dating back to her junior high school days in New York.) We knew the Watsons when we lived in Columbia and Dick Watson, Joan's husband, was a political science professor at Mizzou.
The connection to Tina Brown is that Joan's son, Tom Watson, who is the age of my brother Paul (about 43 or 44) worked for Tina Brown when she was the editor of "The New Yorker" magazine.
As Tina Brown mentioned on the program, her husband is a consultant for "The Week" magazine.
So, we have Tina Brown to Tom Watson to Joan Watson to Harriet May to Ron May to the readers of TMR over a month before Brown mentioned it on the air!! Is that a small world of connections or what? I am always fascinated by the flow of information and how connected we really are. Here we have, in Kevin Bacon terms, four degrees of separation.
9. But there is another story here about how active "old people" are and how important to the economy they have become. Julia told me that almost all of the people who visit the Meriwether Lewis site in Nebraska are "old people in their 70s." My mother attended a musical about Gypsie Rose Lee in St. Louis and almost the entire audience was over sixty years old. And I often hear about a new book from my mother who attends lectures or reads the reviews. And my point is? Simply that so-called "old people," mostly retired in their late sixties and seventies, are the ones who keep up on what is going on culturally. They have the time, the money, and the inclination to do it while most of us are "too busy" with our day-to-day lives of insignificant pursuits. That is a trend I have also noticed. People are living more active lives longer and the days of sitting in the rockin chair knitting are pretty much over.
10. Of course, you know about my friend Julia, who is now with Americorps and working on a project in Brownville, Nebraska where an historic site for Meriwether Lewis is preserved. They are play-acting as pioneers for tourists, cleaning a steam boat, and doing other chores. Julia tells me that they have mites and ticks and mosquitos in Nebraska. They convened a few weeks ago in Kansas City and President Bush #41 was there with Barbara, and Julia tells me that she was served scrambled eggs by the actor Sean Austin who appeared in the recent Lord of the Rings movie. Then he chatted with the Americorps "volunteers." I put that in quotes because they often say they are volunteers, but they are actually paid, albeit not much.
11. But to my story which is really about the "other side" of the magnet school concept. Anna, Julia's twelve year old sister, is going to Whitney Young next year, but this summer is in a six week program at The Latin School for talented students. I believe it is called the High Jump Program. Mira, Anna's and Julia's mother, went to pick up Anna's report card last week from Sabin Elementary School in Wicker Park. Anna was the top student in her class and had all the honors. When they found out at Sabin that Anna was going to Whitney Young next year (for the seventh grade), they were upset. Mira told me this last week and it is something I had not thought about. The magnet school concept makes a lot of sense for the top students, but other students who benefit from being around the smartest kids lose out in such a system. Segregating the students at the 7th grade level reminds me of many European school systems that segregate students early on, and it is determined by the 8th grade if a young person is university or trade school bound. I am not sure how good of a thing that is.
Anna likes a site called Neopets.com (www.neopets.com) so if you have a child her age (eleven or twelve) you may want to check it out. Anna does say the darndest things. I am turning into Art Linkletter here. She told me that her friend Aaron and she are "not dorks like the rest of the people going to Whitney Young.... I'm not a geek like them," she said.
12. Medical and health related information:
-- I saw a fascinating interview with Richard Saul Wurman who is the author of a fairly new book called "Understanding Healthcare" on Charlie Rose a few weeks back. If you check Amazon, he is the author of what sound like a number of interesting books, and not just on healthcare.
I found this description of his book:
UNDERSTANDING HEALTHCARE
The book Understanding Healthcare is intended for the general public. It covers a wide array of health topics, including guidance on how to make effective use of the Internet and other high-tech tools to improve personal health. In supporting development of the book, the Markle Foundation furthered its goal of empowering consumers, through information technology-and through information generally-to become more active participants in their own care.
Author Richard Saul Wurman, who developed Understanding Healthcare with support from the Markle Foundation, as well as Johnson & Johnson and the UnitedHealth Group, is a highly-acclaimed information architect whose books and TED (technology, entertainment and design) symposia have simplified the way people comprehend complex subjects.
Understanding Healthcare arose from Mr. Wurman's concept that the human body should have a "dashboard"-similar to the ones in cars-which would show at a glance the current state of a person's health. The book helps readers to achieve such an overview and to take action to better manage their care. It is divided into three sections: "Understanding Yourself," an owner's manual for the human body; "Understanding Them," facts about medical professionals involved in the delivery of healthcare; and "Making it Happen," which delves into understanding medical access, costs and coverage.
Advisors to the content of Understanding Healthcare included more than 60 prominent physicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals, who reviewed all sections of the book under the guidance of the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT), a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve healthcare for Americans.
See sample spreads from the book at www.understandinghealthcare.com. It can be purchased in major bookstores nationwide and through online retailers.
-- In the same interview with Wurman, he mentioned the Walt Mossberg symposium that I mentioned a few months back in my write up of the IT Resource Center dinner back in March. It turns out that Wurman was there and he added an extra dimension to what Mossberg had said. He said that the speakers were asked what field they would enter today if they were seventeen again and all of three, Gates, Ellison and Case, mentioned healthcare and the biotech or medtech field. Well, Wurman pointed out that they were all asked these questions independently and therefore did not hear each other's answers. But you read about this in TMR several months before it appeared on Charlie Rose.
-- The med student from Northwestern who came from Poland, Ania Ringwelski, who helped me at NU after my vascular surgery and who was at St. Joseph's when I was there in May of this year, recommended a book called "Complications."
I looked it up on Amazon and here is the reference: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande. A couple of other books that people who have bought this book also bought:
Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine by Jerome, M.D. Groopman
A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology by Robert Coles (Editor), et al
Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit by Michael Ruhlman
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
-- I have no recollection of who recommended this site or why but I have in my notes a reference to a site called Secondlife.com (www.secondlife.com) I took a quick look at it and it does not appear to be related to healthcare.
-- And this is not related to healthcare, but in that same interview, Wurman said something that struck a chord with me. In the interview with Charlie Rose, he said that (and this may not be an exact quote): Great line in his interview with Charlie Rose: "My expertise is my inabilities." He said that his love of learning and his ignorance is his greatest gift. I repeat, his ignorance and his ability to ask questions is his greatest gift. He said that his ability to call people up and find out about something about which he is ignorant is a great gift and I agree with that. There is an Eastern philosophy in there somewhere. But when I am on the phone or talking to someone and the topic seems daunting, I always fall back on my inner sense of security that if there is something I don't know or understand, I can always ask questions and get the understanding. If the person explaining something to me is not understandable, I can always fall back on my innate skill of asking for a clearer, simpler explanation and then of course, I can also ask someone else as well.
-- A doctor in Chicago interviewing in Billings, Montana was told "We have a TJ Maxx" which was presumed to be selling point. Everything is relative, isn't it?
-- In Grand Rapids, Michigan, they are trying to emulate the Cleveland Clinic which is one of the top cardiology centers in the country and are offering to pay twice what a doctor might get in Chicago. They have a practice with 30 doctors now. They are also offering a partnership in two years which is much faster than it works in Chicago and they are willing to open the books to the new guys, which is unheard of in Chicago.
-- I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Kehoe who is a cardiologist at Illinois Masonic Hospital specializing in EP. He told me that a fibrillator costs about $20K, but I have also heard that a fibrillator gets billed out by the hospital at $49,500 to the insurance companies. Who knows what they actually pay. I have heard figures as high as $100K for a fibrillator procedure, but as Dr. Kehoe pointed out, there are often many complications that prolong a hospital stay and the device becomes only a part of the overall cost.
I met Dr. Kehoe at The Bagel where he was eating with a sales guy from a pacemaker firm called Guidant. I joked with them that for once a medical device sales guy was not trying to bribe the doctor with an expensive meal at a fine dining restaurant. The guy Kehoe was with has eight hospitals in his territory on the north side, including Weiss and Highland Park Hospital.
-- Incidentally, when I was at my kidney doctor's office, I saw a male sales guy who was trying to talk to the OBGyn doc who shares the office with my kidney doc. I joked with him that he is not an attractive female, and then it hit me. This guy looked like he could be in GQ, so they also use good looking men to get the attention of female docs.
-- One last statistic about medicine: my kidney doctor told me that there are 400,000 people on dialysis and that 18% of them die each year. I reconfirmed with him that the 18% is an annual percentage. I did a quick calculation and using the figure 280 million for the U.S. population, and 8 million for the Chicago area, I calculated that there are about 11,500 people on dialysis in Chicago if we have our proportionate share based on population and that means that about 2,100 people die in the area each year who are on dialysis. I figured this out a few weeks ago and am doing this from memory, so don't hold me to the number precisely, but it is easy to calculate. Just a thought.
13. The Slack disinformation machine continues full steam ahead. Here is how Don Barshinger is being represented to the Technology Executive's Club where he is a panelist next week. And of course, we would not expect the TEC to insist on accurate bios. Do you really believe the figure of 60 employees when Gary himself has been saying 50 as recently as a few months ago? And the real number, I am told, is closer to 40. Or the statement that they have almost two dozen major B2B clients? Is that figure verifiable?
This is from the TEC mailing on their B2B marketing event.
Don Barshinger, President, Executive Creative Director, Slack Barshinger
Founded in 1988, Slack Barshinger is an integrated marketing communications agency whose 60 professionals work expertly across the entire marketing communications spectrum to help business-to-business marketers build strong brands and efficiently find, create, and retain profitable customers. The firm is agency of record to nearly two dozen leading marketers in a wide range of industries. In 2002 and again in 2004, the Business Marketing Association (BMA), the business-marketing profession's leading professional society, named Slack Barshinger its national ?Agency of the Year? for the firm?s ability to create a sustainable competitive advantage for its clients. In 2001 and again in 2004, BtoB magazine, the leading independent trade publication serving the business-marketing profession, named Slack Barshinger its "Top Small Agency of the Year."
Contact Info:
312-970-5855
Cell 312-498-2277
don.barshinger@slackbarshinger.com
14. About a week ago, I caught the tail end of a Lou Dobbs segment on outsourcing which had to do with Chicago. It had something to do with Accenture and he mentioned the "Chicago connection." The title of the segment was something like "Exporting America" and I was curious to know what the issue was. Lou said that Rod Blagojevich and Accenture declined an invitation to appear on his show.
15. For people interested in restaurants and Vegas, I talked to a guy who is the sous chef for Frontera Grill, the fine dining Mexican restaurant here that is run by Rick Bayles (spelling?) who also has a program on Channel 11. he told me that he was in Vegas assisting a new restaurant called Diego (I believe) in the MGM Grand. Frontera is training about six sous chefs for that restaurant. Once again, Chicago helps other areas. And the other night on Channel 11, they had a report on the "News Hour" about the guy who is in charge of the electricity program in Iraq, and guess what, he's from Chicago. In fact, he has a business here that is suffering because of all the time he is dedicating to Iraq.
16. Here is an interesting way to present a PR position, appropriately wedged in between a trade show promoter and a street fair mascot. Howard, how did you happen to list this on Craigslist? A sign of the times, eh?
Trade Show Hostess
Reply to: job-33809248@craigslist.org
Date: 2004-06-15, 11:27AM CDT
Location: Chicago Mcornick Center
Promo Name: Trade Show - Chicago
Start Date: Jun 22, 2004
Times: MUST BE ABLE TO WORK ALL THREE DAYS On booth from 22 June - 24 June during exhibition hours. (8 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday and 6 on Thursday)
Pay ($): 20 : Hourly Phone Promoters Needed
Reply to: see below
Date: 2004-06-10, 10:55AM CDT
Energetic people with a good work ethic are needed to help give away parties to a local Chicago nightclub. No selling involved. This is a part time
position but, benefits and insurance are offered. If you have awesome people skills you will be a good fit for our fun and hip company. Please call Kat @773-381-7112
--------------
PR - Senior Account Executive
Reply to: see below
Date: 2004-06-10, 2:35PM CDT
Ruder Finn/Chicago is currently seeking a Senior Account Executive for its
technology and consumer practices. SAEs oversee work for clients with junior account team members, internal service departments, external vendors, news media and other Ad/PR agencies. SAE responsibilities also include media relations, carrying out clients' business and communications goals,providing client counsel and assistance and managing the day-to-day aspects of accounts.
Qualifications:
Good oral and written communication skills, ability to manage junior team
members and supervise multiple tasks simultaneously, skilled in project
management and ability to prioritize and work under pressure with detailed
information.
Additionally, Ruder Finn is interested in candidates with 2-4 years agency
experience and a degree in public relations or a related communications
major. Candidates should possess basic computer skills, have experience in
media relations and have a general knowledge of or experience working with
business-to-business or technology clients.
Please send your resume and cover letter to mcgarra@ruderfinn.com.
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Phone Promoters Needed
Reply to: see below
Date: 2004-06-10, 10:55AM CDT
Energetic people with a good work ethic are needed to help give away parties
to a local Chicago nightclub. No selling involved. This is a part time
position but, benefits and insurance are offered. If you have awesome people
skills you will be a good fit for our fun and hip company. Please call Kat @
773-381-7112
Job location is Chicago
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial
interests
Compensation: $8 - $15/hr
Hiring Organization: VIP Promotions
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Costumed Mascot for Street Fairs
Reply to: urbanoutsitters@yahoo.com
Date: 2004-06-05, 7:50PM CDT
We are a professional pet sitting service with a costumed mascot named
Bernard. Bernard will be making appearence at The Bow Wow Beach Bash and
Taste of Randolph. We are looking for an energetic person to mingle and pass
out flyers describing our service. PLEASE do not apply if you are boring,
square or rather un-fun to be with! We are a great group of people to work
with and enjoy the company of those that like to have fun, you'll be wearing
a dog costume, have fun with it! The dates to be available are June 18, 19,
& 20th. Hours for June 18th are 3pm - 9pm and the other days from 9am - 3pm
and 3pm - 9pm.
Please reply and plan to meet the week of June 7th ONLY! Sorry, have to fill
these slots ASAP.
Just email a short note that your available and willing to have some fun. |
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